14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most interesting things a player does in Dragon Age 2 is to deal with the Qunari, the still mysterious race that provided the companion Sten in Origins and seems to be positioned to play an important role in the future of the franchise.
The Qunari are, at first glance, a militaristic society that has little time for the posturing and power games played by humans, focusing instead on enlightening them about the mix of philosophy and religion that is their Qun.
Initial clues point to them having some sinister plan for Kirkwall, possibly conquest, but as the game progresses, the Qunari and their leader, the Arishok, become more nuanced, infused with a pretty stoic view on the world around them and focused on a quest that slowly reveals its own importance.
I wish that Dragon Age 2 would have gone further in exploring the Qun and the way it influences the people that adopt it.
It would also have been interesting to have a non violent way of solving the Qunari final quest (there is one that seems non violent, but Dragon Age 2 insists on spilling blood later on).
While on the subject of the weird race and its implications for the Dragon Age game universe, I was very hopeful that BioWare would introduce a Qunari companion, perhaps the mage that at some point the player needs to escort through the city towards the end of the first section of the game.
I was disappointed to see that Sten from Origins would have no counterpart in the sequel and I feel like his presence would have made the party composition more exotic and would have given the player more of chance to get to know this very interesting race.
The end of Dragon Age 2 does not point to a Qunari-themed sequel, but I hope that the developers at BioWare are seriously thinking about making them a big part of Dragon Age 3.