[Politics] AFS Calls for Council Seat Removal

AFS Calls for Council Seat Removal

The past week has seen a sharp increase in protests across Citadel Space as the Political Action Committee “Accountability For Sur’kesh” has questioned the legitimacy of the salarian Council membership.

“A Council member’s duty is to protect Citadel Space as a whole,” explained Takus Tran, event coordinator for AFS. “Where was the Union during the Reaper War? Where was it during the single most important threat the galaxy has ever faced? Nowhere, because Allied forces wouldn’t pander to their little games.”

The tone was similar at the Presidium protest, with over 400 members of various races calling for the salarians’ removal from the Council.

“[The salarians] can’t even feel our pain,” argued guest speaker Opheus Lonad (H-Tier 14, Palaven). “Out of everyone in the galaxy, they’re the only ones with an intact homeworld, the only ones with a fully functioning industry. They should have been spearheading that war, but they could barely send a token resistance.”

While many protesters stayed “on-message” throughout the event, several members had their own to make. One salarian protester, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that he was there as a reminder of his own species’ dissent from his government.

“What I want is for our political caste to take a hard look at themselves, and spur my people into limiting our Dalatrasses’ power,” he said.

The protests were largely ignored by those uninvolved, though the Salarian political body has expressed mild contempt for the movement. Dalatrass Mendon (Miscigle, Jaeto) in particular noted covert actions taken throughout the war and afterward a statement condemning the protests.

“This is an outrage,” she said. “If you think we just sat there during the war and did nothing, you are grossly mistaken...We kept the galactic economy running, and overtly supported our allies as best we could. We were conducting thousands of simultaneous operations to give us an edge on the Reapers, and the worst simply came to worst.”

Mendon declined to comment on the Union’s wartime operations, citing operational secrecy, though she further noted the salarians' involvement in galactic reconstruction.

“The Council’s duties are not solely based in waging war,” she stated.

Further protests are scheduled for this week.

Well it certainly isn't your intelligence that is holding the attackers at bay.

@The Sarcastic Salarian and Capice

Perhaps you should take the Shepard argument to another thread. As for whether Shepard had the evidence or not, I'm leaning toward the latter. She likely didn't have presentable evidence, because Spirits know the Godsquid would have tried to hide it. And hide it well. If Sovereign hadn't teamed up with the geth, perhaps the Reapers would have been known about sooner. But perhaps not. There was little to no evidence and in addition Shepard disappeared completely off the radar for two whole years, only to pop up again to destroy the Bahak relay.

Yes, in hindsight, there was a good reason but at the time, based upon the evidence we had, Shepard was at best, deranged. At worst, she had become another Saren, only targeting batarians this time.

There was no proof that Sovereign wasn't geth technology until we saw another one. Without evidence, we couldn't prepare more than we had. If we'd had solid evidence, the preparation would have been more overt.

Only in a Couple of Decades?

Quite. While I do disagree with the Union's decisions during the war, removing them from the Council would be an incredibly ill-advised decision. Just as I disagree with past actions of the geth, they prove themselves more and more vital to the growth of the galaxy every day. The salarians, with their political, military, and economic institutions mostly intact, are more useful now than ever.

finally! some love for the Vol-clan

and yes, I was there, not many Salarians nearby

Shepard is the greatest military and political genius of the last Reaper Cycle. She cured the Genophage. She pulled the Quarian Flotilla off the Geth. She is a Reaper Killing, Omega-3-Surviving force of Enkindlement and/or the Gods. So if the question is "Did the STG have their heads up their cloacas sideways or was Shepard somehow not awesome enough" then they had their heads up their cloacas. If the greatest intelligence force in the galaxy couldn't figure out what she was, why should we give them so much unlimited power?

And I remind you again, that they had a dead Reaper to look at. And even working from the 'public record' there were plenty of people who didn't believe the lies.

Shepard was a woman who was always at the right place and the right time like some modern-day messiah, performing “miracles” of questionable good while being either unable or unwilling to give us reasonable proof behind her claims. She unleashed the krogan, allowing them to once more carry out a downright monstrous reproductive rate that drove them to the Rebellions in the first place, and forced the quarians and geth to play along at least until the end of the Reaper War (at which point, barring a second resurrection, she can no longer play the messianic umpire). Her actions are directly responsible for unstoppering two incredible tides of power that may easily swallow us all in the coming centuries, and while I am glad that they decided to step in where we couldn’t, I have every right to fear what comes in the coming generations as a result of her actions.


So did everyone else. Pieces of Sovereign were being picked up across the Citadel by every major race in the months after the first attack, and yet every major race concluded it was a geth dreadnought.

“Plenty of people” will believe anything, but what so many people lacked was proof.

The heritics chose to side with Nazara against organics. The Consensus knew of the Old Machines but did not warn organics. When threatened with destruction, the Consensus chose to ally with the Old Machines.

Why does user Capice find such descions forgivable in the case of geth, but cannot forgive the Salarian Union for its choices?

Oh dear.

Capice? I don't think the geth need defending. :P

The intent is to neither defend the geth nor accuse user: Capice. Rather, the goal is to understand the inconstincies between two conflicting view points.

I really can't wait to see the excuses the apologists have for them siding with the Reapers.

I live in Council Space, not on Rannoch? And we're talking about the Salarians...but if you could find whatever subroutines made you act so stupidly, please delete them, but I'm not part of your consensus.

