Tali'Zorah vas Normandy

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, formerly known as Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, is a character from the Mass Effect games.

Tali is a quarian and a member of Commander Shepard's squad. She is the daughter of Rael'Zorah, a member of the Admiralty Board. Though young, Tali is a mechanical genius.

In 2183, she is on her Pilgrimage, the rite of passage to prove her worth and bring something of value back to her people aboard the Migrant Fleet. In 2185, having completed her Pilgrimage, Tali has been entrusted with leading an important research mission for the Admiralty Board.

Personality
Even by quarian standards, Tali is an absolute genius when it comes to mechanics, a trait she has since her introduction. Engineer Greg Adams is extremely impressed by her knowledge, wishing his crew were half as smart as Tali. They often work together to disassemble any abandoned technology, such as old orbital probes that the Normandy's survey missions discover. However, Tali is initially quite naive, as evident by the fact that she turned to the Shadow Broker for help after being shot, which resulted in her getting double-crossed by Fist.

Shepard can chat to Tali about her fascination with starship technology and the Normandy's unique design, especially the enormous drive core. Having lived on the Migrant Fleet for her whole life until her Pilgrimage, Tali initially has trouble adapting to the Normandy. At first, Tali is very excited about being on board the Alliance's most advanced vessel, but she soon begins having problems. She can't sleep because she's not used to a ship that runs so quietly (to a quarian, a quiet ship means a dead engine or worse, a malfunctioning air filter). She also says that compared to the crowded conditions of the Migrant Fleet, the Normandy feels disturbingly empty, saying "it's like half the crew is missing." Despite this uneasy start, she manages to adjust over time and becomes much more cheerful. Tali enjoys visiting the crowded, noisy Wards on the Citadel because they feel like home, and she particularly likes the music in Flux, hoping to take a copy back to the Flotilla. When she's brought back on board the Normandy in Mass Effect 2, she has no trouble getting used to the quiet again, even admitting that she likes it.

Despite the discrimination she suffers as a quarian, Tali is easily one of (if not the) most kind-hearted members of Shepard's crew, always showing compassion to those who need it. She never hesitates to help out or stand up for one of her kind, which is especially shown when she stands up for a quarian on Pilgrimage on the Citadel when she was falsely accused of stealing. However, she's also deeply insecure, often assuming that she and her race aren't useful. She is also understandably envious of other species, since they can do many things she can't due to her extremely weak immune system. She also grows to resent the Pilgrimage, believing that without it, she never would have known what she was missing. Because of her insecurities, she hides that she loves Shepard for a long time with fear of being rejected, never imagining he would see past her mask. Even after revealing her feelings by accident and Shepard telling her that he feels the same way about her, she still thinks that the two of them can't be together, as she believes he deserves to be happy with someone and doubts she can do that for him. However, when Shepard tells her that he only wants to be with her, she is overjoyed and becomes determined to do whatever it takes to work between them. By the third game, she's become much more confident about their relationship, and no longer questions whether or not she's good enough for him.

Tali seems to suffer from severe arachnophobia; she freaks out whenever she sees spiders and considers the rachni to be the creepiest thing the group have fought, due to the fact that they look like spiders and scuttle towards you, even though, as Garrus points out, she usually likes it when things get close and personal, which is why she carries a shotgun. She also displays a bit of an acerbic wit at times; for example, she says 'I missed you too, Garrus' when Garrus comments on how useless her combat drone would be against an enemy dreadnought.

A defining trait of Tali's is her tendency to place enormous blame upon herself whenever something in her life goes wrong, justified or not. This extends to claiming responsibility for incidents she couldn't possibly be held accountable for, like the death of her team on Haestrom (as a poorly conceived and extremely risky mission to begin with, the fault of that lies to the admirals) or her failure to prevent the re-ignition of the quarian-geth war (the geth were refusing to negotiate, and the admiralty board was stacked with pro-war admirals). She is also overly selfless, to the point of having something of a martyr complex, being all too prepared to sacrifice her own well-being for the good of her people. This is best shown during her loyalty mission, when she would rather be exiled from the only home she's ever known than have the crimes of her father become public knowledge, despite knowing full well her father wouldn't have wanted that for her. This is also why she is initially so reluctant to pursue a relationship with Shepard, believing herself to be unprofessional and selfish for even considering it.

