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.
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 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. This left Mass Effect fans wondering for years just what Tali - and by extension, her people – looked like behind her hood and helmet. 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. 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.
