Mass Effect 5 Teaser's Hidden Messages are Being Deciphered
Yesterday's Mass Effect 5 teaser hides more than one mystery. Fans decoded the footage released by BioWare, and are now outdoing each other in theories about the meaning of the words it contains.
It turns out that the teaser of Mass Effect 5 contains a hidden message. In a short video released by BioWare on the occasion of N7 Day - an annual holiday of fans of the series - a series of noises and crackles can be heard. The community decoded them - the message can be listened to here (or here in a slightly better, cleaned up version) - revealing the following message:
"Exactly, the council will be furious, although they should know by now not to underestimate human defiance. It has always been their most defining characteristic. I didn't see it. How did we miss this?"
Fans found quite quickly that some of these words are spoken by Liara T'Soni - a distinctive blue-skinned Asari researcher, studying protean technology and culture in an effort to determine the causes of their extinction. As Liara has appeared in all four installments of Mass Effect, the community had little doubt about whose voice could be heard on the recording. Just for the record, however, however Michael Gamble - director of the fifth Mass Effect - confirmed the conjectures of fans on Twitter.
It is much more difficult to determine to whom or to what Liara is speaking. Fans are outdoing themselves in coming up with more or less plausible theories. The one that appeals to me the most is that the coded message is an excerpt from her discussion with the geth about the relay built by humanity. Let me quote the words of Reddit user iMoher, who subjected this scenario to a rather detailed analysis:
"So, seems like Liara is talking with a geth about some crap pulled by the humans. Perhaps they discovered Cerberus was building a mass relay? Or maybe it was the System Alliance?
Few interesting things about this quick conversation:
- Geth seems to be alive, so either starchild lied (surprise surprise) or they found a way to get them back online. Perhaps the Quarians had an old backup? Who knows.
- Since the council WILL be furious, we have again a council! Which means that probably the situation post war has calmed enough to allow again interspecies diplomacy at a political level.
- Personal opinion, but the way Liara says “they should know by now to not underestimate human defiance” makes me think that the timeline of the game will be immediately/shortly after the Reaper war. Which means we should get Shep [Commander Shepard - ed. note], Garrus, Tali and everyone else."
It is worth remembering, of course, that all of this - not counting the hidden message itself - is just speculation. The fact that BioWare decided to publish a teaser with this kind of hidden message does not, unfortunately, necessarily mean the imminent release of Mass Effect 5 - or even a proper announcement of the game. Nonetheless, the enthusiasm of the community has increased enough that it might prompt the developer to reveal the shroud of mystery at least a little more and sooner.
Let us know if you agree with the theories quoted above. Or do you have completely different ones? The comments are yours.
