A Delta Quadrant species that cannot reproduce biologically and instead revives the dead of other species, transforming them into Kobali.
The Kobali are a humanoid species of the Delta Quadrant who are unable to reproduce in the ordinary way. Instead they collect the bodies of the recently dead from other species and revive them using a genetic process that alters their bodies into Kobali form. The revived become members of Kobali families and are expected to give up their former identities.
In the episode Ashes to Ashes, set in 2376, a Kobali woman comes aboard USS Voyager and reveals that she is Lyndsay Ballard, a crew member who had been killed on an away mission years before. Her body was found and revived by the Kobali, but she has always longed to return to her shipmates. The Doctor reverses part of the change so that she looks human again, and she rekindles a friendship with Harry Kim. However, her body keeps reverting, and her Kobali father arrives to take her home. Ballard decides to return to the Kobali.
The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for its makeup and is a moving story about identity and belonging.