Commander Shepard

John Shepard is a legendary N7soldier in the Systems Alliance military, the first human Spectre, and the main protagonist of the Mass Effect trilogy.

Shepard was born on April 11, 2154, is a graduate of the Systems Alliance N7 special forces program (service no. 5923-AC-2826), a veteran of the Skyllian Blitz, and is initially assigned to the SSV Normandy in 2183 as Executive Officer. Shepard later becomes the first human to join the Spectres, an elite special task force for the Citadel Council.

Appearance
Shepard was a tall, fair-skinned athletic man toned in muscle who stands at 6 feet 2 inches tall with blue eyes and almost black hair that was shaved upon joining the military and keeps a clean shaven and sometimes stubble appearance. According to Liara T'Soni, he is considered to be very handsome by most women—human and aliens alike.

In 2183, Shepard wore a charcoal grey N7 armor with a red and white stripe on the right forearm as well as bearing the N7 logo on the left side of his chest, symbolizing the blood he must sacrifice to save the galaxy. During his off-duty hours, Shepard would usually wear a sleeveless tank top (white, blue or black) and a pair of jeans as well as his military dogtags with his service number on them around his neck.

Two years later, Shepard’s outfit underwent modification after his death and resurrection. The N7 armor donned a more blackish color with more durable attachments on his shoulders, arms, chest, legs and waist. Shepard was occasionally seen wearing a black and white Cerberus officer’s uniform with golden cufflinks around his wrist and a yellow Cerberus insignia while onboard the Normandy SR-2. During his infiltration into Donovan Hock’s estate, Shepard briefly sported a black suit with a white collar and a white dress shirt underneath. When he was brought back to life via the Lazarus Project, Shepard had glowing red scars along his jawline and brow, but after undergoing surgery his scars were completely healed and faded. His body also underwent cybernetic modifications, considerably augmenting his physical parameters and increasing his lifespan. After destroying the Collector Base and quitting Cerberus, Shepard simply wore a crewman’s outfit.

By the time the Reaper War begun in 2186, Shepard’s traditional N7 armor remained the same with the exception of additional items to the omni-tool on his right arm. During his testimony at an Alliance tribunal, Shepard wore a battle dress uniform, which was worn to shreds and covered in blood when the Reapers invaded Earth. In addition, he wore an Alliance officer’s dress blues with three grey stripes on both of his shoulders with golden cufflinks around his wrist and regained his dogtags when he was recommissioned, and continued to wear it throughout the war. While off-duty, Shepard was seen wearing an N7 leather jacket with the N7 logo, red stripes on both of his shoulders, a white t-shirt, navy blue jeans and black shoes. He also claimed to possess an N7 hoodie, but has not publicly been seen wearing one. Sometime after the Crucible’s activation, Shepard loses his left arm and most of his armor was obliterated – bearing several burns and scars across his body. He soon acquired an advanced cybernetic forearm to replace his severed one.

Personality
Shepard is seen as an incorruptible pillar of goodwill, kindness, compassion, and strength; a paragon of virtue who feels that his own happiness and wishes always take backseat to keeping people prosperous, even at his own suffering. Though constantly making hard decisions, he normally tries his best to solve a problem with the least amount of death and conflict, whether it is rational to try or not. Above all else, Shepard is tenacious, calm, patient, deliberate, and intuitive. He appeared to be wise beyond his years and was said to be a very nice person (until given a reason not to be). He was, in many ways, the exact opposite of Saren Arterius: Shepard got things done right, not fast. He puts the needs of others, including his crew, ahead of himself and shows to deeply care for his crew, saying that they are all a big family.

David Anderson remarked that Shepard was a shrewd person, and was not a man who would do something unless it was of the utmost necessity, if there was no other way, or not without a good reason. He possessed great knowledge of the Reapers, whereas others would simply dismiss them as a myth. Regardless of the perils of imminent death and personal endangerment, Shepard was known for his indomitable spirit, drive, determination, and fierce tenacity and will not quit until he accomplishes the task at hand, even when the entire universe is in peril, getting destroyed around him or begins to weigh heavy on him.

