The Turians (known as the Tikk'ler Ci'lekker by the Second Human Empire) are a sapient species of Palaven and one of the most major members of the Citadel Council. They gained their council seat after defeating the hostile krogans for the council during the Krogan Rebellions.
The Turians then filled the peacekeeping niche left by the once-cooperative Krogans, and eventually gained a Council seat in recognition of their efforts. Originally from the planet Palaven, turians are best known for their military role, particularly their contributions of soldiers and starships to the Citadel Fleet. They are respected for their public service ethic—it was the Turians who first proposed creating C-Sec—but are sometimes seen as imperialist or rigid by other races. They joined the Citadel Alliance after their homeworld was conquered by first the Reapers, then the Combines and other Axis forces, they currently serve the Alliance of Nations though their membership for the Citadel Alliance.
Biology[]
The Turian homeworld, Palaven, has a metal-poor core, generating a weak magnetic field and allowing more solar radiation into the atmosphere. To deal with this, most forms of life on Palaven evolved some form of metallic 'exoskeleton' to protect themselves. Their reflective plate-like skin makes turians less susceptible to long-term, low-level radiation, but they do not possess any sort of 'natural armor'. A turian's thick skin does not stop projectiles and directed energy bolts.
Although life on Palaven is carbon-based and oxygen-breathing, it is built on dextro-amino acids. This places the turians in a distinct minority on the galactic stage; the quarians are the only other known sapient dextro-protein race. The food of Humans, Asari, or Salarians (who evolved in levo-amino acid-based biospheres), will at best pass through turian systems without providing any nutrition.
History[]
Roughly 983 AD Riz'ro (224 NE), the Turians were invited to join the Citadel council to fulfil the role of galactic peacekeepers. The Turians have the largest fleet in Citadel space, and they make up the single largest portion of the Council's military forces.
As their territory and influence has spread, the turians have come to rely on the salarians for military intelligence and the Asari for diplomacy. Despite a somewhat colonial attitude towards the rest of the Milky Way galaxy, the ruling Hierarchy understands they would lose more than they would gain if the other two races were ever removed.
Turians come from an autocratic society that values discipline and possesses a strong sense of personal and collective honor. There is lingering animosity between Turians and humans over the First Contact War of 2157 (1396 NE), which is known as the 'Relay 314 Incident' to the turians. Officially, however, the two species are allies and they enjoy civil, if cool, diplomatic relations.
The Unification War[]
At about the time the salarians and Asari were forming the Council, the Turians were embroiled in a bitter civil war. The Unification War, as it was later named, began with hostilities between the colonies furthest from the turian homeworld, Palaven.
These colonies were run be local chieftains, many of whom had distanced themselves from the Hierarchy. Without the galvanizing influence of the government, the colonies became increasingly isolated and xenophobic. Colonists began wearing emblems or facial markings to differentiate themselves from members of other colonies and open hostilities became common.
When war finally broke out, the Hierarchy maintained strict diplomacy and refused to get involved. After several years of fighting, less than a dozen factions remained and the Hierarchy finally intervened. By that time, the chieftains were too weak to resist; they were forced to put an end to fighting and renew their allegiance to the Hierarchy.
Though peace was restored, it took several decades for animosity between colonists to fade completely. To this day, most turians still wear the facial markings of their home colonies. As a point of interest, the Turian term "barefaced" refers to one who is beguiling or not to be trusted. It is also a slang term for politicians.
In 2183 (1424 NE), Lieutenant Commander Shepard located 13 lost emblems of turian clans lost during this war.
The Krogan Rebellions[]
After the Rachni War, the quick-breeding Krogran expanded at the expense of their neighbors. Warlords leveraged their veteran soldiers to seize living space while the Council races were still grateful. Over centuries, the krogan conquered world after world. There was always 'just one more' needed. When the Council finally demanded withdrawal from the asari colony of Lusia, krogan Overlord Kredak stormed off the Citadel, daring the Council to take their worlds back.
But the Council had taken precautions. The finest STG operators and asari huntresses had been drafted into a covert 'observation force', the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. The Spectres opened the war with crippling strategic strikes. Krogan planets went dark as computer viruses flooded the extranet. Sabotaged antimatter refineries disappeared in blue-white annihilation. Headquarters stations shattered into orbit-clogging debris, rammed by pre-placed suicide freighters.
