The potential of playing as Qunari in the heart of the Qun’s most hated foe is an enticing prospect for players, albeit a daunting one for the writers of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. In order to examine the circumstances that could make a playable Qunari protagonist in Dreadwolf a homerun for BioWare, it would be best to start at their origins.
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How Dragon Age: Origins and Its Sequel Handled the Qunari
Dragon Age players have strong opinions about the Qunari warrior Sten, introduced in the first game long before Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Be they positive or negative, the perception of Sten’s ironclad principles represented a player’s first window into the rigid, utilitarian culture of the Qun, founded by Koslun on Par Volen.
Those who follow the teachings of the Qun have no personal identity, no family, and no romantic unions. Despite this, the Hero of Ferelden can earn the respect of Sten over the course of their shared journey, earning the title “basalit-an”. No matter how strong the friendship develops between the pair, Sten remains a devoted follower of the Qun and regretfully warns the Hero of Ferelden that the Antaam – the army of the Qunari led by the Arishok – will eventually march south in a war of conversion.
The sequel to Dragon Age: Origins took the Qunari further by making them a centerpiece in the colorful tapestry of plots that make up Hawke’s time in Kirkwall. It introduces the irritable Arishok and his vanguard, marooned in Kirkwall’s harbor while on the search for the stolen tome of Koslun. Over the years, many political factions try to take advantage of the Qunari’s arrival to further their agenda. These plots of subterfuge and scheming eventually provoke the Arishok into declaring war against Kirkwall, seizing the city with ease, and decapitating its viscount.
Though in most cases Hawke defeats the Arishok and becomes Champion of Kirkwall, the plot’s purpose lies in establishing the irreconcilable differences between the Qun and the other cultures of Thedas. It offers purpose and comfort to the downtrodden at the cost of personal freedom and identity; the Qun’s mages live a life of even heavier chains than those from the Circle of Magi. With the stage set, BioWare enters Dragon Age: Inquisition by introducing the companion of Iron Bull and making the Qunari playable for the first time in franchise history.
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The Qunari of Dragon Age: Inquisition and Setting the Stage
One of the windfalls that sprung from Inquisition’s extended production was the opportunity to make playable Qunari into a reality. Players could choose to make their Herald of Andraste a Vashoth – someone who had been born outside the Qun, but still belonged to the horned race of giants from Par Volen. In their quest to close the Breach and restore the Veil, the players were joined by another Qunari called Iron Bull.
Leading a mercenary company as a cover, Iron Bull was actually called Hissrad, and was an agent of the Qunari’s espionage branch known as the Ben-Hassrath. He represented a reliable connection to Par Volen for the Inquisitor, and depending on player choices, could either turn away from the Qun and become an enemy to his people called Tal-Vashoth or betray the Inquisitor once the Qunari Conspiracy kicked off in the game’s final hours.
Over the course of Inquisition, players would discover that the Dread Wolf himself was terrified of the prospect of the Qun converting Thedas, and held great contempt for the Qunari ideology. Though he possessed an agenda of his own, he would nonetheless help the Inquisitor thwart the Qunari plot to assassinate the leadership of the southern states of Thedas and gain converts from the resulting chaos. In the wake of the failed conspiracy, the Antaam launched a new assault on the Imperium unsanctioned by the rest of the Qunari, capturing the cities of Ventus, Neromenian, and Carastes. The war crimes perpetrated in the city of Ventus galvanized even greater support for the Tevinter war against the Qunari, setting the stage for the events of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
A Qunari Protagonist in Dreadwolf Could Rival The Elven Inquisitor
The plot of Dragon Age: Inquisition delved into the lore of the Ancient Elves through Solas and the Dread Wolf, offering riveting insight into how warped the Dalish legends were. Though a playthrough of Inquisition as any race was valid in its own right for its own reasons, an Elven Inquisitor gave the game’s story a unique set of personal stakes, and an intimacy to many of its lore reveals that the other races lacked. The first Inquisitor himself was an elf of the Dales, a fact scrubbed from the history books by the Chantry in the years that followed the Exalted March.
Furthermore, to be an elf in southern Thedas often meant living as a second-class citizen. Distrusted in Orlais, Ferelden, and even the Free Marches, most elves in Dragon Age either lived a miserable existence in an Alienage or an isolated one among the Dalish – and just as it was with the Hero of Ferelden, so too was the elven Inquisitor shaped by these circumstances. In fact, Solas, Sera, and the Inquisitor formed a perfect trio depicting the collective tragedy the elven people suffered over the centuries, and they were each rebelling against those circumstances in their own way.
It was due to this suffering that the Dread Wolf was able to construct his vast network of spies, as his dream of rebuilding the ancient world of the Elves appeals to all those who had been wronged at the hands of humans and their cruelty. However, northern Thedas and the Tevinter Imperium is a different beast altogether, and the current climate has shifted away from the Elves and onto the Qunari.
To be Vashoth in Tevinter likely means discrimination and distrust on a scale that rivals or even surpasses that of being an elf. Given Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s setting and plot, it would be a missed opportunity if players weren’t allowed to explore this dynamic up-close as a Qunari protagonist. Furthermore, one of the game’s rumored companions is a female Qunari rogue, though as yet, her allegiance remains unknown.
As the Dread Wolf attempts to enact his plot to merge the Fade with the world of Thedas, the chaos of the Tevinter and Qunari war will no doubt take the stage as its most important secondary conflict. The sequel to Inquisition may well decide the fate of the Qun regime, as its marching armies contrast against the peaceful Vashoth in Tevinter. Where being an elf in Inquisition took players into the heart of the conflict in a personal way, playing as Qunari might end up doing the same in its sequel. Though the game has yet to reveal more of its plot, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has entered alpha stage, which hopefuly means more reveals in the near future.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is in development.
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