What do the qun do with female qunari mages (2024)

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I remember Sten saying to one of my companions that asked if the woman can be fighters or mages he said of course not why do they wish to be men. So that got me thinking what do they do if they have A female qunari mage do they enslave her like the rest but that would mean they do have females fighters but just mages or do they just kill them but the qun don't like to throw away what they can use so what do they do with them--Jdgjordan (talk) 15:09, July 6, 2014 (UTC).

Since mages int he Qun are seen more as tools, or living weapons, and not really people, I'd assume they chain them up the same as they do the rest of their Mages. Warden Mage: Ferris (talk) 16:25, July 6, 2014 (UTC)

here's a part of Dragon Age: The World of Thedas that describe the relationship between Saarebas and the Qun:

The Qunari fear and loathe magic. But it is of course still possible for a follower of the Qun to be born with the power to use it.A Qunari mage is known as a saarebas, meaning "dangerous thing." The Qunari treat them with brutality and caution. The seer of Kont-aar once wrote: "Saarebas must be carefully controlled by someone else, an arvaarad, 'one who holds back evil,' because they cannot truly control themselves." The Qun teaches that those who can control magic cannot control themselves. Because of this, it is common practice for saarebas to be chained, masked, and kept on a short leash. Their lips may, in extreme cases, be stitched together. An arvaarad may also use a rod, similar to one used to control a golem, to restrain a saarebas. All this is done to prevent saarebas from casting spells.

in above description, there's no mentioning gender at all. so yeah, mage in the Qun is treated with no discrimination about gender. They're treated the same.--Iddawiki (talk) 16:31, July 6, 2014 (UTC)

Let's not forget that the Qun look at their mages as less than living beings. A female Saarebas would be considered less than their non-mage females. So, they probably do the same work that the male Saarebas' do. The Qun would simply use them as the tools they see them; they were born for, because they would not let them free in their society to do other female based jobs. NutMeg29 (talk) 21:23, July 6, 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps the female saarebas take up a more restorative magic role. If I remember the saarebas from DA2 they only cast offensive elemental type magic, and since the Qun doesn't permit females into combat, I suppose making them healers would be the best of both worlds. --Xendals (talk) 23:28, July 6, 2014 (UTC)

According to the Qun mages have no gender. The are literally 'broken things'. There would be no distinction based on gender. The only distinction that would apply to mages are the measure of their power (how dangerous they are) and self discipline. I asked Mary Kirby a long time ago about the mages, basilit-an, and ben-hassrath. Apparently a very few amount of mages are eligible for the job/title of Ben-Hassrath. -- Soulofshezarr (talk) 06:25, July 27, 2014 (UTC)

I like that idea, it would make sense in their structure. However I'm reminded that part of the reason they sew the mouth shut is because they believe a mage can just talk to you and slip a demon in through your ear... I'm not sure they'd allow members of the Qun to be healed using magic. I'd love to find out later tho that they're trained as healers. I rather liked the point sten made about women not being allowed to be warriors, it gave a bit of character to the Qun. Dwarves cant use magic, mages are kept in a tower, the Qunari as misogynistic... Just as Tevinter showed the Qun, allowing Magic into the society was a power they needed, it would be nice to see them have to conform to allow women to be warriors. then all of a sudden Tallis hows up and a swarm of questions appear about women being warriors... and then the writers have to back peddle... and re-write and clarify... they should have just stuck to their guns. Warden Mage: Ferris (talk) 23:50, July 6, 2014 (UTC)

