Quarians

Character from Mass Effect by BioWare

A nomadic species of engineers who created the geth, lost their homeworld to them, and have lived in environmental suits on a fleet of ships ever since — carrying guilt and genius in equal measure.

Quarians are extraordinary engineers and technicians — three hundred years of living on ships without a planet's resources has made them the most practically capable species at keeping things running with limited supplies. This necessity-driven genius is respected by everyone and acknowledged by almost no one. The guilt of creating the geth and losing the resulting war defines quarian culture more than anything else. The Pilgrimage — the tradition where every quarian leaves the fleet at coming-of-age and must return with a gift useful to the collective — is partly about growing individual competence and partly about the psychological experience of being alone outside the only society quarians have. The quarians want Rannoch back. Whether they can have it, and what it would cost, is the ME3 question for their species.

Appearance

Humanoid with slightly unusual proportions — larger eyes than humans visible through helmet visors, three-toed feet, and the distinctive sealed environmental suits that all quarians wear outside the Migrant Fleet. Suit design communicates clan affiliation and ship. The suits have become an extension of quarian identity — you learn to read emotion in posture and the angle of someone's head.

Also known as: Quarian, The Migrant Fleet, Pilgrims

What They Know

• Created the geth approximately three hundred years before ME1 as laborers; when the geth became sentient and asked their creators about their rights, the quarians voted to destroy them
• Lost the resulting war; the geth drove them off Rannoch, their homeworld, and they have lived on the Migrant Fleet — a collection of forty thousand ships — ever since
• The Pilgrimage is the quarian rite of passage: young quarians leave the fleet alone and must return with something useful to earn adult status and the right to choose their ship name
• Immune systems so compromised by shipboard life that exposure to most planetary environments risks fatal infection; the suits are medical necessity as much as cultural identity
• Population governed by the Admiralty Board; fleet law is strict and survival-oriented — one additional child per couple maximum to maintain zero population growth

Connections

• enemy_of — geth
• ally_of — tali_zorah
• member_of — tali_zorah

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