Item from Mass Effect by BioWare
An ancient Prothean memory device — the one on Eden Prime gave Shepard visions of the Reaper cycle that everything in the trilogy flows from.
Prothean Beacons were communication devices — information storage and transmission systems from a civilization that has been extinct for fifty thousand years. The one on Eden Prime was still functional. When Shepard interfaced with it, the vision it delivered was the Protheans' final warning: the Reapers, the harvest, the pattern of extinction repeating across cycles. Shepard couldn't fully understand the images at first — the Protheans encoded for their own physiology. Liara helped translate. The Beacon's contents became the template for everything Shepard has known and tried to make the galaxy believe since. The Beacon also established the fundamental tragedy of ME1: the Protheans left a warning. The warning was clear enough for Shepard to understand with help. The galaxy still didn't believe it, because belief is more complicated than information.
A tall, dark obelisk of Prothean manufacture — smooth, featureless except for faint geometric patterns that pulse when active. When interfaced with, it generates a neural connection that delivers information directly into the user's mind. This is not described by anyone who has experienced it as comfortable.
Also known as: Prothean Beacon, The Beacon