nobodyâs gonna read this but iâm gonna rant a little as an ex-fundie kid with a perspective on unconscious bias re: thedasâ religions. (iâll grant you i do not have encyclopedic knowledge of dragon age, so iâm commenting based off what 90% of people know - the games)
If weâre assuming that every interaction concerning the religions in Thedas is intentional, itâs genius. It represents real world religious dynamics so well. But thatâs also assuming weâre going to be allowed to confront those religions; otherwise, itâs just a carbon copy with no purpose but to reflect reality. Youâre duplicating problems, without offering avenues for solutions or even criticism.
I want to leave this uncut in case a piece of it actually caught someoneâs eye for some reason, but Iâd feel bad if I did that.
Iâm actively agnostic. I have no problem with other people being religious. I react quite negatively to both active and passive attempts at conversion. I know a LOT about Christianity. I know some, though not as much, about other world religions.
We can pretend all we like that Thedas is a world completely separated from reality. âLighten up, itâs just a game.â I can, however, point to direct parallels between game concepts and real world concepts that I find quite troubling (Blackwallâs plot, certain wartable missions, Descent DLC), I can expound on those at length as well. And of course itâs just a game, and you can stab people with no consequences and all that - thatâs fine. Stabbing people in a game isnât likely to make you think itâs OK to stab people IRL. But a game has the power to subtly reinforce existing biases which can cause real harm.
Christianity is a dominant world religion. In fundamentalist circles, one of the tenets is to spread it to as many people as possible, to save them from themselves. Even casual Christians adopt this attitude when they tell you how sad they are that youâre not Christian, because they think youâll be happier as one and canât fathom how youâd be happy without god. I can get REAL deep into Christian psychology, but Iâll spare you. The thing is, this is an insidious train of thought that has been beaten into the world by its victors. Monotheistic religions are treated more seriously than pantheons. The Bible is held as separate and more holy than âmyths,â which are treated as little better than Harry Potter novels. Religions that encourage non-Western behaviors are treated as scary, deviant, and oppressive - to be obliterated before they dare to try converting precious Christians - DESPITE Christians actively trying to lure those believers away from their âscaryâ faith and into Christianity. They think their own religion is more normal, or their own culture is more normal. All of this leads to many, many Christians (as well as your average Westerner) holding really racist, xenophobic views they donât perceive as racist or xenophobic.
SO LIKE - Iâll just make a bulletpoint list:
Andrastianism = Christianity (esp. Western brand)
Evanuris = Pantheistic religions
Qun = Eastern philosophies
The familiarity and diversity is fine. Thereâs pros and cons to each religion, just like real life. Thedas is fun because it takes aspects of discrimination like racism and sexuality and pretzels it to be same-but-different. No matter your background, you have the chance to get really involved in the ethical dilemmas provided, the visceral experience of being insulted and responding to insults with pride, and itâs fun to read something new and feel some kind of vindication if you had a suspicion before.
What irritates me currently about the religions is that every time I get a little taste of âOkay, finally, weâre acknowledging the damage a religion like this can do,â I get kicked right the fuck back. I spent so long hating the Chantry more and more because it started to become clear to me the intentional abuse being directed at literally anyone who wasnât a non-mage human, and even then they abused their own followers to exert further control over mages for personal gain. (Seriously, FUCK the Chantry.) FINALLY, Exalted Plains acknowledged that the Chantry steamrolled over the elves in a brutal slaughter, where Sister Whatserface tried to blame the elves for being âtoo far from the Makerâ but she was a good person for âshowing them more mercy than they deserved.â Clear signals that Bioware intended it to be taken as it was - an unjust crusade. Then what do they throw in my face? Some documents intending to show that the elves were âalso at fault.â Excuse me? Iâm sorry, excuse me?!
