The Qestri and words

[SannaR]

I have been wondering for a long time if it's just spoken words that the Qestir don't trust or if it's even written or if someone were to use some form of Hand talk or ASL would they treat you the same way as if you had spoken?

I know in some other fantasy and sci-fi that some races that are like the Qestir that it's just spoken word as they believe that words when spoken have power or it's easier to lie with one's tongue.

[MikkoAkure]

There's a Qestir tribesman writing things down in Reunion so I assume that at least is OK. Qestir NPCs also have names so I would assume that since they can't talk, they can at least write their name and that their name isn't a lie.

Koji Fox had some interesting things to say about the tribe in a past interview:

Q: What would happen to a Qestir tribe member that chose to speak? Would they be punished in some way?

A: Ok so for those who don't know the Qestir in the little lore blurb it's that they refuse to speak, they don't say anything, so in game they always have the 'dot dot dot' when someone tries to talk with them or they try to talk to you. There are a couple reasons, they cant speak because they've never learned to speak. Their children are raised basically in silence. And it's not even until they are 6,7,8,9,10 years old when they finally actually hear language when they leave the tribe and visit Reunion or maybe someone comes to their tribe to speak and trade with them. This is the first time they actually hear speech so think about it. These children are being raised without hearing any vowels, any consonants, nothing at all. So they don't know how to speak. So even if they wanted to it would mostly come out in [groaning] sounds.

That said, even if one tried really hard, and tried to speak would they be punished? They wouldn't be punished, per say, but the against the Qestir don't speak for a specific reason, that specific reason is that they believe all spoken word to be lies. So if they did speak in the presence of their tribe, basically the rest of the tribe would think "Ok, this guy is a liar." He would be ostracized as a liar, everything he said would be lies and you'd never believe him anymore. And so they wouldn't be kicked out, per say, but they would be, yeah, liars.

[Iscah]

It's one of those things that sounds like a cool idea as long as you don't prod at it too much. There's the question of how they get names, of course, but also – if words are so vile that to speak once is to be branded untrustworthy forever – why would they ever trust a non-Qestir or be willing to do business with them?

[MikkoAkure]

It's one of those things that sounds like a cool idea as long as you don't prod at it too much. There's the question of how they get names, of course, but also – if words are so vile that to speak once is to be branded untrustworthy forever – why would they ever trust a non-Qestir or be willing to do business with them?

From what I remember it was something about wanting to make a place where people can work together without fighting or lying but buying and selling usually requires talking and haggling so idk.

In any case, the Azem Steppe is one of my favorite parts of the entire game's lore because of how varied and weird all the lore for the tribes are and how richly detailed the steppe was and how much they paid attention to Mongolian culture but put a fantasy spin on it. I never would have expected them to have actual morin khuurs playing, for example. The only let downs about that part of the game is the frankly ridiculous noodle bowl that takes up the center of the map and the fact that I'm not a fan of Au Ra. Horn-ears, scales, lizard tails, and oddly pandering sexual dimorphism doesn't do it for me.

[Cleretic]

The Xaela tribes are neat because they basically embraced the fact they knew they couldn't include more than a few tribes, so they made a handful of 'serious' ones that they could hang the actual story on and then filled the margins with the weirdest nonsense, knowing that it'd only get a cursory glance at most.

The Qestir are a perfect example, because the Qestir are only ever around for long enough for you to accept it as normal, and never long enough for you to actually ask the logistical questions.

[Renathras]

To be fair, there are some insanely diverse societies that overall exist, and it wouldn't be that hard to establish a society without spoken words. It would honestly only take about 3 generations - a saying that applies to ALMOST anything because if you teach a thing for three generations, by the time the fourth is born, the oldest people who were taught something different have either all died off or are in their 70+ years and likely going to die off soon. After that point, all the living people would be the ones taught the new thing, even if the oldest were old enough to know people otherwise.

Like suppose all schools started teaching the metric system now and not teaching the Imperial unit system. While those of us alive now would still know both, the generation being taught the new system would not. Tell a 5-10 year old that telephones used to have cords and were only in houses and it will blow many of their young minds since not only have they never seen a phone with a cord, because they're so used to phones without them, they can't even conceptualize what exactly that looks like unless you play an old episode of Rosanne or something for them. (You can always come up with a "But MY 6 year old nephew knows..." well good for them, but they're not the norm - and we can come up with OTHER examples of things you thought were common that kids now don't know or can't contemplate, like having a pager in a generation of text message capable cell phones or the existence of Dick Tracy radio wrist watches). But this first generation will be AWARE there's a second unit of measure, even if they don't understand the conversion factors. The generation after them will be taught the same, and be even more removed from the Imperial system, being only vaguely aware that it might have once existed. The third generation, other than the history buffs among them (e.g. Uriangers), won't even know it existed. And by the fourth generation, all of us alive today that knew the conversions will be dead, so outside of the Uriangners that have read old physics books and memorized the conversions, no one in living memory will know the system. While the OLDEST generation (the first taught the new thing) might still remember us as parents/grandparents, they're still only remembering people who knew the Imperial system, not remembering (having knowledge of) the Imperial system THEMSELVES.

Societies can be shaped by this, though it requires a coordinated effort. And as much as people might praise the demise of the Imperial system, such a power is also dangerous and can be used for evil - dictators like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao all understood the power of "give me a person when they're a child and I will make a man in my image" thinking.

But, it might not be as difficult as one thinks. If you actually COULD convince a society to all teach only writing and sign language and never speak, it would result in the Qestri within 3-5 generations. And keep in mind that many of these tribes are not large. I'm not sure the Qestri, but there are some tribes that are probably less than 50 people through either low birth rates, high death rates, or both. So it's not like convincing hundreds of millions of people to take part in the change, more like convincing a few dozen to a few hundred who all have close familial and social ties already.

And while many people might think it's hard to go a day without speaking, you underestimate both Human will and peer pressure.

People HAVE sworn vows of silence and kept them for their lives. Monks and Sisters and so on of various religious orders, for example. And peer pressure can easily browbeat many people into accepting things in a society (e.g. how, even in a diverse society with freedom of speech, many modern Western societies have made some words verboten and LARGELY the whole of society doesn't use them, or doesn't use them in public/polite company)

So it stands to reason that a relatively small tribal society, after being horribly betrayed by someone with a spoken word in the past, might collectively decide to abandon spoken words and COULD develop from there with such a society and be functional - written and hand sign words would still allow communication needed for complex and abstract thoughts, at least to a point, and the Qestri are arguably a Tool Age society, so they don't exactly need words like "nuclear fusion reactor" anyway.