Origin
“By the code I will serve you, Shepard. Your choices are my choices. Your morals are my morals. Your wishes are my code.”
Nearly a thousand-year-old Asari Justicar, Samara is a member of an ancient monastic order following a strict honor code. Although she is skilled with weapons, Samara usually relies on her powerful biotic abilities.
Mass Effect 2
Justicars rarely leave asari space, but Samara’s pursuit of Morinth brought her to Illium where she meets Shepard. Like many asari, Samara’s Maiden phase of life was marked by adventure and excitement. At one point she ran with a mercenary gang and discovered her talent for combat. Her membership in the gang came to an end when she led a transport mission and discovered the cargo was not weaponry or machinery, but slaves intended for sale to the Collectors. Samara tried to have the ship turned around, but met with resistance from her team and was forced to kill them. The Collector ship arrived just as the battle ended; fortunately, the ship was close enough to a mass relay for her to escape.
Once safe, Samara gave the slaves a speech about self-defense and passed out the credits, weapons, and armor that had belonged to her mercenary comrades, then left them all at the Citadel. Samara left her mercenary career after that and slowed down, eventually finding stability with an asari mate and raising a family. Samara had three daughters, but discovered, to her horror, they were all Ardat-Yakshi, suffering a genetic condition that made them kill their mates during melding. As Samara explains later, she herself is a pureblood; she believes that the stigma against them lies partially in their increased probability of giving birth to Ardat-Yakshi daughters.
Two of Samara’s daughters, Falere and Rila, chose to live their lives in isolation and comfort. Her third daughter, Morinth, whom Samara described as the “smartest and bravest” of the three, refused to go into seclusion and fled, beginning a spree of murder and violence. Recognizing her daughter’s growing addiction to killing her mates, Samara gave up her worldly possessions, swore herself to the Code, and became a justicar.
Samara hunted her daughter across the galaxy for centuries. At one time, Samara had discovered Morinth had perverted an entire village, making them worship her and bringing her young asari as sacrifices. When Samara arrived, Morinth fled, throwing waves of her minions at her and buying herself time to escape with their lives. When Samara was done only small children remained, whom she left in the care of the authorities and continued her pursuit.
Personality
Samara’s most notable personality traits are, without a doubt, her strong sense of honour and utmost loyalty to her Code. This shown by the fact that she never commits any actions that go against it, even if it is against her own wishes.
This shown when she tells Shepard about her fight with a Spectre, who manipulated Samara by putting her in a situation where she had to let an innocent die or let him escape, with her choosing the latter. Despite this, she does not pretend that her Code is a simple matter or that it seems right to everyone and even admits to Shepard when they first meet.
Romance
“You’re different from anyone I’ve met… I think I could find more than happiness with you.”
Through conversations, Shepard can show a romantic interest in Samara. However, due to Samara’s commitment to the Code, she chooses to serve the code over romantic pursuit, which the code does not forbid, thus rejecting Shepard’s advances. Nonetheless, she notes that she appreciates the interest.
Shepard may continue to push for a romantic relationship, which causes Samara to almost give in to Shepard’s advances and share a kiss, but she stops Shepard at the last moment and asks for some time alone. After that moment, she goes to the Crew Quarters and observes the drive core. If Shepard tries to speak to her, she simply replies with “Please.” She later returns to the Starboard Observation Deck when Shepard leaves.
If Shepard committed numerous questionable deeds in the past, however, Samara instead says that she does not feel the same connection and that she has seen Shepard do too many things that would compel her to violence were she not under oath.
In Mass Effect 3: Citadel, provided that a Paragon Shepard is not currently romancing anyone, and an attempt was made to romance Samara previously, Shepard can try to start a relationship with her again. The attempt is more successful; Samara allows Shepard to hold her and they share a kiss.
Powers and Abilities
- Reave: The power employs mass effect fields to biotically attack the target’s nervous or synthetic systems and prevent healing. It restores health and gives a temporary health bonus when the power is used against unprotected organics. Reave also does double damage to armor and barriers.
- Warp: Warp works by creating rapidly shifting mass effect fields that shred a target apart, similar in function to the disruptor torpedoes used by starships.
- Pull: Adepts and Vanguards can use Pull to generate a mass-lowering field, which levitates enemies into the air. While aloft, enemies will slowly drift towards the biotic, allowing any allies to finish them off effortlessly. The biotic can also combine the Pull effect with a Throw or Charge — similar to the Throw-Lift combination in the original Mass Effect — to send enemies flying higher into the air or with Warp which will biotic detonate the target. Pull inflicts a small amount of damage on foes with protection.
- Throw: Throw uses mass effect fields to hurl a target away from the user with damaging force.