The release ofMass Effect 5is undoubtedly still a long,longway off, but that’s all right: there are enough leftover mysteries fromMass Effect: Andromedato fuel speculation in the meantime. It’s unclear whetherAndromedawas intended to be a one-off game or more of a series like theoriginalMass Effecttrilogy, but if BioWare wanted it to be a series, there are certainly enough unresolved storylines fromAndromedato make it so.
Undoubtedly the DLC that was originally planned forAndromedawould’ve solved some of these mysteries, butAndromeda’s lackluster release sadly resulted in all planned DLC being canceled. Thus, a number of plot threads were left hanging fromAndromeda, all of which could easily be followed up on with the next installment of theMass Effectseries.
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The Quarian Ark
Perhaps the most glaring mystery to remain a leftover fromMass Effect: Andromeda: where is the Quarian ark? TheKeelah Si’yah, the ark that carried the Quarians, Hanar, Elcor, Volus,andDrell to Andromeda, reportedly ran into technical problems and launched after the rest of the arcs. Therefore, locating the ark and discovering its fate isn’t much of a goal inAndromeda’s main campaign; Ryder is busy enough saving the Turian, Salarian, and Asari arks and locating golden worlds for colonists to settle.
However, a distress call is recieved from theKeelah Si’yahat the end of the game, but it’s not calling for help: instead, the Quarian ark is warning the Andromeda Initiative to stay away, due to some other potential new threat that remains unnamed. It’s possible the Quarians encountered something entirely new and unheard of that could serve as the big bad for a future game, or perhaps something bad hitched a ride with the Quarian ark from the Milky Way - possibly even a Reaper. Either way, the only thing fans can do right now is speculate over the fate of the Quarian ark, which is whyMass Effect 5should shed a little more light on the whole situation.
The Ryder Family
UnliketheDragon Agesaga,Mass Effect’s protagonist stayed the same for three consecutive games, and only changed with the introduction of Ryder. Thus, it wouldn’t be out of place for Ryder to be the protagonist of the nextMass Effectgame as well, in which case there’s a glaring family problem waiting to be solved.
The Ryder twins' mother, Ellen Ryder, was thought to be dead until a miraculous discovery changed that: the twins' father, Alec, put her in stasis before her disease could claim her life, in hopes that a cure could be found in Andromeda. As such, the twins now have a mother, but no way to save her - yet. Much of Andromeda still needs to be explored, and there’s a distinct possibility that Alec was right about a cure for her disease being found in the new galaxy should the Ryder twins get a chance to search.
This storyline was never resolved inAndromeda; Ellen remains in stasis, and the Ryder twins still don’t have a solution. But, in the next game, that could very well change. The Ryder family secrets plot should definitely see aresolution inMass Effect 5.
The Jardaan and the Scourge
ThroughoutAndromeda, it’s a mystery who the Remnant (otherwiseknown as the Jardaan, those who left the terraforming monoliths across each potentially habitable world) really were, and how they left all that technology scattered across the galaxy. By the end of the game, Ryder gets more insight into the Jardaan, though only a little: they were responsible for creating the angara race, in adition to the network of monoliths that fuels the Andromeda Initiative’s colonization efforts. That one race could create another is a strange thing that indicates their power, which means whatever vanquished them is even more so.
But who were the Jardaan? It becomes clear during Ryder’s journey to Meridian that the Scourge was developed as a weapon to destroy the Jardaan and their technology, but why? Can the Scourge itself be destroyed? And who - or what - created it? All of those questions and more remain, and given the fact that the Scourge and the angara are still very much present by the end ofAndromeda, it’s entirely possible that those mysteries could come to theforefront ofMass Effect 5.
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The Benefactor and Jien Garson
Overthe course ofAndromeda, Ryder uncovers some disconcerting truths about Alec Ryder and Jien Garson, the founder of the Andromeda Initiative. One of the most puzzling is the fate of Garson: her death was blamed on the Nexus' collision with the Scourge upon arrival in the Andromeda galaxy, but that turns out to merely be a false assumption, or perhaps a cover story. Rather, Garson was murdered in her apartment, and even more, she knew that her killer was coming…although she didn’t yet know why.
Then, there’s the mystery behind the Andromeda Initiative’s existence; according to Alec and Garson’s logs, a mysterious unnamed benefactor completely funded the project, giving them the chance to complete work on it where the initiative wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. While neither Garson nor Alecknewwho was giving them all that money, they took it nonetheless, and the benefactor bankrolled hundreds of thousands more colonists than originally planned while speeding up the whole process of building the arks.
Why? Who funded the initiative, and did they know about the Reapers? Furthermore, did they have something to do with Garson’s murder? Perhaps those answers can be uncovered with the nextMass Effectgame. For now, the case remains unsolved.
BioWare might choose to start all overagainwithMass Effect 5, abandoning everything it established withAndromeda, but it could also choose to continueAndromeda’s story. Hopefully it will do the latter, because clearly, there’s plenty left to doin the world ofMass Effect Andromeda.