Elves had already been the subject of extensive oppression at that point, and given the racist goddamn teachings of Sister Whatserface and ALL THE DIVINES, I can hardly blame the elves for being just a little testy with the humans sticking their noses into their lands trying to force them to convert to Andrastianism. âEqually to blameâ my ass. This is a pebble against a boulder. And yet Iâm supposed to treat it like some kind of shocking revelation. Ooo - should I turn these documents in to the Chantry to exploit the elves some more, or should I give them to the Dalish, who then react with shame? Thereâs no just option: have the Dalish explain why maybe elves would be just a little angry, and have my Inquisitor go âoh yeah, that makes sense. kbyeâ
Finishing up with the Dalish, we get told by some pride demon ass lying fucker that all the Dalish gods that these poor widdle uneducated primitive elves worship were essentially slavers. Hahah. WHAT. Sorry. WHAT. Youâre going to make me play through a game with my characterâs religion shat on or flat out ignored at literally every turn, and my vindication is to be told itâs all fake and my ancestors were idiots for ever believing? Canonically? Really? When do we get told that we checked the Fade and the Maker wasnât there and donât these humans look pretty dumb now?! Or is that too risque because Andrastianism is a little too close to Christianity?
Then thereâs the reaction to the Qun. I have loved Qunari since Sten. I honestly think itâs a really cool concept and I would love to explore it more deeply. I also LOVE Sten. Sten seemed so calm and generally fairly accepting, although he had his own flaws. He also had hidden depths - push aside the fronting and you get his cookies and chocolate loving sweetness. (If people hate him, again, come see me after class so we can have a chat on why you stan Blackwall but not Sten?)
But it seems like the Qun is falling victim to the world needing a reliable villain. What was once a mysterious system of beliefs existing outside the concept of the Maker or Dalish gods is increasingly this Scary religion that oppresses women and mages in barbaric ways, and is treated as horrible for trying to spread their religion to other lands (allow me to remind you of Exalted Plains and why every person in the game seems to be Andrastian by default, or at least Andrastian-sympathetic). Itâs essentially playing up the fears that makes people uncomfortable with Eastern religions, relying on xenophobia to make them hateable enough that you donât accidentally end up with too many Qun sympathizers in the playerbase. Even though you can play as a Qunari in Inquisition (hell yeah), you arenât allowed any kind of Qun background. Itâs understandable in some ways, plot-wise, but baffling in others. How much cooler would it be to have access to Qun beliefs like the Dalish has access to the Evanuris?
And now they have the Qunari poised to be the result of doing horrible dragon-blood experiments on elves by MORE slavers, and their religionâs entire purpose is to limit their horrible dragony desires to murder people, but now they want to subjugate others to live under their rule of law to make a horrifying monotone culture. Arenât these scary-looking Qunari even more scary? Thereâs a reason to hate them now, theyâre canonically more violent, just like the dragons! (Do not get me started on how dragons are treated. Actually, do, I have a lot of thoughts on that too. lmao) REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Then you have the Tal-Vashoth, not only defectors who found fault with the philosophy who are then hunted relentlessly by the believers, but also twisting back on themselves to be crazy violent, therefore simultaneously a condemnation of the Qun and an affirmation of its necessity to keep Qunari from being violent. Where are the defectors from Andrastianism? Literally every ex-fundie Christian kid I know has had a sex and/or drug-fueled meltdown period after having their core beliefs and foundation obliterated. Why do we have all these pure innocent Chantry Virgins, but no defectors? The only atheist you get to meet is your own Inquisitor, and you have a HELL of a time through the whole game as a result of it. (Though I will say the payoff at the very end of the game is so very worth it.) Almost ALL of your companions nag you about why you donât believe youâre Chosen. I have yet to play as a believer, but I havenât seen any indications I would be criticized for it.
And so what of Andrastianism? Is it fakery? Lies? Canonically brought into existence to oppress people? The product of slavers?
NOT YET.
Any criticism brought against Andrastianism is neatly and shortly thereafter countered, not by an untrustworthy member of the Chantry but by some word-of-god canon itself. The Maker stands, silent, valid, unchallenged.
Thereâs nothing wrong with presenting these complex scenarios, but if you donât have the time, resources, or courage to REALLY plumb these depths, give everyone fair criticism (and it is not fair to ding the predominant world religion with the same criticisms as you level against a dying minority religion), donât bother. You make the real world problems worse.
