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WHO IS ESHAL FAZON.

Basics

NAME: Eshal Fazon AGE: 29. NATIONALITY: Rivaini. RACE: Human. OCCUPATION: Diplomat (?) TITLE/RANK: Diplomacy Division Co-Head.	HEIGHT: 6"2' BUILD: Muscular. HAIR: Black. EYES: Brown. SKIN: Darker brown. BEARING: Tired and very tall. And very tired.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: A very tall Rivaini woman with a rather muscular build, though she's wont to slouch. Is generally disrespectful and flippant, aggressively casual, unless she's Doing Her Job, which she takes Very Seriously.

Status

DIVISION: Diplomacy.
PROJECTS: Drinking.

Bars. Brothels. The docks. Fights.

During work hours, you can find her around the Diplomatic wing of Riftwatch, poking her nose into people's projects and / or making herself available for anyone in the division.

Reputation

The lady who was a Qunari, or whatever that means (depends on how much your character knows about the Qun, yo). That lady who fights a lot. That lady who drunk me under the table. That lady who punched my sister. That lady who fucked my mom.

That lady who speaks several languages and is a wealth of information on Qunari internal politics and diplomacy, the co-head of the Diplomacy division.

Hooks

Do you need something from Diplomacy Division's branch of... stuff? She can do that!

Do you hate the Qun? Not as much as her! It is a competition.

Have you seen the absolute bullfuckery of Seheron? Want to drink about it?

Got some questions about the Qun and what the fuck Qunari are? She'll answer them... probably. If you buy her a drink. And she's in a good mood. Which is rare. Unless it's for official business, in which, ask the fuck away!

Wanna feel awkward about Rivain? Well, howdy doo!

sup.

( Read more... )

CODEX ENTRIES: THE SOUL CANTO.

This is a series on codex entries and what I can extrapolate from them. I'm only choosing sources that are 1) written by Qunari, and 2) are likely to have been read by other Qunari.

Source: The Soul Canto.

You can read it there or skip right to the general breakdown, the poetry breakdown, or just my bullshit thesis. If this isn't what you're looking for, return to the glossary.

A traveler asked the Ashkaari: "What was your vision of our purpose?"

The Great Ashkaari replied: "I will tell you a story."
A vast granite statue stands on an island, holding back the sea.
The heavens crown its brow. It sees to the edge of the world.
The sea drowns its feet with every tide.
The heavens turn overhead, light and dark. The tide rises to devour the earth, and falls back.
The sun and the stars fall to the sea one by one in their turn, only to rise again.
The tide rises, the tide falls, but the sea is changeless.
Struggle is an illusion. There is nothing to struggle against.
The deception flows deeper. The statue resists the ebb and flow of the sea,
And is whittled away with each wave.
It protests the setting sun, and its face is burned looking upon it. It does not know itself.
Stubbornly, it resists wisdom and is transformed.
If you love purpose, fall into the tide. Let it carry you.
Do not fear the dark. The sun and the stars will return to guide you.
You have seen the greatest kings build monuments to their glory
Only to have them crumble and fade.
How much greater is the world than their glory?
The purpose of the world renews itself with each season. Each change only marks
A part of the greater whole.
The sea and the sky themselves:
Nothing special. Only pieces.
—Tome of Koslun, the Soul Canto

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

If we're going back to Jesus Stuff, this very much feels like one of his parable stories. Not that I've ever read one. Can I get some actual Christians in the house? (I don't think it's written with these Christian influences for any deep meaningful reason beyond the fact that Most Of The Writers Are Christian.)

So, this being the Soul Canto means it's specifically for the priestly class of the Qun, as guidance and warning and all the other fun culty bits we get into with this shit.

Struggle is an illusion. There is nothing to struggle against.
This is a Qunari proverb that's used not fucking infrequently over the games. Fucking Fenris says it once. He probably definitely hasn't read Koslun, he probably picked it up by osmosis, which just lends to how often it gets thrown around

You have seen the greatest kings build monuments to their glory
Only to have them crumble and fade.
How much greater is the world than their glory?
WHAT UP OZYMANDIAS

POETRY BREAKDOWN

(tho its really more prose)

A vast granite statue stands on an island, holding back the sea.
The heavens crown its brow. It sees to the edge of the world.
→But seriously folks, Ozymandias. I like the idea that they're using the futility of historicity in the original poem to instead feed a collectivist ideology. Those dovetail really well but I hadn't thought of it before now. Also, like, didn't Marx say history is ending? I can definitely see the Qun being into that concept, if only for crowd control.

The sea drowns its feet with every tide.
→The second most common metaphor after desert metaphors is ocean metaphors, which makes a tad more sense since Par Vollen is an island and the Qunari are really good at boats.

The heavens turn overhead, light and dark. The tide rises to devour the earth, and falls back.
The sun and the stars fall to the sea one by one in their turn, only to rise again.
The tide rises, the tide falls, but the sea is changeless.
→Resistence is futile, etc. But furthermore, with this anti-historical mindset, I can see this as a metaphor for... who cares about building monuments for time, live in the now, work in the now, don't think about legacy.