Despite his unquestionably selfless and compassionate nature, if pushed, he will not hesitate to either threaten or gun down anyone stupid enough to get in his way. He apparently does not tolerate treachery, xenophobia, terrorism or greed lightly, as he resolved that he would do anything and everything in his power to protect the peace he worked so hard to attain. Shepard did, however, experience both emotional and psychological trauma: Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko’s death on Virmire shook Shepard to his core, but he never wavered in his resolve to bring down Saren and Sovereign. When his friend Thane Krios died of a mortal wound he received from Cerberus assassin Kai Leng during Donnel Udina’s coup attempt, he vowed vengeance against the man and looked into Anderson’s reports about him. He noted during the Reaper War that it took a lot to get him worked up, but when he did, he would go on a merciless rampage against his enemies. The mass slaughter of refugees at the hands of Henry Lawson in order to study how indoctrination worked was enough to drive even the benevolent Shepard into a bloodlust rage. After the failed mission on Thessia and briefly succumbing to his anger, he showed Cerberus troops no mercy and ruthlessly killed any who stood in his way and expressed a feeling of exhilaration that he had never felt upon killing Kai Leng at Cronos Station.

Since the start of the Reaper invasion, Shepard made it his mission to stop the Reapers and that he must shoulder its responsibility alone, forcing to constantly show an air of calm, confidence and no fears or worries. He continued to do so until the fall of Thessia, even though he continued to insist that he was fine, Joker pointed out that according to EDI’s armor metabolic scans this line of thought, coupled with pushing himself too hard, will only increase the amount of stress he was already under. Over time, Shepard’s demeanor begun to fade, slowly beginning to crack under the pressure of deciding the fate of the entire galaxy and showed a great deal of worry, fear, exhaustion, loneliness and questioned whether he could actually pull it off. Afterwards, Shepard acknowledged his shortcomings in his attempts to do things himself, and allowed others to help him instead of shouldering burdens himself. Due to this, he demonstrates his leadership throughout the course of the war as he successfully forms a krogan-turian alliance, cured the genophage, negotiates a truce between the geth and quarians, as well as uniting the galaxy while ultimately leading the Citadel Allied Forces to victory against the Reapers and Cerberus personally.

In the aftermath of the Reaper invasion, Shepard's optimistic nature was shattered and he became embittered as well as grief-ridden; cold and emotionally withdrawn, he gained a cynical outlook on life, thinking that the galaxy itself was a cruel place. The death of his mentor and father-figure Admiral David Anderson seemed to finally break Shepard as he doesn't know what to do anymore after so much loss. His new apparent lack of empathy became increasingly stronger to the point where he doesn’t care about his well-being, concerning his friends with Jack remarking with a slightly remorseful tone that Shepard has "lost his mind" and Garrus Vakarian believed the fight was ultimately kicked out of him. As noted by Admiral Steven Hakett, rage and the feeling of powerlessness can turn a good man like him into a cruel one. This was the case as Shepard took offense at anyone speaking ill of Anderson and would "respond" without hesitation, not caring if he ended up killing them, as shown when he almost beat Ka’hairal Balak to death and mercilessly broke ex-Cerberus agent Sonya Weston’s neck when they provoked him. Garrus, Tali, Liara and Ashley all became concerned about that, as they thought once Shepard reaches a breaking point, he could snap.

