Alec
In 2148, a young Alec, inspired by humanity’s discovery of a Prothean ruin, eagerly signed up for Alliance military duty. He impressed in every relevant aspect: having exceptional leadership skills, superb physical condition, and an extraordinary technical proficiency. Only a year later, while enlisted in a task force led by Jon Grissom, he became one of the first humans to activate and travel through a mass relay device, making his first mark on human history.
Alec’s outstanding performance led him back to Earth, where he began N7 specialist training (a designation reserved for only the highest echelon of elite soldiers in the Alliance military). Within this time period, Alec met and married a biotics research specialist named Ellen. As an N7 designate, Alec witnessed firsthand the resulting horrors and devastation of the First Contact War between humans and turians.
In the 2160s, he served the human embassy as a military attaché, collecting data—specifically, scientific breakthroughs and advancements made by the other Milky Way species. Combined with his emotionally hardening experiences from the First Contact War, Alec’s work and exposure to aliens on the Citadel convinced him that humans were being left behind in the technology race—signaling the initial conception of his AI. Unfortunately for Alec, his ambitions of developing an advanced AI for human use were stifled by the Citadel’s ban on AI research, due to the inherent danger witnessed in the quarians’ geth experiments.
Alec’s wife, Ellen, was diagnosed with an incurable disease, presumably a result of her exposure to element zero in her early years of working on biotics technology. When traditional medicine failed to cure Ellen, Alec redirected his focus back to AI research, hoping it would be the answer to a seemingly hopeless situation. As a solution to separating AI vitality from that of its creators, Alec based his AI model on a symbiotic relationship. Essentially, his version of AI would not only “need” its creators, but it would also learn and understand human emotions and grant humanity new abilities. Thus, the idea of SAM was born.
Alec’s illegal research was eventually shut down by the Alliance. Disgraced from the military and without sufficient resources to continue his research, his hope of curing Ellen withered. That is, until the Andromeda Initiative breathed new life into the project. The Initiative found the idea of SAM to be worth investing in for their intergalactic expedition, so they continued funding the SAM project.
Alec’s hopes were revived in the form of the Initiative’s ambitions, hoping to have his efforts come to fruition as a Pathfinder.
Ellen
Due to her exposure to element zero in her early years researching biotics, Ellen developed an extremely rare and incurable disease. The family moved back to Earth, with Alec committing to his AI research as a means to cure Ellen of the illness. Although Alec became aloof, consumed by and obsessed with SAM’s development, Ellen remained a caring and committed mother to her twins. She succumbed to the disease before the arks departed for the Heleus Cluster.
Scott and Sara
Scott and Sara were born to Alec and Ellen, circa 2163. Growing up on the Citadel, the twin Ryder children experienced a variety of cultures, thanks to the melting pot of coexisting species.
Scott
In the early 2180s, Scott was assigned to an Alliance outpost near Arcturus Station that oversaw security for Mass Effect Relay 202. Although only a rookie, he was responsible for monitoring the relay and defending transient civilians from raiders and pirates. This line of work naturally doubled as basic combat and weapons training for him, despite not volunteering as a frontline soldier.
After his mother Ellen passed away, Scott and Sara agreed to join the Initiative with their father. Although not under an ideal circumstance, being given the opportunity to explore the cosmos was always an aspiration of his, considering his previous line of work as a station guard.
Sara
Like Scott, Sara was once a peacekeeping soldier serving in the Alliance. However, she was defending colonists in the Attican Traverse. She eventually found an opportunity to sign up with a Prothean artifacts research team to aid with support and defense. The thrill and nature of the work invigorated her sense of adventure, nudging her path closer along her father’s footsteps.
