Aria T'loak is one of Mass Effect's more interesting non-crew characters, a ruthless asari who runs the asteroid station of Omega. She first appears in Mass Effect 2, assisting Shepard in locating some new companions and navigating Omega's criminal underbelly. She shows up again in the third game, seeking the Commander's help in retaking Omega from Cerberus and offering her assistance against the Reapers in return.

Aria's acerbic personality and fascinating plot lines have made her a fan favorite, but her past before the events of games remains shrouded in mystery. A certain krogan named Patriarch can shed some light on what happened when Aria first arrived at Omega, but before that, nothing. However, another krogan's stories may actually reveal more about Aria's identity than anyone expected, connecting her to another mysterious asari character.

Looking Into Aria’s Mysterious Past

Piecing Together This Asari's Story

To start with what we know, Aria T'loak arrived at Omega many decades before the start of the trilogy. Back then, a krogan ruled the station, and made Aria one of his dancers in the Afterlife club. Aria's ambition reached much higher than that, and after years of rising through the ranks and garnering power, she usurped the krogan and turned his own soldiers against him. She spared his life and gave him a new name -- the Patriarch -- and was thereafter regarded as the queen of the Afterlife club and Omega as a whole. She still holds this position in Mass Effect 2, maintaining a fragile balance between criminal organizations like the Eclipse and Blue Suns.

The Mass Effect comics hold a bit more information about Aria T'loak and her actions between this moment and her appearance in the main games. However, these comics are not all considered canon with the games, and therefore won't be considered here.

Being an asari, Aria is incredibly long-lived, and it's hard to figure out how long ago all of this actually happened within the lore. But it's clear that Aria has been on Omega for at least a century by the start of the second game, and any ties she has to her previous life are long severed. Still, fans have deduced from context clues and Aria's powers in the Omega DLC that she was likely an Asari commando before her time on Omega, a soldier with exceptional biotic abilities.

Wrex’s Mercenary Stories May Hold The Answers

Two Long-Lived Warriors Squaring Off With Each Other

It may not seem like there's much to go off of from that, but there's one piece of lore in the first Mass Effect game that may hold a clue. Urdnot Wrex, another krogan who has lived for centuries as a mercenary, may tell Shepard the story of his rivalry with another merc, an asari commando named Aleena. Like Wrex, she was an adept killer, though the two turned against one another when Wrex was hired to kill Aleena before she could kill Wrex's client. The two battled on board a massive space station for days, until Wrex blew it up and escaped. Though, as he discovered later, Aleena made it out as well, and he never saw her again.

The theory goes that Aleena, this asari commando turned mercenary, was Aria operating under a false identity. This battle with Wrex happened over a century ago, right before Aria fled to Omega to establish a new life. The two asari seem to have very similar power levels and personalities from what Wrex says about Aleena, and since the characters never meet during the games, there's never a chance to prove or disprove the theory for good. Still, it's an interesting idea with just enough evidence for it to act as a possible explanation for Aria's past before the events of the Mass Effect trilogy.