Codex text
The official story of the Qunari attack upon the South holds that the "Dragon's Breath" plan to attack the south was a rogue action against official Qunari orders. This is true, but it is not the whole truth.
The Salasari, Triumvirate of the Qun, represents the Qunari people: the Arishok commands the Antaam, the military branch that represents the body; the Ariqun leads the scholars and priests, representing the soul; and the Arigena guides the craftspeople, representing the mind. After the Breach wreaked chaos across the South, the Triumvirate suggested caution and sent a Qunari representative to observe and report on the Inquisition. But some in the Antaam and the Ben-Hassrath believed their leaders lacked the will to end the threat. Dragon's Breath was indeed unsanctioned, but it was not unpopular. Qunari who had fought the blood mages of Tevinter had learned to fear all magic. They wanted a fast solution.
When Dragon's Breath failed, the surviving Ben-Hassrath spies surrendered. In contrast, the Antaam insisted that Dragon's Breath had failed because it did not go far enough. The bas, they declared, did not merit education under the Qun. They must be conquered or destroyed. When their Arishok, who had fought darkspawn in Ferelden during the Fifth Blight, argued against this demand, his own kithshoks declared him corrupt. They ambushed the Arishok at the war council, leaving him badly injured.
And then the bloodthirsty Antaam went to war, a body now bereft of mind and soul.
—Excerpt from Marloqun: The Loss of Reason by Seer Rowan of Dairsmud