The Mass Effect universe is filled to the brim with unique and fascinating alien races, and one eagle-eyed player may have spotted yet another while playing through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. This remastered version of BioWare’s galaxy-spanning RPG trilogy has been out for a few months now, allowing fans new and old to dive into the saga of Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy as they battle against the threat of the Reapers.
During that journey, players come across several different species that populate the Milky Way, from the scholarly Asari and nomadic Quarians to the science-minded Salarians and battle-hungry Krogan. 2012’s Mass Effect 3 has Shepard rallying many of them in the final battle against the Reaper menace, requiring them to put aside many long-held conflicts in order to band together in the face of complete annihilation. Of course, there could always be even more aliens floating around in the Milky Way (or even the galaxies beyond it, as 2017’s Mass Effect Andromedia demonstrated), and one player might have found another in the form of an unused piece of concept art.
Reddit user u/mugggs0 came across this concept art in Mass Effect 3’s Leviathan DLC hanging on a wall in Dr. Garret Bryson’s laboratory on the Citadel, and posted a screenshot of their discovery to the r/MassEffect subreddit. Commentators later identified the muscular, bald, blue-skinned creature as a prototype of the Yahg, a rarely-seen species that was introduced in Mass Effect 2 in the form of the Shadow Broker, an information specialist that served as the main villain in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC.
Saw this Strange Looking Guy on Bryson's wall in the Leviathan DLC. Anyone know what it is? from masseffect
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According to Mass Effect’s lore, the Yahg are scarce and largely unknown among the citizens of the Milky Way due to not having discovered space travel yet, and are relatively short-lived, with most only living to at least 60 years old. Their aggressive and violent nature led them to be barred from joining the Citadel (and even the Reapers are said to avoid them), but this didn’t stop one particular Yahg from usurping the original Shadow Broker and running one of the largest black-market information rings in the galaxy - at least until Shepard and Liara T’Soni take him down during the events of Mass Effect 2’s DLC.
It's not clear what exactly the concept art hanging on Dr. Bryson’s wall is supposed to represent, or if this unnamed species will appear in a future Mass Effect game, but u/mugggs0’s Mass Effect 3 discovery is still a fun little Easter Egg for fans of BioWare’s sci-fi franchise. This prototype is still less frightening than the Yahg that did make it into the finished product, which is probably why it was left on the cutting room floor - and on the walls of Bryson’s lab.
Source: mugggs0/Reddit