Abilities

 * Adrenaline Burst: If necessary, Shepard can "reset" the restrains (which is located in the brain) on his body's muscles if he overexerts himself which temporarily allows him to use his abilities again at a faster rate.
 * Adrenaline Rush: Shepard's signature technique, he awakened this power in both his eyes at a very young age. For a brief moment, it slows down time around him and predict movements while his endorphins block out pain and trauma with minimal drain on his stamina. In addition, according to Shepard's perspective, whenever this technique is active, his enemies appear as if they're standing still.
 * Ammo Modification: Shepard can augment the ammunition in his firearms to deliver punishment.
 * Armor-Piercing Ammo: Tears through armored targets.
 * Cryo Ammo: Freezes enemies, turning them to ice.
 * Disruptor Ammo: Tears through kinetic shields and synthetic enemies.
 * Incendiary Ammo: Tears through armored enemies, setting them on fire.
 * Shredder Ammo: Tears through organic enemies
 * Warp Ammo: Tears through armor and shields.
 * Biotics: Upon receiving secondary exposure to element zero at 14 and fitted with L3 implants at 17, Shepard can manipulate dark energy and create mass effect fields through the use of electrical impulses from the brain.
 * Barrier: Creates a forcefield to protect oneself from damage.
 * Charge: Increase the mass of one's body and charges at enemies with great force.
 * Dark Channel: Plagues enemies with mass effect fields, priming them for biotic combos.
 * Dominate: Attacks the mind of the opponent, leaving them under Shepard's control for a short time.
 * Flare: Focuses and expends huge amounts of biotic energy to release a powerful energy blast.
 * Lash: Grabs enemies with a whip-like mass effect field.
 * Lift: Suspends enemies in the air for a short time.
 * Nova: Punches the ground with biotic energy with great force.
 * Pull: Pulls enemies off the ground and into the air for a short time.
 * Reave: Absorbs the life-force of the opponent.
 * Slam: Lifts enemies in the air them slams them with great force.
 * Shockwave: Releases a wave of mass effect fields.
 * Singularity: Traps enemies in a singularity field.
 * Stasis: Traps enemies with a stasis field, leaving them vulnerable to attack for a short time.
 * Throw: Hurls enemies in the air with a mass effect field.
 * Warp: Warps enemy defenses with a mass effect field.
 * Carnage: Shepard fires a vicious blast, tearing enemies apart and deal major collateral damage to those nearby.
 * Cluster Grenade: Grabbing from his kit, Shepard can throw multiple biotic grenades at once and send his enemies flying.
 * Concusive Shot: Shepard can fire a single high-powered round from any of his firearms that damages a target and can either stun for a few seconds or release high-energy explosive charges with an impact radius large enough to knock down multiple enemies at short or long range.
 * Frag Grenade: Grabbing from his kit, Shepard can throw an explosive, shrapnel-packed frag grenade to rip his enemies apart.
 * Flashbang Grenade: Grabbing from his kit, Shepard can throw a flashbang grenade to stun enemies for a short time.
 * Fortification: By altering the chemistry of the prime ingredients of the armor, Shepard can fortify the strength of his shields as well as increase melee damage for a short time.
 * Inferno Grenade: Grabbing from his kit, Shepard can throw a grenade augmented with incendiary munitions to cluster-bomb a small area and lit his opponents aflame.
 * Lift Grenade: Throws a grenade that suspends enemies in the air.
 * Proximity Mine: Grabbing from his kit, Shepard sets a ground mine to blow up enemies when they step within range.
 * Sticky Grenade: Grabbing from his kit, Shepard can throw and stick a grenade to his enemies and watch as the resulting explosion tear apart the target and deal shrapnel damage to other enemies caught in the blast.


