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[Ieldra]

First the confusing facts:

There are people who are known as, and call themselves, "qunari". In the past, they had been known as "kossith" but now they call themselves "qunari", but since that refers to being followers of the Qun, they have an extra name for members of their race who aren't: Tal-Vashoth. To everyone else with no specific education in the subject, "qunari" refers to the race, which is technically wrong but nobody, not even those who know, appears to mind. Furthermore, since the Qun is a philosophy it can acquire followers of other races. These are also called "qunari" by people who know "the" qunari are called that because of the philosophy they follow, but the horned qunari only consider members of their own race qunari and have different terms for acquired followers from other races. There is no widely-known or widely-accepted name for the horned race as such, and people who use "kossith" are using a term the race itself doesn't use anymore.

So...WTF?

You know, I really like all this confusion. It sounds so....real-world. Many people may be unaware of this, but there are real religions tied to ethnicity which result in a very similar confusion in terms where almost everybody who isn't a scholar of that particular subject gets things technically wrong in everyday speech, but most people who actually know about the confusion don't bother to correct everyone else because things are just too complicated and it isn't worth it.

Just like the real-world equivalent, I don't think the confusion is intentional on Bioware's part but rather a result of the evolution of terms and worldbuilding, but that doesn't make me appreciate it less. A nice example of things not being conveniently and unambiguously labeled.

[David Gaider]

Ieldra2 wrote...
I also don't understand the Bioware writers' insistence that a certain term isn't used even in out-of-world debate.

We have never insisted on that. I have, in fact, said that people should feel free to use whatever term they want. This image that some people keep propogating that I or the other writers are filled with rage every time we so much as see the word is, as far as I can tell, just an attempt to paint us as petulant.

My only issue, as I've said many times, is some fans invoking "kossith" and expecting everyone to automatically understand a term that's mentioned in a couple of codex entries. It's become like some kind of litmus test for the super-hardcore-- "are you good enough to know what 'kossith' means?" --and some fans treat it like that, correcting others on its usage.

We've clarified what is proper in terms of the game lore--many times--and what we'll use in the actual game...which is that, when we use the word "Qunari", we mean the race of big guys with the horns who follow the Qun. If we mean anything else, we'll specify, though chances are we'll only need to when the Qunari themselves are involved, because they're the only ones who know or care about the difference.

What you guys do with that info is your business. The people who use "kossith" as a racial term are going to have to contend with those who anally point out that it's not, in fact, the right word...just as the people who use "qunari" are going to have to contend with the people who deliberately misinterpret despite the presence of context.

So, yeah. Good luck with that.