About Tallis, I don't think she was ever a "warrior", She was... Ben Hassrath, or something, wasn't she? She wasn't part of the Qunari Military. So her being a woman and being able to fight isn't contradicting what Sten said in Origins. And if you look at Qunari society, more specifically how everyone was "born and bred to do something", I don't think the Qun should adopt the rules of other nations and let women into their military. Logistically, if you can only afford to have a certain amount of soldiers on the battlefield (cost of weapons and armor, food, medicines, etc), it's much better to have an army of big, muscle bound soldiers in peak physical condition and atheletic prowess. Yes, yes, this is discriminatory against women and also skinny men who aren't in peak physical condition, but it doesn't change the fact that it's theoretically better to have an army of perfect soldiers, and it's practically possible due to the Qunari "born and bred to do something" social structure. Other nations such as Fereldan or Orlais wouldn't be able to do this because it's not pratically possible for them since they don't have the "born and bred to do something" system. To everyone who has their feelings hurt by this "discrimination", "why can't anyone join the military? so what if i'm a woman? so what if i'm a man but i'm not a muscle bound meat head? I love my country and i want to defend it!" i'd like to remind you that you're not Qunari, you already don't believe in the...er... "betterment" of your society, you don't believe in "the interests of your nation trumps your individual interests", and so it doesn't really matter. You're not Qunari, and so the rules of the Qunari don't apply to you. That rant i just went on isn't "up for debate", it's an attempted explanation of the Qun, that the Qun is really really f*ing weird, and it's not really anyone's place to question it or apply their morality to it.

But back to the original point, yeah, i think female qunari mages are treated the same as male qunari, in the idea that their gender identity is stripped, and they're all just tools to be used in times of need. Kaspar Sinclair (talk) 03:03, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

Sten mentions being a "warrior" as a general term for anyone who can fight, not necessarily the big brawny vanguard. He will call a female mage, a "warrior" and one could argue he is referring to you being a Warden, but Wardens aren't soldiers either, they're defenders against the blight. semantics I know, but Warriors wouldnt JUST be the big brawny fellows, you need scouts as well... and what is a scout other then a type of spy which is exactly what the Ben-Hassrath is. They use weapons and kill plain and simple. (this is not their ONLY function, I know) Check out the Ben-Hassrath Page ont his wiki, it isnt until Mark of the assassin came out, that Gaider had to go on record in the bioware forums to back-peddle and claim Ben-Hassrath were classified as "priests" even tho they meet nearly all the other requirements to be a type of "warrior". Int he bioware forums Gaider mentions that a female warrior don't "live by the blade or get trained in combat" yet we have Tallis who is MORE then capable in combat. Warden Mage: Ferris (talk) 13:39, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

Tallis is an assassin, not a soldier. It's not the same skill-set. Not to mention, it is my understanding that she wasn't born into the Qun, she came into it later, so it's entirely possible she learned her bladework in her past before the Qun. 67.61.238.87 (talk) 19:31, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

I mention that. She is an assassin, so is the Warden if they're a rogue and Sten will still call them a warrior and question why a woman fights. The original intent of Sten's line was his inability to understand why a woman "fights". He will ask that of a mage or a warrior as well. His question isnt why a woman is a soldier, but why a woman is taking up arms and fighting at all. He goes on to mention that woman are priests and bakers and such. I understand the Qun (partly why I dislike it so much) but it isnt until Tallis showed up that suddenly questions were flying as to why they would allow a woman to fight. enter in the back-peddling, the over explaining, and the like. They had to go in and say the Ben-Hassrath, are spies, and not like the same scout like spies others use, these are special spies simply because they're priests, and because they're priests it's OK that shes a woman, and typically they try to take non-violent measures yatta yatta yatta.... I know it comes from Gaider, so theres no arguing it. I get that. But there is something inherently wrong, when introducing a new character suddenly makes you have to re-write the lore to fit the character when it should be the other way around. Warden Mage: Ferris (talk) 20:53, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

Comparing the female warden to Tallis is not the same thing, that's just introducing a fallacy. Sten calls the female rogue/mage warden a "warrior" because she's physically part of an army. Tallis is not. No women can be part of the military/army in the Qun. Two different things. Therefore, Tallis is neither warrior or soldier. It is also known that the Ben-Hassrath prefer to not to resort to violence when dealing with confrontation. They are taught to deal with things peacefully and calmly. And we should keep in mind that Tallis was not a born member of the Qun, and that she had already betrayed them times before, and in her video series. So, using Tallis to describe the behavior and actions of the female sector of the Ben-Hassrath is grasping at straws.NutMeg29 (talk) 22:10, July 21, 2014 (UTC)

