#qunari positive

[thedaselcor]

Newest chapter of Viddathari essam Ashkaarebas is up! We're up to 9 published chapters of Sataareth Issqun adventures!

[thedaselcor]

I have a few wips but since this thread is already going in a dragon age-y direction, I'll share a bit from my current dragon age wip Viddathari essam Ashkaarebas: The converts are in the Inquisition.

By the time she reached the center of the blanket and found her way to the floor with crossed legs, she was on her rock facing the Great Ashkari, and the Ocean crashed all around and into the two of them.

“Ashkaari Koslun,” she asked, “is the danger of the Saarebas really within their nature?”

The spectre of the Ashkaari never actually spoke unless it was to repeat a  direct passage from the Qun she knew from memory. The Ashkaari was long since dead and, as always, her lessons with him would have to come from within. Still, having him there was somehow still comforting, stabilizing..

“Ashkaari Koslun,” she said, because it always felt better to speak to a friend--even an imaginary friend-- than to lecture oneself directly. “I do not believe that the danger of the Saarebas  comes from their nature.” She leaned in towards the spectre, as if telling a secret to an old and dear friend. “I think the danger comes because we cannot stand with them where they go, and we cannot protect them from their struggle, and we do not know if there are stars to guide them home from the land of the dead.”

She sat in this way for a long time, using the mental superimposition to understand the tangible world. When she spoke to the Great Ashkaari, she untangled the thoughts within her. When the ocean crashed and roared around and onto both herself and the Ashkaari, she grounded herself in her breath, in the traditions of her people, in her nature. When she planted herself firmly on the rock, she planted herself firmly on the blanket in the physical world, nullifying all the ripples around her and being, entirely, until she could work her way through her own mind. 

Within this layer, she was able to come to terms with her decision to perform the surgery on the Saarebas and carry him to relative safety. She was able to decide that she didn’t actually believe she had inflicted a danger upon the world by doing so. As the night came to a close, she was finally able to let go of the imaginary Saarebas she’d carried in her mind since saving the real one.

Helllloooooo! I know people are maybe tired/busy/unavailable today, so no pressure or anything, but I thought we could all share WIPs today?

Writing, art, whatever you want! (I’m gonna tag DA bc most people are here for that, but feel free to share no matter what you’re working on!)

I’ll post mine in a bit! Rb + add !

No pressure of course— have a great day! ☀️

[mercars-musings]

Finally posting a pic of my rook - I love him so much he's so pretty and so fuckin tired & happy shits finally over lmfao

[knife-eared-jan]

In case anyone is interested, this is the modding wishlist so far...

The bold ones are what I would very much like to try to have fun with myself, the others are a sobbing plea to the universe for someone to take pity on me bc I figured I probably lack the skills to make them myself.

They're roughly ordered by how desperate I am for them to exist.

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-Remove combat VFX (except mages & bombs reduced) -> sadly this doesn't seem to be part of the accessibility features which are otherwise great, but like, my autistic brain literally fries up with all the flashiness, I'll just meltdown 24/7. If you know how to do this, I would love you 5ever.

-Isabela outfit swap + darker skintone + age-up -> this is terrible in so many ways. Can't believe how they butchered my girl jfc I thought we were done with this type of shit??? (That was the spoiler I saw just now hooo my god). Also, let her be in her 50s pls!

-Morrigan outfit overhaul + hairstyle swap (to 36) -> Free her from the double boobs! Also, her actual hair is basically in the CC, why give her that millenial mum haircut? And again, let her be nearly 50.

-Qunari face texture edit -> needs no explanation, I bet it will be the most popular mod of the game forever

-Shadow Dragon PJ swap (mage outfit without shoulder pads?) -> it's PJs 2.0 and I don't like it. I guess that's why they gave Inky the same outfit, cause it just really looks like that. I got obsessed with this other one that is essentially the mage outfit sans the shoulder thing. I think that would make a great casual outfit.

-Inquisitor outfit overhaul/swap -> see explanation for the Shadow Dragon PJs. It makes perfect sense as a stand-in for the Inquisition PJs but then my Inkys are never actually subjected to them. Hope there is a Dalish outfit or otherwise a Veil Jumper one, that fits my Lavellan. It would also be fun to craft my own with pieces of different armors from Inquisition and Veilguard maybe.