Since the 'soul' of the Qun, the priest and scholar class, are in charge of deciding who breeds who and when, and being visible leaders, warning them against the vanity of remembrance is critical.

Remember, you can only be proclaimed a truly important person to the Qun until after death. Because someone of singular importance, or a legacy, is an individual, not a grain of sand in the desert.

The deception flows deeper. The statue resists the ebb and flow of the sea,
And is whittled away with each wave.
It protests the setting sun, and its face is burned looking upon it. It does not know itself.
Stubbornly, it resists wisdom and is transformed.
→You can fight against it and try to be singularly magnificent, but all in all you're just another brick in the wall, man.

If you love purpose, fall into the tide. Let it carry you.
→So, speaking of ocean metaphors, the tide is generally a metaphor for the world / life. Which is a metaphor for the Qun.

In short, go with the flow.

Do not fear the dark. The sun and the stars will return to guide you.
→A similar refrain to the Body Canto.

You have seen the greatest kings build monuments to their glory
Only to have them crumble and fade.
How much greater is the world than their glory?
→I'm glad the dystopian collectivist nightmare is anti-monarchy!

But yeah, another 'singular glory is unimportant' refrain, except this time it leans hard on the 'so how does all this great glory and shit help the whole?' How does it help the world? How does it help everyone else?

And they're right, it doesn't. They go to extreme extremes to fix the problem, but the Qun is basically what the alt-right thinks democratic socialism is, so yk.

The purpose of the world renews itself with each season. Each change only marks
A part of the greater whole.
→Things might seem bad, but have you considered: shut the fuck up and do your job.

The sea and the sky themselves:
Nothing special. Only pieces.
→God this is such an ode to anti-individualism.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If this is a parable to the priests and scholars of the Qun, it's got one big fucking message all in front, and that's YOU AIN'T SHIT. The leader of the 'soul' of the Qunari is the Ariqun, and they and those who work under them are tasked directly with steering the ship of the Qun, so to speak. They decide how to interpret the tomes, who breeds the next generation, when and how; they're the fucking government.

And the lesson the tome of fucking Koslun really wants to tell these people is, essentially, that seeking personal glory for their efforts is absolute fucking poison. Don't be proud of your work. Don't try to be better than everyone else. Don't get competitive. Don't be an individual. Serve the whole. Do the best that you can do, and don't do anything out of personal glory.

If the central message of the Body Canto is the death of individualism, the central message of the Soul Canto is the extreme danger of self-adulation.

Return to glossary.

CODEX ENTRIES: THE BODY CANTO.

This is a series on codex entries and what I can extrapolate from them. I'm only choosing sources that are 1) written by Qunari, and 2) are likely to have been read by other Qunari.

Source: The Body Canto.

You can read it there or skip right to the general breakdown, the poetry breakdown, or just my bullshit thesis. If this isn't what you're looking for, return to the glossary.

Tonight, in the desert, with emptiness all around,
The sky, endless, the earth, desolate,
Before my eyes the contradiction opened like a night-blooming flower.

Emptiness is an illusion. Beneath my feet,
Grains of sand beyond counting.
Above my head, a sea of stars.
Alone, they are small,
A faint and flickering light in the darkness,
A lost and fallen fragment of earth.

Alone, they make the emptiness real.
Together, they are the bones of the world.

Solitude is illusion. Alone in the darkness,
I was surrounded on all sides.
The starlight dripped from the petals
Of cactus flowers,
A chorus of insects sang across the dunes.

How much abundance the world carries
If every fistful of sand
Is an eternity of mountains.

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

The constant refrains of the desert and desert metaphors make me wonder where the Qun came from. We know they aren't indigenous to Par Vollen. Desert country is possible.

The fact that this is called the Body Canto makes it significant, especially considering there's also a Soul Canto. In Qunari society, all functions are sorted into one of three, the army, the priests, and the laborers. Metaphorically, they are the body, soul and mind of the Qun, respectively. Antaam, the word for 'army' in Qun, is also the word for 'body'.

POETRY BREAKDOWN

Tonight, in the desert, with emptiness all around,
The sky, endless, the earth, desolate,
→ More desert references. So far they've shown up in every excerpt of the Qun so far. Interesting because I don't know that there is a desert on Par Vollen. If there is, we'll find out (or not, if DA4 never hits, who fucking knows), but if there isn't, there's entire generations of Qunari growing up being read this shit with no frame of reference for deserts and sand and scarabs. Which would be hilarious, except the majority of people reading the bible have never been to Galilee before. It's a fucking clever reference.

It also makes me wonder if the Qun has a holy city.

Before my eyes the contradiction opened like a night-blooming flower.
→Again, the contradictions of an unbalanced world, and more desert metaphors.