Tali is also a very forgiving person, which is especially shown when she tells Shepard about how a turian clerk had once insulted her and refused to give her shelter right before she met him/her and that now she's helping him in spite of that. She reasons that the war is too big for old grudges and that she doesn't have time to waste on a turian who made her angry three years ago, as well as the fact that it worked out in the end since she met Shepard as a result. Additionally, while initially annoyed by her ship name being changed from 'vas Neema' to 'vas Normandy', she ultimately embraces it; before the final battle on Earth, she remarks how the admirals once put the name on her like a "badge of shame", then the Normandy retook the quarian world, and that it's time for her to return the favour.

Abilities
Tali can deploy two drones at a time. One guards her personally, while the other floats around the the area, distracting enemies and bombarding them with rockets. While she can't summon more than two at a time, she can almost instantly replace them when they're destroyed.

Notably, a lot of her powers (Damping, Energy Drain/Overload, Sabotage) are basically Anti-Magic gadgets designed to nerf enemy capabilities, suggesting she expects to go in outmatched.

Tali's most notable for her genius in electronics, hacking, and robotics, rather than her skill with a gun. Even in combat missions, most of her powers revolve around disabling enemy equipment (e.g. Overload/Energy Drain disables shields, Hacking/Sabotage turns robotic enemies against their masters) or deploying a Attack Drone to aid her (particularly in the third game, where the combat drone can be upgraded to fire rockets and can be deployed with an additional "Defense Drone"). However, she still does have the best military training on the Migrant Fleet, and is fully capable of slaughtering her way through mercenaries, geth, and Cerberus with a good shotgun and Hand Cannon.

Trivia

 * Tali carries a knife strapped to her boot, but is never seen using it until Mass Effect 3. If Shepard chooses to side with the quarians on Rannoch, Tali will use her knife to stab Legion/Geth VI in the back. In this scene and this scene alone, her knife uses the model of a broken Phantom sword.
 * According to Tali's "Character Key", a limited edition item formerly sold in the Bioware Store, Tali stands at 172 centimeters tall, roughly 5 feet 8 inches. This is seemingly reinforced by an official miniature statue also sold in the Bioware Store; the figure is approximately 9.25 inches tall, on a 1/7 scale, and depicts Tali leaning forward with her knees bent, subtracting a noticeable amount of height compared to if she was standing with straight posture. Finally, an official statue formerly sold in the Bioware Store stands 19 inches tall at a 1/4 scale, which would be consistent with these other pieces of merchandise if the base/stand part of the figure is at 1-2 inches in height, depending on how much height Tali gains from her shoes.
 * Tali's combat drone is nicknamed Chatika vas Paus, a reference to BioWare's Baldur's Gate II. Chiktikka Fastpaws is the raccoon companion of Baervan Wildwanderer, a deity worshiped by Aerie, one of the party members.
 * When Chatika is summoned, Tali will occasionally cry, "Go for the optics, Chatika! Go for the optics!", a reference to Baldur's Gate II's Minsc, who shouts, "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!" to Boo, his miniature giant space hamster.
 * Aerie sometimes reacts to commands by saying, "Faster than Chiktikka Fastpaws!" while Tali may exclaim "Nothing's faster than Chatika vas Paus!"
 * Tali and Aerie have some other similarities as well, both being the junior non-human female companion with a soft voice, a possible love interest for the main character, and having a "support" role in combat (focusing on spells or powers over weapon damage).
 * Along with Legion, it appears that Tali was originally available for recruitment at a much earlier point in Mass Effect 2, or that certain missions were intended to be available throughout the game.
 * According to Lukas Kristjanson, Tali was originally named "Talsi Orah, with the intent that Orah would become the familiar one". However, because the name flowed “oddly” and it was “too 'soft'” for where BioWare wanted to take the character, it was changed before the game was released.
 * According to Matt Rhodes, showing Tali's face in Mass Effect 3 was a heavy source of debate. He drew up several different designs for her, including the one close to the final look in the game.
 * Tali's face, as can be seen in a photograph during the events of Mass Effect 3, is an edited portrait of the 2005 Miss England Hammasa Kohistani.
 * According to Chris Priestly, Tali was almost not included in Mass Effect 3 as a full squadmate. Patrick Weekes convinced the team otherwise.
 * Preston Watamaniuk felt that Tali had to die, no matter what, if the player sided with the geth, something that he found personally difficult having to convince the rest of the development team.
 * As with all squad members, Tali has unique dialogue that can be heard at various locations, during missions or assignments, or if a specific squad member is in the selected team.
 * The Shadow Broker has files on Tali which can be accessed aboard his ship.