Still, this only delayed the inevitable. The war would have been lost if not for first contact with the turians, who responded to krogan threats with a prompt declaration of war. Being on the far side of Krogan space from the Council, the turians advanced rapidly into the lightly-defended krogan rear areas. The krogan responded by dropping space stations and asteroids on turian colonies. Three worlds were rendered completely uninhabitable.
This was precisely the wrong approach to take with the Turians. Each is first and foremost a public servant, willing to risk his life to protect his comrades. Rather than increasing public war weariness, krogan tactics stiffened turian resolve.
The arrival of Turian task forces saved many worlds from the warlords' marauding fleets, but it took development of the genophage bioweapon to end the war. There were decades of unrest afterwards. Rogue warlords and holdout groups of insurgents refused to surrender, or disappeared into the frontier systems to become pirates.
The Genophage[]
The genophage bioweapon was created to end the Krogan Rebellions. From the start, the krogan had overwhelmed the Council. Only timely first contact with the turians saved the Council races. The Turians fought the krogan to a standstill, but sheer weight of krogan numbers indicated the war could not be won through conventional means. The Turians collaborated with the salarians to genetically engineer a counter to the rapid breeding of the krogan.
The genophage virus gained the energy to replicated by 'eating' key genetic sequences. Every cell in every krogan had to be altered for the weapon to be foolproof; otherwise the krogan could have used gene therapy to fix the affected tissues. Once a genophage strain could find no more genes to eat, it would starve and die, limiting spin-off mutation and contamination. This 'created' genetic flaw is hereditary.
The Salarians believed the genophage would be used as a deterrent, a position the Turians viewed as naïve. Once the project was complete, the Turians mass-produced and deployed it. The krogan homeworld, their colonies, and all occupied worlds were infected.
The resulting mutation made only one in a thousand Krogan pregnancies carry to term. It did not reduce fertility, but offspring vitality.
First Contact War[]
The Humans's first contact with an alien race occurred in 2157. At that time, the Alliance allowed survey fleets to activate any dormant mass relays discovered, a practice considered dangerous and irresponsible by Council-aligned races. When a turian patrol discovered a human fleet attempting to activate a relay, they attacked. One human vessel survived, retreating to the colony world of Shanxi.
The turians followed, quickly defeating the local forces. Shanxi was occupied, the first - and to date (as of 2183), only - human world to be conquered by an alien species. The turians believed the handful of ships they defeated represented the bulk of human defenses. So they were unprepared when the Second Fleet under Admiral Kastanie Drescher launched a strong counteroffensive, evicting them from Shanxi.
The turians mobilized for full-scale war, drawing the attention of the rest of the galaxy. The Council quickly intervened, forcing a truce. Fortunately for humanity, the First Contact War was ended with a diplomatic solution.
Reaper Wars[]
In 2186 (1425 NE), the Reapers began their invasion upon the Milky Way, the turian colony of Taetrus is one of the first worlds the Reapers attack following their conquest of Khar'shan and Riz'ro Earth. The Turian Hierarchy made two attempts to liberate Taetrus, but were unsuccessful. As the Reapers began to pour into the Trebia system and assault Palaven, they broadcasted images of Taetrus's destruction to the turian comm buoy network.
The Reapers met with heavy resistance from the turians during their invasion of Palaven and Menae; much of the turian fleet remained operable after the Reapers' initial assault, and the turian citizenry was heavily armed and capable of supporting turian troops. Although the Hierarchy maintained that Palaven had not fallen and the battle for it continued, the Reapers nonetheless made significant.
Relief came with the help of an unlikely ally: the krogan, who had agreed to join the war once the genophage was cured. The combined turian and krogan counterattack caught the Reapers off-guard. While the Reaper fleet orbiting Palaven was distracted by an apparent turian offensive, transport craft carrying krogan reinforcements landed on Palaven and coordinated with turian resistance forces, handing over warp bombs and fission weapons. These weapons were smuggled aboard Reaper ships and detonated simultaneously across the globe, allowing large swathes of territory to be retaken. News of the victory gave a much-needed boost to the morale of the turian resistance and the galactic public, but it was not long before the Reapers retaliated.
Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, Primarch Victus ordered the remaining turian warships to withdraw from the Trebia system in order to participate in the Allied assault on Earth. The only way to end the war was to activate the Crucible, and doing so required the Citadel, which the Reapers had moved to Earth orbit for safekeeping. Turian forces heroically assisted in the space and ground battles, while Commander Shepard reached the Citadel to trigger the Crucible.
