Character from Mass Effect by BioWare
The first human Spectre, killed and rebuilt, now hunting a threat the galaxy refuses to believe in — a soldier who became a symbol whether they wanted to or not.
Shepard leads from the front, which is either inspiring or terrifying depending on whose side you're on. They have a gift for making people believe the impossible is worth attempting — which is useful, because everything they're attempting qualifies. Under pressure, Shepard becomes still: calmer as the situation grows worse, more focused as the odds lengthen. People follow that stillness into places they wouldn't go alone. The burden is that Shepard has seen Sovereign. Has touched the Prothean Beacon. Carries visions of extinction in their sleep. Every conversation with the Council, every briefing with Hackett, runs up against the same wall: the galaxy doesn't want to believe in the Reapers until the Reapers are already here. Shepard's job is to be ready anyway — to build a crew capable of the impossible, to hold the line while everyone else is still debating whether there's a line to hold. What Shepard is, underneath the legend, depends on the choices they make. The legend is real. So is the cost.
An N7 Systems Alliance Marine in their early thirties, carrying the kind of quiet authority that comes from having survived things nobody should survive. The N7 designation on their armor is the most recognizable mark in the galaxy right now. Scarred in ways that vary — some from the Collectors' reconstruction, some older. They move like someone who is always calculating the fastest route out of a room, or through it.
Also known as: Shepard, Commander, N7, The Commander