A Verse of the Qun
I wanted to dabble my hand in re-writing the Qun to be more align with the teachings of Islam (as that is what the Qun and the Qunari are heavily inspired from, as well as an odd amalgamation of the greater Asian and African continent). This is a work in progress, and such no such not a final product. But I was doing some research more on the Quran and was a bit inspired, lol.
Oh, the Great Mercy; Oh, the Great Blesser; Oh, the Mighty; Oh, Lovely Fashioner; Oh, the Tranquility; Oh, the Holy; Oh, the Stability; Oh, the Wholly; Oh, the Ceaseless; Oh, the Boundless Oh, the Constrainer; the Giver! Bare witness, Mercy of the Merciful, and lay your Tranquility onto us. Tears lay unshed beneath a veil's darkness, searching for a Mercy that shall caress. With empty eyes shorn from the heart, you have struggled with those apart. Sing now, prophetess of the deaf, with the Words you shall find the self. From the hearts of stone, the winding rivers ran in search for the ceaseless sea, to what began. The tears of the clouds trembled from the grey clouds - the muddied deserts sweeps across the earth's shroud. Shall you be a people who does not know? Shall you be among those who now lay low? From the false singers' lips, they have cried: "Bring forth the Song from Heaven, a word provide! The people of the south sing of the dead god. What is a god that can pass? A great facade!"
Here I take some inspiration from the Quran. Verses 1-8 could be viewed as being spoken from the mouths of Koslun (in my DA rewrite, a woman rather than a man, keeping in-line with the general association of revealed divinity from women rather than men as had been seen in our world) and her followers, before transitioning back into the omniscient speech of Koslun's Maker. As Juan Cole noted in his Rethinking the Qur'an in Late Antiquity (2025):
"The Qur’ān also displays frequent unmarked perspective shifts, with the voice of God as the objective omniscient narrator and the Prophet as a character with a subjective point of view. In the absence of punctuation and paragraphing, contextual cues such as adverbs and conjunctives indicate the POV shifts. These changes in perspective make the text difficult to follow on the page, though they would be more intelligible if we consider the oral recitation as a performance. Indeed, it might be helpful to imagine a theater in the round, with God, the Prophet, the latter’s followers, and the pagan opposition all on stage, standing apart. The figure of God directs his attention to each of these protagonists or groups in turn, addressing them with commands and admonitions. At times, he narrates their actions and subjective thoughts and emotions; at other times, they pipe up to speak on their own account." [Cole, 2025]
In this very small portion of a written chapter of the Qun, I seek to display Koslun's mortal unease of her people's pride and arrogance with that great uneased found in the gathering water of a storm-cloud before it loosens its rage against a desert, turning the dry sand into rapid wadis that can swallow whole villages if one is not careful. Alongside this, I seek to connect Koslun's own search for peace and tranquility with that of the searching river pouring out from the mountains, crossing valleys, meadows, and plains, before emptying out into the sea. The story that lays a claim to Koslun and her listeners, asking if they would remain in a state of arrogance and haughtiness, and alludes that they would stand with those same individuals who had taken themselves as the oppressive tyrants over the world (though Koslun and her people are left bewildered about who exactly this divine message is reference to).
Another element that I sought to change is the Qunari's disconnect with the south. Unlike the Qun, Islam was a sister faith born in a geographical, cultural, and religious arena. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were related, sharing concepts, beliefs, ideas, and stories between each other. To allude to this historically religious and theological pluralistic heritage, I placed into the mouth of Koslun's detractors, where their spirits/gods had informed them of the death of Andraste in the south (or Dumat, who can say), and asks if this is the god that Koslun speaks, how can it be the incomparable, all-powerful being?
This was really something just made on a whim. I'm not sure I'll even add this to Eyes or the like. But I was inspired, and just wanted to share.
P.S. Any Islamphobic asks or comments will be ignored or deleted; or anyone trying to argue that the Qun's inspiration is not based on immense Islamphobia, racism, and orientalism by BioWare. This is just something fun.
