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[Sugao]

I'd really like to ask about the metaphysical nature of death and the Fade and everything in Thedas (is it an afterlife or an alternate dimension or something else?), but I have the sneaking suspicion that the devs wouldn't want to discuss it due to both major spoilerage for potential future plots and due to the temptation to strike just a little too close to real-life religions and possibly ignite a fan flame war. Thus, I shall bug you with the other big topic on my mind: those confusing Qunari. Rather than pulling a thread necro on the old Qunari topics, I figured I'd make my own new one. Time for a dozen random questions!

• Do all Qunari know their true names, er, genetic identification sequence? For example, if a tamassran walked up and asked them who they are, would they know off the top of their head, or do they carry ID cards or just rely on a really well-maintained central records system?
• If they do know them, what's to stop them from sitting around and figuring out who they might be related to? Does it just not occur to them to be curious about that?
• Related to the above knowledge, what's the usual reaction to having a less-than-great bit of info in your GID? Aside from perhaps questioning the wisdom of the tamassran who decided on a breeding with a one-in-three chance of a heart defect, maybe.
• Why is there no crossbreeding of the races? Is it one of those things that "just isn't done"? I can see why you wouldn't use a kossith male with a female of another race; even if the act of mating were possible, if those giant genes are dominant, there's a very good chance she'd die in childbirth when an oversided baby head gets stuck in her tiny pelvis. I suppose even if they weren't dominant, if you put together two humans carrying recessive kossith genes, there's a chance to have a giant baby then, too. But what of the other races? We know elves and humans are interfertile and can give birth fine. It would make sense to use whatever available pairing has the traits you're looking for, even if it's not of one race.
• If being born without horns makes you special, why aren't there more hornless kossith? Are there just more interesting and important traits to breed for, or is it a case of avoiding "if everyone is special, then no one is special"?
• Do they breed specifically for magical ability? I know they hate mages, but keep them around because you need magic to fight magic. So do they intentionally breed for it, or is that one of those undesirable recessive gene complexes that's really hard to breed away from because it keeps popping up when you thought it was gone? If it is intentional, is it publically known that they do, and what does the average Qunari think of intentionally creating dangerous things?
• Another topic mentioned the idea of wet nurses. Makes sense, as it centralizes the infants and there's not a great deal of difference between the milk produced a month after birth versus a year after birth, at least not as great as the difference between one month and one day. I'd expect that the birth mother nurses for the first day to provide collostrum, as it's fundamentally important to immunity and she's likely not going to be doing a lot that day but recovering from birth anyway (getting her back to her usual job as fast as possible makes sense, but there's only so much a body can take in a single day). Is this correct?
• Related to the above, do they leave the wet nurse's infant with her, or do they intentionally mix them up to avoid the mother playing favorites?
• Are imekari reared in gender-segregated groups for the first few years to avoid the Westermark effect, or do they just have to put up with the "ew, you're like my sister" feelings if called upon as a breeding pair later in life?
• How do tamassrans address individual imekari in a group setting? I'd assume they don't call them by their GID, unless perhaps they're very mad at them and threatening a trip to the Ben-Hassrath (like a parent using a full name, first middle and last). Do they number off, or are there even titles for imekari that can be changed, to get them used to the idea of getting a new "name" every once in a while? I'd imagine that'd be quite confusing at first; I sometimes have trouble even remembering to write a new month down as the calendar turns, but at least my name doesn't change with it.
• What do imek and viddath actually mean? I recognize the -ari suffix denoting a type of people and thought it would be interesting to see what they think of children and converts. I'm thinking viddath is something like "change", due to the fact that, depending on the suffix it's ended with, it can refer to someone who's changed into a Qunari or changed into a mindless thing, or also to the temples used by the Ben-Hassrath to cause change. Imek could be something as simple as "young" ("small" makes no sense, as most Qunari are kossith and most races are small compared to them even as adults), or something as poetic as "potential" or "unrevealed", refering to their unrevealed potential in society.
• What does stel brak mean? It's the only line of Sten's in the toolkit that doesn't have a translation in the voice notes. Is it just that rude?

Also, can someone give me a link to Mary Kirby's post that (perhaps jokingly?) mentioned that Sten may have been in love with the Warden? I mentioned it in a conversation one day and was asked for it, but when I went searching, all I could find were posts from other people referencing that one, not the original itself.