 * Above peak human physical and mental conditioning: As a highly skilled and experienced soldier, Shepard is in top physical condition (from intense workouts at the Interplanetary Combatives Academyand his numerous mission assignments), and while possessing an extraordinary amount of stamina and a high degree of pain tolerance, his muscular and athletic physique make Shepard immensely physically powerful by normal human standards. A match for seemingly any opponent, it was noted by Dr. Liara T’Soni and Lieutenant James Vega that Shepard is easily one of the Alliance’s most gifted soldiers that ever existed.
 * Above peak human agility: Shepard has demonstrated superb nimbleness and agility, quickly moving across walls with almost ape-like acrobatics and gymnastics (which furthers the suspicions of others that Shepard is inhuman and supernatural), and even dodging gunfire from a krogan’s shotgun, with the aggressive reptilian biped barely getting a glimpse of Shepard, as the first human Spectre’s speed and agility made him appear as blurs of motion (on par with Kai Leng himself), enhancing the inhuman and supernatural illusion further. His seemingly inhuman mobility allows him to move away from the sight of others. Also, Shepard could jump several feet into the air over a large container while slamming a man into it. Shepard even managed to jump away from several immensely powerful Destroyer-class Reaper beam weapons.
 * Above peak human durability: Shepard was also exceptionally durable by human standards (further enhanced by his cybernetic implants), as he could not be slowed down or fazed by falling from a ceiling, allowing him to land on his feet and quickly attack opponents. This also allowed Shepard to be unfazed when being shot at or physically assaulted.
 * Above peak human endurance: His endurance was far beyond the average Alliance soldier (further enhanced by his cybernetic implants) and is able to keep performing actions for extended periods of time without succumbing to exhaustion, but may still have certain limitations on how much stress his body can take. Shepard can sustain himself at peak capacity for several days as he has shown himself capable of fighting during the Skyllian Blitz for over 24 hours despite facing overwhelming enemy forces. His lung capacity is at peak human level, enabling him to hold breath for 6 minutes under water.
 * Above peak human strength: By properly using physical forces, momentum and leverage, as well as his knowledge of anatomical weaknesses and strength based exercises, Shepard is able to seemingly simulate high-level superhuman strength. Hence, Shepard is capable of easily lifting and hurling humanoid opponents over his head, knocking them out with a single blow, throwing people into walls hard enough to break through them, punching people hard enough to send them headfirst into the floor and their head through the floorboards, effortlessly smashing through wooden walls and sending people flying through the air several feet. Due to numerous cybernetic enhancements to his body under the Lazarus Project, this upgrades allows Shepard to hit even harder, inflicting more damage with his punches as seen during his fight with the yahg Shadow Broker, a pre-spaceflight species who are more than twice a krogan’s size and strength. Also, Shepard could jump several feet into the air over a large container while slamming a man into it.
 * Expert marksman: Shepard is a highly skilled marksman, utilizing firearms and heavy weapons with a high degree of accuracy, notably using ricocheting a pistol shot to wound Tela Vasir without harming a hostage, and shooting off a LOKI Mech’s head from a great distance.
 * Expert martial artist: Shepard has been fighting since he was a boy, as such, his killing intent is ever-present and his survival instincts grants him an intense concentration that further increases his strength and speed. This makes Shepard an expert tactician on and off the battlefield.
 * Hand-to-hand combatant: Due to his harsh childhood and with 15 years of military experience, Shepard is an extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant. His fighting style also incorporates the prior use of physical forces, momentum and leverage, as well as combining his N7 training with street fight techniques, executing it all at very high speeds. With his tremendous combat skills, Shepard effortlessly brought down a Reaperized husk of Saren Arterius (despite being quite exhausted after fighting off Saren’s combined geth and krogan army right before), has brought down the Collectors, can overpower even physically stronger opponents, like the Shadow Broker, and brought down quite a few batarian shocktroopers during the Skyllian Blitz. In fact, Shepard is the one who defeated most of Cerberus’ elite agents—including Kai Leng. Under Shepard’s tutelage, his apprentice James Vega would become a highly skilled N7 operative in his own right.
 * Genius-level intellect: Despite having little formal education, Shepard is very intelligent, to the point that he has successfully gone toe-to-toe with the extremely dangerous adversaries during his military career. However, Shepard is notably not quite as intelligent as the Illusive Man, with the latter thereby successfully outsmarting and manipulating Shepard into working with him against the Collectors by turning any political support and allies from him as well as putting the most sympathetic individuals on his crew, with Shepard never suspecting it and figuring it out only after the Illusive Man knowingly sent him into a trap aboard the Collector Cruiser.
