Fun Stuff > CLIKC
Dragon Age 2: Fuckin' Bitches, Stabbin' Dragons
KvP:
Best thing about the Qunari is that Gaider said they were inspired by Islam after they were turned into demonic communists.
--- Quote from: Bioware ---Qunari
The people of the Qun are, perhaps, the least-understood group in Thedas. The Qunari Wars were brutal, but so was the Chantry Schism. So was the fall of the Imperium. Some of this misunderstanding is an accident of nature: The race we call “qunari” are formidable. Nature has given them fierce horns and strange eyes, and the ignorant look on them and see monsters.
Some is an accident of language: Few among the Qun’s people speak the common tongue, and fewer speak it well. In a culture that strives for mastery, to have only a passable degree of skill is humiliating indeed, and so they often keep quiet among foreigners, out of shame.
But much of it is a result of the culture itself. The qunari view their whole society as a single creature: A living entity whose health and well-being is the responsibility of all. Each individual is only a tiny part of the whole, a drop of blood in its veins. Important not for itself, but for what it is to the whole creature. Because of this, the qunari most outsiders meet belong to the army, which the Qun regards as if it were the physical body: Arms, legs, eyes and ears, the things a creature needs in order to interact with the world. One cannot get to know a person solely by studying his hand or his foot, and so one cannot truly “meet” the qunari until one has visited their cities. That is where their mind and soul dwell.
In Seheron and Par Vollen, one can truly see the qunari in their entirety. There, the unification of the qunari into a single being is most evident. Workers, whom the Qun calls the mind, produce everything the qunari require. The soul, the priesthood, seeks a greater understanding of the self, the world, and exhorts the body and mind to continually strive for perfection. The body serves as the go-between for the mind, the soul, and the world. Everyone and everything has a place, decided by the Qun, in which they work for the good of the whole. It is a life of certainty, of equality, if not individuality.
–From the writings of the Seer of Qont-arr, 8:41 Blessed.
--- End quote ---
Alex C:
I just don't feel like browbeating KvP into self-censorship out of some need to defend David Gaider's honor, that's all. I'm willing to put up with some snark if there's more to a post than some screenshots.
Josefbugman:
I thought he said they were Militant Buddhist Borg. And they are partially inspired by the Turks from what I remember (what with the Tevinter being Byzantium afterall).
To be honest they seem like collectivist, turkish, confucian buddhists. It'll be interesting to see how they interact with the rest of the world if we ever get to see their home cities.
KvP:
I don't mind people taking issue with what I post. It's not a big deal.
Anyway, this is what Gaider said on the Bioboards
--- Quote from: David Gaider ---The qunari are sort of like what you'd get if you crossed Islam with the Borg. Hmm. *writes that down*
--- End quote ---
In a rare bit of self-consciousness the admins more or less immediately backtracked, and anyone who brings the quote up is banned.
KvP:
Really it's a problem with fantasy in general as much as it's a problem with Bioware's Thedas - anything that takes after Tolkien's Middle Earth, in which races and cultures within the world are thinly veiled analogs for real-world cultures, has a troubling tendency to make cultures outside of Europe exaggerated in their exoticism. Western Europeans are the protagonists of history.
For reference, this is the Dragon Age wiki article on the Qunari's religion, the Qun:
--- Quote from: Dragon Age Wiki ---The qunari follow the philosophy of the Qun (kyoon), a violently evangelical religion based on the writings of the ashkaari Koslun. The Qun defines the role of everyone and everything in the society of the qunari, regardless of whether it is spiritual or mundane. For example, some qunari are raised as soldiers from a very young age. They are expected to be strong, disciplined, and stoic, adhering without fail to the tenets of honor and duty as defined in the Qun. Fanatical in this devotion, the qunari are prepared to wage war throughout their entire lives as part of their attempts to "enlighten" all other races in regards to their philosophy.
The qunari live after the rules in the Qun unquestioningly, and see it as their duty to convert the unbelieving, giving them their rightful place in the Qun. Even qunari attempts at trade with other races and nations are done primarily to size up potential opponents, rather than to amass resources or wealth.
The qunari do not believe in gods and find the concept of invisible all-knowing beings who are interested in judging you after you die laughable. They tolerate deism in the converted populations in Rivain and Seheron, however, as they view their inhabitants as just beginning the path to enlightened self-knowledge, and that they will discard that sort of superstition eventually.
Qunari who have abandoned the Qun are called Tal'Vashoth and live away from the qunari homelands, often working as mercenaries, some of whom the Warden will meet in places. Qunari value their weapons highly and consider them part of their worthiness. A qunari soldier must never be separated from his sword; such individuals will likely be shamed and/or executed upon returning to the homeland.
--- End quote ---
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