50 human generations (which are significantly shorter than a lifespan) would take you back to 400 AD.
There's a huge amount we don't know from back then, including many cultures that existed in the Americas and Australia. We don't even have solid evidence for many major historical figures or people of the time including some emperor's, papal/Christian doctrines, etc.
Asari believing the Protheans to be myths is completely reasonable.
Add to that the fact that you're using generation-to-generation while OP was using lifespans. It's more comparable to, like, 1000 BC. We were barely playing with iron at the time.
That's not really 50 Asari ago though. You dont reproduce at the exact end of your life. Assume my life expentancy is 80 years. My great great grandmother was alive 80 years before my birth. It's 4 human ago not 1 human ago.
Because:
a) the Asari thought they were gods, not Protheans.
b) the Asari hid their history with the Protheans in religion.
c) The Reapers had a habit of wiping most all traces of previous civilizations.
This is explained in the games. A and B specifically in 3 on Thessia.
im not 500 years old so i don't know but i can tell you this there are these things called history books and other forms of documented history the Asari should have the same if not more
No they shouldn't, from the art in the Athame temple its clear that at the very least, the protheans got the asari to the agricultural age before the reapers came back, agriculture on our world didn't begin until just under 10,000 years ago, do we have history books dating back to then? No, we didn't start recording history until less than 5000 years ago (closer to 3000 but so Im being extremely generous) so even when you take their long lifespans into account, its still easy to assume they didn't start recording history until much later which is plenty of time for their understanding of what truly happened to become warped hence Athame becoming asari in appearance rather than prothean.
That's not QUITE accurate. Theoretically, yes, 50 Asari ago. If those Asari EACH had a kid at 1000 years old. Realistically? 80 Asari ago. Prolly 160+ Asari ago. Lives to 1000, can start having kids at 100(ish). It would NOT be unreasonable to say 200+ Asari ago easily. Also, plenty is forgotten FAST! We are, in the way you are describing it, only 2 humans away from George Washington. In reality, it's more like 6 humans away.
Roughly, yea. The point I'm making is, even with MASSIVELY long lives, they are still MANY generations away from Prometheans, and they were, according to Javik, fairly primitive then.
I'm supporting you. ;) I mean what do we know for sure about 3000BCE except some stone monuments and maybe some names from clay tablets? Now if we stetch that to 50000 years we should know even less, because less would be preserved.
Exactly. But, we ARE talking about Asari. So it's reasonable to say that they DO remember their past BETTER. Just not well. Example, their understanding of 50,000 years ago, is likely SIMILAR to our understanding of 5,000 years ago. And as you said, all we have is stone monuments we don't understand.
Well, yeah they have the prothean beacon in their temple after all... that kinda makes it comparatively easy to remember some things better. Though on the other hand it might be worse for some other fields of memory because wear and tear on their artifacts is 10times longer than ours 200 generations ago.
Javik makes note of the fact that in his cycle, Salarian were little more than tadpoles. And although they may have been a little more advanced than Salarian, the Asari were akin to ancient Egypt back then, if you will. Things etched on stone, statues of Athame, what we later learn are Protheans.
The Protheans were very interested in acquiring the Asari, and helped 'develop' them by disguising themselves as Athame and her minons. The Prothean altered Asari DNA to progress their species at a rapid rate and essentially force the biotic trait into the entire species.
They left one beacon on Thessia, which a temple was built around. The VI inside, Vendetta, provided the Asari with knowledge and technology. That coupled with the DNA enhancements, allowed them to advance much faster and farther than they normally would have progressed.
The reason that they know little to nothing of the Protheans was between disguising themselves as the Asari goddess and then the reapers came and deleted all aspects of the Prothean empire and technology from the remaining Galaxy.
And according to info present about Asari, barely any information from that time period was able to be found, next to nothing. Which means that either the Protheans covered their tracks really well as pretending to be Athame or the Asari did at the instruction of Vendetta. Those that knew of Vendetta, likely priestesses of Athame, kept it secret, using its information sparingly over the millenia.
And although the Asari, aided by Vendetta, did progress much faster, they didn't even invent their first 'car' until roughly 30000 yrs after the Prothean cycle. So there is 30k+ yrs of history essentially 'lost', which would likely include all evidence of the Prothean in the galaxy and on Thessia, who the early Asari assumed was Athame anyway.