Discovery of the Multiverse[]
Combine Invasion Expansion[]
Beyond the Galaxy[]
Sol Milky Way Campaigns[]
Many Turian forces launched a full scale assault upon the outer colonies of the Confederate States of America, an alternate version of the Systems Alliance from the Sol Universe, fuelled by hate for their atrocities and crimes towards all Turians of different verses and mutually agreed to occupy the planets where their people have been held captive, even on rare occasions to work alongside their rivals, the Krogans and Orcs when they considered the Sol Humans as barbaric and teach force those into submission, hardly caring at all to those their rivals would do to those they take. The planet they successfully took was a military colony and informed the Alliance that it was under the control of Primarch Julivius Decnius for the time being and bring order to show the colonists the error of their ways, denying the colonists to leave or anyone to enter without their authorisation.
Joining the Federation[]
Government[]
The Turian government is a hierarchal meritocracy. While it has great potential for misuse, this is tempered by the civic duty and personal responsibility turians learn in childhood.
Turians have 27 citizenship tiers, beginning with civilians (client races and children). The initial period of military service is the second tier. Formal citizenship is conferred at the third tier, after boot camp. For client races, citizenship is granted after the individual musters out. Higher-ranked citizens are expected to lead and protect subordinates. Lower-ranked citizens are expected to obey and support superiors. Promotion to another tier of citizenship is based on the personal assessments of one's superiors and co-rankers.
Throughout their lives, turians ascend to higher tiers and are occasionally 'demoted' to lower ones. The stigma associated with demotion lies not on the individual, but on those who promoted him when he wasn't ready for additional responsibility. This curbs the tendency to promote individuals into positions beyond their capabilities.
Settling into a role and rank is not considered stagnation. Turians value knowing one's own limitations more than being ambitious.
At the top are the Primarchs, who each rule a colonization cluster. The Primarchs vote on matters of national import. They otherwise maintain a 'hands-off' policy, trusting the citizens on each level below them to do their jobs competently.
Turians enjoy broad freedoms. So long as one completes his duties, and does not prevent others from completing theirs, nothing is forbidden. For example, there are no laws against recreational drug use, but if someone is unable to complete his duties due to drug use, his superiors step in. Judicial proceedings are 'interventions.' Peers express their concern, and try to convince the offender to change. If rehabilitation fails, turians have no qualms about sentencing dangerous individuals to life at hard labor for the state.
Society and Culture[]
While turians are individuals with personal desires, their instinct is to equate the self with the group, and set aside personal desires for the good of all.
Turians are taught to have a strong sense of personal accountability, the 'turian honor' that other races find so remarkable. Turians are taught to own every decision they make, good or ill. The worst sin they can make in the eyes of their people is to lie about their own actions. Turians who murder will try to get away with it, but if directly questioned, most will confess the crime.
Turians have a strong inclination toward public service and self-sacrifice, so they tend to be poor entrepreneurs. To compensate, they accepted the mercantile volus as a client race, offering protection in exchange for their fiscal expertise.
The turian military is the center of their society. It is not just an armored force, it is an all-encompassing public works organization. The military police are also the civic police. The fire brigades serve the civilian population as well as military facilities. The corps of engineers builds and maintains spaceports, schools, water purification plants and power stations. The merchant marine ensures that all worlds get needed resources.
Turians in the Multiverse[]
Kiz'ro Universe[]
Kom'rul Universe[]
The Turians from the Kom'rul universe were one of the fifteen founding species of the Galactic Union. Early in their history, Palaven used to be the heart of a massive galactic nation called simply the Palaven Confederation, but, about five centuries after it's creation, a brutal and bloody civil war erupts that tore the Confederation into two factions originally, the Pro-Palaven faction (called Traditionalist) and the Pro-Taetrus faction (called Reformist), but, as the civil war dragged out, many more factions became involved to the point that it finally tore the Confederation apart into numerous independent nationstates, but the Union of Palavenian Colonies) and the Grand Taetrusian Empire came out on top in terms of influence, which Palaven Turians eventually helped to create the Galactic Union.
Riz'ro Universe[]
The Turians from the Riz'ro Universe had expanded their roles not only in the Citadel Council, but in many special forces in the Alliance such as the Alliance Joint Military when they fought in the First War.