Emptiness is an illusion.
→How would I translate this? Hissraas, honestly, seems to be the easiest. Or maraas hissrath. Fucking dragon age languages!

Beneath my feet,
Grains of sand beyond counting.
Above my head, a sea of stars.
→But, yeah, emptiness is false like chaos is false, because complexity. If you feel useless or that your task is useless, you're just not looking close enough.

Alone, they are small,
A faint and flickering light in the darkness,
A lost and fallen fragment of earth.
→The collectivism slam. Everything is just a part of a whole. Nothing is meaningful individually.

Alone, they make the emptiness real.
→Ahhhh, you're only alone when you're not part of the whole. Give in to the collective.

Together, they are the bones of the world.
→Which ties directly into the body metaphor. Bones of the world, as you are the body of the Qun.

Solitude is illusion.
→God, they're probably totes cool with solitary confinement aren't they. From what we know about Qunari reeducation / torture, it's way more mental than physical. Whoops!

Alone in the darkness,
I was surrounded on all sides.
The starlight dripped from the petals
Of cactus flowers,
A chorus of insects sang across the dunes.
→Again with the desert metaphors. Anyway following up on this, in a more uplifting interpretation, you could go back to the collectivist roots. If you're a part of something, truly, you're never alone, even if it feels like it. A lot of rhetoric in these Koslun cantos point directly to 'hey disenfranchised? Wanna get enfranchised?'

Which is another hallmark, for me, of a good cult / movement / etc building ground.

How much abundance the world carries
If every fistful of sand
Is an eternity of mountains
→Why would you ever feel bad when you can just work and be part of a whole and everything will be fine?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Given that this is called the Body Canto, I'd speculate it's meant specifically to refer to the soldiering class of the Qunari whole.

With that in mind, this is very much a 'shut up and do the thing' poem. It's underscoring the point that you're a tiny part of the whole, and you must cooperate with the group in order to feel any purity of understanding.

Further, it places all blame on not feeling good on you. The system didn't fail you, you failed to fit into the system, and that's why you don't like mindlessly following orders, killing, doing whatever's required of you. You just need to accept your role, man.

Return to glossary.

CODEX ENTRIES: ASIT TAL-EB.

This is a series on codex entries and what I can extrapolate from them. I'm only choosing sources that are 1) written by Qunari, and 2) are likely to have been read by other Qunari.

Source: Asit tal-eb.

You can read it there or skip right to the poetry breakdown, or just my bullshit thesis. If this isn't what you're looking for, return to the glossary.

When the Ashkaari looked upon the destruction wrought by locusts,
He saw at last the order in the world.
A plague must cause suffering for as long as it endures,
Earthquakes must shatter the land.
They are bound by their being.
Asit tal-eb. It is to be.
For the world and the self are one.
Existence is a choice.
A self of suffering, brings only suffering to the world.
It is a choice, and we can refuse it.

POETRY BREAKDOWN

When the Ashkaari looked upon the destruction wrought by locusts,
→He saw at last the order in the world.
Retelling the story given in prose in The Qun.

A plague must cause suffering for as long as it endures,
Earthquakes must shatter the land.
They are bound by their being.
→Essentially, another central tenet of the Qun: You are what you are, and you are bound to that function and utility. It's inescapable. You must be what you are (are meant to be), or you're choosing not to exist, because the only you is fulfilling that utility.

tl;dr All things exist to serve their proper function.

Asit tal-eb. It is to be.
→The watchword for this general concept, condensed into a phrase. It's stacked in with higher meaning, like how 'turn the other cheek' have biblical meaning beyond just the simple phrase.

For the world and the self are one.
→You are not separate from your place in the world, because you're a part of it. You function within it, just as much as plagues and earthquakes have their invariable function. Society should function in tandem with that idea, as a measured whole with balance and clarity.

Existence is a choice.
A self of suffering, brings only suffering to the world.
It is a choice, and we can refuse it.
→Hearkening back to The Qun again.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is taking general ideas already expressed in previous codices and recontextualizing them into a hyper-collectivist mode. The Qun is economically socialist, but it's socially collectivist. One individual may have more authority than others, but all serve a great whole and that service is what defines them. Individualism is allowed to a certain extent in practice, but as you can see from this codex, it's not remotely the point of the Qun as a whole. Individual fulfillment should be found in the utility to, furnishing of, and cooperation with, the whole.

Return to glossary.

CODEX ENTRIES: THE QUN.

This is a series on codex entries and what I can extrapolate from them. I'm only choosing sources that are 1) written by Qunari, and 2) are likely to have been read by other Qunari.

Source: The Qun.

You can read it there or skip right to the general breakdown, the poetry breakdown, or just my bullshit thesis. If this isn't what you're looking for, return to the glossary.

