1/ So, uhh, yeah my Mass Effect obsession hasn't abated since Thursday & I've watched the new teaser trailer a good 20 times since, pouring over every inch for clues because I know @bioware are sneaky sneaks like that.

#MassEffect Twitter rant incoming. Let's nerd the hell out.

2/ The first shot we see is two galaxies! It's obviously the Milky Way in foreground & Andromeda in back. A voice plays:

"We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched".

This is from Orson Welles' 1938 radio drama The War of the Worlds.

3/ We descend to the Milky Way. A cluster appears in what I think could be the Hourglass Nebula, though it's colored differently. A voice:

"Eagle, Houston. You're go for landing, over".

It's from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.

We're seeing humanity's journey through time.

4/ Next we see some kind of circular formation, which doesn't look 100% natural to me. I believe that *might* be the Tartarus Debris Field that housed the Collector Base if you recall from ME2 (on the right).

It lies in the Omega Nebula, connected to Hourglass by Mass Relay.

5/ We hear another voice: "Arcturus Station, unknown vessel approaching. We need first contact protocols".

This of course is referring to the First Contact War between humans and turians in 2157. Arcturus was the military/political HQ of the System Alliance since 2156.

6/ Next we hear: "Ark 6 is away, Godspeed".

This refers to the delayed 6th Ark to launch from the Milky Way, the Quarian ark Keelah Si'yah. The Keelah Si'yah launched from Hephaestus Station, somewhere in the Caleston Rift which is connected to the Omega Nebula.

7/ The next shots show tons of debris (from ships) and a busted Mass Relay. Some voices play where I can make out:

"Gotta take down the dreadnought...going critical. Abandon ship"

We hear the ominous "BRRRWWWWOAAAA" of a Reaper. This is where I screamed & woke my damn kids up.

8/ Referencing the all out war with the Reapers. The next voices say: "Is anyone receiving this? We've lost contact".

I'm thinking this is post-Reaper War, when all Mass Relays go boom, instant connections between clusters & civilizations are lost. The Milky Way goes dark.

9/ THIS NEXT BIT IS PURPOSEFULLY DISTORTED. I think it's *crucial* to figuring out where we're at now, but I still can't quite make out fully.

It begins with: "Humanity is all that we have left"...*distorted male/female voices*.

I could possibly make out "reason" at the end.

10/ We see a ship descend on an icy planet, and if you notice, it's the new ship we saw on N7 Day in new concept art (below), unofficially dubbed the "Mud Skipper".

11/ Next we see a figure scaling what at first appears to be a mountain, but I'm pretty dang sure that's a dead Reaper! And look, another dead Reaper in the background! She picks up a piece of debris and it's the jaw portion of an N7 helmet.

12/ It's Liara! And she's got wrinkles now!

Obvious part out of the way, she's older. Much older, implying she's reached either Matron or Matriarch stage. That takes hundreds of years, so we know this doesn't take place *right* after Mass Effect 3.

13/ The camera focuses on the crew she travels with, in what are obviously a Salarian, Krogan, and what I think is most likely a Drell, or another human.

I've seen some speculate it could be a Prothean (Javik?) but I don't think so.

14/ Another thing is this planet is most definitely NOT Earth. How can you tell? Well uhh, last I checked Earth doesn't have multiple moons lol! But we know this is certainly a place Reapers visited, as clearly evidenced by their carcasses.

15/ So! Key takeaways:

-The 'travel through time' nature of the teaser is on purpose to show where we end up in the timeline
-First Contact, Reaper War, arks departed Milky Way, galaxy cut off
-Post ME3, likely hundreds of years later
-Relays destroyed, rebuilding the galaxy?

16/

-Is that Shepard's helmet or someone else's?
-"Destroy" ending of ME3 canonized? No controlled Reapers in sight and Liara's eyes aren't green (implying no synthesis ending)
-Could be some alteration (hard to imagine playing an ME game with NO synthetics)

17/

Andromeda will obviously play a role as BioWare have already said it was intentional in the teaser.

Conclusion is we're in the Milky Way, post-ME3, Reapers destroyed, Mass Relays destroyed, Ark ships departed so a bridging of the two will occur!

And with that: HYPE