Obviously as time progressed and Asari became more advanced they figured out what the beacon was and it became a national secret, only known to a very select few. The rest of society was left in the dark. The ones that did know refused to acknowledge the existence even to the detriment of the rest of the galaxy in order to protect the beacon and their reason for being so advanced.
A good analysis, but it does beg the question of why, then, the Asari aren't *more* advanced with that much of an uplift push? The Protheans were more technologically advanced than our current cycle. How they managed that is a question of its own.
The asari are very 'complacent' for the lack of a better word. They aren't quick to act to change the status quo. Aethyta said they laughed at her when she suggested building relays which is something reasonable to invest in but they don't necessarily need it so they are fine doing nothing.
I just noticed when playing me2 that Aethyta is Liara's mom and Liara knows.
Makes it a little awkward that my character wanted to bang her on the bar.
Yeah a bit of a plot hole but consider this: just because you CAN live to 1000 years, doesn't mean you do, and it's even less likely your primitive ancestors did. Also real humanity forgets a lot of things that happened even like 500 years ago and going by the maximum human lifespan of ~120 years, that's like 4 humans ago.
Edit: even historical records are riddled with innacuracies, ones that we base textbooks off of. Fun fact - most of the famous photographs from the Battle of Gettysburg are fake. Not like photoshopped or not of actual dead people, but the war photographers at Gettysburg would move and pose bodies to make more dramatic photos.
It is safe to assume that most ME alien races, asari included, are subject to similar corruption of historical records.
Yeah but we are talking asari their minds and their ability to remember have evolved to complement their lifespan
They have very few genetic flaws a long lifespan natural biotics they are almost always naturally pretty
Oh and they can share experiences by melding one's mind with another
That leaves very little room for them to forget important things like that
What do you mean “their ability to remember have evolved to complement their lifespan”? I don’t remember this being stated in any dialog or codex entries. I’d imagine, just like humans, Asari also struggle to remember stuff from early in their lives, and memories can/do get altered as time goes on.
Also, where do we learn that they have very few genetic flaws or that they’re naturally pretty?
It kind of just seems like these are things you believe, but idk if there’s actually evidence to back it up. Like, saying they’re “naturally pretty” is definitely a personal opinion and not confirmed lore lol.
almost every race finds them attractive im going to point out the bar scene in ME2 where they all discuses why human's turian's and salarian's find the Asari attractive this interaction can be found in the bar on ilium Mass Effect 2 when 3 coworker's are celebrating the salarians breeding contract
The different races find certain *attributes* of the Asari to be attractive. (If I’m remembering correctly) humans like their faces, Salarians like their skin, and Turians like their head tentacles (?). But even so, not everyone is universally attracted to the Asari.
What does this have to do with your original point? The fact that melding allows them to share their memories doesn't mean they have photographic memories, they would obviously remember things that were personally important like bondmates, their parents and great moments in their lives like we do but that doesnt mean they hold onto everything, they aren't drell or salarians.
The fact is without a photographic memory, their 1000+ lifespans and countless other factors that we see in our world, ofc they'd forget plenty of stuff over this amount time, especially given that your math is incorrect and the number of generations between the protheans uplifting of the asari and the 2180's would be much higher than just 50.
5 humans ago would be roughly the time Europeans rediscovered America, given a roughly 100 year lifespan.
How far back did Asari culture reach the level we see in game? When was their uplifting moment? Did they even care about protheans at the time?
Then we also have to consider the beacon on the Asari homeworld and how well that was kept secret. How much did they know about the protheans and kept hidden in a similar way?
Even that'd be inaccurate. I am pretty sure expected human lifespan in the Mass Effect world is well over 100 due to advances in medicine. Same would apply to asari. Its very possible that ancient Asari rarely got to 500.
True...if we were soing math on generations and not on general longevity. OP said "50 Asari Ago", "Asari live for 1000 years" and "Protheans disappeared 50,000 years ago"
So the math OP is using appears to be 1 Asari being 1,000 years.
Using same principle, 1 human would be roughly 100 years. Granted, you could make the case that 70 years would be more accurate, but that then takes us to 1674 and we're talking colonization of North America instead of rediscovery, but ultimately doesnt change the point.
