Shi'ra: Priestess of Power is an asari-produced animated children's series. It first aired nearly four centuries ago, and retains a loyal fanbase in the present.
The series is set in a pre-spaceflight fantasy age on Thessia, during which the asari people have been invaded and conquered by a hive-mind machine species known as the Iron Empire. Worship of the Goddesses (based on the pre-siari pantheon, presented as perceptible beings able to directly influence the material world) is outlawed, as the Empire seeks to enforce the worship of its Godmech Faith, reverence for a supreme mechanical deity of which the Empire believes itself to be the collective physical manifestation. Expressions of emotion, love in particular, are ruthlessly suppressed.
The protagonist, Priestess T'Dora, is an asari born into the worship of the Godmech, who is contacted directly by the Goddesses, who reveal the hollowness of the machines' beliefs and appeal to T'Dora to free the asari people from their enslavement. She is granted the ability to transform into Shi'ra, the Goddesses' avatar, and embarks on a crusade to liberate the asari and return the ways of love to Thessia.
In spite of being aimed squarely at a young audience, and featuring wildly fantastical superpowers among its heroes, the series earned some critical acclaim for its strong emphasis on compassion and understanding as means of problem-solving; although the Empire is unreasoning and fought openly, many episodes deal with Shi'ra forming alliances with other asari, seeking to unite their diverse groups into a single rebellion.
Following the Geth War and the quarian exodus from Rannoch the series suffered a fall in popularity due to its relatively tame depiction of the consequences of AI conquest, however since Shi'ra's creation predated the geth, it was not harshly criticised overall, and returned to favour in time.
Trivia[]
Arlyna T'Kyrus was a fan as a girl.
Out-of-character notes[]
- Shi'ra is, obviously, based on She-Ra: Princess of Power. The page art is a modification of artwork by Emiliano Santalucia.