Mass Effect 2 Website Relaunched

BioWare has been busy with their E3 preparations, as they’ve also relaunched their official Mass Effect 2 website with a fancy new design and quite a bit more content. For example, here’s a profile of the Vorcha alien race:

History
The vorcha homeworld is a relatively small, hostile, overcrowded planet. Most of its resources have been stripped by its fast-breeding, savage inhabitants. Even as their population grows, the vorcha constantly fight each other in fierce competition over basic necessities. Consequently, each vorcha born is stronger and more ferocious than the last. However, their continual lack of resources have kept vorcha society extremely primitive.

The vorcha who escaped their hostile homeworld did so by hiding like rats on the ships of spacefaring races that had the misfortune of visiting their planet. Their adaptability and resilience allows them to flourish in the dark and dirty corners of the places they end up.

Society
Vorcha are extremely aggressive. Fighting is their default form of communication, either alone or in savage swarms.

They prefer to live among themselves in shared spaces than to be alone or mingle with aliens. They have a strong (nesting) instinct, preferring tight, cluttered areas. Their clannishness and preference for (squatting) in the uninhabited service levels of space stations reinforces many species’ opinions of the vorcha as vermin dangerous vermin who’ll bite your face off if you get too close.

When vorcha numbers reach a (critical density) in the available space, younger members break off to start a new clan in another location. While clans usually avoid contact with one another, when living space is at a premium, they aggressively compete for resources and shelter.

Biology
The vorcha are the most short-lived sapient race known, with a lifespan of only 20 years.

They possess unique internal (clusters) of non-differentiated cells, similar to those of Earth’s planarian worms. When a vorcha is injured or in distress, these cells move to the affected area and rapidly (~1 week) mature to specialized forms that will alleviate the issue.

A vorcha that is cut or burned will adapt to have thicker skin. The lungs of a vorcha placed in a barely-breathable atmosphere will adapt to better use the gases there. A vorcha subjected to high gravity will quickly develop stronger heart and leg muscles.

Non-differentiated vorcha cell clusters do replenish themselves, but the process is slow. Generally vorcha can only adapt to a single environment within their brief lives. However, what cells are replaced allow them to heal rapidly, and even regrow lost limbs over a period of months.

Interestingly, the unique biology of the vorcha has caused them to stop evolving. Their DNA (or its equivalent) has not altered for millions of years. There is no need for them to evolve as a species when they can adapt as individuals.

Seeing the potential of this individual adaptability, krogan Blood Pack mercenaries often sweep pockets of vorcha, gathering them up and literally beating them into soldiers. Vorcha (trained) by this ordeal are stronger, faster, smarter, and more resilient than other members of the race. Gaining even a few vorcha gives a merc band a formidable advantage; each additional vorcha magnifies the gang’s combat ferocity exponentially.