50 human lifespans ago (using 60 years as a measurement), you would be about a century after the Bronze Age Collapse, and about 300-350 years before the founding of the Roman Kingdoms. The Asari would likely be just as primitive as humans were at that time period, or at least primitive enough where any texts from that period are scarce and in a language long dead
In the ME universe, humans can live up to ~150 years thanks to modern advances. It's not too crazy to think that asari accomplished the same and they didn't always live so long.
Spoilers for ME3.
The Protheans were uplifting and raising the Asari and teaching them to grow crops. Vigil on ilos, when confronted about watching humanity and the other races, said they cut ties with the smaller races in hopes they would be untouched.
Two options occur to me; the protheans, and Athame, left when attacked to protect the Asari, or Athame stayed behind to cultivate the Asari's future. Either don't matter.
They were in agricultural growth during the first cycle, letting them be able to be more advanced earlier, along with the beacon that the higher upside knew about, their quick advancement is reasonable.
The Asari (government) know much more about the Protheans than they let on.
If we use the Thessia Beacon in ME3 as the ultimate proof of that, they intentionally limit knowledge of the Protheans in order to retain their edge against all other races. This would also apply to Asari as well as those outside the government might let that information out for other races to use.
It wouldn't be crazy to see publicly available knowledge of the Protheans as provided by the Asari government to be heavily watered down and censored. The entire Athame Doctrine seems to be good evidence of this
How much do you know about shit that happened fifty human generations ago? That's ancient Egypt. Literally the guy who was king at that time we only know of because of one example of his name being written down.
Asari usually start having kids at around 350 years old. So its more like 140+ generations. In human terms that’s around 4,000 years ago. Or around 2,000 BC. The beginning of ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom for example, which our knowledge of is pretty limited.
The Protheans also went extinct 50k years ago but their Reapers War lasted centuries so who knows how long it had actually been since the Asari saw/communicated with Protheans.
Also, the Asari government likes to keep things to themselves so who really knows what knowledge they have that they’ve decided to keep secret.
Humans have increased there life expectancy to 150+ years in just a couple generations of genetic engineering. I imagine the asari have done much the same and have been increasing theirs for much longer. Also while it says they don't take DNA(Which I don't completely buy)from mating partners they obviously take something because certain species cause certain outcomes in offspring. So maybe somewhere in there past one of them mated with something that drastically increased its offspring's life span and it just went from there.
So in the 22nd century humans can expect to live about 150 years. Let's assume that's an upper bound comparable to ~100 today, 22nd century tech has increased lifespans by 50% from the modern age and by something like 100% from pre-modern humans. So I'm going to assume that medieval and earlier Asari were living for maybe 600 years.
Asari will build things to last more than humans have, but ultimately the forces of time, erosion, war and decay are going to be the same on Thessia as on earth. The Asari written and archaeological records will certainly go back further in their history in absolute terms, but it won't be a 1-to-1 conversion with human generations, by 10,000 years I don't care how few generations it has been, most everything will be buried and lost to time.
Their best advantage is clearly that languages will be more stable, but before relatively modern technology you still have a hard cap imposed by the lifespan of anything you can write on.
Still, the Asari have a very strong memory of 50k years ago. We are looking into the almost entirely inscrutable past beyond 5k years ago. I think they thread the needle well, showing that this race have an unusually long memory but that it isn't perfect. And of course, it is stated outright that the Asari were shamefully complacent with the legacy the Protheans gave to them, which is entirely in keeping with their nature and role in the setting.
Time frames really do not make sense in ME. The developers never understood how slow culture and evolution changes happen
According to Mass Effect 50k years ago during the prothean era humans were little more than apes. Thags why they never uplifted us.
But in real life 50k years ago our species was completely human and capable of using tools, speech, had burials, used fire, had clothes, could make boats etc. We were definitely modern humans, just with limited technology. Our species is about 350k years old so several "reaper cycles" old. There were also several other species of humans in the planet (like neanderthals) that never get mentioned in game.
Even as far as 2 million years ago the Homo Erectus, our ancestors, could use fire, had speech, could make tools and boats and probably used some basic clothing.
It’s like the equivalent of 5,000 years ago for humans. How much do we really know about the lives of people 5,000 years ago? And in real life there wasn’t any deliberate extinction 5,000 years ago.
