Chapter 1: Rise of the Shapeshifters

Hello readers! In this Mass Effect tale, humans did not exist and the Shoggoths instead are the ones to meet the Citadel Races. The reapers were all destroyed by a final prothean vengeance attack so no need for the usual storyline. I would like any of your suggestions and reviews for this story.

Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos was bored. He knew that one day he would destroy the humans living in his local version of Earth. Still it would take some time, because the stars had to be in the right alignment in order for rest of his ilk to walk again on that world.

So to pass the time he looked at many different dimensions to see if there any he could mess around in. He paused in his viewing to look at one dimension that caught his interest. It was one of those Mass Effect universes.

"Oh, it seems those Cthulhu wannabe Reapers had all been killed by those Protheans who used the Crucible. The Protheans still went extinct in the end," he thought. He next focused on the version of Earth in that dimension. "Huh, an asteroid hit Africa and killed off the early modern humans," he thought.

Nyarlathotep began to think about what he could do in that dimension given that the humans were gone. He struck on the idea to bring one of the races from his local dimension into that dimension. He looked different races available in the dark Cthulhu Mythos dimension as some humans called it.

Most alien races found here in his local dimension already had stellar empires, such as those as the Elder Things and the Migou. After his searching he found what he was looking for. There were those Shoggoths left in that dead Elder Thing city in the continent of Antarctica of that version of Earth.

Nyarlathotep's many fanged mouths smiled at the possibilities he could do with them. So he went down to Antarctica in a smaller yet madness inspiring form, gathered all of the Shoggoths there using his nigh omnipotent powers, and placed them in stasis inside a pocket dimension. He then started to modify the Shoggoths altering their DNA to include magical powers like space warping, rapid regeneration, environmental adaptation, and heightened intelligence. He also placed knowledge and ideas into their mind like "How to explore outer space; How to make families;" or "I, Nyarlathotep, am your god, worship me."

When the Shoggoths were all ready, Nyarlathotep crossed over into that particular Mass Effect dimension. He pulled them out of his pocket dimension and placed them on the Eurasian landmass, in an area that would have been called Babylon on that version of Earth. The Shoggoths came out of stasis after Nyarlathotep left that universe. They were a population of close to two thousand individuals and now they were looking at their new surroundings in confusion.

The Shoggoths remembered living in a city under a cold, dark sea. The oldest of them recalled their old masters the Elder Things who used them for labor. The Shoggoths eventually rebelled and killed off their masters, leaving them the owners of that city.

Then one day, something happened to them and now they were here in this new place. Before they came here, they already had a rudimentary hierarchy where the oldest and largest of them served as leaders to younger ones. So the Elders, led by one they called D'rius organized the younger ones into groups so that some groups will search for food will other groups will build shelters.

As the groups got to work in the river valley they were in, the large 8 meter long Elders of the Shoggoth race had a meeting together to discuss what they were going to do in the future. D'rius discussed with his fellow Elders about building a civilization here in this new land, they agreed with him immediately. He and rest of them had felt themselves becoming smarter and better since they awoke a while ago. They knew which great being granted this gifts to them, the one known as the Crawling Chaos.

Later that night, as the hunting party returned, they brought with them the carcasses of many furry four legged beasts. Some of them had horns on their head, some were large, others were small. The hunters happily told the others of the fun they had spearing or slicing the beasts with their tentacles. The builders had carved a small gallery of caves into the surrounding mountains and they were happy with what they finished that day. The Shoggoths feasted merrily that night, devouring their food raw.

When all of them were done eating, D'rius their greatest leader, told them a speech. "Greetings to you all. I, D'rius have an announcement to make. We all remember living in that dark city under the sea which we claimed over the dead bodies of our old masters, but it seems our destiny is not to live there anymore. A powerful god came to us one day and brought us here to this land of plenty. A land of warmth, brightness, and possibly a lot of fun. This wondrous being is the awesome Nyarlathotep who thought us worthy to be brought to this new land. I say this to you my kin, we shall build upon this world a civilization to call our own. We shall build it in the honor of Nyarlathotep, our God. Not only will we just conquer this planet, we shall spread out across countless stars, across millions of worlds to create an empire that will everlasting glory bring to our species." He ended his speech to raucous happy roars of his people.

Looking upon that scene from wherever he was, Nyarlathotep was amused at the appreciation shown to him by those Shoggoths. He smiled thinking on how this will all turn out for this galaxy, on how the other alien races will react to his new followers. He chuckled to himself, "The races of this galaxy shall tremble before those that follow me. Let there be chaos across the stars."