I've got a few problems with myaldee's scenario, mainly because there is no situation in which Krogan cannot maintain their population. They've survived one nuclear holocaust, they'll survive another one.

I personally prefer the idea that Krogan are like roaches; you can't really get rid of them, you just have to adapt.

Therefore, a few generations down the line you end up with a humanity influenced by the Krogan into a ridiculously genetically modified species that sees itself as superior to everything else around it, and the Krogan basically sharing that position alongside them.

Krogan have shown the capability of respecting really awesome non-Krogan as equals or higher, all humanity has to do is achieve shepard-esque epicness on a large scale. They'd be all-but unstoppable. Humanity would be the ones writing off the Human-Turian war as inconsequential and the Turians would be the ones calling it 'First Contact'

 

Lol, true, but that's the kind of "Humanz r teh pwnsauce!!1!11!" scenario I'd like to avoid. In fact, I kinda want to stay away from genetic engineering as much as possible. If overused, it makes it really difficult to relate to any of the characters because, well, they ain't all that human anymore.

I'm actually really intrigued by the cultural trauma aspect. What twisted remnants of the various modern human cultures would be left after they've been forced to lay waste to most of the planet just to survive? What effect would the extranet, and the flood of new ideas it brings have on the shellshocked society that's left behind? How will they view their place in the universe when they find out that the apocalyptic conflict that nearly rendered their species extinct was just a microcosm of a galaxy-spanning war fought more than a millennium before?

It may actually be better to start the actual story after the war is over, with a few flashbacks, a little codex-like exposition, and character references telling the backstory. What do you guys think?

 

I like the trauma angle, but it seems cheap to tell an epic saga like a 60 year war in flashbacks. It'll be this giant event defining human history that isn't even really being told. While 'codex like flashes' will get your point across, and get the nuts and bolts of the conflict through, the true horror of a war against an enemy like the Krogan is, in my opinion, fic in itself.

It will be difficult to separate the sort of twitchy, paranoid, xenophobic culture you'll be examining from the Great War or whatever nickname it'll have. It will be very interesting to see that race out in the big wide world (I can see the ambassador in the citadel "We don't need advice from you tentacle-headed freaks!") but without the proper grounding, they'll just be big douches.

But the first time a human sees a Krogan on the citadel...prepare for the freakout.

 

I like it.

My idea with the genetic engineering/Krogan thing was just a random way of making the krogan cooperate.

I still standby that adopting Krogan philosophies might go with the war as a result of the whole 'when you stare into the abyss' thing.

I'm about half-way done the first (of several) prologue sections for my ME/Lovecraft idea. It's the first thing I've written in like two years though, but I think I'm fairly good at writing 'suddenly insane'

 

Oh definitely. The humans will be as, if not more violent than the Krogans by the time alls said and done. Staring into the abyss is an awesome way of putting the story into context.

And nice on that prologue, can't wait for it. Know any other interesting Cthulu crossovers? With most any fandom, I don't care which, but I've never seen a really good one before.

 

@rinsimyaldee: You have a very good point there. Maybe it could be a series of short-medium (30-60k words) fics starting with first contact, then skipping progressively further down the line until the end of the war

I agree with you here to an extent. Krogan attitudes towards war, specifically how to conduct it (fast, ruthless, with a side order of overwhelming brutality) will most definitely influence humanity. Also, I'm considering having the united government of Earth implement the opposite of China's one child law: if you don't produce x number of offspring in y amount of time to fight the krogan, you get a fine and possibly do time in a suicide squad on the front lines (this would apply to both women and men, and with in vitro, infertility is no excuse). Aside from those suicide squads, women would probably have to be kept out of frontline military service, simply because they're too valuable to the survival of the species to risk against the krogan.

Edit: Well, they could make up a large chunk, or even the majority of the rear-echelon military reserves, the navy, and the air force (you know, the jobs that don't involve so much up-close-and-personal mass slaughter.)

 

You should check out EarthScorpion's stuff. It's Evangelion crossed over with Cthulhutech. (an old school RPG with the mythos, but highly influenced by anime.) EarthScorpion's universe is significantly better than the canon Cthulhutech one, and overall it's pretty awesome.

He's the only person I've ever seen write something involving Cosmic Horrors, Mecha, and hard sc-fi.

 

Awesome idea, but it has one problem. Turians landing on Earth would mean complete destruction of the Arcturus Station and the System Alliance Navy. Also orbital bombardment of Earth. Turians don't do war. They only do total war.

What about Cthulhu Mythos magic? Would humans use it? Would aliens use it?

 

Aeon Natum Engel, for those who'd like a link to that story.

You may be happy to know that I'm writing an AU fic (or attempting to) with that sort of premise. Though it's still... in development. And the backstory for it is a lot different than your Krogan-invasion idea.

One of those wouldn't happen to be Mass Effect: Imperial Glory, would it? Ugh. :facepalm

 

In what I've got written, it has lead to negotiations (which, if successful, would have left humanity in no condition to wage war again. Or leave Earth again.) this would have been to hold some kind of diplomatic high ground with the council once all was said and done. They'd have taken Arcturus for themselves.

Mythos magic would be very real, very dangerous, and relatively rare depending on the species and several other factors. In humanity, or rather, what was left of it, a lot of the population would have something that could be described as Mythos magic, but someone like...say...Kaidan Alenko, trained in a top secret government facility, would have access to restricted texts from multiple species, and would likely be functionally literate in Aklo.

Among Turians it would be more common than most would expect, but it would be a very different type of mythos magic, and they'd still have biotics.

EDIT:

I was thinking of Entelechy, actually. Engel isn't that great and EarthScorpion acknowledges it.

 

Oh. I only read Engel for a little bit shortly after it came out and dropped it. Didn't know he'd started rewriting it. >_>

 

Entelechy is a lot better.

 

Children of an Elder God (Evangelion/Lovecraft mythos) is far and away the most famous Lovecraft crossover in any fandom I've come across. It was started in 1999 and had a draft update last year for the final chapter.

http://www.thekeep.org/~rpm/eva/coaeg.html
Ch 24 partial draft - http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=156600

 

It's the most famous, but after the first few chapters it becomes fucking terrible.