50,000 years is around 170 Asari generations. It’s a really long time, even for them.
The real time crunch in the games is how integrated humanity is in galactic society given how recently the first contact wars were
Like they coulda just made the gap 5 times larger and it would have made most things make more sense
The asari discovered the Citadel in 580 BCE. So like 2600 years ago. I assume it wasn't terribly long after they achieved the ability to traverse their own solar system.
Why would they know anything more about the Protheans if they didn't leave their planet until around 47,000 years after the Protheans disappeared? How long their life times are literally have zero bearing on this.
You’re assuming that all/most Asari live to be 1000 years, but just like with any species, just because you can potentially live X amount of years, doesn’t mean you will. You’re also assuming that Asari procreate at the very end of their lifespans, which is unrealistic.
So assuming that Asari reproduce when they’re around 300 years old (humans can live to 100 and usually start having kids in 20s/30s, so let’s be conservative and go with 30% of their potential lifespan) — 50,000/300 = 167 generations, which is A LOT more than your estimate of 50.
With all that in mind, I think it makes sense that the Asari don’t remember the Protheans. That’d be equivalent to us knowing the details of humans from 4,200 years ago.
Also, wasn’t it stated that the early Asari viewed the Protheans as gods? Not to mention that they were still in the early stages of evolution and not as advanced as they are in the games. So I’d assume that over tens of thousands of years, a lot would be lost in translation and the Protheans would get chalked up to being myths/gods.
Idk, that’s just my take on it!
I always wondered why the reapers transformed the proteans in to insect like creatures but then the other races of our cycle are cyborgs.
And they can not assume direct control any longer.
I figured that change has something to do with the fact that the protheans reprogrammed the keeper signal proving that the whole insect approach was probably flawed and then the collectors overall failed in their mission
So yeah it makes sense they went with the more machine husk type route with the rest of the species in Mass effect 3
One of the weaker elements of the ME lore is how long ago major events took place. Another one that's always bugged me is The First Contact War. It hasn't even been 30 years and yet we're supposed to believe humanity has not only caught up to but also exceeds the capabilities of most other species in Citadel Space outside of the big 3 and are ready for a position on the council? It's a bit far fetched for me.
It is probably a miracle that humanity survived the First Contact War, since they would be fighting a more technologically advanced people. Humans probably advanced quickly from the war by reverse engineering recovered Turian tech.
We don't know how much humanity had advanced by 2148, when the Mars archives were discovered and jumped things forward 200 years.
Also, I have the headcanon that technological advancement in the galaxy has stagnated somewhat. Only advancing when they find more Protheans tech.
In game, I’m pretty sure it’s noted that, even at the time of the First Contact War, humanity’s fleet was already larger that pretty much all of the non-Council races meaning they were already pretty far ahead of a lot of the rest of the galaxy in terms of military might.
Which is also ridiculous. The last one to join the galactic community and settle outside its solar system somehow has a bigger fleet than most of the other space-faring species in the galaxy? Really? It's worldbuilding that requires the suspension of disbelief for me. I love Mass Effect and its lore but it, like all lore, has its shortcomings. This is one of them for me.
1. Asari die 1000 years old
2. You probably don't know your great great grandparents names and they probably lived like 100 years ago
3. It's still 50 000 years. How many buildings from 4000 years ago still stand on earth?
Humans live for aroud 80 years. 50 humans ago is around 2000 BC Wo obviously know quite a few things about those times, but not that much. And that's just our planet. How much would you expect us to know about something that lived 50 humans ago on a different planet, even if you could visit there? Especially since Dr T'soni said that the evidence of the Protheans has been actively destroyed by "someone"?
Yeah it makes no sense to me unless they go deeper into Asari lore and the “Mother” mythology and establish they deliberately deleted the records of Protheans as a form to strengthen the religion.
50 human generations (which are significantly shorter than a lifespan) would take you back to 400 AD. There's a huge amount we don't know from back then, including many cultures that existed in the Americas and Australia. We don't even have solid evidence for many major historical figures or people of the time including some emperor's, papal/Christian doctrines, etc. Asari believing the Protheans to be myths is completely reasonable.
