HUMANS -

Humans are the most numerous, yet also the most contentious of all the intelligent races of Thedas. Only four times have they ever united beneath a single banner, the last being centuries ago. The monotheistic faith of the Chantry plays a major role in human society.

Humans are able to play all three classes, warrior, rogue and mage.

ELVES -

A humanoid race, elves typically stand four inches shorter than their human companions and have a slender, lithe build and pointed ears. In Ferelden, Free Marches, and many other parts of Thedas, elves are second-class citizens, often referred to by humans as 'knife ears' as a racial slur.

DWARVES -

Dwarves are one of the main humanoid races of the Dragon Age setting, and one of the three playable races in Dragon Age: Origins. They are a race in decline, once boasting an underground kingdom spanning much of Thedas, but devastated during the First Blight and still losing both lives and territory to the darkspawn every day. In the dwarven language, they refer to themselves as the dwarva.

Dwarves have an innate resistance to magic, preventing them from becoming mages; dwarven characters can still be either warriors or rogues, however.

QUNARI -

The kossith^[1], better known as qunari, are a large humanoid race hailing from the island nations of Par Vollen and Seheron in northern Thedas. They have bronze-hued skin, white hair, pointed ears, and vivid eyes with colors like violet, red, or yellow. Qunari are considered physically more robust than humans.

In Dragon Age II, it is revealed that most qunari have horns. Some are born without them, but it is not considered a defect — on the contrary, those born without horns are considered special, as they are meant for a special role in Qunari society such as a Ben-Hassrath or an envoy to the other races.

Sten, as a soldier of the Beresaad, falls into this category. It is not uncommon for Qunari who betray their beliefs to remove their own horns. Qunari don't use names to identify themselves, but titles. Their "names" are strings of genealogical information used by the Tamassransfor record-keeping. Qunari are rarely seen in Fereldenwith the exception of some high-class mercenaries (such as the Kadan-Fe).

While all of Thedas identifies the race of horned giants as the qunari, this is inaccurate: qunari means "people of the Qun", and includes any who follow what the Qun teaches. Therefore, any and all who accept the teachings of the qunari, be it humans or elves, are themselves qunari. On the other hand, horned giants who do not are actually Tal-Vashoth.

TAL-VASHOTH

Tal-Vashoth are former qunariwho have rejected what the Qun, the Qunari way of life, teaches. Just as Qunari denotes those that follow the Qun, elves and humans included, Tal-Vashoth denotes those who no longer wish to adhere to its rules; it is not specific to race. Literally meaning "True Grey". Often times they will become mercenaries in other lands. It is not uncommon for a Tal-Vashoth to remove their horns.

 

Major Human Kingdoms in Thedas:

Ferelden

The humans in Ferelden control both the nation's royal family and its nobility. The elves of Ferelden are considered second-class citizens by the majority of human Fereldans.

Orlais

Orlais is a powerful state of Thedas, where humans also serve as the dominant intelligent race. Like their Fereldan neighbors, the Orlesians treat the elves of their nation as a lower caste.

Tevinter Imperium

The Tevinter Imperium is the formerly dominant power of Thedas. The Imperium conquered the first homeland of the elves and reduced them to their servile status in most of the human-ruled lands of Thedas in the current age.

"Surface dwarves"

ALIENAGE ELVES -
Alienages are closed communities of elves living in human cities. They are typically poor and survive by begging or taking on the most menial and unrewarding of tasks.

DALISH ELVES -
Dalish elves lead nomadic lives, wandering throughout Thedas. The clans date back to the ruling clans of the Dales and the Dalish are the descendants of the ruling houses of their destroyed homeland. Dalish elves seek to recover, inherit and preserve the knowledge and sacred treasures of the two fallen kingdoms and for that purpose they'll often seek out old elven ruins for such things in the face of danger. They still revere the elven pantheon and each member of a tribe will tattoo the symbol of their chosen god on their face.

ARRIVAL OF THE GIANTS -

The qunari are recent arrivals to the area surrounding Ferelden, having arrived by warships four centuries ago from unknown eastern lands. While they once threatened to conquer all of Thedas, they are currently involved in a war for dominance of the north against the Tevinter Imperium. The qunari are apparently more technologically advanced than the native Thedosian cultures, possessing cannons and an impressive navy. The Beresaad is the name of the qunari military division Sten belongs to. According to Sten, the Beresaad serves as "the vanguard of the qunari people". The qunari lack mages in anything near the numbers that Ferelden has as magic is completely distrusted, and what few qunari mages there are are bound in chains and have their mouths sewn shut and occasionally tongues cut out. Several Exalted Marches have been waged against them and they've lost much land in Thedas. The qunari still hold Kont-aar in northern Rivain, but that is the only permanent non-island holding the qunari currently retain.

When the qunari invade an area and capture the current citizens, they offer them the opportunity to convert to their philosophy, or be sent to work in prison camps. Any who resists either one are slain without pity, but some of those who convert to the Qun claim to feel pity towards those who choose not to. When the qunari were pushed back by the Exalted Marches, the Chantry was disturbed to discover that a surprisingly large number of members of their faith had quite happily converted to the foreign religion.