Shepard

In *Every One That Asketh,* Shepard is female. She is not given a first name in canon, or a description beyond the basics, that is known to the reader. Be warned: **Here there be spoilers up to the most current chapter(s)**.

* standard
* stealth

### Aliases

Shep
Commander
Lola
Shepard Adrasteia
*šepæða'at*

### Relatives

Hannah Shepard, mother
Robert Minkowski, father
Viatrix Ismena Vakarian, daughter
Emilia Minkowski, grandmother
Jan Minkowski, grandfather †
John Shepard, grandfather †
Jane Shepard, grandmother †

### Affiliation

Systems Alliance
Citadel Council

### Occupation

A5 N7 5923-AC-2826
Rear Admiral, Systems Alliance
Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Agent, Citadel Council
Councillor, Citadel Council

## Biographical information

### Date of death

September 10, 2183 [Collector attack, Dead two years, twelve days]
December 7, 2187 [cardiac arrest after assassination attempt, Dead two minutes]
March 16, 2188 [cardiac arrest caused by Blackstar's firing, Dead six minutes in total]
September 8, 2188 [CNS failure due to cumulative effects of poisoning and immense electrical strain, Dead aproximately two hours, fifteen minutes]

### Place of death

In orbit above Alchera
Taralos Amphitheatre, The Citadel
Cipritine, Palaven
Milgrom, Bekenstein

## Physical description

### Height

5' 3"
161 cm

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Jennifer Hale, Voice Actress for the Mass Effect Seriesistie, in the EOTA Podfic

### Appears in

Mass Effect Trilogy (All)
Every One That Asketh

#### **Early Life**

Four years after Shepard's birth on the SSV *Geneva*, the First Contact War began in 2157. It is currently unknown how this impacted her childhood.

Shepard was trained in the guise of play by her father to be stealthy, and it can be assumed that he trained her in other things as well before she officially enlisted. Hannah Shepard was for the most part a single parent, as Robert was often deep under-cover and required not to make contact with his family.

#### **Alliance Career**

Shepard enlisted in the Alliance at the age of 18 in 2172. Shortly after, in 2173, Shepard completed the first level of the Alliance's Interplanetary Combatives Training, receiving her N1 designation; she received her N2 and N3 by the end of 2174, her N5 in 2175, and her N6 in 2176.

In July of 2177, she was sent to Akuze, where she was the sole survivor when marines and colonists alike were slaughtered by thresher maws. On September 16 of that year, she was sent on a mission to Illium, and on November 1 she was abducted by the Marquis d'Apien.

She was next seen in 2178, when footage of her on January 15 was sent to Admiral Hackett on the 28th of that month. In March, she escaped, and in April she returned to Alliance space. Shortly afterward, she returned to Arcturus Station, reunited with her mother soon after, and her name was put forward for Spectre candidacy.

In June of 2178, she received her N7 designation, and she was made Lieutenant Commander. In July, she returned to active duty and was put on the shortlist for the crew of the *Normandy*.

In 2183, the events of Mass Effect 1 occurred; Shepard was promoted to Staff Commander after the Battle of the Citadel.

In October of 2187, after the events of Mass Effect 2 and 3, Shepard is relieved of command by Garrus (Chapter 45: Code Alpha Chi Zero). This is listed as `"indefinite medical leave pursuant to 2187-10-31 Section 12 injunction".`

#### **Councillorship**

Shepard is made a member of the Citadel Council (Chapter 54: Between the Solar Flare and the Ocean). After the events of Mass Effect 3, the Citadel Council has been reformed and repurposed to a degree: it is a group of representatives of every race (that consented to having a representative in the council). Shepard was made the representative of humans on November 4th, 2187.