[Sugao]

Seems my post has fallen down to the second page with no response; that's no good. Time for a bump...WITH MORE QUESTIONS!

Also, I think we need a spoilerific lore-specific board. Most of these questions aren't specifically tied to either DA:O or DAII or DA3, and I'm sure others have questions that are more about the lore of Thedas than specifics of one single storyline.

• Qunari don't worship any gods, but they do have prayers for their dead, at least, and possibly for other things. So what exactly are they praying to? Or is this more of a convention of translation, since "Prayers for the Dead" sounds more poetic than "Repetitious Chants for People in Mourning to Occupy Their Minds With"?
• On a related note, what's their stance on an afterlife? We know they don't believe a dead body is anything but a chunk of meat, but do they believe death is just "poof, you don't exist any more" or do they have some concept of a spirit which continues its existence on another plain outside its old body?
• What is their belief on the origin of their world? Do they take a Deist stance, believing in a creator of some sort who later walked out, or do they follow the modern scientific thought that the laws of physics state that there should be stuff, and therefore there is stuff? Sten briefly alludes to evolution in a comment that humans resemble monkies, but that could have been as much a joke as anything.
• Speaking of Sten, one of his banters with Morrigan insinuates that he believes she ought to wear more clothing, but if the Tamassran in Those Who Speak is any indication, Qunari women don't exactly wear a lot, either. If imekari are raised by women wearing so little, wouldn't he think her attire is pretty normal?
• Are all imekari taught both the Qunari language and the common tongue of Thedas? Sten was chosen for his ability to speak it (and possibly his less frightening, more "human" appearance), but the Saarebas in Dragon Age II also speaks it very well. Considering Qunari mages aren't allowed to speak at all, I can't imagine bothering to teach them a second language after their magical abilities have surfaced.
• Speaking of saarebas, what purpose does sewing their mouth shut have? It doesn't keep them from actually speaking; that's done with a seal that can be broken at will by the control rod (and doesn't seem to do much good in Qunari society, as Avaarad acts like he understands the growls), and if they insist on trying to be chatty, by removing their tongue entirely. It doesn't seem to really serve a true purpose, aside from perhaps making eating very, very difficult. Of course, their chains don't seem to serve much purpose, either, as they don't seem to restrict movement in the slightest; they'd just be rather heavy and loud if a saarebas ever got the crazy idea to run away.

[Corker]

Sugao wrote...
Also, can someone give me a link to Mary Kirby's post that (perhaps jokingly?) mentioned that Sten may have been in love with the Warden? I mentioned it in a conversation one day and was asked for it, but when I went searching, all I could find were posts from other people referencing that one, not the original itself.

The farther back I go, the more likely it seems that the quote isn't from Kirby herself, but rather Sheryl Chee:

http://social.biowar...611118/2#612950

Kirby's words on how Sten thought of the Warden are here:

http://social.biowar...94184/7#4400969

[Ferretinabun]

Sugao wrote...

Why is there no crossbreeding of the races? Is it one of those things that "just isn't done"? I can see why you wouldn't use a kossith male with a female of another race; even if the act of mating were possible, if those giant genes are dominant, there's a very good chance she'd die in childbirth when an oversided baby head gets stuck in her tiny pelvis. I suppose even if they weren't dominant, if you put together two humans carrying recessive kossith genes, there's a chance to have a giant baby then, too. But what of the other races? We know elves and humans are interfertile and can give birth fine. It would make sense to use whatever available pairing has the traits you're looking for, even if it's not of one race.

Goody, a genetics question. I'll take that one... :happy::happy:

All humans are very closely related to each other. Genetically we are actually a shockingly uniform species (no matter what Mass Effect says). So there is no reason why two people - even as distantly related as two human beings can possibly be - should be unable to breed.

If we take the Qunari as a whole different species to humans, then we really shouldn't expect them to be able to interbreed successfully with them at all. That would be like expecting a human to be able to breed with an orangutan.

Frankly, it's far more surprising that humans ARE able to interbreed with elves. That implies that they are not really a different species at all - at best just a different race.

Or maybe it's just, y'know, elf magic...