The Mass Effect original trilogy takes place in the Milky Way towards the end of the 22nd century. In 2148, humanity discovered an alien outpost on Mars, and learned that Charon is actually an alien artifact known as a "mass relay" that enables faster-than-light travel to other mass relays located across the galaxy. These discoveries drastically increased the enhancement rate of humanity's technology. Humanity comes into contact with numerous other space-faring alien species, some far more advanced than humans. Humanity's first encounter resulted in the First Contact War, but the Council, a ruling body for the galaxy, intervened to achieve peace and welcomed humanity. The main species encountered by humanity include the asari, a species of mono-gendered beings closely resembling human women; the salarians, an amphibious species with considerable technological and intellectual prowess and an extremely high metabolism; and the turians, a heavily militaristic race of raptor-like avian humanoids who fought humanity in the First Contact War. The center of the Council's governing power is the Citadel, another artifact and a massive space station that, like the mass relays, were believed to be made by a race known as the Protheans, who were believed to be the progenitor race for all species but had long since disappeared. Over the next few decades, humanity is given access to new technology, allowing them to colonize new planets, and they are made part of the Citadel Security (C-Sec) forces, a highly regarded position that other species had been long waiting for and take resentment over. Numerous other inter-species conflicts remain active at the time of the first game, results of past wars and conflicts.