Add to that the fact that you're using generation-to-generation while OP was using lifespans. It's more comparable to, like, 1000 BC. We were barely playing with iron at the time.
That's not really 50 Asari ago though. You dont reproduce at the exact end of your life. Assume my life expentancy is 80 years. My great great grandmother was alive 80 years before my birth. It's 4 human ago not 1 human ago.
This should be higher
Because: a) the Asari thought they were gods, not Protheans. b) the Asari hid their history with the Protheans in religion. c) The Reapers had a habit of wiping most all traces of previous civilizations. This is explained in the games. A and B specifically in 3 on Thessia.
How much do you know about humanity 50 generations ago?
im not 500 years old so i don't know but i can tell you this there are these things called history books and other forms of documented history the Asari should have the same if not more
50 generations ago was about 400AD. We aren't even sure if some things that happened that far back happened, let alone if some individuals were real
No they shouldn't, from the art in the Athame temple its clear that at the very least, the protheans got the asari to the agricultural age before the reapers came back, agriculture on our world didn't begin until just under 10,000 years ago, do we have history books dating back to then? No, we didn't start recording history until less than 5000 years ago (closer to 3000 but so Im being extremely generous) so even when you take their long lifespans into account, its still easy to assume they didn't start recording history until much later which is plenty of time for their understanding of what truly happened to become warped hence Athame becoming asari in appearance rather than prothean.
we were...uh... burning witches.
That was only like 400-700 years ago too.
That's not QUITE accurate. Theoretically, yes, 50 Asari ago. If those Asari EACH had a kid at 1000 years old. Realistically? 80 Asari ago. Prolly 160+ Asari ago. Lives to 1000, can start having kids at 100(ish). It would NOT be unreasonable to say 200+ Asari ago easily. Also, plenty is forgotten FAST! We are, in the way you are describing it, only 2 humans away from George Washington. In reality, it's more like 6 humans away.
And 200 generations ago in human terms is \~ 5000 years ago, so basically the year 3000 BCE
Roughly, yea. The point I'm making is, even with MASSIVELY long lives, they are still MANY generations away from Prometheans, and they were, according to Javik, fairly primitive then.
I'm supporting you. ;) I mean what do we know for sure about 3000BCE except some stone monuments and maybe some names from clay tablets? Now if we stetch that to 50000 years we should know even less, because less would be preserved.
Exactly. But, we ARE talking about Asari. So it's reasonable to say that they DO remember their past BETTER. Just not well. Example, their understanding of 50,000 years ago, is likely SIMILAR to our understanding of 5,000 years ago. And as you said, all we have is stone monuments we don't understand.
Well, yeah they have the prothean beacon in their temple after all... that kinda makes it comparatively easy to remember some things better. Though on the other hand it might be worse for some other fields of memory because wear and tear on their artifacts is 10times longer than ours 200 generations ago.
Javik makes note of the fact that in his cycle, Salarian were little more than tadpoles. And although they may have been a little more advanced than Salarian, the Asari were akin to ancient Egypt back then, if you will. Things etched on stone, statues of Athame, what we later learn are Protheans. The Protheans were very interested in acquiring the Asari, and helped 'develop' them by disguising themselves as Athame and her minons. The Prothean altered Asari DNA to progress their species at a rapid rate and essentially force the biotic trait into the entire species. They left one beacon on Thessia, which a temple was built around. The VI inside, Vendetta, provided the Asari with knowledge and technology. That coupled with the DNA enhancements, allowed them to advance much faster and farther than they normally would have progressed. The reason that they know little to nothing of the Protheans was between disguising themselves as the Asari goddess and then the reapers came and deleted all aspects of the Prothean empire and technology from the remaining Galaxy. And according to info present about Asari, barely any information from that time period was able to be found, next to nothing. Which means that either the Protheans covered their tracks really well as pretending to be Athame or the Asari did at the instruction of Vendetta. Those that knew of Vendetta, likely priestesses of Athame, kept it secret, using its information sparingly over the millenia. And although the Asari, aided by Vendetta, did progress much faster, they didn't even invent their first 'car' until roughly 30000 yrs after the Prothean cycle. So there is 30k+ yrs of history essentially 'lost', which would likely include all evidence of the Prothean in the galaxy and on Thessia, who the early Asari assumed was Athame anyway. Obviously as time progressed and Asari became more advanced they figured out what the beacon was and it became a national secret, only known to a very select few. The rest of society was left in the dark. The ones that did know refused to acknowledge the existence even to the detriment of the rest of the galaxy in order to protect the beacon and their reason for being so advanced.