Long ago, the Ashkaari lived in a great city by the sea. Wealth and prosperity shone upon the city like sunlight, and still its people grumbled in discontent. The Ashkaari walked the streets of his home and saw that all around him were the signs of genius: triumphs of architecture, artistic masterpieces, the palaces of wealthy merchants, libraries, and concert halls. But he also saw signs of misery: the poor, sick, lost, frightened, and the hopeless. And the Ashkaari asked himself, "How can one people be both wise and ignorant, great and ruined, triumphant and despairing?"

So the Ashkaari left the land of his birth, seeking out other cities and nations, looking for a people who had found wisdom enough to end hopelessness and despair. He wandered for many years through empires filled with palaces and gardens, but in every nation of the wise, the great, the mighty, he found the forgotten, the abandoned, and the poor. Finally, he came to a vast desert, a wasteland of bare rock clawing at the empty sky, where he took shelter in the shadow of a towering rock, and resolved to meditate until he found his answer or perished.

Many days passed, until one night, as he gazed out from the shadow of the rocks, he saw the lifeless desert awaken. A hundred thousand locusts hatched from the barren ground, and as one, they turned south, a single wave of moving earth. The Ashkaari rose and followed in their wake: a path of devastation miles wide, the once verdant land turned to waste. And the Ashkaari's eyes were opened.
Existence is a choice.
There is no chaos in the world, only complexity.
Knowledge of the complex is wisdom.
From wisdom of the world comes wisdom of the self.
Mastery of the self is mastery of the world. Loss of the self is the source of suffering.
Suffering is a choice, and we can refuse it.
It is in our own power to create the world, or destroy it.
And the Ashkaari went forth to his people.

—An excerpt from The Qun, Canto 1

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Clearly while some call this book The Tome of Koslun, it's real name is The Qun (or whatever passes for definitive articles in Qunlat??¿).

'The Ashkaari' is clearly Koslun. 'Ashkaari' seems to be a general title-- the Warden can be called an ashkaari by Sten-- rather than a singular title (like Martyr vs God's Son or w/e). However, The Ashkaari is almost always Koslun. Which is weird because as far as I can tell Qunlat doesn't have definitive articles. Moreover, this was written by Koslun, right? Clearly it's not prideful for him to consider himself an ashkaari. I'd take all this as indication that 'ashkaari' is not actually a big deal title as its made out to be.

The Ashkaari walked the streets of his home and saw that all around him were the signs of genius: triumphs of architecture, artistic masterpieces, the palaces of wealthy merchants, libraries, and concert halls. But he also saw signs of misery: the poor, sick, lost, frightened, and the hopeless.

Art and culture: good. Class inequity: bad. The central message of this excerpt is really: Why should good and bad exist together?

The Ashkaari walked the streets of his home and saw that all around him were the signs of genius: triumphs of architecture, artistic masterpieces, the palaces of wealthy merchants, libraries, and concert halls. But he also saw signs of misery: the poor, sick, lost, frightened, and the hopeless.

And if that's a central tenet, the Qun really is a form of dictatorial socialism.

So the Ashkaari left the land of his birth, seeking out other cities and nations, looking for a people who had found wisdom enough to end hopelessness and despair. He wandered for many years through empires filled with palaces and gardens, but in every nation of the wise, the great, the mighty, he found the forgotten, the abandoned, and the poor. Finally, he came to a vast desert, a wasteland of bare rock clawing at the empty sky, where he took shelter in the shadow of a towering rock, and resolved to meditate until he found his answer or perished.

I always kinda assumed this was a Jesus-In-The-Desert nod. Someone who's actually Christian pls confirm if this is a fair read y/n.

A hundred thousand locusts hatched from the barren ground, and as one, they turned south, a single wave of moving earth.

Hyper-collectivism. All are one, all are part of a whole. A swarm, moving in tandem.

POETRY BREAKDOWN

IMO the poetry is super important so I'm gonna break it down bit by bit:

Existence is a choice.
→Obviously a central tenet of the Qun, but it's actually explained (via metaphor) in this bit of poetry:

There is no chaos in the world, only complexity.
→Nothing is random, nothing cannot be mastered, nothing cannot be known or understood. Everything is useful, important, and most importantly definable. Everything can be fit into a box if you try hard enough.

Knowledge of the complex is wisdom.
→To back up the former, if there is no chaos, that means there are no unknowable variables, just variables you don't know yet. Study, motherfuckers.

From wisdom of the world comes wisdom of the self.
Mastery of the self is mastery of the world.
Loss of the self is the source of suffering.
→Which circles back to existence being a choice. Because they don't mean being born existence, they mean being what you are meant to be existence. And that is a choice. You can be stupid, lazy, counter-productive, or you can be better, and that existence is a choice. Which on the one hand is p cool because it implies everyone has worth in this society.

(In theory. In practice, the Qun is the Qun, but yk holy books and their interpreters, whoops.)

Suffering is a choice, and we can refuse it.
→Uplifting while also placing the blame on anyone who doesn't 'fit' solely on them, not the system. You're just choosing not to do things right!!

