# An Observation on Fantasy Culture and Race



## rufe-squirrel (Aug 10, 2015)

Lets first define fantasy culture...


What I imply with this is the Tolkien-ish based sword and sorcery high fantasy world.  The one popularized by the Forgotten Realms novels and roleplay games.  All the way from Tolkien's work to famous games such as Bauldur's Gate, and which also makes an appearance in Dungeons and Dragons roleplay games.  It is probably the most popular form of sword-and-sorcery fantasy today.


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Firstoff, I love sword-and-sorcery high-fantasy.  I have no love for historical-fiction, steampunk, or sci-fi for the most part.  My heard lies with the fantastic creatures, old magic, and mystical journeys of high fantasy.  It is dear and near to my heart.  So this is why I feel I should offer up an observation on the issue of how that fantasy culture reflects real issues that exist in our modern world.


One thing that is very clear about this kind of fiction as opposed to sci-fi, high fantasy is about a non reality, not a future one.  So it is by its nature wholly escapist.  For those like me into this fiction, its a respite from the negatives of modern contemporary Western existence.  In some ways that is not an idea thing to 'exist in a fantasy world'  but its also an experience of 'personal affection', and unlike other artists, I will not decry the value of personal affection.  I think it can be essential to ones own happiness.


But the nature of high fantasy's comfort through disconnection with realty, coupled with its general Tolkien/Eurocentric mythological themes does make for a situation in which a moral problem has developed.  For high fantasy worldbuilding cannot be fully removed from influences of the real modern world.  And authors, gamers, and roleplayers will carry into it their perceptions about reality.  Again, this is not a wrong thing or even an avoidable thing, but it can be a culturally dangerous thing.


And this is where I have become distressed about the high fantasy culture I love so much.  An that is how this most popular style of Tolkein-ish high fantasy has treated the issue of race.


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Ever wonder why fantasy literature, LARP, Renaissance Festivals, and Dungeon and Dragons is to varying degrees dominated by Caucasians?  I will not deny that this breed of fantasy is built heavily on European myth, therefore it is less likely to appeal to minority individuals as a group.  I will concede that.  But I think there is more to it.


As the Peter Jackson films have really popularized Tolkein's art, I never heard people discuss how the issue of race plays out in his books.  For those who have not read the Lord of the Rings, in Tolkein's myth Aragon is the last king of the race of high men of Numenor,  These men were placed as a race superior, nearly equivalent to the elves among men.  The represented all that is good, scientific, learned, and brave among the race of men.  They were the ones who allied with the Elves and fought Sauron where Isildur achieved victory and claimed the Ring of Power.  Adversely, in the later half of the Lord of the Rings, the revived Sauron gathers the forces of darkness against Middle Earth, among them is the Southers.  The Southers are men from distant lands far sounth, desert lands notably.  He portrays these as Gollum put it "wicked men" with an 'oriental' flair.  An opposite of the more Nordic portrayal of the Men of Numenor and the people of Rohan.  
The biggest detail about the Southers is how Tolkein describes their.... dark skin.  These men who fight for Sauron and darkness are noted as being dark skinned.  Even in the Return of the King, Tolkein describes the most appalling of these warriors for evil as being 'black' in their skin color.  
What Tolkein had done was wrote in typical Eurocentric views on race into his fiction, something very common in his time. No less disturbing and saddening though to me.


But as I read other fantasy fiction and played more games, I was surprised to see how this vision on race actually carried over into the modern era.  And especially in the game and literature Fiction derived from Tolkein in Forgotten Realms and Dungeon and Dragons.  And this is where it gets the most disturbing.


There are many races outlined in all the worlds here.  Elves, Men, Dwarves, Haflings, half-orcs, and Gnomes.  For the race of men, men are wholly unremarkable.  Never imbued with special, abilities, long lives, or magical properties.  The issue of racial variants among men is never touched upon in any game or D&D manual I have read.  However, there is a sinister liberty on this subject of variants when it comes to the other races.  


And now we take a look at the dark elf....


