the qunari: a watsonian analysis of the idea that they will "go wild" without the structure of the qun
emphasizing the watsonian element of this! i am approaching this entirely in-world!
now, the basic idea as i understand it is that the qun teaches that the qunari - in this case, the implication being that it is the kossith themselves, not the human, elves, or dwarves who become qunari - will go "mad" without the strict structure of the qun. that there is a bloodlust that is inherent to their species, one that must be strictly controlled
i think saying that this is a load of bullshit is entirely fair, especially because it is an amazingly effective tool for the qun to use in order to control their people and that is reason enough for it to exist. but i also find it interesting to consider whether there is - or, more to the point, was - a grain of truth to this
if your inquisitor becomes a reaver, cassandra can tell you about members of her family. now, these are tales passed down, but she speaks of them consuming more and more dragon's blood and becoming increasingly impacted by it, even physiologically; that some of them even grow scales. but the main thing she is talking about is their bloodlust, their wildness, that they begin to lose control
the iron bull tells the inquisitor of a belief among the ben hassarath, that the tamassarans might have added some dragon blood into the mix so long ago
corypheus tells a qunari inquisitor that their blood is "engorged with decay" and that their race is not a race, it is a mistake (apparently kieran says something to a qunari inquisitor about how their blood does not belong to them!)
while this implies that the kossith might have stemmed from another race entirely, it may also refer to the act of mixing dragon blood into their racial makeup. or both! (personally i'm in the 'both' camp, but we just don't know for sure!)
but if we take what cassandra says to have any truth to it at all, it seems possible that the early alterations might have induced violent madness. in which case, the idea that the qunari/kossith are inherently prone to such madness may have been used as an excuse for the behavior of these early experiments (a way to avoid acknowledging that they were experiments at all, framing the dramatic behavior as stemming from something else entirely), or it might have been known at the time, but twisted and muddied by the passage of years and obfuscated by the qun as it grew to become what it is now, in-game
i have also seen people question whether the change was something ghilan'nain did to them, which is an intriguing possibility! going with that for a moment, the story might have been changed by the kossith themselves in order to erase that part of their history, the fact that they were, in this view, akin to lab experiments. perhaps they chose to tell their children, who told their children, and so on and so forth, that their "madness" was just inherent to their people, that it was a burden they had to live with and learn to control
now, do i think the iron bull or a qunari inquisitor would be prone to violent madness without the structure of the qun? no! do i think any of the qunari would be prone to that without the structure of the qun? no! but do i believe there might have been a time when that was at least sorta-kinda true? possibly!
and i certainly believe that the idea of it serves the qun wonderfully. take shathann: she left not out of any hatred for the qun, her work there, or the culture, but because she knew what they would do to taash, how they would use them. teaching the qunari that they will go mad without the qun is a damn good way to keep those like shathann to stay there, because in her case, if she believed she'd lose her mind, if she believed she might become violent towards taash, or if she believed taash might become a maelstrom of violence themselves, she might have stayed in place
i think that shathann is an interesting example of someone who can see through it, perhaps because of her position as a scholar, or perhaps she was just willing to take the risk. it's unclear! it is also entirely possible that the emphasis on this madness is stronger among the warriors and spies of the qun. there are many possibilities! but nonetheless, it's a good way to keep qunari as qunari, to frame a tal vashoth as a being who has lost control, who is a danger, a risk, a threat, a "mad dog" of sorts
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