It is in our own power to create the world, or destroy it.
→I'm going to speculate here that 'the world' is metaphorical for 'society', but it works either and both ways.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm not a sociologist, but something I've noticed from independent study is a general criteria of things-that-people-follow. Cults, religions, governments, leaders, rhetoric, nationalities, anything that requires your identity to be subsumed in some way by a greater, independent idea.

-A narrative for where it came from.
-That narrative leading into how you fit into the story.
-Making you feel good / comfortable / secure.
-Solving a perceived problem.
-A reason to be obedient.
-An end goal far enough afield that continued, possibly indefinite, obedience is required.

This passage has all of those things.

-A narrative for where it came from.
→The story of how Koslun came to his conclusions about the world.
-That narrative leading into how you fit into the story.
→You can better yourself by following Koslun's teachings.
-Making you feel good / comfortable / secure.
→You can master yourself and become better / stronger / etc.
-Solving a perceived problem.
→Inequality and injustice and chaos will go away if we all join the Qun.
-A reason to be obedient.
→Inequality and injustice and chaos will go away if we all join submit to Qun.
-An end goal far enough afield that continued, possibly indefinite, obedience is required.
→It's gonna take a long time for inequality and injustice and chaos to go away everywhere.

Return to glossary.

QUTALOG.

All my bullshitting on trying to figure out the Qun and Qunlat, easily fucking organized. These aren't totally canon, but they are my best extrapolation from canon sources. They shouldn't be taken as writ, they're just how I organize and understand this shit in my head.

→QUNLAT

General Breakdown: A little over-verbose and disorganized because I was really just getting my thoughts out. Details a lot of my theories on how the language works.
Word Roots: A simplified user's guide based on common roots in Qunlat and what they mean in various contexts.
Conlang: Words I have made up for the purposes of RP, mostly based on preexisting Qunlat.

→CODEXES

The Qun.
Asit Tal-eb
The Body Canto.
The Soul Canto.

If you have any questions or disagreements or other thoughts or whatever, I'd love to hear them, hook me up bro.

qunlat: absolute beginners.

Qunlat is a language that seems to subsist in great part due to word roots which can be remixed into new different words, giving them new meaning and adding layers onto the intention. I figured I'd list them all for ease of access, and to make sure I don't repeat the wheel, here.

If this isn't what you're looking for, you can return to the glossary.

INDEX

above
ANIMAL
BALANCE
CHILD
CONVERT
DANGER
DEATH
WORD
FRONT
INJURY
LIE
PEOPLE
UNKNOWN; possibly refers to healing, liquid, the earth, and / or the mind.
SEEK
SOMETHING
SPECIAL
STRUGGLE
THING
RANK
TRUE
WEAPON

CONTENT

AQUN - Balance.
↳ AQUN-ATHLOK - One who is "born as one gender but lives like another¹.

LOK - Unknown, but shows up in several words, possibly pertaining to healing, liquid, the earth and / or the mind.
↳ ATHLOK - Laborer. Pertains to the mind / the earth (which may be synonymous / homonyms in Qunlat).
↳ GAATLOK - Qunari Gunpowder. Said to reference death, earth, and glory.
↳ MARAAS-LOK - Alcohol popular under the Qun. Interesting since 'Maraas' is Qunlat for nothing.
↳ TAARLOK - A rank in the Qunari army. Likely having to do with heavy armor or warding off injury / death. See lok for more details.
↳VIDDATHLOK - A temple of healing and reeducation under the Qun. Interesting since 'viddath' generally pertains to conversion and education of viddathari..

VIDDATH - Appears consistently in words concerning or pertaining to conversion or reeducation.
↳VIDDATHARI - Convert to the Qun, generally first-generation and not grey-skinned.
↳VIDDATHLOK - See above.
↳VIDDATH-LOK - Person lobotomized to become a mindless laborer for the Qun.
↳VIDDATHISS - A reeducator.

BAS - Literally 'thing'. Figeratively, often used to describe non-Qunari, as they are not people, just 'things'. Further more, a general additive to increase the intensity of an insult. Has connitations to weapons (literal things), magic and mages (see below).
↳BAS - Literally 'thing'. Also an insult for non-Qunari.
↳BASRA - A more insulting form of 'bas', used almost exclusively for non-Qunari.
↳BASALIT-AN - A non-Qunari who is nevertheless worthy of respect.
↳BASVAARAD - The Qunari assigned to watch over Qunari mages.
↳SAAREBAS - Literally 'dangerous thing', is the Qunari word for mages, who are not citizens under Qunari law, but objects, barely-controlled weapons.
↳IMESAAR-BAS - A child that was corrupted or tempted by a demon; most likely, a young Qunari showing signs of magical acumen. Notice how 'bas' also implies magic, in this context. 'Imesaar' seems to be a combination of the roots for child and danger, respectively.

