Thane Krios

"The universe is a dark place. I'm trying to make it brighter before I die."

- Thane Krios

Thane Krios is a major character in the video game series Mass Effect. Specifically, he is a main character in Mass Effect 2 and a supporting character/posthumous hero in ''Mass Effect 3. ''He is a drell who was trained by the Hanar as an assassin and becomes one of Commander Shepard's squad for the suicide mission against the Collectors, which he considers fitting as he is dying from Kepler's Syndrome.

He was voiced by Keythe Farley.

Mass Effect 2
Thane is a drell assassin. The Illusive Man calls Commander Shepard to recruit multiple high level operatives, and Thane made the list. It is learned that Thane has Kepler's Syndrome which gives him a limit time before he dies. He befriends the commander, but besides that the only person who he truly feels for is his son Kolyat.

Mass Effect 3
Thane returns in Mass Effect 3, where he defended the Salarian Councilor against Cerberus assassin Kai Leng, but dying in the process.

Personality
Having been trained to be an assassin since he was 6 years old(and been killing since he was 12), Thane rarely feels any regret or remorse for killing, often saying that he brings death to those who deserve it. He says that his employers were the ones who killed his targets and his body was merely the tool they used, even comparing it to a gun.

This is because drell see their body as a vessel and accept that it is not always under their control. In other words, he isn't concious when he kills his contracts. He compares this to the human belief that there is a soul distinct from the body responsible for moral reasoning after the body's death and that their belief is just a bit more literal. While this philosophy spiritually absolves him of his crimes, that convenience is undermined by the eidetic memory native to his species; the ability to perfectly recall every single act of murder he committed over the years has weighed down on his conscience, thus Thane cannot help but to feel regret over his actions at times. This guilt, combined with an impending death, compels Thane to join Shepard's campaign against the Collectors as a gesture of penance.