Tali'Zorah: Quarian Engineer of the Migrant Fleet

Tali'Zorah was a quarian engineer and a daughter of the Migrant Fleet, born aboard the starship Rayya to Rael'Zorah of the Admiralty Board. A mechanical prodigy even in her youth, she left the Fleet on her Pilgrimage, the traditional quarian rite of passage into adulthood, and in the course of it uncovered the first proof of the Reapers and joined Commander Shepard's crew. Her path would carry her from a hunted outcast to an admiral of her people and at last to the soil of the homeworld her ancestors had lost. (Mass Effect: Homeworlds; Mass Effect)

What species is Tali'Zorah?#

Tali is a quarian, one of the species that lost its homeworld Rannoch to the geth and has lived aboard the Migrant Fleet since. Quarian immune systems are too weak to survive unprotected, which is why she is never seen out of her environmental suit. (Mass Effect)

The Pilgrimage#

Tali departed the Migrant Fleet on her Pilgrimage and, passing through the Crescent Nebula, detected a geth presence on an unidentified ice world. The geth had not ventured beyond the Perseus Veil since driving the quarians into exile, and so she investigated, disabling a geth unit and extracting its memory core. The core held a recording of an attack planned on the human colony of Eden Prime and of the coming of the Reapers. Recognizing the danger, Tali resolved to bring the information to the proper authorities, but she was hunted by agents working for Saren Arterius and lost her companions on the journey, fighting her way alone across Illium and the Citadel. (Mass Effect: Homeworlds; Mass Effect)

Joining the Normandy#

Tali was betrayed in a meeting arranged through the criminal Fist, who was secretly working for Saren, and was saved by the timely arrival of Commander Shepard's team. In gratitude she handed over the proof that allowed Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson to have Saren's Spectre status revoked, evidence that also gave the galaxy its first warning of the Reapers. Wanting to help and to prove herself, she joined the crew of the Normandy and took up her place in its engine room. (Mass Effect)

Aboard ship she worked closely with the engineering staff and spoke of life as a quarian nomad, of her Pilgrimage, and of the ancient ships of the Flotilla. She offered candid insight into the geth, explaining why the quarians had created them, how they had rebelled, and how the quarians' pre-emptive strike had failed. At first the Normandy unsettled her, too quiet and too empty after the crowded Fleet, but she adjusted and grew more cheerful over time. (Mass Effect)

Vas Neema and the war against the Collectors#

By 2185 Tali had completed her Pilgrimage and earned a place aboard the ship Neema, taking the title Tali'Zorah vas Neema and a new environmental suit befitting her status as an adult. She was leading a mission on the colony of Freedom's Progress when she encountered Shepard again, two years after the Normandy's destruction. Disappointed to find the Commander working with the human organization Cerberus, she nonetheless trusted Shepard and later joined the new crew after being rescued from a geth assault on Haestrom, where she had lost most of her marine escort. (Mass Effect 2)

During her service she was charged with treason by the Admiralty Board and tried, an ordeal that ended with her receiving the title Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, which she kept thereafter. A second conflict arose between Tali and the geth platform Legion when she caught it gathering data on the Fleet, and Shepard could mediate between them. Whether she survived the assault on the Collector Base, like much else, depended on the Commander's leadership. (Mass Effect 2)

Rannoch#

If Tali survived, she returned to her people for the Reaper War, brought in for her expertise as the quarians launched a campaign to retake Rannoch from the geth. Depending on whether she had been exiled, she served either as an admiral in her father's place or as the board's secret adviser. She reunited with Shepard when the Normandy joined the quarian war effort and confided the weight of having millions of lives counting on her decisions. (Mass Effect 3)

Standing at last on the soil of her ancestors, Tali claimed a small piece of land and dared to hope for a home at the war's end. The fate of both quarians and geth then turned on a single choice. If Shepard allowed the geth to be restored at the cost of the Fleet, Tali watched her people burn in Rannoch's sky and took her own life. If the geth were instead halted, the quarians could prevail, and if Legion survived to broker peace, the geth and quarians were reconciled. In the outcomes where she lived, Tali rejoined the Normandy, knowing she now fought for a homeworld. Her place in the final battle, and whether she survived it, depended on the course of that last fight. (Mass Effect 3)