| “ | Lots of ways to help people. Sometimes heal patients; sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps. | „ |
| ~ Mordin Solus |
| “ | Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong. | „ |
| ~ Mordin Solus |
Mordin Solus is a major character in the Mass Effect video game trilogy, including the remaster Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
He is a salarian scientist who runs a clinic on Omega, and was the leader of the STG field team that modified the genophage. Commander Shepard recruits him in his/her effort to take down the Collectors, and he becomes instrumental in curing the genophage if he survives.
He is voiced by Michael Beattie (Mass Effect 2) and William Salyers (Mass Effect 3).
Biography[]
Background[]
Mordin participated in a high-level meeting concerning the krogan's apparent adaptation to the genophage. The krogan needed protection from themselves, and the genophage was doing just that. It is up to the salarians to ensure the genophage doesn't fail, Mordin reasoned, and he proposed stronger measures to counteract the krogan's evolution. Even with incumbent salarian Councilor Valern requesting for alternatives, everyone present unanimously agreed to the proposal.
It took Mordin less than a week of research and collaboration to create the modified strain, and one month later he and a team of STG operatives were already on Tuchanka. Mordin had a very specific location in mind and explained the mission parameters to the crew: his short-range genophage dispersal unit needed to be placed inside a canyon to protect it from the elements. Near the target site he entrusted his assistant with lugging the device, joking with old friend Captain Chaleen about the assistant's apparent clumsiness and surprising intelligence.
The team went into subterranean tunnels and heard some repetitive noises. Mordin was in the process of deducing the cause when he saw at the end of the tunnel that the intended target site was occupied by krogan. A female krogan was hammering a pedestal and led her followers in praying to Kalros. Mordin was adamant in the device's exact placement against suggestions by teammates to plant it where they hid, citing shoddy results if otherwise. Unfortunately they were discovered by the krogan and fired upon.
Mordin threw himself and Captain Chaleen from the line of fire. The captain ordered his team to fall back to the shuttle and diverted the attackers, but Mordin told them he had another idea. He ordered them to set explosives on the tunnels to provide another diversion while he and his assistant attempt to plant the device where originally intended.
A krogan wielding a hammer tried smashing him to a pulp soon afterward, but he dodged it. He jumped onto the krogan's back and planted an omni-blade in the brute's head instead, boasting of salarian badassery and feeling proud of the exercise all the while. His assistant is astounded by what he just did, but Mordin just shushed him up and told him to bring the device.
The female krogan waited for the salarians at the target site, hammer in hand and ready to kill the intruders. Mordin took it upon himself to square off with the female, entrusting the assistant with the device's safety and activation. The female hammered the ground in the hope of Kalros coming in and smashing the salarians, but Mordin was unimpressed. He fervently believed the krogan would become a threat, force war, and cause suffering if allowed a resurgence, and said as much. The female shared the horror of countless mothers suffering amidst the corpses of their stillborn children, blaming all of the anguish on him. The choice was difficult, Mordin tried to counter, but the explosives he ordered detonated over them at that moment.
Mordin was recovered from the rubble by Captain Chaleen, who berated him for disobeying orders. The scientist salarian replied that he saw a chance and took it. Mordin, now missing his right cranial horn, was eased into a corner by the captain upon their return to the shuttle, and was admonished into not letting their teammates detonate places with them still inside. The injured salarian could only agree. His assistant came up to him next, and inquired about his dialogue with the female while bandaging his head. Mordin reassured the assistant of dire consequences if the krogan were cured of the genophage, and was unwilling to concede his beliefs on account of the very high risks.
Mass Effect 2[]
In Mass Effect 2, one of the first people Commander Shepard can recruit to fight the Collectors is Mordin. Shepard helps him clear a plague that is spreading on Omega, and then for his help he joins the team. Mordin also helps create a means of countermeasure by which the Normandy squad can battle the Collectors without being immobilized by their seeker swarms.
It is later learned that Mordin helped upgrade the Krogan Genophage to keep the Krogan from overcoming it, and though he justifies his actions as being a necessary evil, he clearly feels some remorse over them. When he learns that his old protégé Maelon has been kidnapped by the krogan on Tuchunka, Mordin sets out to rescue him, and is again confronted with the morally grey nature of his past. Finally locating Maelon, Mordin and Shepard learn that Maelon is there by choice, and intends to cure the Genophage no matter the moral cost. Disgusted with his protege's actions, Mordin resolves to kill him, but can be talked out of it by Shepard. Shepard must also decide to tell Mordin what to do with Maelon's cure data, and whether or not it can be used for a greater good or if it is not worth keeping.
Mass Effect 3[]
In Mass Effect 3 (assuming he survived the suicide mission) Mordin Solus returns helping either Urdnot Wrex or Wreav try to cure the Krogan Genophage. Mordin returns to the salarian homeworld of Sur'kesh, and rejoins STG as a special consultant, while also working as an inside source for the Krogan leader. If Maelon's research data was saved by Shepard, Mordin used the data to aid in the treatment of Eve, the only surviving female krogan from Maelon's experiments. When Cerberus attacks the facility, Shepard and Mordin evacuate Eve. Once Eve is secured, the Urdnot leader, Eve, and Mordin join Shepard on the Normandy and discuss the plan for curing the genophage.
Mordin commandeers the Med-bay during his stay, requiring the space for his research into the genophage cure and as quarters for Eve. Mordin can later be heard giving relationship advice for Joker regarding EDI. Mordin also tries pairing Garrus with Eve, reasoning that the turian is loyal, reasonably intelligent and almost krogan-like, although she's not interested. The female krogan, in turn, tries badgering Mordin into singing for her, and the salarian may be overheard singing in Gilbert and Sullivan style. When conversing with Shepard, Mordin will mention that he'll probably retire to the sandy beaches once the war is over, while stating interests in collecting seashells and testing on them.