-Inquisitor prosthetic replacement -> There's lots of different headcanons people have for theirs and it's sad there isn't a slider for different options. I don't even know yet what I'd like myself, but something a little more obviously a prosthetic I think. Or none at all maybe. Just, choices are cool.

-Mourn Watch Rogue armor retexture -> I am apparently the only person on this planet to feel this way, but I loathe the Mournwatch rogue armor - it just gives Joker. Like, I might like it in a TOTALLY different setting, but it does NOT give Thedas at all. Love the controversial mage one though, so I guess i'm just weird.

-Irelin hairstyle swap (to 64) -> to match the hairstyle she had in The Missing that fit her much better. Again, it's in the CC, why didn't they just use it?

-Solas face texture edit (no orange contour, bigger scar, more freckles?) -> look how orange you are, gurl! Like, I'll live without it, but I am bothered... I bet the creation of his scar comes up in the memories as well, so why is it so smoll.

-Solas retina change to more outer blue -> I get that he's cool and mysterious now, but I liked the blue a lot. just personal preference tho

[watcher1ngellvar]

I'm actually loving the qunari path for taash, especially the grafting of shathann's horn to their own. Obviously I wish we could encourage them to embrace both sides of their culture, but there are beautiful moments in each path regardless.

[nohr-selphias]

Everyone can stay hating on the qunari cc . I WILL be making a hot qunari lady w a fivehead and she will be so beautiful to me, and more importantly beautiful to Davrin / Emmrich

[pondering-gales-left-orb]

this was originally tags on a re-blogged post but i had so much more to say so here we go

THE QUNARI AND WHY YOU ALL SHOULD BE NORMAL ABOUT THEM

the qunari story and lore drives me insane with how the fandom treats them

because we see them form the eyes of feraldans and orlesians and kirkwallers we never get a look form the inside

we only see what they see and they only see the military side so ofc to them they think they are all rigid and strict! even when you try to know more from the qunari we meet, they only talk about their training and military life which is normal ask any army soldier about his daily life and he wont talk about the flowers he saw walking down the street obv

the three Qunari characters that we see are literally the military convoy dispatched to another kingdom, the fucking president who is also the leader of the military forces, and the secret police guy (not even mentioning the actual straight up army and army general we meet in trespasser) why would they present as anything but scary intimidating and imposing when talked to by strangers??

everything anyone is gonna tell that is bad about the Qunari im gonna tell you you dont know if every single Qunari does these things do they all believe in force conversion? the Full Qun is not taught fully to everyone you only get taught the relevant parts to you and your potential, only the priests know it all, so how many Qunari actually know and agree with the actions of the secret police and conversion army?

the military and police training even in our world includes a great deal of unlearning kindness and care and relating to people and involves a great deal of dissociation but do regular people do that to?? do the Qunari people learn to disconnect the same way a ben-hassrath does? the logical answer is no because why would a baker or a shoe maker or a tailor need this heavy military training?

both Sten and iron bull once they get to know you TELL YOU that you cant judge the qunari based on them only, there are a whole nation of regular people in there that just living their life they do not have the harsh life the military trained have, they laugh around the fire and enjoy life in their own way and its different but not at all at the same time

the fucking arishock himself tells you you cannot inquire about regular qunari life from him because he is not a regular person he is a military man -the leader- he didnt live the life you are asking about he didnt learn the answers you need

when Wynn says to Sten "your people dont seem like music people" and he calls her out on that saying" based on what how do you know that?" and proceeds to tell her that he is not the equivalent of his people not every person is like him and he doesn't represent the nation as a whole they have music and art they have fun they have a beautiful life just not him in that moment because he has a job to do away from all that

in the fade you see his memories of relaxed qunari having fun and laughing and making fun of each other and that's STILL his military coworkers

do you think a regular ass Qunari that's like a cook in a tavern is gonna talk so much about the re-educators the same amount as bull?? do you think they even interact with them beyond childhood education (aka school....the part of the qun they need to be a cook)

all three of them ask you is that bad? is that worth destroying like your people think? do you think they are savages like your people think? compelling you to think beyond them to the people of par vollen

and im sad the fandom doesn't think about these questions critically and just generalizes the military experience on the nation of Par Vollen and by extension the Tal-Vashoth too

for example do you think the baker in par Vollen wants the Tal-Vashoth dead or is it just the military leaders? i bet if you go to a par Vollen vegetable seller and tell him "the Arishok is going to hunt Tal-Vashoth tomorrow" hes gonna blink twice and then say "alright....anyway so are you gonna buy something ?"