Especially when they go to such great lengths to show how she's such an awesome killer in her actual intro to the character. She could have pretended to be a hostage or walked up afterwards without entering the fight if the idea of them avoiding fighting whenever possible was really a thing. And if she actually did somehow avoid fighting through the whole mission it would have been of interest. I would have been intrigued and curious. Instead I found Tallis confusing and silly. CLuhrsen (talk) 21:01, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

Tallis seems to be sad when she is forced to kill to keep the mission a secret. I'm sure women in the Ben-Hassrath are trained some form of self defense, and that any female spies like tallis still have to kill if neccessary, as a live loyal agent is more useful to the quanari then a loyal dead one.--Jcama (talk) 21:11, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

She does seem sad when she's forced to kill the one guard to keep him silent, but as CLuhrsen mentioned (as I completely forgot about it) when you meet her she runs in rambo style and kills like 6 guys before throwing Hawke a wink and asking "what're you waiting for?" as mentioned if she was really non-violent she should have pretended to be a hostage, or just stayed out of the fight entirely. She wasn't defending herself, and she certainly wasn't protecting Hawke, as later in the DLC she will comment on just how strong she knows Hawke is. She was literally going out of her way to kill these men, but suddenly one lone guard goes to do his job by calling alert, and suddenly she has this moral crisis over killing him, when even Hawke says "he wouldn't be a very good guard if he just let us in." Being misogynistic gave the Qun a unique characteristic that I felt spoke volumes over their society and could have done wonders for the narrative. Gaider LOVES to write in strong women characters, there could have been a whole story dedicated to a lone woman warrior proving the Qun should incorporate women better into the martial arm of their military. The Qunari almost appear to be too perfect, and having flaws is what builds character... they're taller then any human, physically stronger then most dwarves and humans, engineering skills surpass any dwarf smith, they have gun power, dreadnaught ships, the military force made of the strongest their kind can breed, while brainwashing everyone else in their wake. next thing you know they're going to invent Redbull and force feed it to the soldiers and just start taking over the rest of Thedas. With the power they have you have to wonder WHY they havnt already taken over the rest of Thedas, the Tevinter Magisters can't be THAT strong to be keeping them away from the rest of thedas. Hell the Qunari could ust force their way to the northern coast of Ferelden and flank Tevinter, effectively removing the ONE threat they have.... Warden Mage: Ferris (talk) 01:17, July 8, 2014 (UTC)

Warden Mage Ferris - a thought on Tallis, it seems that she wished to give the guard a choice that he could have taken another path. The assassins in the first part had already made their choice of coming after Hawke and her, so she killed them since they chose their own fate why be sad over it. however the guard she stopped him and tried to give him another way out a choice but he didn't take it. Her quote afterwards wasn't it this: "It's not always meant to end in violence. There are other paths. They do not all need to lead to the same destination." meaning to me she was sorry he chose that path. Undeadpoet (talk) 22:24, July 21, 2014 (UTC)

And I was just reminded that Sten explained to Leliana that females could not be priests. CLuhrsen (talk) 22:20, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

I think we all know DA 2 just F'ed up the story, Tallis was a huge mistake and they had to to come up with some bull crap reason why it kinda of makes sense.--Jdgjordan (talk) 21:23, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

Nah, that's just your opinion, and while it's fine to have an opinion, don't assume everyone has the same opinion as you. Kaspar Sinclair (talk) 05:06, July 8, 2014 (UTC)

What about sterilization? do you think that the Qunari even though they wish not to waste the female mage, would they make it that she would not be able to produce any other mage offspring? or just not breed her knowing she would more then likely produce a mage? Undeadpoet (talk) 21:42, July 21, 2014 (UTC)