When Mordin finishes the cure, he proposes using the Shroud, a salarian facility used in repairing Tuchanka's atmosphere, as it also contains the original genophage strain. After Shepard and the rest travel to Tuchanka and deal with the Reaper forces, especially summoning Kalrus, the mother of all thresher maws, to destroy the Reaper, Mordin is ready to deploy the cure. Eve can die here if Maelon's data wasn't saved. If Shepard chooses to help, Mordin will ultimately sacrifice himself to disperse the cure. But if Shepard chooses to sabotage the Genophage Cure, they must either kill Mordin in cold blood or convince the doctor to stand down, which they can only do if both Urdnot Wrex and Eve are both dead. If Mordin survives, he can be contacted before the final battle.
Personality[]
Mordin is shown to be fast-talking and hyperactive even by Salarian standards; Kelly Chambers describes him as being like a "hamster on coffee" and he hardly ever uses pronouns during conversation. He is easily distracted by intriguing scientific discoveries, and is also prone to burying himself in his work, which he accomplishes with relish and a smile. He even mentions that he can sing Gilbert and Sullivan. He himself is an auditory learner, occasionally vocalizing his ideas out loud to the distress of his krogan patient. Eve complains about this, and while Mordin tries to be considerate by toning it down the missing words somehow manage to sound even worse to Eve's ears.
However, past this outward image of cheerfulness shows a somewhat more tortured and conflicted soul. Mordin's past involvement with the genophage has left him with deep feelings of guilt, and though Mordin if confronted about his actions maintains that the genophage was necessary (and gives several arguments as to why), it is clear that he remains conflicted on the matter, his justifications as much an attempt to convince himself as anyone else. Mordin further states that the genophage modification project left him and most of his team, including Maelon, emotionally disturned by the ethics of the project. Mordin himself even turned to religion to find some peace. The differing, sometimes contradictory, nature of religion led him to have a crisis of faith and left his worries unresolved. When Mordin is going to the Shroud to cure the genophage during the Tuchanka mission in Mass Effect 3, if Shepard does not reveal the sabotage and comes clean to Mordin, he understands the position the commander is in, but deems it unacceptable. When Shepard asks why Mordin reversed his decision on the genophage, Mordin finally shouts that he made a mistake. He admits on focusing too much on the big picture, coming to the realization he can't hide behind statistics or ignore new data, and proclaims that it's his responsibility to cure the genophage and is firm about it, even if it means Shepard has to put him down.
On the way to his clinic, Shepard can hear several people describe Mordin as "not just a doctor". This is due to his days as a member of the Salarian Special Tasks Group, which has made him willing to take a life if he deems it necessary; he killed a squad of Blue Suns mercenaries who tried to burn down his clinic, and went so far as to put their bodies on display as a warning. He further claims that had he been in Shepard's position, he would have killed the Batarians who were threatening his assistant Daniel, describing the act of sparing them as risky. This in turn horrifies Daniel, who as a human doctor would have taken the Hippocratic oath, and so deplores the taking of lives regardless of circumstances. Similarly, Aria describes him as someone who is "as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you", and says this is one of the things she admires about him.
Mordin frequently shows signs of an "ends-justify-the means" philosophy, but not within some boundary of restraint. For example although Mordin is quite agreeable to killing those he feels are a danger to society and the well-being of others, he also refuses to kill with medicine and has never once done so, not even when being a part of the Genophage. He is also very disgusted with the desperate actions taken by his former student Maelon Heplorn to cure the Genophage, showing that he does not always believe the ends justify the means.
Despite (or perhaps because of), his great intelligence, Mordin often has trouble seeing evidence that disagrees with his preconceptions, as shown by how long it took him to figure out that Maelon came to Clan Weyrloc voluntarily to cure the genophage, rather than being kidnapped as he had assumed; Maelon even points this out and claims that Mordins's had this problem for as long as the two have known each other.
As a Salarian, Mordin copes with grief and other emotional issues very quickly, which is shown when he recovered remarkably quickly from the shock of Maelon's brutal experiments (and killing him, if he did so). This is due to the fact that salarians over the age of 40 are quite rare, and so their lives are much too short to waste time reminiscing, which Mordin uses as an explanation as to why they don't get married. But even here, closer inspection reveals that Mordin is not quite as adept at working past old ghosts as he would lead others to believe, and Mordin even admits that Salarians are ultimately no emotionally healthier than other species and can easily become obsessed with something, like Maelon did with the genophage.
Trivia[]
- Similar to the fights between "Miranda and Jack" and "Legion and Tali" after all of their loyalty missions are completed, there was originally going to be an additional such fight between Mordin and Grunt after completing their loyalty missions, wherein they would debate the rightness of the Genophage. As with the other two aforementioned fights, the player would need to have a high Paragon or Renegade score in order to select an option that would retain the loyalty of both characters.
- Other dialogue that never made it into the game implies that Mordin was originally intended to be a biotic, apparently able to maintain a biotic field powerful enough to have everyone survive during the final mission when loyal.
- In Mass Effect 2, Mordin mentions that he served under a salarian STG captain named Kirrahe, and loved his saying, "Hold the Line". If Mordin dies as the leader of the second fire team in the Suicide Mission, his last words are: "Tell them... I held the line."
- Mordin's song "Scientist Salarian" is a lyrical recreation of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song".
- During the cure the genophage mission in Mass Effect 3, if Shepard threatens Mordin against curing the genophage at gunpoint, Shepard uses the same gun that Mordin gifted him during his recruitment mission in Mass Effect 2. If Shepard shoots Mordin, Shepard will toss the gun away while leaving, possibly signifying the shattering of their friendship with Mordin.