If the Protheans were space imperialists, the Leviathans were space Vault-Tec. That is to say that, in a twisted anthropological impulse, they studied other species and conducted experiments on them. Of course, they usually enslaved them after and/or before these experiments.
Despite being a morally flawed race, the Leviathans also built most technology that all races have continued to adapt throughout the series. They are millions if not billions of years old, extremely powerful, and have shaped galactic history via the Reapers. But Mass Effect fans don’t know everything about the Leviathans.
10 Leviathan Physiology
As seen in the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3, Leviathans are enormous creatures that resemble what H.P. Lovecraft might have imagined in place of a cuttlefish. They have several tentacle-like legs, six total eyes, have a bony, plated body, and seem to be aquatic.
As for their mind-control abilities, the game has compared it to how the Rachni communicate telepathically. Perhaps they use some kind of organic quantum entanglement or leveraged element zero and biotic amplifiers instead. But much of their society’s technological advancement came on the backs of their enthralled species.
Reapers resemble them because the Starchild AI created them in the Leviathans’ image and with Leviathan genetic material after the first “harvest”.
9 They Created An AI….To Prevent AI Uprisings
Many fans recall that the Leviathan DLC revealed the truth behind the Starchild AI’s origins. As Shepard mentally travels through history with the Leviathan, they see how the Leviathans enthralled other species. But they also see that those enslaved species often created synthetic life similar to the Quarians and the Geth.
That synthetic life made things difficult for the Leviathans by overrunning their enthralled species. So, logically, the Leviathans created the Starchild AI to “solve the problem” of inevitable violence between synthetic and organic life. Something about playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.
8 Leviathan of Dis
20 years before the events of the Leviathan DLC, the Batarians had discovered a Reaper corpse at Jartar. Since the Reaper threat at the time was basically a rumor, the species didn’t see a reason not to examine it. As the Batarians continued to study the corpse, they became indoctrinated. This ultimately led to the Batarians being among the first of the Reapers’ victims.
Though not an actual Leviathan corpse, the Batarians had found a DEAD Reaper. As Admiral Hackett asked in the Leviathan DLC, what could have killed that Reaper? Dr. Bryson believed it was a Leviathan which prompted Task Force Aurora to begin investigating. It is considered canon by many fans that a Leviathan killed this Reaper.
7 The Leviathans In The DLC Didn’t Create The Reapers
Though Shepard meets incredibly old members of the species, what is a couple hundred thousand years to a species that lives for millennia? The ones that Shepard meets state definitively that they are offspring of the generation that created the Reapers and Starchild AI.
This means that, at some point, the Leviathans in hiding were able to procreate. Does that mean that, theoretically, the Leviathans could continue to rebuild their species? If so, what does that mean for the rest of the species in the Milky Way Galaxy?
6 The Reapers Defeated The Leviathans With Their Own Thralls
Many fans have posed the question: why didn’t the Leviathans just launch a surprise attack on the Reapers? The species did have superior telepathic abilities and many races under their thrall. But that’s precisely what led to their downfall.
The Starchild AI was able to turn their thralled species against the Leviathans. Without the superior numbers, it was easy to overwhelm even the most powerful Leviathans. With their entire civilization detached and fractured, the Leviathans had no choice but to go into hiding.
5 Leviathans Can Enthrall Enemies From Long Distances
Since the Leviathans are mainly aquatic in nature, they needed help to maintain control over their slaves. Thus they created the artifacts the players see in the DLC. Leviathan uses one such artifact to communicate to Shepard through the likes of Dr. Ann Bryson.
The orbs also enabled Leviathan to control a Reaper Brute to save Shepard and their crew.
But Leviathan goes on to also take down an entire Reaper simply with its mind. As the scene suggests, those orbs may amplify Leviathan’s telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Much like the Thorian from ME1, not much is known about organisms with telepathic and mind control abilities.
4 The Species Can Awaken or Take Control Of The Collectors
After the inside look at how the Reapers harvest organic life to create Collectors in Mass Effect 2, many players developed sympathy for the hodge-podge and enslaved race. The reveals about the Prothean Empire in Mass Effect 3 amplified this sympathy in knowing that Protheans were essentially killing their own kind.
If the player completes the Leviathan DLC before beating the final game, the Leviathans can use their telepathy to uplift a Collector group. This group can then be used to fight the Reapers in the final battle for Earth.
3 The Thorian And Leviathans May Sustain Themselves In Similar Ways
Speaking of the Thorian, ME1 fans will remember that the Thorian existed on Feros before the Protheans colonized it. It also survived the Reaper cycle and continued to spread across Feros for 50,000 years or more. Dr. Bryson suggests that it must have depended on organic tools instead of any technology or machines.
The three Leviathans from the DLC (and potentially others) have evaded the Reapers for a very, very long time. As such, Dr. Bryson further suggests that it must have developed similar means of survival. For a species with a history of enthralling others, using “organic tools” probably wasn’t a difficult pivot.
2 Their FTL Technology May Have Been Organic, Too
To date in Mass Effect lore, no one has been able to decipher Leviathan technology. From their mental capabilities to their artifacts that enhance their power and FTL travel, the civilization’s technology remains a total mystery.
Fans do know that the species leveraged their thralls to pursue scientific research. This was how they gained space travel abilities in the first place.
1 The Leviathans Could Be The Next Threat To The Milky Way Galaxy
The Leviathan DLC, while inarguably excellent, has become a divisive point in the Mass Effect fan community. Players contest that the Leviathans may pose a greater threat than even the Reapers did to intelligent life. After all, their whole shtick is enslaving other species across the galaxy.
Despite how messy galactic politics are in Mass Effect (the Krogan genophage, First Contact War, etc), everyone is in their own right minds, as it were. Leviathans, now knowing that the Starchild AI and Reapers have been neutralized, could rise up once more. But the Leviathans only pose a true threat in the Destroy ending choice.
With Control, “Shepard” controls the Reapers, so they could still squash any potential uprising. With Synthesis, the Leviathans would also have been affected, so their opinion of synthetic life may have changed.
Unfortunately for fans, no one can know for sure what will happen until more details emerge about the next Mass Effect title.
NEXT: 10 Facts And Trivia You Never Knew About The First Mass Effect
