There is a mention of the Qunari in the Last Flight book. Garahel brags or jokes that he once seduced a Qunari (page 47.) Is this just an oversight or anachronism, as this wiki claims the modern Qunari appeared in Thedas 3 centuries before the events described in Dragon Age Origins, but 4th Blight took place over 400 years before? Lord Frivolous (talk) 03:22, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- Liane Merciel on the Qunari discrepancy in Last Flight
- "I wanted to use ogres (ogres are cool!), which meant that the Qunari could not be totally removed from the rest of the world, since you need to have Qunari to get ogres. When I started writing this book, I had not yet read the World of Thedas, so I didn't know about the darkspawn-slaughtered colony in the Korcari Wilds. That would have been a shortcut to the entire thing.
- But, since I wasn't aware of that then, my reasoning went: a world that has high-speed aerial travel is a "smaller" world than one that doesn't, and a Grey Warden who just happens to fly overhead and spot one of those guys is probably going to be all "whoa, what is THAT?" and drop down to investigate. Therefore it would not be completely unreasonable to think that isolated contact might have been made once or twice, by that or other means, and that at least some Grey Warden scouts might be at least broadly aware of what Qunari are (if only to the limited extent of "hey, these guys are not darkspawn, we don't need to freak out about them even though they look kinda weird"). But, of course, that's not their primary focus, and it's also not hard to imagine that the few Wardens who maybe hypothetically did know about Qunari got wiped during the Fourth Blight, and then there are no more griffons so the possibility of accidental re-contact goes way down, and we get back to a world-state where nobody remembers what Qunari are until they invade.
- However, at the same time, I didn't want to portray Qunari as being so common or widely known that one would actually make an on-screen appearance in Last Flight, because then there would clearly be a canon conflict. To split the difference, they only got a one-off mention in a throwaway line. I figured that would cover all my bases as to who knew what when and how there could be ogres in the Fourth Blight, as the readers who cared enough to worry about that kind of stuff would be able to make the connection, and everybody else would just skip past it."
- ---- Soulofshezarr (talk) 17:53, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
Because the writer is someone foreign to the core dragon age writing team, I would presume this is an anachronism and nothing more. Just be pleased it's only a minor one. Last time we got a guy who didn't write for the game and wrote a novel for Bioware he fucked everything up and Bioware had to back peddle the entire thing. Though that was just the beginning of Mass Effect's problems... B.S.S.T. (talk) 04:05, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
But even then, it has to be known that despite the writer not being part of the core writing team, the book would have probably been edited by Gaider or someone else. She probably got notes too. So I agree with you guys, it is an anachronism. But let's not forget, the DA series has had its fair share of misplaced lore and events at times. 
08:55, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- They really don't check into the works done by an outsider. A prime example is Redemption and Dawn of the Seeker. In Redemption they call Andraste a god, Cassandra is called both the leader of the Seekers and a templar and she's neither. Blood mages control golems in Dawn of the Seeker, you know, the huge bloodless boulders. But we're lucky that there isn't a Dragon Age version of the abomination that it Mass Effect: Deception. The biggies there involve a mentally retarded girl just "grow up" out of retardation, and she gets older by a few years between the books that are supposedly happening one after the other; a human goes to the home planet of the terrorist batarians and attends an auction (it'd be like a mage went shopping on Seheron, in case you're unfamiliar with the lore of ME); there is an elite group called N7 in ME, but it is not "the level seven of the N", it's just N7, but in the book there is a guy who is an "N6", it's be like someone joined Black Wardens, not exactly Grey Wardens but pretty close. And just so much more.
henioo (da talk page) 09:53, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
I haven't yet finished the book, but I got another possible one. Starkhaven is ruled by prince Vael. I remember Sebastian saying his family has ruled Starkhaven for six generations. Unless things are very different in Thedas, 400 years seems very long time for only six generations to pass. Lord Frivolous (talk) 09:00, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- Sounds like she just wrote the book based on some notes they gave her, but failed to put the 400 years into the equation. I don't think Starkhaven was ruled by Vaels during the Fourth Blight. henioo (da talk page) 09:53, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- Where is that six generations quote from? I can't find it in any of the codexes or sebastian's dialogue or world of Thedas.