IME[K] - A suffix generatally implying a child or childishness.
↳IMEKARI - A child or group of children. Using the root 'imek' and the suffix '-ari'.
↳IMESAAR-BAS - See above.
↳IMEKARI-RAAS - An insult for an unruly child; literally 'nothing child', or 'child of nothing'. Also a stock-character in Qunari tales about how children ought to behave; Imekari-Raas is, of course, the goofus.
↳IMEKARI-SAAM - A complement for a behaved child; literally 'something child' or 'child of something'. Also a stock-character in Qunari tales about how children ought to behave; Imekari-Saam is, of course, gallant².

SAAR - Danger.
↳SAAR-QAMEK - Poison causing madness.
↳SAAREBAS - See above.
↳SAARTOH-BAS - A mages' staff. I've yet to encounter a Qunlat word for 'magic'; I assume this is purposeful, and 'saar/e' means both danger and magic..
↳SAARTOH NEHRAPPAN - A strap-on. This is an example of how language changes meaning due to roots being used and overused. Saartoh likely originally referred to 'mage staffs', but eventually came to mean every kind of long blunt staff. Nehrappan means belt. The combination: a strap-on. Thus, despite the name, this object has nothing to do with magic or danger (if used responsibly).
↳SAARATH - A rank among the Saarebas.

ARI - A suffix (and occasionally prefix) denoting either a kind of person, or group of people (Qunlat does no appear to have plurals). Generally, it's singular if it's a prefix (and implies superlative authority or rank) and plural as a suffix.
↳ASHKAARI - Literally, 'person who seeks' (ash.
↳ARIGENA - One of the triumvirate; the authority over Qunari agriculture, public health, and basic laborers.
↳ARIQUN - One of the triumverate; the authority over Qunari scripture, interpreting the Qun and teaching it.
↳ARISHOK - One of the triumverate; the authority over Qunari military operations.
↳IMEKARI - See above.
↳ISSKARI - A Ben-Hissrath troop meant to retrieve magical artefacts. Uses the suffix iss.
↳KABETHARI - Simple person(s). Specifically referring to non-Qunari who will soon be converted, especially captured prisoners, those living on newly occupied Qunari lands, and refugees.
↳KATARI - One who brings death. Uses the more intense root for death, kata.
↳BESRATHARI - Recruiter(s) for the Ben-Hissrath.
↳QUNARI - People of the Qun.
↳SATAARI - Shock troops. Literally 'first person on the ground', making it likely that 'sata' means 'first'.
↳SALASARI - The Qunlat word for the ruling triumverate.
↳TAAM-KASARI - An infantry rank for those who use battleaxes. Literally 'the one(s) with the battle-axe(s)'. See here for more.
↳VIDDATHARI - See above.

TAAR - A suffix that denotes illness, injury, or death, depending on the context. When it means death, it's generally 'lesser' than the kata root, which implies more finality. Can also denote heavy armor.
↳ASALA-TAAR - Literally 'soul-sickness', it's the Qunlat word for what we understand as PTSD or shellshock.
↳BERES-TAAR - Sheild. Literally 'in front of injury / death', thus shielding you for it.
↳TAARLOK - See above.
↳TAARAS - Light armor.
↳TAARBAS - A cleric who catalogs inventory, presumably handling the armory. Uses bas root.
↳TAARDATHRAS - Someone who works in animal husbandry; can do anything from farming to extracting dragon venom. Uses dathras root.
↳QUNLAT - DESC.

DATHRAS - Literally 'cattle', but can be used to refer to most animals.
↳VITAAR - Poison face paint, literally 'poison armor'.

-AD - A suffix that modifies the root word indicating the full word does the action indicated by the root; similar to adding the '-er' in English, adding it after 'teach' makes 'teacher', etc.
↳AARVARAD - The Qunari whose job it is to mind the saarebas. Literally 'one who holds back evil'.
↳BASVARAAD - The Qunlat word for 'bas' who do the work of aarvarads, essentially templars and anti-magic warriors who don't live under the Qun..
↳DARVAARAD - A location under the supervision of the ben-hissrath that 'quarantines' magical items.
↳HISSRAD - Liar. Uses hissra root.

-AAD - Suffix denoting a military placement or rank.
↳ASHAAD - Scout. Literally 'seeker', uses ash root.
↳BERESAAD - Vanguards, diplomats, surveyors, foreign trade administrators, and investigators of lands foreign to the Qun. Literally 'those who reach ahead'. Uses beres root.
↳KARASAAD - Mid-rank infantry soldier. Uses kara- suffix.
↳VASAAD - Rank in the Qun; meaning unknown.

KARA- - A prefix denoting a higher rank than the average infantryman; colloquially can be used to mean 'higher' or 'better'.
↳KARASAAD - See above.
↳KARASHOK - Infantry private. Uses shok root.
↳KARASTEN - Infantry commander; corporal. 'Sten' is Qunlat for 'basic soldier'..
↳KARATAAM - An infantry platoon.

KAS - Suffix denoting that an object is meant as a mele weapon.
↳SATA-KAS - A maul.
↳TAAM-KAS - Battleaxe.
↳VALO-KAS - Greatsword.