Dark Elves are seen as a unique racial variant of the Elvenfolk.  They are anything like their brethren.  Dark elves can simply be described as elves with BLACK SKIN.  Their other features is ashen white hair and red eyes.  The like other elves are magical.  But this is where the disturbing part begins.  Dark elves are ascribed as living deep underground and worshiping a spider Goddess, a Goddess of evil.  And dark elves (aka drow) are viscous warriors for evil, known for pillaging and kidnapping towns on the surface and using prisoners as bloody sacrifices to their goddess (also note that she is a goddess, not a god, implying a sexist connotation).  These black skinned elves are forces of evil.  Why is that?  why does the race with dark skin commit to a culture of evil.


Subsequently, I have read R. A. Salvatore's books featuring fantasy's most famous dual scimitar wielding dark elf, Drizzt Do'Urden.  It is notable that Drizzt undergoes regularly intense persecution because of his skin color and the prejudice people hold to it.  Drizzt to some can be seen as some sort of racial reconciliation in the fact that he is a character committed to 'good' and not 'evil', but he really is not.  I remember reading in Shards of Silver, Drizzt sitting under a moon lamenting about 'the evil ways of his people'.  By doing this, it reinforces the idea that the dark skinned race is inherently committed to acts of evil and wickedness.  In reality, this theme can be easily applied to the prejudices the Caucasian majority hold to minority races and their culture.  It also enforces the idea that the reason why these minorities live secondary and shunned in society is all their own doing.  Drizzt is in fact not as reconcilable as people may think he is when it comes to high fantasy and race politics.  Hell I have even read Drizzt saying that he find it understandable that people want to react with hostility to him because of just his skin color.  This just is not constructive at all when it comes to the larger issue of race.


If that is not enough, this same theme that applies to dark elves extends in the Dungeon and Dragons / Forgotten Realms worlds to another race.  The dwarves have the duergar, a race of subterranean evil dwarves also with dark to black skin. 


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It was rather concerning when I recognized these racial designations in the popular genres of high fantasy.  There are other racial issues I have seen in other fantasy works outside the Tolkein-ish ones.  But I just wanted to highlight one of the most prominent ones.  It may seem inconsequential to some, but I personally feel that as a wholly escapist art, fantasy can also be a place where people subconsciously foster their own, sometimes inaccurate perceptions about real racial and societal problems they see in reality.  High fantasy's Eruo-myth dominion also helps to feed this I feel, as much as I love the Euro-myth theme.  What was most compelling for me to bring this issue up is the times I have overheard fellow fantasy buffs speak out something that was very much racially divisive about real races.  How they support racial prejudices.  Friends of mine into Sci-fi have cited this to me, and also pointed to the concept of the 'promise of the future' allowing sci-fi to break down social barriers while fantasy fans seem to want to 'embrace the past'.  I acknowledge that this can lead to high fantasy being an escapist place for those with a negative perception about non-Caucasian races.  I bring this issue up as an attempt to bring awareness to others in the world of high fantasy,  In hopes that some day, high fantasy can be as racially progressive as other genres of fiction can be too.  It is a very magical, beautiful world to escape to, I want it to be free for everyone to journey in.


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## Fernin (Aug 10, 2015)

Hurray for SJW leaps of logic, drawing parallels where they don't exist at all because SJWs are literally incapable of registering anything other than skin color even within FANTASY SETTINGS. Dark Elves are, well, typically dark skinned and evil because of the EVIL DARKNESSâ„¢ aesthetic. It has literally nothing to do with real world racial matters. As for the racism against DEs, it has nothing to do with the fact that they're dark skinned. It's that they're almost universally ASSHOLES.

As for why the theme of blackness = evil? It's simple human nature. Every single culture in human history has associated darkness with a force of evil. Every one. European, African, Oriental, North and South American and all the others. In myth the world over evil comes wreathed in shadows and darkness, even in African myth when supernatural evil men come they come with the unnaturally dark skin. We personify evil with darkness of character AND appearance, thus when an unnatural evil host comes to challenge the heroes of a tale it's not uncommon for them to be dark skinned, not because of some ingrained whitey hate of black people, but because their dark appearance personifies human fear. This archetype is present in all cultures, and no amount of SJW feels > reals mental gymnastics will change that.

