One talented Mass Effect fan artist has shared their own take on what Quarian squadmate Tali'Zorah nar Rayya looks like under her trademark mask. Like the rest of the nomadic Quarian race, Tali requires the use of a special containment suit to survive outside of the highly sterilized environment of the Quarian Flotilla fleet, leaving her face completely concealed behind an oblique visor – save for her glowing eyes for most of the series.
This left Mass Effect fans wondering for years just what Tali - and by extension, her people – looked like behind her hood and helmet. Bioware finally answered the question in 2012’s Mass Effect 3, where if a male Commander Shepard romanced Tali, she would leave a photo of herself without her suit on in his private quarters. Like many aspects of the controversial final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy, this left many fans divided due to the picture itself being a stock photo of a model that was altered to look like an alien, as well as the whole thing feeling like a last-minute effort for such an important revelation. Bioware would eventually replace this image with a more fitting, in-game rendered picture in this year’s Mass Effect Legendary Edition remaster, but some players wish that Tali looked more otherworldly under her visor.
Yesterday, Reddit user poyedateldetey posted a drawing of what they imaged Tali and the Quarians would look like under their visors to the r/MassEffect subreddit. Several different versions of an unmasked Tali are featured, some resembling humans with purple skin tones and others being far more alien. Users in the comment section note that some of the designs featured resemble Bioware concept artist Matt Rhodes’s original plans for an unmasked Tali, which he revealed a few years after Mass Effect 3 was released, while one in the center bears some similarities to the Geth – which is quite fitting seeing how the Quarians created them.
Mass Effect fans have gotten a chance to relive Tali’s story all over again thanks to the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which featured all three original Mass Effect games along with every piece of DLC content from the series. Not only that, but Bioware currently has a brand-new Mass Effect title in the works, though so far the only member of Commander Shepard’s crew to be confirmed is Liara T’Soni.
Poyedateldetey’s concept portraits for Tali’s unmasked face are all interesting in their own ways, especially those that look far more alien than the rather human designs that Bioware ultimately went with. Regardless of how she ended up looking under her signature bio-suit, fans will always remember Tali'Zorah nar Rayya as a loyal friend and comrade of Shepard throughout the original Mass Effect trilogy.
Source: poyedateldetey