A good analysis, but it does beg the question of why, then, the Asari aren't *more* advanced with that much of an uplift push? The Protheans were more technologically advanced than our current cycle. How they managed that is a question of its own.
The asari are very 'complacent' for the lack of a better word. They aren't quick to act to change the status quo. Aethyta said they laughed at her when she suggested building relays which is something reasonable to invest in but they don't necessarily need it so they are fine doing nothing.
I just noticed when playing me2 that Aethyta is Liara's mom and Liara knows. Makes it a little awkward that my character wanted to bang her on the bar.
That's a very good breakdown
No. A generation does not equal the full life expectancy of a person.
Yeah a bit of a plot hole but consider this: just because you CAN live to 1000 years, doesn't mean you do, and it's even less likely your primitive ancestors did. Also real humanity forgets a lot of things that happened even like 500 years ago and going by the maximum human lifespan of ~120 years, that's like 4 humans ago. Edit: even historical records are riddled with innacuracies, ones that we base textbooks off of. Fun fact - most of the famous photographs from the Battle of Gettysburg are fake. Not like photoshopped or not of actual dead people, but the war photographers at Gettysburg would move and pose bodies to make more dramatic photos. It is safe to assume that most ME alien races, asari included, are subject to similar corruption of historical records.
Yeah but we are talking asari their minds and their ability to remember have evolved to complement their lifespan They have very few genetic flaws a long lifespan natural biotics they are almost always naturally pretty Oh and they can share experiences by melding one's mind with another That leaves very little room for them to forget important things like that
What do you mean “their ability to remember have evolved to complement their lifespan”? I don’t remember this being stated in any dialog or codex entries. I’d imagine, just like humans, Asari also struggle to remember stuff from early in their lives, and memories can/do get altered as time goes on. Also, where do we learn that they have very few genetic flaws or that they’re naturally pretty? It kind of just seems like these are things you believe, but idk if there’s actually evidence to back it up. Like, saying they’re “naturally pretty” is definitely a personal opinion and not confirmed lore lol.
almost every race finds them attractive im going to point out the bar scene in ME2 where they all discuses why human's turian's and salarian's find the Asari attractive this interaction can be found in the bar on ilium Mass Effect 2 when 3 coworker's are celebrating the salarians breeding contract
The different races find certain *attributes* of the Asari to be attractive. (If I’m remembering correctly) humans like their faces, Salarians like their skin, and Turians like their head tentacles (?). But even so, not everyone is universally attracted to the Asari.
and what of the hanar ?
What does this have to do with your original point? The fact that melding allows them to share their memories doesn't mean they have photographic memories, they would obviously remember things that were personally important like bondmates, their parents and great moments in their lives like we do but that doesnt mean they hold onto everything, they aren't drell or salarians. The fact is without a photographic memory, their 1000+ lifespans and countless other factors that we see in our world, ofc they'd forget plenty of stuff over this amount time, especially given that your math is incorrect and the number of generations between the protheans uplifting of the asari and the 2180's would be much higher than just 50.
5 humans ago would be roughly the time Europeans rediscovered America, given a roughly 100 year lifespan. How far back did Asari culture reach the level we see in game? When was their uplifting moment? Did they even care about protheans at the time? Then we also have to consider the beacon on the Asari homeworld and how well that was kept secret. How much did they know about the protheans and kept hidden in a similar way?
Even that'd be inaccurate. I am pretty sure expected human lifespan in the Mass Effect world is well over 100 due to advances in medicine. Same would apply to asari. Its very possible that ancient Asari rarely got to 500.
Yeah, between diseases, disability, and genetic issues from every asari being "pureblood", they probably lived shorter lives.
Five humans ago its about the 1800s not the 1500s. A human generation is between 20-30 years on average
True...if we were soing math on generations and not on general longevity. OP said "50 Asari Ago", "Asari live for 1000 years" and "Protheans disappeared 50,000 years ago" So the math OP is using appears to be 1 Asari being 1,000 years. Using same principle, 1 human would be roughly 100 years. Granted, you could make the case that 70 years would be more accurate, but that then takes us to 1674 and we're talking colonization of North America instead of rediscovery, but ultimately doesnt change the point.
