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.

Approximately three centuries before the events of Mass Effect, the quarians created the geth as an AI workforce to serve as a cheap and efficient source of manual labor.

[1] The surviving quarians wander the galaxy as the Migrant Fleet, a massive flotilla of ships of various roles and sizes, some of which are salvaged or secondhand vessels sustained with recycled technology.

[4] Tali's initial concept drawings were finished before the geth's final design, though their "flashlight head" look thematically informed the aesthetic of her helmet's appearance along with the rest of the quarians'.

[6] The quarian Migrant Fleet is envisioned to be over 50,000 ships strong with a distinctly refugee feel and all available space crammed with cargo, akin to a caravan filled with hoarded goods.

[7] The final design for a quarian's face, as conveyed by a modified stock photo depicting an unmasked Tali, has human-like features and hair but with all-white eyes.

[9] Fleet operations are overseen by a judicial review body known as the Admiralty Board, which consists of a panel of admirals who form determinations which are legally binding through consensus, and it is empowered to overrule the civilian government during times of emergency.

[9] Due to the circumstances of their living conditions, the Migrant Fleet operates on a subsistence-centric economy, with much of their efforts directed towards the perpetual salvage and repair of used technology and the cultivation of essentials such as food, water and air, with little infrastructure for heavy industries.

[4] Because the quarian government is obliged to provide essentials and medical support for every individual, its leadership strategically determines the course of the Fleet to bring in resources and income.

[9] All young quarians must participate in a rite of passage to adulthood known as a Pilgrimage, where they leave their home ships and experience the world outside the Migrant Fleet, and may not return until they have recovered something of value to bring back to their communities.

When she recovers information from the unit's memory core, she unwittingly discovers a connection between a geth faction and the turian agent Saren Arterius, who answers directly to the Citadel Council.

Two of these, where Shepard sides with either the geth or the quarians which results in the apparent extinction of the other race, are available to all players regardless of any prior decisions being carried over up to that point in the narrative.

[14] The quarians are featured as a themed skin for Anthem player characters, released on November 7, 2019, in commemoration of "N7 Day", an informal celebration of the Mass Effect franchise observed annually.

[18] Citing Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, Vanessa Erat discussed the quarians as an aspect of what she perceived to be BioWare's attempt at recreating past imperialist-colonialist tensions while conforming to an elitist, anthropocentric perspective.

To Jerreat-Poole, the quarians' state of being breaks down the boundaries between machine, person, and other lifeforms, and at the same time challenges the perspective of a settler colonial power fantasy about the concepts of humanity and independence.

[10] Jerreat-Poole also noted that numerous aesthetic aspects of quarian culture "superficially borrows from a mish-mash of Western stereotypes of "othered" races to create a patchwork "exotic" body of colour", citing for example headscarves worn by quarian females and the "Pilgrimage" rite to be evocative of stereotypes of Islamic religious practices, and the manner in which Tali's voice actress described her character's accent using a derogatory term for the Romani people.

[19] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, commentators noted similarities between the plight of the quarians, who were forced to wear masks and be hyper-aware of potential risks from infection, and the experiences of people during lockdowns.