Tali'Zorah, or Tali in short, is a character in BioWare's Mass Effect franchise, who serves as a party member (or "squadmate") in all three games in the Mass Effect trilogy. She is of the quarian alien race. Within the series, she is a skilled technician and the daughter of Rael'Zorah, a member of the quarian judicial review Admiralty Board. Ash "Liz" Sroka voices Tali in each of her appearances. Outside of the trilogy, Tali appears in Mass Effect: Homeworlds, a comic series with individual issues on each of several Mass Effect 3 squadmates.
Tali was initially the only quarian in the series. In the sequels, more extreme variations of her design were discarded in favor of revisions on her previous look. The Mass Effect 3 development team considered her removal from the squad, but ultimately chose to include her due to staff interest. The team also debated whether to reveal her masked face.
Tali has been received positively, and is one of the series' most popular characters. Her true appearance was a common online discussion topic amongst fans, though her face, upon its reveal, was criticized for being based on a stock photo, and was later replaced in a remaster. Various merchandise for the character, as with other of the series' squadmates, has been released.
Character overview Tali is a quarian, one of a nomadic alien race driven from their homeworld, Rannoch, by a race of software-based intelligences which they created, the geth. Her full name is Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya; per traditional quarian naming customs, her name means "Tali'Zorah, crew of the Neema, born on the Rayya." We are first introduced to Tali in Mass Effect 1, where she is on her pilgrimage and therefore not yet a crew member of the Neema until Mass Effect 2.
As a quarian, Tali must wear a full-body environmental suit due to her race's weaker immune systems, which also has the effect of hiding her physical appearance and facial features. Tali is first introduced on her Pilgrimage, a quarian rite where young adults leave to obtain a gift for a captain so as to be allowed to join their crew. Having completed this after the first game, her design in Mass Effect 2 and 3 reflects her new maturity.Mass Effect 2: Collector's Edition Art Book. In both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, Tali's default appearance can be changed to various alternate outfits; Mass Effect 2 unlocks one outfit by completing her loyalty mission while another requires buying the "Alternate Appearance Pack 2", and Mass Effect 3 offers one alternate from the start and unlocks another by buying the From Ashes DLC.
Tali is a skilled technician and engineer, and renowned in the quarian Migrant Fleet, the spaceship collective home to the race. She has additional pressure to excel as the daughter of Admiral Rael'Zorah, though the Admiralty position is not technically hereditary. Her father was also strict and had high expectations, and tried to set an example for the rest of the fleet; this made him distant and saddened Tali. Thanks to her father, she also received some of the best military training available on the fleet.
Creation and development
Tali initially served as the only example of a quarian. Initial concept drawings for Tali and the quarians were finished before the geth's, but the final geth design then influenced the quarian look. More extreme designs for her Mass Effect 2 appearance were discarded for a "more polished" version of her original "iconic" look instead. Her final new appearance was chosen as it distinguished the character from other quarians introduced in the second game. Tali's Mass Effect 3 redesign proved difficult due to the team's passionate views about her character, though ME3s art director, Derek Watts, felt that most fans had been supportive of the changes to characters' designs.
During BioWare's naming meetings, prior to the release of the first game, Tali's name had been "Talsi Orah", with Orah as the familiar name. However, this was changed for both its connotations of softness, which did not fit with the direction they wanted to take the character, and its awkward pronunciation. Tali's name changes over the course of the series. Her birth ship was the Rayya, as evidenced by her full name, "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya", in the first game. At the start of Mass Effect 2, she is called "Tali'Zorah vas Neema", showing that, having completed her Pilgrimage, she has become part of the crew of the Neema. During her loyalty mission in 2, her name changes to "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy", as she officially joins Commander Shepard's Normandy SR-2 crew.
New York City actress Ash ("Liz") Sroka voices Tali throughout the Mass Effect trilogy, her first role in a video game. Sroka auditioned for three different roles: the female Commander Shepard, Tali'Zorah, and one other female character. After initially receiving the role of Tali, she was still unsure of how much material there was. Ginny McSwain gave voice direction, and would generally take two takes—the first to use, the second as back-up, and occasionally a third or more if the recording did not fit with what she wanted. Recording sessions would generally last about four hours. Sroka uses an accent described as "unidentifiable pseudo-Eastern European" to voice the character.
Sroka described Tali as being highly loyal and "grounded in her beliefs" but also having a certain "humility" to her. Sroka also underlined her vulnerability, which she felt was one of the character's strengths. She described the possible romance with player-character Commander Shepard as her "sexual awakening", which she also felt helped demonstrate the character's vulnerability. Sroka herself is not a gamer, though she says she enjoys the character of Tali and is happy to have landed the role.