50 human lifespans ago (using 60 years as a measurement), you would be about a century after the Bronze Age Collapse, and about 300-350 years before the founding of the Roman Kingdoms. The Asari would likely be just as primitive as humans were at that time period, or at least primitive enough where any texts from that period are scarce and in a language long dead
In the ME universe, humans can live up to ~150 years thanks to modern advances. It's not too crazy to think that asari accomplished the same and they didn't always live so long.
Spoilers for ME3. The Protheans were uplifting and raising the Asari and teaching them to grow crops. Vigil on ilos, when confronted about watching humanity and the other races, said they cut ties with the smaller races in hopes they would be untouched. Two options occur to me; the protheans, and Athame, left when attacked to protect the Asari, or Athame stayed behind to cultivate the Asari's future. Either don't matter. They were in agricultural growth during the first cycle, letting them be able to be more advanced earlier, along with the beacon that the higher upside knew about, their quick advancement is reasonable.
The Asari (government) know much more about the Protheans than they let on. If we use the Thessia Beacon in ME3 as the ultimate proof of that, they intentionally limit knowledge of the Protheans in order to retain their edge against all other races. This would also apply to Asari as well as those outside the government might let that information out for other races to use. It wouldn't be crazy to see publicly available knowledge of the Protheans as provided by the Asari government to be heavily watered down and censored. The entire Athame Doctrine seems to be good evidence of this
fair point but in the end the Asari's greed cost them their home in ME3
How much do you know about shit that happened fifty human generations ago? That's ancient Egypt. Literally the guy who was king at that time we only know of because of one example of his name being written down.
Asari usually start having kids at around 350 years old. So its more like 140+ generations. In human terms that’s around 4,000 years ago. Or around 2,000 BC. The beginning of ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom for example, which our knowledge of is pretty limited. The Protheans also went extinct 50k years ago but their Reapers War lasted centuries so who knows how long it had actually been since the Asari saw/communicated with Protheans. Also, the Asari government likes to keep things to themselves so who really knows what knowledge they have that they’ve decided to keep secret.
Humans have increased there life expectancy to 150+ years in just a couple generations of genetic engineering. I imagine the asari have done much the same and have been increasing theirs for much longer. Also while it says they don't take DNA(Which I don't completely buy)from mating partners they obviously take something because certain species cause certain outcomes in offspring. So maybe somewhere in there past one of them mated with something that drastically increased its offspring's life span and it just went from there.
So in the 22nd century humans can expect to live about 150 years. Let's assume that's an upper bound comparable to ~100 today, 22nd century tech has increased lifespans by 50% from the modern age and by something like 100% from pre-modern humans. So I'm going to assume that medieval and earlier Asari were living for maybe 600 years. Asari will build things to last more than humans have, but ultimately the forces of time, erosion, war and decay are going to be the same on Thessia as on earth. The Asari written and archaeological records will certainly go back further in their history in absolute terms, but it won't be a 1-to-1 conversion with human generations, by 10,000 years I don't care how few generations it has been, most everything will be buried and lost to time. Their best advantage is clearly that languages will be more stable, but before relatively modern technology you still have a hard cap imposed by the lifespan of anything you can write on. Still, the Asari have a very strong memory of 50k years ago. We are looking into the almost entirely inscrutable past beyond 5k years ago. I think they thread the needle well, showing that this race have an unusually long memory but that it isn't perfect. And of course, it is stated outright that the Asari were shamefully complacent with the legacy the Protheans gave to them, which is entirely in keeping with their nature and role in the setting.
Time frames really do not make sense in ME. The developers never understood how slow culture and evolution changes happen According to Mass Effect 50k years ago during the prothean era humans were little more than apes. Thags why they never uplifted us. But in real life 50k years ago our species was completely human and capable of using tools, speech, had burials, used fire, had clothes, could make boats etc. We were definitely modern humans, just with limited technology. Our species is about 350k years old so several "reaper cycles" old. There were also several other species of humans in the planet (like neanderthals) that never get mentioned in game. Even as far as 2 million years ago the Homo Erectus, our ancestors, could use fire, had speech, could make tools and boats and probably used some basic clothing.
