So are qunari mages the strongest mages?

No, qunari mages are beasts on offence but at the expense of everything else. The ones in Trespasser are jacked up on lyrium to be even more dangerous.

The Qunari are also said to dream differently than humans/elves do, indicating that their connection to the Fade is different.


It probably has something to do with their relation to dragons. Or something.

What that ever confirmed though?
I mean, we can easily infer that the mages are being juiced up with lyrium what with the mining operation and codex entries talking about their use of the Saarebas. We also know they have gained red lyrium and are studying it. But do we know we know for certain that Saarath was taking it?

I could be missing a codex entry referring to red lyrium consumption, but I honestly thought Saarath was just imbibing regular lyrium.

It would explain why he's doing things it sounds like he shouldn't be able to do, but so would a retcon. (And for that matter I think the devs just ignoring the rules would work too.)

Do we ever see red lyrium in any form that looks like it's meant to be drunk? Or do they just have big crystals of it? (If it seems weird that I have to ask, I don't have any of the DLC.)

I think he was just taking regular lyrium. I don't think the Qunari usually allow this and in fact since the dwarves control the lyrium market, it would have been really difficult for them to obtain prior to discovering their own vein in the Deep Roads. The Viddasala wasn't looking to enhance the combat ability of the Saarebas but to find a way of enabling them to strengthen the Veil with their magic. Ultimately the Qun want to try and stop the flow of magic to the world, since it has always been superior magical power of the opposition that had prevented their conquest in the past. The Qun would naturally be opposed to any plan of Solas to drop the Veil, whether it resulted in wholesale destruction or not.

I don't think there is any evidence of any faction giving mages red lyrium as an alternative to the regular stuff. The Venatori certainly didn't and you would think if anyone did, it would be them. The reason the Qunari were researching red lyrium was because of the way it can be used to enhance the abilities of non-mages. That was why they were so afraid of it being imported in large quantities into the Imperium. If Tevinter mundane soldiers could be boosted in power, then they might then be the equal or even the superior of Qunari warriors. Add in magical power from the mages boosting them as well and it could give them the edge in confrontations. On the whole the mundane forces of the Qun are superior to everyone else's, as is their technology, but their magical expertise in inferior. This is because they do simply use saarebas as an offensive weapon and any magical research is carried out by members of their community who cannot actually do magic. It really takes a mage to truly understand the range of magic because of their connection to the Fade. Dagna has great expertise in studying magic but I doubt she would have come up with the range of magical affects and magical specialisms that mages have down the years through their personal connection with it.