To date, Shepard has facilitated a terraforming capsule being given to the krogan to revitalize Tuchanka, with the help of Bakara and Sparatus, though this is at the price of Palaven no longer being terraformed to rebuild it after the Reaper War. She has also defused the tension between herself and the batarian councillor, Ka’hairal Balak, after making it clear that she intended to find the batarians a new homeworld, and that she regretted the loss of batarians on Aratoht during the events of Mass Effect 3. In doing so, she convinced Balak to aid the volus (through their representative, Korlack) in rebuilding their economic strength.

**The Mission to Ilium and The Marquis**

During a visit to Evadne, Shepard suffered a flashback. After unintentionally punching Garrus, they both returned to the *Normandy* with Viatrix. Shepard, still appearing to be somewhat disconnected and confused, began a rant about how she wanted to die, believing she was a threat to Viatrix and Garrus. Garrus managed to defuse the situation, and put the Commander to sleep with a combination of a sedative and reassurances. He relieved Shepard of her command, then fell asleep next to her.

The next morning, Shepard suffered a massive PTSD flashback and attacked Garrus, taking him hostage using a old pistol she had kept in the room. When Dr. Chakwas and EDI attempted to calm Shepard down, she began to claim she was searching for information on slavers and their operations. Both Chakwas and EDI were confused by this, as neither of them were aware of the operation to which Shepard was referring.

Unable to provide the information Shepard wanted, she was about to kill Garrus just as Liara arrived and gave Shepard a list of names and locations of the slaver organizations, thus buying time.

Tali then managed to hack and opened the door, at which point Garrus managed to overheat Shepard’s pistol using an old omnitool program. With a Stasis from Liara and a sedative from Chakwas, Shepard was subdued.

Later on, in the Medical Clinic aboard the Normandy, Liara explained that the Alliance had sent then-Lieutenant Shepard to infiltrate the inner circle of a slaving organization called the Silver Star in order to gain access to information on batarian slave rings that were hunting human colonists - the orchestrators, in fact, of the Skyllian Blitz.

However, the mission went FUBAR when Shepard disappeared for several months, and was later revealed to be the new “courtesan” for a batarian slaver named Har’stein Weiak.

While the Alliance was working on a plan to rescue her, she once again disappeared, and then literally showed up on Steven Hackett’s doorstep a few months later with information on the spy ring, leading to the invasion and destruction of the batarian slavery facilities on Torfan. She was temporarily placed on medical leave, and was later reinstated with both a N7 designation and a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. The whole mission was declared highly classified, and Shepard never discussed it, leaving the crew in the dark about the mission and the Marquis— whom Shepard knew as Lin'talahei Kadak, and who was the leader of the Skyllian cabal.

A few weeks later, Hackett sent Garrus Shepard’s debriefing of the event, wherein she revealed that she was tortured and raped by both the Marquis and Weiak, along with their bodyguards, for several months. However, nearly four months after she had been captured, she managed to escape, brutally murdering Weiak and his bodyguards and learning the information she had originally been sent to collect. However, the Marquis wasn’t present, therefore surviving Shepard’s escape.

As a result, Shepard sufferers severe mental and physical trauma from the event, and has sometimes accidentally associated Garrus with the Marquis, or woken up believing she was still under Weiak’s or the Marquis' control.

After learning about these events, Garrus swore that he would find and kill the Marquis because of what he did to Shepard, despite Shepard simply wanting to let him and that part of her past fade away.

#### **Personal Life**

In September of 2187, Shepard woke up from the Reaper-induced coma and gave birth to Viatrix Ismena Vakarian, after Garrus is confirmed to be the father despite the medical and scientific "impossibility" of such a thing. Between her many different projects (press releases, being a Councillor, dealing with assassination attempts, helping to run the Normandy) she is a mother of a young turian and the mate of one Garrus Vakarian. They juggle their duties admirably and currently reside in the shockingly well-hidden and well defended Silversun Apartment, on the Citadel, when they aren't away from it. Shepard is also having appointments with Sha'ira, the asari Consort, to help her heal from her many traumas.

Every One That Asketh is now well into November of 2188, making Shepard 34 as of chapter 167 according to the Terran Universal Coordinated Calendar.