-120.149.113.197 (talk) 10:03, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- 1st Act, after killing the mercenaries and returning to Sebastian you can ask him 'Why was your family killed?' to which he replies 'My family has ruled Starkhaven for six generations, we have enemies.' Lord Frivolous (talk) 10:23, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- So it is, was wondering why I couldn't find that. I think a more likely explanation is that Sebastian got the number wrong, given he wasn't exactly the studious hard working fellow we meet in Dragon Age 2 in his youth. Either that or they date generations differently in Thedas. Or Sebastian was referring to his specific branch of the family rather than the entire dynasty. After all it says the Vael family was "wiped out" but we know Goran Vael was placed on the throne as a puppet Prince & obviously Sebastian himself is still alive. On the upside having just finished the book, I can say in spite of a few errors its nowhere near riddled with the amount of errors the mass effect thing was. The Qunari thing is the only really big screw up I've found so far. The author is clearly a fan of the series at least, she even put up in game specs for some of the novel's characters on the bioware forum.
P.S Also RE: Dawn of the Seeker, I remember them being attacked by the Ogres & Golems but I don't remember them saying that they using blood magic specifically to control said Golems. -120.149.113.197 (talk) 10:38, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
Honestly, I think that Garahel's use of Qunari and the Vaels being in charge of Starkhaven were just oversights. Most books based on video games seem to have a few. Still, they are relatively minor (not like that Deception abomination). It's entirely possible that the word 'qunari' once meant 'giant' something like that. And maybe the Vaels rules Starkhaven for a few generations, lost the throne for a while, then retook it six generations before Sebastian. At least these are relatively easy to explain away. I believe there were others, something about a Champion of Kirkwall? Ah well. At least it was a good read :) Sevec 14:21, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- The qunari thing was definitely an oversight but the Vaels were clearly in charge of Starkhaven at the time. As for the Champion, the mantle of the champion armor says that Hawke is the first person to attain the "Champion" title from Kirkwall.
-120.149.113.197 (talk) 14:42, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
I Have not read the book myself but I seem to remember that there where a group of non-qunari qunari (qunari who had not accepted the qun) who arrived to Thedas before the main qunari force (this is to explain why ogres existed in Thedas before the qunari came, they were mentioned to have been involved in previous blights). Caspoi (talk) 14:50, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
- Since I can't resist a chance to prattle on about obscure DA: Lore, you're half right Caspoi. A group of Kossith settlers established a colony in the Korcari Wilds before the first blight and were subsequently wiped out by the darkspawn, creating the first ogres. That was almost a thousand years before the fourth blight though and there is nothing to suggest anyone knew they were likely former Qunari or even learned the term. Of course there is nothing to suggest that they didn't either & Qunari (prior to the Qunari's actual arrival in force) could have been like a "grumpkin" or some sort of folk myth. But thats just a theory.
As for the Champion of "Kirkwall" being in last flight. I'm 90% sure that is an editing error. Because they mention that the Champion of "Starkhaven" (Codex entry: Stonehammer's Gift) fought in the fourth blight as well as at the final battle in ayesleigh. So i'm betting that was meant to be the Champion of Starkhaven and someone just overlooked it during the proof reading.
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15:00, September 28, 2014 (UTC)
Ogres are mentioned in the codex entry for Garahel's Helm, so the comment does fit with in-game lore I believe :)--WardenWade (talk) 01:09, September 29, 2014 (UTC)
- That was retconned in World of Thedas I (from memory I think it was meant to be Qunari/Kossith pioneers to far south?) And while we're questioning consistency: are we sure that Garahel and Isseya are twins? It says so in the blurb on the back, but I don't think it was referred to once in the book. In fact, some of the early characters are Grey Warden twins - maybe someone at the publisher made a boo-boo? - Wandrew (talk) 08:44, September 30, 2014 (UTC)