SHOK[RA] - Struggle, war, unrest. Generally, 'shok' is used as the root form, while 'shokra' is more of a noun.
↳ARISHOK - See above.
↳KARASHOK - See above.
↳KITHSHOK - An army general. 'Kith' is Qunlat for a military unit.
↳SHOKRAKAR - Rebel.

HISSRA - Lie, fake, illusion, and also 'god/s'.
↳BEN-HISSRATH - The internal, 'secret' police of the Qunari. As they are technically spies, the 'hissra' refers to their illusory nature.
↳HISSRA - The literal noun for illusion, lie, fake, and divinity.
↳HISSRAD - A liar. Uses -ad suffix.

-RAAS - A suffix denoting nothingness, emptiness, a lack of substance or even personhood.
↳MARAAS - Nothing; the noun form.
↳MAARAS-LOK - A Qunari alcohol. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it combines these roots.
↳IMEKARI-RAAS - See above.

TAL - True, generally a prefix.
↳TAL-VASHOTH - Literally 'true grey ones', these are ex-Qunari who managed to leave Qun-occupied lands and no longer follow the Qun's teachings.
↳TALAN - Truth. Appears to be the noun form.
↳ASIT TAL-EB - A Qunlat phrase of great importance to the Qun's teachings; it means 'it is to be', and implies the whole 'choose your existence' view that Ketojan espouses in DA2⁴. Seeing as 'asit' is almost certainly a third person singular present verb (ie, 'it is'), while we don't know the meaning of 'eb'⁵, the inclusion of 'tal' adds special significance, possibly to emphasize the sentence..
↳TALLIS - To solve, to find truth.

ISS - A root, often a prefix, denoting 'specialness', magnitude or, when used in conjunction with a weapon, that it's for veteran users.
↳ISSKARI - See above.
↳ISSQUN - Mastery, perfection..
↳VIDDATHISS - See above.

KATA - Death. More intense than taar; 'kata' always specifically means death and final endings.
↳KATA - Death; can be used as a noun with no modification.
↳KATARA - "You, die!" As discussed elsewhere, the second person imperative, meaning 'kata' is also a verb root.
↳KATARI - See above.

ASH[K] - Seeking, looking.
↳ASH - The verb root.
↳ASHAAD - See above.
↳ASHKAARI - See above.
↳ASHKOST - Second person plural present form of 'to seek', ie 'you all seek'⁶.

BERES - A suffix denoting being first or coming in front.
↳BERESAAD - See above.
↳BERES-TAAR - See above.

SAAM - 'Something', often a suffix³.
↳IMEKARI-SAAM - See above.

QUNLAT - Translation.
↳QUNLAT - DESC.
↳QUNLAT - DESC.
↳QUNLAT - DESC.

FOOTNOTES
¹ - For more information on the speculated literal meaning behind 'Aqun-Athlok', see earlier writing on the subject, as well as the posited meaning behind 'athlok' / 'lok'.
² - For those of you who, for whatever reason, don't get the 'Goofus / Gallant' reference, they were staple comic strips in the US. They were all basically like this.
³ - Also the first person plural present tense in Qunlat verb conjugations, but that seems to be a coincidence? Maybe? I guess we'll see if DA4 ever comes out.
⁴ - For more fun and games, try on this codex for size. What, you were here for the conlang but not the fantasy philosophy? Wow, really fucked that one up, huh.
⁵ - Though I have my suspicions.
⁶ - From one of Sten's battle cries in DA:O, "Ashkost kata!", 'You are seeking death!'.
⁷ -
⁸ -
⁹ -
¹⁰ -
¹¹ -
¹² -
¹³ -
¹⁴ -
¹⁵ -
¹⁶ -
¹⁷ -
¹⁸ -
¹⁹ -
²⁰ -

Return to glossary.

CONLANGING THE QUN.

THIS IS ALL HEADCANON. I'm using it to keep track of the Qunlat I inevitably make the fuck up so I don't reinvent the wheel. This is a companion(ish thing) to this post, and is made entirely so I can keep my thoughts straight and take notes. You do noooot need to read both. You don't need to read either. Honestly, why are you here? If you're not sure either, you can return to the glossary.

INDEX

→VERBS

verb endings
- present
- future
- past
TO EAT
TO EAT: IMPERATIVE
to BE
to solve
to shit
to seek

→NOUNs

SHIT
MAGIC
Leadership (concept)

→invectives

general
SHIT

→PHRASEs

GOOD COP, BAD COP
thanks
[it] can't be
Need too know

CONTENT

OSHASRA: To eat, second person imperative. Presumably this means oshas is the root of 'to eat'.^*¹.