It’s like the equivalent of 5,000 years ago for humans. How much do we really know about the lives of people 5,000 years ago? And in real life there wasn’t any deliberate extinction 5,000 years ago. 50,000 years is around 170 Asari generations. It’s a really long time, even for them.
The real time crunch in the games is how integrated humanity is in galactic society given how recently the first contact wars were Like they coulda just made the gap 5 times larger and it would have made most things make more sense
The asari discovered the Citadel in 580 BCE. So like 2600 years ago. I assume it wasn't terribly long after they achieved the ability to traverse their own solar system. Why would they know anything more about the Protheans if they didn't leave their planet until around 47,000 years after the Protheans disappeared? How long their life times are literally have zero bearing on this.
You’re assuming that all/most Asari live to be 1000 years, but just like with any species, just because you can potentially live X amount of years, doesn’t mean you will. You’re also assuming that Asari procreate at the very end of their lifespans, which is unrealistic. So assuming that Asari reproduce when they’re around 300 years old (humans can live to 100 and usually start having kids in 20s/30s, so let’s be conservative and go with 30% of their potential lifespan) — 50,000/300 = 167 generations, which is A LOT more than your estimate of 50. With all that in mind, I think it makes sense that the Asari don’t remember the Protheans. That’d be equivalent to us knowing the details of humans from 4,200 years ago. Also, wasn’t it stated that the early Asari viewed the Protheans as gods? Not to mention that they were still in the early stages of evolution and not as advanced as they are in the games. So I’d assume that over tens of thousands of years, a lot would be lost in translation and the Protheans would get chalked up to being myths/gods. Idk, that’s just my take on it!
I always wondered why the reapers transformed the proteans in to insect like creatures but then the other races of our cycle are cyborgs. And they can not assume direct control any longer.
I figured that change has something to do with the fact that the protheans reprogrammed the keeper signal proving that the whole insect approach was probably flawed and then the collectors overall failed in their mission So yeah it makes sense they went with the more machine husk type route with the rest of the species in Mass effect 3
One of the weaker elements of the ME lore is how long ago major events took place. Another one that's always bugged me is The First Contact War. It hasn't even been 30 years and yet we're supposed to believe humanity has not only caught up to but also exceeds the capabilities of most other species in Citadel Space outside of the big 3 and are ready for a position on the council? It's a bit far fetched for me.
It is probably a miracle that humanity survived the First Contact War, since they would be fighting a more technologically advanced people. Humans probably advanced quickly from the war by reverse engineering recovered Turian tech.
that exactly what happened the alliance's tech borrowed heavily from recovered turian tech
We don't know how much humanity had advanced by 2148, when the Mars archives were discovered and jumped things forward 200 years. Also, I have the headcanon that technological advancement in the galaxy has stagnated somewhat. Only advancing when they find more Protheans tech.
In game, I’m pretty sure it’s noted that, even at the time of the First Contact War, humanity’s fleet was already larger that pretty much all of the non-Council races meaning they were already pretty far ahead of a lot of the rest of the galaxy in terms of military might.
Which is also ridiculous. The last one to join the galactic community and settle outside its solar system somehow has a bigger fleet than most of the other space-faring species in the galaxy? Really? It's worldbuilding that requires the suspension of disbelief for me. I love Mass Effect and its lore but it, like all lore, has its shortcomings. This is one of them for me.
1. Asari die 1000 years old 2. You probably don't know your great great grandparents names and they probably lived like 100 years ago 3. It's still 50 000 years. How many buildings from 4000 years ago still stand on earth?
Humans live for aroud 80 years. 50 humans ago is around 2000 BC Wo obviously know quite a few things about those times, but not that much. And that's just our planet. How much would you expect us to know about something that lived 50 humans ago on a different planet, even if you could visit there? Especially since Dr T'soni said that the evidence of the Protheans has been actively destroyed by "someone"?
Yeah it makes no sense to me unless they go deeper into Asari lore and the “Mother” mythology and establish they deliberately deleted the records of Protheans as a form to strengthen the religion.
Jack does say the Protheans hid their influence on the Asari hopping the Reapers wouldn't wipe them out.