| Quarian | |
|---|---|
| Mass Effect race | |
 A typical male quarian, as presented in Mass Effect 3 | |
| First appearance | Mass Effect (2007) |
| Created by | BioWare |
| In-universe information | |
| Home world | Rannoch |
The quarians are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Mass Effect multimedia franchise developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The quarians and their backstory are introduced in the first Mass Effect through the companion character Tali'Zorah, with quarian society as a whole playing a more prominent role in its sequels.
Within the Mass Effect universe, the quarians' backstory represents a cornerstone of the series' recurring theme of conflict between synthetic and organic life. They perpetually wander the Milky Way galaxy as a nomadic people after they were driven from their homeworld Rannoch by a synthetic race of their own creation, the geth. Shunned by the rest of interstellar society for unleashing a potentially dangerous collective of self-aware artificial intelligence (AI) lifeforms onto the galaxy, the quarians harbor a desire to retake their homeworld from the geth, which is the basis of a major storyline in the original Mass Effect video game trilogy. The quarians' history of struggle with the geth, immunodeficient physiology and status as a marginalized community within series lore have generated discussion among commentators.