The quarians are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Mass Effect multimedia franchise developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The quarians and their backstory are introduced in the first Mass Effect through the companion character Tali'Zorah, with quarian society as a whole playing a more prominent role in its sequels. Within the Mass Effect universe, the quarians' backstory represents a cornerstone of the series' recurring theme of conflict between synthetic and organic life. They perpetually wander the Milky Way galaxy as a nomadic people after they were driven from their homeworld Rannoch by a synthetic race of their own creation, the geth. Shunned by the rest of interstellar society for unleashing a potentially dangerous collective of self-aware artificial intelligence (AI) lifeforms onto the galaxy, the quarians harbor a desire to retake their homeworld from the geth, which is the basis of a major storyline in the original Mass Effect video game trilogy. The quarians' history of struggle with the geth, immunodeficient physiology and status as a marginalized community within series lore have generated discussion among commentators.
Background Approximately three centuries before the events of Mass Effect, the quarians created the geth as an AI workforce to serve as a cheap and efficient source of manual labor. Once the geth advanced from their rudimentary origins to a more sophisticated collective intelligence, achieved through a shared neural network developed by their creators with the intention of enabling their servants to carry out more complex tasks by pooling together processing power, they began displaying initial signs of self-awareness and start asking their creators existential questions. The quarians panicked and attempted to broadcast a signal to shut down all geth; in response, the geth refused to accept commands concerning their deactivation and rebelled against their creators, successfully driving them into exile following a war. The surviving quarians wander the galaxy as the Migrant Fleet, a massive flotilla of ships of various roles and sizes, some of which are salvaged or secondhand vessels sustained with recycled technology. Other species tend to look down on the quarians, seeing them as undesirable scavengers or condemning them for allowing the geth to emerge as a potential threat to the rest of the galaxy.
Concept and design Tali'Zorah or Tali, a companion of Commander Shepard, served as the only example of a quarian in the first Mass Effect. Tali's initial concept drawings were finished before the geth's final design, though their "flashlight head" look thematically informed the aesthetic of her helmet's appearance along with the rest of the quarians'. While Tali is the only quarian squadmate available to the player throughout the series, another quarian character dubbed "The Crazy Quarian King" by BioWare senior staff member Mac Walters was originally planned for inclusion in Mass Effect 2. In an interview with GameSpot, Walters explained that the concept behind the character originated as an inspiration from an unhinged Irish character portrayed by David O'Hara in the 1995 film Braveheart, and that this quarian character is meant to be middle-aged and whimsical about his desire for revenge against the geth for the deaths of his loved ones and comrades. The quarian Migrant Fleet is envisioned to be over 50,000 ships strong with a distinctly refugee feel and all available space crammed with cargo, akin to a caravan filled with hoarded goods. The liveship, a large spherical vessel designated as food supply production centers for the quarian civilization, is designed to stand out among the many ships of the Migrant Fleet. Its spherical design is intended to communicate its effectiveness in maximizing the quarians' yield of cultivated crops. Other ships are intentionally designed to show they have been lived in for a long time: one type of ship has a central ring at its heart, with cargo modules strapped on to them to show quarian ingenuity when they run out of living space. A section of the plot of Mass Effect 3 takes place in Rannoch, the quarian homeworld. The developmental team wanted to create a world which seemed consistent with two architectural styles: the aesthetic of the quarian Migrant Fleet, and the utilitarian geth architecture. The team decided to retain an industrial style for Rannoch's quarian environments; it is supplemented with modular stainless steel sections inspired by the Lloyd's building in London's main financial district, with no hard line between interior and exterior environments as they are meant to blend. The team wanted to show that the geth had kept Rannoch in an almost-pristine state throughout their occupation of the planet, and so refrained from depicting any pre-existing battle damage in the planet's environments. Prior to the reveal of Tali's face in Mass Effect 3, the facial features of a quarian were uncertain as they are never seen without their visors within the game engine. BioWare artists regularly drafted variations on Tali's face throughout the series' development, and the decision on whether to provide a definitive reveal of her face was a long-standing internal debate. Concept artist Matt Rhodes in particular envisioned the quarians to be more alien-looking, with white skin, cat-like eyes and a lack of hair, and thought it would be a good opportunity "to push players to the edge" by subverting their expectations of what Tali's true appearance would be like. The final design for a quarian's face, as conveyed by a modified stock photo depicting an unmasked Tali, has human-like features and hair but with all-white eyes.
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