VASHEBAS: Shit(ty) thing. From combining vashedan (seems to be an adjective / adverb form of 'excrement') and bas (thing). Presumably this is just a general form of insulting an object, like calling something 'trash'².^*

SAAR-ISS: Magic. Literally 'special danger', from combining saar (danger) and iss (special). ^*

TAL-EBKA: It isn't or it shouldn't, implied 'it can't be'. From Qunlat expression asit tal-eb (it is meant to be), and adding -ka to the end. Though looking at this now, I probably should have made it 'asitka', since that's the verb. Oh, well. I can always argue it's a colloquialism. ^* ^†

VASHED: Excrement, invective form. Literally, "shit!". From vashedan, the descriptive³ form of excrement.^*

STEN-SAAM, STEN-RAAS: Literally 'soldier-something, soldier-nothing', colloquially the equivalent of the modern phrase 'good cop, bad cop'; this is taking from the use of imekari-saam, imekari-raas to mean 'good child, bad child'^* ^†

EHEU: Any exclamation of surprise, like 'wow', 'ah', 'ow', or 'oh'. Shamelessly stolen the Latin, because we're all going to hell and I intend to see you there. ^*

PASHAAR: 'Thanks', in the colloquial sense. Literally 'enough', from 'pashaara'. Probably informal. ^*

ARIKARA: Leadership, sovereignty, official power. From how ari is used to denote leadership in the triumverate, and kara, meaning 'above in rank'.^*

Need to Know: From 'iss', special, and 'salit', meaning unknown so I can do what I want. ^*

: ^*

TABLES

For starters, here's my best fucking guess on verb endings, some are confirmed and some are my best guess based on context and crap.

Present

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

-Edan / -Dan

-Asit

Plural

-Saam

-Ost

-Adim

Future

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

-Idath / -Dath

-Toh

Plural

Past

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

-Eb

Plural

-Tot

And onto the shit I just fucking made up based on this system of unmitigated guesswork.

OSHA[S]: To Eat (root)

Present

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Oshasdan

Oshas-

Oshasit

Plural

Oshasaam

Oshasost

Oshasadim

Future

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Oshasidath

Oshas-

Oshas-toh

Plural

Oshas-

Past

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Oshas-

Oshaseb

Plural

Oshas-

Oshas-tot

VASH[E]: To Shit (root)⁴

Present

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Vashdan

Vash-

Vashesit

Plural

Vashesaam

Vashost

Vashadim

Future

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Vashidath

Vash-

Vash-toh

Plural

Vash-

Past

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Vash-

Vasheb

Plural

Vash-

Vashtot

ASH[K]: To Seek (root)

Present

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Ashdan

Ash-

Ash-sit

Plural

Ashsaam

Ashkost5

Ashadim

Future

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Ashidath

Ash-

Ash-toh

Plural

Ash-

Past

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Ash-

Ashkeb

Plural

Ash-

Ash-tot

TALLIS: To Solve (root)

Present

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Tallisdan

Tallis-

Tallis-sit

Plural

Tallis-saam

Tallisost

Tallisadim

Future

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Tallisidath

Tallis-

Tallis-toh

Plural

Tallis-

Past

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Tallis-

Tallis-keb

Plural

Tallis-

Tallis-tot

E[B]: To Be (root)

Present

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Edan

Eb-

Ebasit

Plural

Ebasaam

Ebost

Ebadim

Future

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Ebidath

Eb-

Ebatoh

Plural

Eb-

Asit

Past

1st Person

2nd Person

3rd Person

Singular

Eb-

Ebakeb

Plural

Eb-

Ebatot

FOOTNOTES
¹ - No basis in existing Qunlat, except for the fact that first person imperative verbs seem to end in -ra. So, that's fun.
² - Qunlat's go-to insult seems to be shit. Fucking seems to be an insult as well, but only rarely. The most grave insults seem to be calling a person an animal, a thing, or a child.
³ - Does Qunlat have a different form for adverbs vs adjective? I bet not.
⁴ - I made the root of 'to shit' into 'vash/e' instead of 'vashed' because it looks nicer when conjugated, fight me.
⁵ - The extra 'k' is because of one of Sten's battle cries, ashkost kata, translated to 'you all seek death' ('you are seeking death'), and we know kata means 'death', so... either that or the K denotes future perfect but wow i dont want to get into perfect verb forms oh my god.
⁶ -
⁷ -
⁸ -
⁹ -
¹⁰ -

Return to glossary.

PRETTYBOY

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

SHARPS

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

SWEETS

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

PRINCESS

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

BONE

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

SQUIRE

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

SPEAKER

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

THE PRETTY ONE

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

BAS

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

ASHKAARI

👍 ❓ 🍆 🔪

WHO IS ESHAL FAZON.

sup.

CODEX ENTRIES: THE SOUL CANTO.

CODEX ENTRIES: THE BODY CANTO.

CODEX ENTRIES: ASIT TAL-EB.

CODEX ENTRIES: THE QUN.

QUTALOG.

qunlat: absolute beginners.

CONLANGING THE QUN.

QUNLAT BREAKDOWN.

TRACKING.

CR | hovertext included.

HDM.

VISUALS

INBOX.