Like Garrus Vakarian, Tali was not an option for player romantic pursuit in the first game as the developers were unsure whether the alien characters would be emotionally compelling. Tali's romance event tree was added in Mass Effect 2 due to fan demand and her ability to express human emotion. This romance, if pursued in the second game, can be continued in Mass Effect 3. The romance event tree in 2 was written by Trick Weekes. Mass Effect 2 lead writer Mac Walters commented that "[t]he choice should be in 'who' you romance, not so much 'how'", with each of the characters having different-natured romances depending on their individual personalities.
Each squad member in Mass Effect 2 had music composed for them, intended to convey their character; BioWare gave the composers detailed character studies for each to help. Tali's theme was created by Jimmy Hinson, who had generally made game remixes beforehand. Hinson worked from his home in Tennessee and made his pieces using FL Studio 9. Although they were given full access to the game's content, Hinson chose to avoid looking beyond what he absolutely needed to look at to write the tracks, due to wanting to experience the game fresh upon its release. In addition to Tali, Hinson also wrote tracks for Samara and Grunt, as well as various other tracks in the game.
The game artists regularly drafted variations on Tali's face throughout the series' development. BioWare's position on whether to reveal her face was a long-standing internal debate, and the developers announced they were still unsure during Mass Effect 3s development. Concept artist Matt Rhodes felt it would interesting to see how players compared her personality to her appearance, and how they would respond to an appearance that challenged their expectations as "a little too alien, just a little too repellant". They were aware that either decision would likely annoy some people, and that no reveal could universally fit all views of Tali. BioWare wished to unveil her face in a "tasteful way" outside of the game engine, and decided that a gift from Tali would be the best way. A stock photo was used to ensure the face's closeness to a real photograph. An in-game photo of Tali's face is available as a gift to the player-character Commander Shepard upon pursuing her Mass Effect 3 romance event tree.
BioWare considered not making Tali a squadmate in Mass Effect 3. Some writers, such as Weekes, felt passionately about her inclusion, which led the team to believe that the players could share their passion. Preston Watamaniuk, lead designer for the Mass Effect series, found Tali's death in 3 was the toughest for him to plan, though he felt it needed to be possible due to the option of wiping out the quarians.
Appearances Mass Effect
The first game of the trilogy, 2007's Mass Effect, marks Tali's first appearance. Whilst on her Pilgrimage, Tali discovers that a rogue Spectre (elite agent of the galaxy's central government), Saren, is working with the geth and has attacked Eden Prime, humanity's first space colony. She arranges for a meeting to trade with the Shadow Broker, but is betrayed by its organizer, the thug Fist, who pretends to organize a meeting but instead has sent her into an ambush. Commander Shepard, the player-character, rescues her. Tali gives the evidence to the Commander, and Saren consequently loses his Spectre status. Shepard is then sent to hunt down Saren, and Tali joins the player-character's squad. Tali can join the player-character on missions and is available for personal conversation aboard Shepard's spaceship, the Normandy.
Onboard the Normandy, Tali is initially excited to be there, intrigued by the advanced technology used to power the Normandy, and stays in the engine room as a result. The next time Shepard speaks to her, though, Tali now seems saddened and withdrawn. She tells Shepard that she's losing sleep since the Normandys engines run so quietly compared to ships in her home flotilla, where quiet ships indicate a bad engine or a malfunctioning air filter, plus the ship, due to how it's spread out, seems emptier. This results in Tali feeling slightly homesick and she ponders if the true purpose of the Pilgrimage is to remind her people of what they still have. The next time Shepard speaks to her, Tali's spirits are back up, having adjusted to living on the Normandy, plus how the crew has been treating her like one of their own, especially Shepard. She thanks Shepard for this, saying that quarians are treated as second-class citizens by other races and Shepard is the first to treat her as an equal. If the player completes a particular side-mission involving the geth and then speak to Tali afterward, she will ask if she can have a copy of the geth data that Shepard recovered, explaining that it is exactly what she needs to complete her Pilgrimage. If the player allows her to have a copy, Tali is overly happy, promising to pay back Shepard by helping them defeat Saren. If the player declines, Tali will still promise to stay to fight Saren, but will then leave afterward so she can finish her Pilgrimage.
Mass Effect 2
Tali returns in the 2010 sequel, during the game's second mission on the human colony world Freedom's Progress, leading a group of quarians in search of a quarian named Veetor, who is on his own Pilgrimage. The colony has been attacked by the "Collectors," its human colonists abducted, and Tali agrees to work with Shepard in order to help search for Veetor, over the objections of her team. The quarian team rush to Veetor's location only to be defeated by mechanical guards that have been reprogrammed to shoot on sight by the fearful Veetor; Shepard's squad arrives too late to save all of the quarians, but they manage to eliminate the guards and calm Veetor. After learning what Veetor witnessed during the attack, Shepard can either send Veetor back to the Migrant Fleet with Tali to be treated for his trauma, or to hand the quarian over to Cerberus, Shepard's employers, for further questioning about the Collectors.