 * Diplomacy: Shepard is regarded for having a keen, diplomatic mind as he is able to know how to pick and choose his words carefully and negotiate between opposing parties (i.e., politicians, military leaders, etc.) to garner the results he wants.
 * Leadership: Shepard has a gift for being a great military leader, highly charismatic and very skilled with experience in combat. As such, he obtained countless loyal followers. Miranda Lawson draws attention to this, claiming that Shepard has "that fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself." Urdnot Wrex added that it was this leadership that made Shepard the first to accomplish what no one else could: uniting a galaxy. Shepard's charisma, drive, and martial skill have undoubtably saved the galaxy at least once over from the alien menace and continue to be a guiding light for the entire galaxy to rally behind. In addition to impressive personal ability in numerous aspects of soldiering, Shepard possesses an enviable ability to rally others to the cause, whether those others are recalcitrant governments or a fractious crew of alien fighters. The exploits of Shepard's motley crew against the Reapers and their servants are the stuff of legends, and most of those who follow Shepard would be heroes in their own right, were they not overshadowed by the more famous human.
 * Multilingualism: He is able to speak a variety of languages besides his native Basic, such as speaking fluent French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, German, and Swedish; however, as a result of the Cipher he received on Feros, he is able to understand the Prothean language.
 * Indomitable willpower: His mental fortitude is noteworthy, having displayed great determination and strength of will, which make him an extremely formidable opponent. His willpower proved strong enough to withstand the effects of a Prothean beacon and more resilient to an asari mind-meld as well as a brief resistance to a Leviathan's enthrallment. Years prior to the Reaper invasion, even when Sovereigndeclaring Shepard's attempts to stop the Reapers futile and demonstrating its staggering amount of power, Shepard showed no signs of fear and countered Sovereign's threat with one of his own. Later, when leading the allied forces against the Reaper fleet's full might, Shepard refused to back down from the seemingly hopeless battle against the seemingly unstoppable dreadnoughts, persistently attempting to expose them to the Crucible, ultimately succeeding, thereby greatly contributing to the Reapers' defeat.
 * Intimidation: As a veteran of the Skyllian Blitz, his various accomplishments have earned him much renown, and praise from his comrades and he holds a position of great influence. In battle, Shepard was a force to be reckoned with and gained praise from allies and foes alike as seen during his first fight against Saren Arterius on Virmire, with the turian commenting that Shepard was not fighting with even half his strength. The Illusive Man, founder and leader of Cerberus, also stated that Shepard never ceased to amaze him. Most alien species are very aware of Shepard’s capabilities, and, upon meeting him on the battlefield, either feared for their safety or grew excited at the idea of fighting. Harbinger acknowledged Shepard as a threat and tried to kill him out of fear that he would someday interfere with its plans. This concern was later confirmed by the Leviathans when they realized that the Reapers feared Shepard for defeating Sovereign and the Collectors.
 * Keen eyesight: His most distinguished talent is the Adrenaline Rush ability, which grants him a heightened sense of perception.
 * Potential: A natural-born genius, Shepard was noted by his drill instructors that his progress hardly required any help. According to those who knew Shepard personally, he was hailed as a very talented prodigy – a rare genius that appeared only once in a generation, making a strong impression on the Alliance High Command by graduating top of his class from the Interplanetary Combatives Academy at twenty-two years old and rose quickly through the military ranks in a short amount of time. David Anderson, one of the Alliance’s most famous war heroes, took a special interest in Shepard and took him on as his student and even admitted that Shepard was far stronger than he was at the time when he himself received the N7 designation. Two years after the end of the Reaper War, Shepard’s improved prowess allowed him to defeat Terminus System’s warlord Ezramon, and he received many visitors from different parts of the galaxy. He became so powerful that Urdnot Wrex remarked that Shepard’s very presence and name alone were enough to incite terror to his enemies on the battlefield and could easily handle both Rajanni and her clones simultaneously despite his battle senses dulling. Later on, after six months of intense training in isolation, Shepard’s strength and speed increased dramatically, with it being stated that he could effortlessly dodge bullets and either incapacitate or kill an opponent with a single blow if chosen to fight seriously, though he admitted that he found it difficult to adjust to his new abilities. According to Javik, Shepard’s newfound capabilities have an "overwhelming power that the cycle has never seen before." As such, Shepard is widely regarded as one of the strongest individuals in the galaxy.