As for social progressiveness, you're absolutely missing the point of some of these settings. They're not supposed to be Utopian worlds. They're dirty, ugly places full of strife and conflict where we, the players are challenged to survive amidst that unfair world. But outside of the world, what you are saying still holds no water because we as the players are free to be who, or whatever we want within that world. We can be as advantaged or disadvantaged as we want while being any race we want, the only limitation is player skill in presentation. There is nothing in the rules that bind the players that say one way or the other about these things. Sure there's descriptions for the specific races that pigeon hole them (as each race is based on an archetype), but the golden rule of roleplay is that you can bypass or ignore those things, or work around them if you so chose. The players are free to mold and change the world as they see fit before inserting themselves into it and binding themselves to its rules.

And on the race issue again, keep in mind that you can play a human of ANY ethnicity you like, with no negative or positive repercussions. Humans in D&D, and most other fantasy games are far more equal than they are in real life. The racism issues with people like the Drow is a matter of treatment of an entirely separate species, and more often than not based on the actions typical of said species. They're not inserted as black people expies for fucks sake. Their function is as the D&D grimdark evil player race option, not some fictional pillar of "justified" whitey prejudice.


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## Roose Hurro (Aug 11, 2015)

Fantasy is fantasy, High or Low, Light or Dark.  And while I like fantasy, I'm more into sci-fi... hence, my creation of alien critters (though I do have my fantasy critters, as well... I like creating my own "mythical" species to go with my aliens).


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## Cyanomega (Aug 13, 2015)

Wait, ren fares are mainly filled with caucassians? What ren fares do you go to? Maybe it's a regional thing in your case. You see any and every type of person at a ren fare usually.


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## Erzyal (Aug 13, 2015)

In one of my favorite fantasy series there are 8 races of men. The two evil ones are pale skinned southerners and the race to the west which are effectively middle eastern. So I can kinda see the idea of the OP but I don't agree on the idea of the Drow's skin color having to do with racism. Its more like camo for when they are underground (where they spend most of their time).


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## Cyanomega (Aug 13, 2015)

A note on the Drow. It depends on your campaign setting, but for the most part the Drow are evil because they chose to follow a evil pantheon. More often then not led by Lolth. The exceptions being Dragonlance(dark elves are just outcast elves who are considered evil) Racenloft(no such thing as dark elves as all elves can easily be corrupted by the evil forces of Ravenloft) Darksun(non existent) and starjammer(most races are freed from religious ties and thus Drow can be any alignment) in general, Drow are (mostly) evil because of religion and tradition rather than skin color or race. Also, the Drow in the forgotten realms have their own redemption goddess(can't remember her name) and the Drow are not always presented as evil, even in Menzobarranze(it just happens to be the case for most) you should also look at how one alignment(in this case LE) preceives it's own alignment. No one in Drow society veiws themselves as evil, and other evil aligned races and religions would not either. Hence the vast spectrum of "alignment" a lawful good PC is more likely to do a evil act in the name of law and goodness than a nutral evil PC who favors neither law or chaos, despite their predisposition towards evil. Being neutral allowes them to have a better veiw of self preservation and thus refrain from doing a evil action for "the greater good" or for the "freedom of chaos". Just look at the nights of solmania for examples.
sorry to ramble.


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## PlusThirtyOne (Aug 13, 2015)

What about sci-fi? Where all the black aliens? Asian aliens? Dare i even ask about gay aliens? White Earthlings be prejudice, yo!


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## Cyanomega (Aug 13, 2015)

Tuvok, Ryoko and Ruby/Saphire say hi :V


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## ElZorroValdez (Aug 14, 2015)

All the races in fantasy settings are fine in my book. 'Cept for those dirty dandelion-eaters.


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## Nadi (Aug 14, 2015)

I don't see the problems that the OP seems to see, High Fantasy is intended to be.... a Fantasy, nothing more and nothing less it es realy simple, but it seems that some people want to see something bad in everything, just for the sake of it.


