In 2157, humanity began exploring the galaxy via the newly discovered mass relay, Charon, eventually arriving at the Citadel and joining the greater Galactic Government in Mass Effect. But joining wasn’t simple.
Humanity’s first encounter with aliens didn’t go so well. It went down in Mass Effect lore as the First Contact War, an event that had lasting effects within the lore and across characters.
What is the First Contact War?
The First Contact War, or Relay 314 Incident to the turians, refers to a war between humans and turians that took place following humanity’s first encounter with an alien race. At the time, humans were seeking out more mass relays to activate and further their space exploration and colonizing of habitable planets. On a particular excursion through the Shanxi-Theta relay (located near Council Space and the Terminus Systems), a turian patrol spotted the human fleet and attacked.
Only one ship managed to escape the onslaught and retreated to the nearby colony, Shanxi. The turians gave chase though and a fight broke out with the colony. The defenders held their ground for a while and ultimately the turians had to send more ships to defeat them. During this time, soldiers at the colony managed to send a message out to the Alliance Navy’s main command center, Arcturus Station. Since it was their first contact after discovering Prothean relics and technology, humans also sent out probes to turian space to gather intel on the species.
Because of the fight, supplies and other ships couldn’t reach Shanxi, and it eventually fell to the turians. The turians gained a siege position against further attacks, although they believed they had defeated most of humanity’s fleet.
Turians faced other problems since the colony’s supplies and planet didn’t provide them with food and sustenance specific to their biology. They had to import all their supplies, and their confidence in winning left them open.
The colonist’s message made it to Arcturus Station, which was strategically chosen for its proximity to several relays. This made it easy to mobilize the Alliance’s Second Fleet and counterattack the unprepared turians. It was successful, and Shanxi was liberated. But this was not without consequences. Both sides saw each other as the invader and prepared for large-scale intergalactic war. Since turians are part of the main Council races, however, it drew the attention of the entire Citadel space, and peace was negotiated. This was how humanity became part of the Citadel Government.
From a glance it may seem like the turians attacked without just cause, but there were actually two reasons for it.
Reasons Behind the Attack
It’s illegal to reactivate a mass relay according to Citadel law because of the Rachni Wars. When the Citadel Council was still new, they too wanted to explore and expand their universe by activating mass relays. Unfortunately, one relay led to rachni territory.
The rachni operate like the Zerg swarms from StarCraft. They had endless numbers and were hostile, possibly due to Reaper influence. This started a war which led to the Krogan Rebellions, which led to the genophage. The Council just thought it was better to leave inactive relays alone after that.
Secondly, turians have a military dominated culture. They’re known for being very disciplined and have one of the largest military fleets in the Mass Effect universe. They could have attempted to contact the human fleet, but they were an unknown race. The patrol leader made the call to be safe rather than sorry.
Peace Achieved… Sort of
The Council may have prevented intergalactic war, but it wasn't completely peaceful between species. Humans and turians retained a lot of animosity for each other, and the event left a bad impression on Citadel species as a whole. Many humans dislike turians, even by the end of the games’ timeline. To many, they seem aggressive or xenophobic, and many turians think the same of humans.
When talking to NPCs or taking on side quests, players can see that turians don’t think Shepard can handle something, or some humans treat turians poorly. Shepard’s teammate Ashley is one example of a human with xenophobic tendencies, as she’s uncomfortable having aliens aboard the Normandy. Another major example is the Terra Firma Party, an extremist pro-human group founded after the First Contact War.
The first game’s main enemy, Saren, has an outspoken hatred for humanity and it may have fed his madness during his transition into becoming a puppet for his Reaper ship. Even Cerberus has shady xenophobic dealings as a frenemy.