Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib: Quarian Admiral and Geth Sympathizer

Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib was a member of the quarian Admiralty Board and commander of the Civilian Fleet, known above all for his sympathetic stance toward the geth. Believing the synthetics sentient and deserving of life, he opposed any attempt to retake the homeworld by force and argued instead for colonizing a new world, a position that earned him scorn among the more militant admirals.

The geth apologist#

Zaal'Koris stood almost alone among the admirals in his conviction that the geth, being sentient, had as much right to live as the quarians who created them. He firmly opposed reclaiming the homeworld and pressed instead for the quarians to settle a new world of their own. The stance made him an outsider on the board; Han'Gerrel vas Neema called him a "whining suit-wetter," while Daro'Xen vas Moreh thought him a coward.

His home vessel was the Qwib-Qwib, a name that drew quiet mockery. He explained, when asked, that many ships in the Migrant Fleet were secondhand vessels acquired from other cultures whose registries could not always be changed. Though he admitted a name like the Defrahnz or the Iktomi might have served better, he was proud of the Qwib-Qwib and refused to change ships over what he called petty insults.

Tali's trial#

Koris was distrustful of Rael'Zorah and his daughter, though he later confessed he had never hated Tali'Zorah and had only judged her father's drive for war against the geth to be wrong. At her treason hearing he objected to a human speaking on such sensitive military matters, until Shala'Raan vas Tonbay reminded him that Tali's place in Commander Shepard's crew gave the Commander the right to defend her. When the geth Legion was present he objected again, only for Raan to overrule him once more. Quick to conclude that Shepard and Tali had died retaking the Alarei, Koris moved to have her posthumously exiled, drawing strenuous objection from his fellow admirals before the pair returned.

Leader of the Civilian Fleet#

Against Koris's objections the Admiralty voted for war with the geth, a choice he feared might destroy the quarian race for good. He took command of the Civilian Fleet, and during the campaign on Rannoch his ship was shot down while destroying a geth planetary cannon. Surviving the crash but cut off from his crew and surrounded by geth, he became the subject of a desperate rescue.

Whether he lived depended on Shepard's choice. The Commander could heed Koris's plea to abandon him and save his crew instead, or convince him to return to hold the Civilian Fleet together; in the latter case Koris later backed Shepard's bid for peace between quarians and geth and lent the war effort his full support. Otherwise he died fighting, priming a grenade and charging headlong into a Geth Prime and its troops. When Shepard later commanded all quarian ships to cease fire in the attempt to broker peace, a surviving Koris lent the Commander his authority.