It’s been awhile since I’ve played a Dragon Age game, but I vaguely recall the Qunari having a coherent system that works for them, and they’re made out to be scary and foreign in an orientalist kind of way.
I love the Qun and the Qunari. I think the way they’re presented in the games make sense, as this scary Other that looks different and have a different religion. Most of the people you interact with are Andrastean, the world’s analog for Christianity. All they’ve heard is propaganda and fearmongering about the Barbarians to the East. But when you meet Qunari and actually interact with them, they’re shown to be honorable folk and usually pretty normal.
The Qun sort of combines a lot of Others into one religious ethos. Buddhism, Islam, socialist ideas, and a sort of caste system. I find that it makes it that much more compelling, so seemingly alien to the rugged Andrastean individualism and libertarianism, yet from the sounds of it their society is the only one truly thriving. Mostly free from crime, utterly powerful and with a fiercely loyal populace. The few religious Qunari you talk to often make compelling arguments for the benefits of adhering to the Qun, and they’re usually very likeable characters.
They’re also the only society that embraces trans people with open arms, as indicated by a conversation between Iron Bull and his Tevinter-human transmasc crewmate, Krem. Homosexuality is functionally forbidden in Tevinter, yet Iron Bull makes it clear that there’s nothing homophobic in the Qunari worldview. On the other hand, a big cultural issue in the Dragon Age series is how people born with magical power should be treated. In Ferelden, they’re violently controlled by the Chantry and isolated from society. In Tevinter, mages rule the country and maintain iron fisted control over their own Chantry (after the schism with Ferelden over the role of magic and religious imperialism). In Par Vollen, homeland of the Qunari, they’re leashed and mutilated and forced to be used as weapons. So… win some, lose some.
Sorry, I could go on about Dragon Age lore for hours if someone let me.
I’m usually pretty bad about remembering lore and plots from fiction, but the way mages were treated in the game’s society always stood out to me. On the one hand, the way the mages in the chantry are cloistered is clearly oppressive, and if you try to go your own way you’ll get hounded by the Templar goon squads. What they do to the tranquil is especially fucked up and kind of reminds me of how antipsychotics got rid of most of what little personality I had. On the other hand, while the constant threat of demonic possession is kind of like mental illness, they do also become weapons of mass destruction in the control of a demon if they get possessed, so its not hard to see why people would want to control that.
I don’t think there’s any real world analogue for a group for which oppression is to an extant neccessary to prevent them from becoming major public safety hazard. I can’t help but wonder if Bioware was just playing with a cool idea that could only exist in fantasy or if they, consciously or unconsciously, were writing conditions into their lore that justify oppression as a neccessary aspect of human society.
Yeah absolutely. I hope that their intentions aren’t to mirror real-world political issues with the Mage-Templar divide, but those comparisons will be made anyway. Drawing upon themes of oppression and subjugation in fantasy is tricky business I think, and seemingly very difficult for some writers to properly abstract from real world liberation struggles, and real world atrocities. Analogies can also be useful, at times.
Another potentially controversial analog is that of the Dales and the Dalish. The Andrasteans waged an Exalted March against them, basically committing genocide and turning a once thriving nation into scattered clans trying to recreate their ancient animist culture out of the few scraps of their native history that weren’t deemed heretical and destroyed by the invaders. This 1:1s pretty snugly with real world imperialism, especially imperialism perpetuated by Catholic states, and the destruction of native peoples in the “New World”. It’s also, in my opinion, extremely intriguing lore and gets me all the more hype to roleplay as a Dalish elf revolutionary. Fine line and all that.
On the mages though, Dragon Age is going to Tevinter and I couldn’t be more excited. In Ferelden and Orlais it’s so bloody obvious that the Chantry are corrupt theocrats who abuse common people, mages, the irreligious, anyone of a different species, on and on and on. The mages are almost certainly 100% in the right to be fighting for liberation. But then there’s Tevinter. It makes the dialogue surrounding magic so much more nuanced and complex. The nation ruled by power-hungry mages who use their innate gifts to subjugate and oppress others, enslave and annihilate people, and rather openly consort with demons and practice blood magic. It serves as an example to give the Templars just enough credibility in their ideology to make mage liberation a difficult question, and I enjoy it thoroughly.
For a brief example of why I find the Qunari so fascinating:
on the qunari occupation of Par Vollen
Stories of Qunari occupation vary greatly. It is said they dismantled families and sent captives to “learning camps” for indoctrination into their religion. Those who refused to cooperate disappeared to mines or construction camps.
For every tale of suffering, however, there is another of enlightenment deriving from something called the “Qun.” This is either a philosophical code or a written text that governs all aspects of Qunari life, perhaps both. One converted Seheran reported pity for those who refused to embrace the Qun, as if the conquerors had led him to a sort of self-discovery. “For all my life, I followed the Maker wherever his path led me,” he wrote, “but in the Qun I have found the means to travel my own path.”
(From Dragon Age in case anyone is unfamiliar)
I was thinking of playing Dragon Age Origins at some point next year.
I played it when it came out but I was too young to understand anything so I don’t remember any of it.
Origins remains amazing to this day. It may feel a little dated in comparison to more modern RPGs, but it’s honestly my favorite out of the bunch and the only RPG of its kind I am constantly going back to.