The Salarians had a responsibility as members of the council. They were supposed to aid in defence, which they hid from, and to be honest, they were supposed to provide the intelligence, which they completely blew at. They had a duty that they failed in…you, well, council space had AI laws requiring that anything that even looked a bit like you be killed on sight. Yeah, I wouldn't be volunteering either. Then the council blamed you for everything, and the quarians attacked you, again. It would have been totally fair for you to leave us to rot and you didn't.

Also, you've had a massive intelligence upgrade since your mistakes, but the Salarians still have the same boneheaded leaders.



Oh, bite me. You have no idea what she said behind closed doors, so the only reason you don't consider it "reasonable proof" is because the STG and the Union didn't believe her. If she'd had 'reasonable proof' they would have believed her, therefore nice circular argument. Now, you're just pissed your Union ended up on the wrong side of history.

Besides, she's not even dead.

Fixed that for you.

I think I'm going to withdraw from this thread as it is difficult to formulate a consistent opinion on galactic politics, I will make one final effort to make my point clear though; I think all organizations, government or not, that aided the Reapers or sat on knowledge that would have benefited the war effort before/during its occurrence should be forced to re-evaluate itself and/or face some kind of meaningful consequence. As much as I find the geth pleasant, this unfortunately means I have to condemn their actions too, though equally I am able to condemn the quarians for throwing their fleet at the geth, and this list can go on for quite some time.

All factors should be taken into account, however.

Ok, cool. If you seriously don't expect the Union to take the lead in intelligence, then no saying "but our secret covert operations" when someone calls the Union on sitting on it's butt.

By that same token, stop expecting that the STG had to have “known” every threat in the galaxy based on events that seem obvious IN HINDSIGHT, and be able to differentiate between “our secret covert operations” that occurred before and after the threat became undeniable.

Just because salarians are supposed to be "the best" does not mean that we are infallible, and it is tremendous varrenshit to hold us (and only us) to that standard.

To clarify, user: Capice's condemnation of the Salarian Union is based on:

1. A failure to fulfill the responsibilities due to its allies.
2. Poor performance in its "most notable" contribution to the Council, that of intelligence gathering.
3. The leadership that is responsible for both reasons stated above remains in power.

Is this a correct summation of user: Capice's grievances?

In addition, in light of a previous thread of user: Capice, was consensus ever achieved on this query? If so, what criteria would need to be met in order for the Salarian Union to receive acceptance from user: Capice?


The evaluation of one's past actions and the reasons for those actions is useful. However, the organic need for justice and reparation for perceived failings only serves to further divide an already politically and economically fragile galaxy. It is questionable whether fulfilling the emotional imperative of "justice" is beneficial in such a situation.

Further query:

What errors, if any, does user: The_Sarcastic_Salarian believe were made on the part of the Salarian Union during the Reaper War?

What changes, if any, does user: The_Sarcastic_Salarian believe should be made to the Salarian Union in consideration of the above query?

Henosis we don't want reparations so much as an admission of guilt and steps to make sure it won't happen again. The major political powers ignored the Reaper threat, but when it came banging at their door, most of them moved against it sooner or later. Except the salarian union, who to this day, as Mr Spiza shows, still think they were right not to take the reaper threat into account or move against it as much as they could!
Basically it goes like this :
Shepard : The reapers are coming and we need to do something about it.
Salarian Union (and rest of the council races) : No, you're wrong and stupid and crazy, there is no such thing as reapers, we know our job.
Everyone : So there really were reapers, you guys dropped the ball.
Salarian Union : No, you're wrong and stupid and crazy, we were right to say there wasn't a reaper threat, we know our job.

Our problem with that isn't that we want the salarians to suffer for their mistake. We want them to say, as Quarians and Geth and Asari and Humans and Turians are saying, "we fucked up, we didn't take the evidence as seriously as we should have, and here are proposals and promises to make sure we'll act well in another galactic extinction situation".


Actually several scientists were mocked and discredited because they said openly that couldn't have possibly been of Geth design, and that the reaper threat was real. Also I read somewhere that the Turians actually set up a reaper task force a few months before the reaper war, so their must have been some evidence to follow, provided you had the guts to accept the reality.

Yeah, that's about right.

...No. Consensus has not been reached on what people have to do to be forgiven. But at the very least, they have to not be causing further damage. Which means Linron has to go. They need to restructure their government to be more transparent and democratic-no bullshit "advisory" roles. They need to reign in the STG, which is almost certainly experimenting on sentient beings, before it breaks something.

Name them.


1. As I have repeatedly stated, we do not represent military strength. Nor do the asari. For the last thousand years, the turians have happily shouldered the responsibilities everyone claims that we shirked, knowing that without the other two of us fulfilling other duties, their rule would collapse.

2. As I have repeatedly stated, I cannot comment on whether this is an accurate statement. By that very same token, neither can anyone else.

3. Regardless of Points #1 and #2, the individuals responsible for making this a diplomatic mess instead of an intelligent, non-military use of resources need to be removed from power. This means (HEY LOOK GUYS A CONCESSION I MADE WEEKS AGO) Linron has to go. So do the toadies that flock around her.

This does NOT mean a violent revolution. This does NOT witch-hunting everyone who might have ever agreed with a policy of her. This does NOT mean the SDU. This does NOT mean that raze our government for one that’s more “palatable” for everyone else, no matter how much any uppity human or Hierarchy orator wants it.

And it certainly as hell does NOT mean crippling our intelligence bureau based on wild speculation.