Trivia

 * Commander Shepard is named after Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., the second person and the first American in space (May 5, 1961). He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission in 1971 and became the fifth person to walk on the Moon.
 * Shepard's birthday (April 11) is the same day that Apollo 13 (an American attempted manned moon landing mission that almost ended in disaster) was launched (April 11, 1970).
 * In the advertising for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, only a male Commander Shepard was depicted. For Mass Effect 3, BioWare created a trailer featuring a female Commander Shepard for the first time. In addition, the box-art for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Mass Effect 3 was reversible, featuring a male Shepard on one side and a female Shepard on the other. Presenting Shepard uniformly as male was intentional, as the original trilogy was designed to be cinematic and movie-like in nature. Having a singular, titular character that people would recognize spurred this decision.
 * The default male face for Shepard is based on that of Dutch model Mark Vanderloo.
 * Shepard seems to speak with a hint of Canadian dialect. This may be because Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale, the voices of the male and female Shepard, respectively, are Canadian.
 * Both of the actors who voice Shepard have extensive voice work in BioWare's library of games.
 * In addition to providing the voice for Male Shepard, Mark Meer also provides the voices for all of the vorcha and hanar characters, as well as Niftu Cal and Prazza in the Mass Effect series. Previously, Meer provided the voices of Zhong and The Watcher in Jade Empire. Meer also voices several characters in the Dragon Age series: Athras, Jethann, the Lothering Marchant, The First, and Tug.
 * The female Shepard is played by prolific voice actress Jennifer Hale, who also voices May O'Connellin Mass Effect. Previously, Hale voiced Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and would later provide the voice for Satele Shan and the Female Republic Trooper in Star Wars: The Old Republic and Krem in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
 * When Shepard is inducted as a Spectre, according to Admiral Hackett, Shepard is, technically, still part of the Alliance military (though Captain Anderson claims otherwise). Therefore, Shepard should still be referred to as a Commander, even though Shepard is outside of the Alliance military's chain of command and answers directly to the Council.
 * Military ranks can, in some situations, be deferred in favor of civilian ranks. Considering the nature and authority of Spectres, it is likely that this is considered to supersede any military rank.
 * The default names of both the male and female Shepard are the names for an unidentified male (John Doe) and female (Jane Doe) respectively.
 * It would appear that Shepard has a gift for being a leader. Miranda Lawson draws attention to this, claiming that Shepard has "that fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself". This is similar to the protagonist (Revan) of BioWare's Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, who is also said to possess such a trait.
 * To keep the exact nature of Shepard's return quiet in Mass Effect 2, it is often stated that the Commander almost died, which is not really truthful. The male Shepard would later joke with Jack that he is "technically undead".
 * When stopped by a C-Sec officer on their first return to the Citadel in Mass Effect 2, one of the dialogue options has Shepard say that they were "only mostly dead." This may be a reference to Miracle Max's line from The Princess Bride.
 * Commander Shepard appears in another Electronic Arts game, MySims SkyHeroes, as a pilot.
 * Renegade facial scarring in Mass Effect 2 is reminiscent of the effects of dark side corruption in BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, as morally questionable actions adversely affect the protagonist's appearance in both games.
 * One early idea for Mass Effect 3 had Shepard self-augmenting with Reaper technology, deepening the rift between the Commander and Ashley / Kaidan.
 * BioWare held a contest prior to the release of Mass Effect 3 to allow fans to choose a new default face for female Commander Shepard.
 * As of March, 2013, 82% of Mass Effect players play a male Commander Shepard (according to Bioware's statistics).