[quote=Voltin]
Despite the heresy this may be, I've decided to just assume that Shepard, and all the other major characters of the main trilogy never happen in the Nova universe.
[/quote]

That is probably the safest thing to do. 'Tis not heresy if it coincides with the interests of the rest of the players. Just because it has the tag line 'Mass Effect' doesn't mean that the Mass Effect games themselves must happen.