the transition of iron bull from Qunari to Tal-Vashoth is supposed to show you that regular people on both sides don't reflect the military goals of the leaders they both just want to live a fulfilling life how ever different that is from what we consider a fulfilling life and we get to see what that looks like to Qunari through the tender moments shown to us like with Sten and the whole charges and the bull story, the ones who want them dead are the military

but no the fandom has decided All Qunari bad All Qunari fascists or whatever as if the military goals of the chantry are better somehow

but then they give andrastian people grace they dont afford to the Qunari even though they are both regular people that follow two beliefs that doesn't consider the small folk in anyway shape or form as anything but fodder to further their ideology but one of them only has their death justified and accepted while the other are allowed to live and are given a plethora of excuses

[zundely]

So far the one big criticsm I have is- I do hate how they made the Qun a boogeyman for Antivan Crows to be cool vigilantes about. I was sort of having some hope maybe they would make this more interesting with no real good guys, but nope, Qunari are more bad racist caricature of a society then ever before and Antivan Crows conviniently forgot they get most of their recruits from child slavery I guess.

And like, I know know they made a really huge point of calling it "Antaam" and not "Qunari". But still, their leader getting nicknamed "the butcher". The whole dictator-coded speech was also very odd for Qunari. And yeah, the qunari writing was always very problematic but it feels like this time there wasn't any thought put into how to write them in an interesting fashion and maybe fix some past mistakes (since writers are clearly willing to retcon things), instead all we get "Qun bad Assasins good".

[new-austin]

"Karash will go to those who heal the mind"

Ah... the ben haasrath?? Um... Idk if I want him to do that. Wait a minute

[ir-abelas-vhenan]

Oh cool you're a gamer? Normally I'd claim such a chill and nebulous label for myself, but thanks to a helpful anon I now know instead that the proper term is "piece of shit"

[magnetic-rose]

so/las stannies found my post

[thedaselcor]

Chapter 8 is up!

[freelanceplatypus]

Have you seen the design of the qunari in veil guard

It’s um

Not great

They are megamind now

I was at work when the flood of new DATV content dropped earlier today and could only read an article about it and the author commented specifically on how prominent the qunari foreheads were.

After watching some of the CC on youtube videos I'll admit a lot of it does just look plainly BAD. The most standout thing is the lack of texture on the forehead. It's horn base FOOORREEEHHHEEEAAADDD then the brow ridge. It's just this smooth expanse that doesn't blend into either the horns or brow on either side of it.

Now, do I think this is a lost cause for Qunari lovers everywhere? No, not at all. There are some skin textures that seem to help aid in masking the smooth plane that is the Qunari forehead. Bringing back biowares love of geometry based "sliders" we now have a triangle shaped forehead slider that appears to be able to decrease the space between horn and brow.

It took a lot to make a decent qunari (especially male) in DA:I and I think its going to take a decent amount of fussing and going back and fourth with settings to make a qunari pc whose skull looks like it makes sense in DATV.

Biggest take away is that the horn base texture just does not seem to carry down to the forehead and it looks ODD. I think we will see a lot of qunari rooks with bangs lol. I just think the folks playing in this early access did not have the time to make a Rook that looked GOOD. Even those choosing the other races came out with some wild looking characters.

DA2 had the best race features and I think if bioware had the guts they'd go back to da2 style qunari but life isn't made for gamers like me.

[mercars-musings]

Astaarit "Az" Mercar AKA "Rook"

Template is by the absolutely amazing @cmndrshepardofficial !!

I spent waaaaaaay too long doing this but I'm so happy with the results!

[girlbob-boypants]

You also cant seem to have a qunari Rook who likes being Qunari/enjoys that culture as far as I can tell.

[technicalgator]

what if the Shadow Dragons had a species based off their symbol. a species that resides mostly in Shadow Dragon territory, where they can be companions to fellow Shadow Dragons, a source of intel via spying, or the biggest headache for merchants and shopkeepers. what then.