Mass Effect: 8 Weirdest Enemies (And What They Represent)
2. Banshee
Appearing in Mass Effect 3 as the result of synthetic-organic hybridisation, the Reapers create Banshees from Asari, corrupting those with predispositions to becoming Ardat-Yakshi for maximum biotic potential. Banshees have all the semblance of their original Asari form but are warped by machinery, with skeletal, horrifying faces and a gaunt frames that hide just how formidable a foe they are.
When looking at Mass Effect's Banshee then, it's easy enough to draw parallels to its namesake from folklore. The original banshee is a female spirit that brings dark omens, notable for her shrieking that signals a death is imminent.
Most banshees are described as cloaked women, veiled from the world to hide ghastly, ghostly forms - which Mass Effect's version extrapolates on by turning its own Asari into a demonic vision of the original species. Of course, the game version is replete with its own horrifying wail too, another play on the original legend.
Banshees from world folklore are also often associated with grief, literal figures of mourning who's cries are forewarning of those that has passed. Considering the banshee's deadly potential, and the original Ardat-Yakshi's fatal abilities that kill all those they copulate with, the Banshee's close relationship with death is even more poignant.