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## Fernin (Aug 14, 2015)

Nadi said:


> I don't see the problems that the OP seems to see, High Fantasy is intended to be.... a Fantasy, nothing more and nothing less it es realy simple, but it seems that some people want to see something bad in everything, just for the sake of it.



The only people who see the problem's OP sees are SJWs who're looking as hard as they can for something to be offended by or are in the mood to play thought police.


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## rufe-squirrel (Aug 18, 2015)

Is it really necessary for you to have to come directly at me with insults like that?


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## rufe-squirrel (Aug 18, 2015)

Is it really necessary to come at me with such anger and insults? 
Im not looking as hard as i can for anything.  Im a fan of fantasy and ive been all my life.  Im just disturbed by some things I saw regarding the issue of racism.  I did not write a message here as some sort of insut or attack, but a critique of what I saw.  I'm trying to ask questions, not start a fight.  Why are you trying to start a fight?


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## Fernin (Aug 19, 2015)

Why do you interpret everything in contradiction to your opinions as a personal attack?

Answer: Because that's what SJWs do, they seek to be offended.

And yes, that one was directed at you Rufe. I'm sick and tired of bullshit identity politics being mixed into EVERYTHING.


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## Tiamat (Aug 19, 2015)

The hobbit movies sucked the sweat off a dead mans balls.


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## rufe-squirrel (Aug 20, 2015)

That is not the case, youre reply came with an extra dash of insult and vitriol.  That was a personal attack as by using the word 'SJW' to describe me, you are branding me with what is a dismissal, that anything I say is of no consequence or worth considering.  That is a personal attack.  But Im not going to get boggled down in personal attacks, as ive found that it tends to be more helpful if someone just gets over the sense of being insulted and try and move forward.

What makes me curious is I would like to know your thoughts on race when it comes explicitly to the concept of social justice.  I am sure you are not going to think of yourself as racist or expounge racism.  But I gather since you use that coined term that you have very intense feelings about the idea of people calling for social justice.  Id like to know how you perceive that.

The last thing I would like to add coming from the experience of being a gay person who identifies as part of a cultural community that is extremely conservative and anti-egalitarian, I have something I can offer on the concept of identity.  I identity is the place someone has in the human experience.  It pretty much is an unavoidable part of existence.  The moment we meet someone we look to know and process their identity, and find out if we want to speak to that person, and how much to get to know them.  People need to find themselves in the different communities they are a part of.  No community can totally exclude someone from their population.  Thats why I made my post, I am trying to pave the way for African_Americans to be able to approach a cultural circle that they tend to feel has nothing to do with them.


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## rufe-squirrel (Aug 20, 2015)

It could be... The ren faires ive attended were in North Carolina and Missouri.   But it would be important to note the one ive been to in Missouri is actually 15 miles from Ferguson, MO where all these recent racial conflicts took place.  Ive been to that event twice and I cant remember ever seeing more than three black individuals there.


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## rufe-squirrel (Aug 20, 2015)

The only contest I have with that is that the cholce of the drow to follow an evil pantheon is rooted in their racial makeup.  Else, there would not be such a prejudice against drows based on their skin color in the Drizzt novels.  Even descriptions of them in the D&D mannuals cite them as being generally evil and worshiping evil deity's.  Because their worship of evil is tied into their race, then it makes it problematic.  Especially given that they have black skin.


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## Zerig (Aug 20, 2015)

#OrcLivesMatter


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## Erzyal (Aug 20, 2015)

You are putting too much thought into it. It may be more of a cultural thing IRL than a problem with the fantasy culture itself.


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## Erzyal (Aug 20, 2015)

Zerig said:


> #OrcLivesMatter



This made me giggle like a little girl


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## ZaraphayxRedux (Aug 21, 2015)




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## Zerig (Aug 21, 2015)

thank you factual falcon 

saved the day again


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## Fernin (Aug 21, 2015)

@rufe-squirrel : The Poe's Law is far too strong with you, so for the sake of my own sanity, believe what you will. You're either and idiot, a troll, or a parody account and I've spent too much time dealing with SJWs on other forums that it's hard to tell the three apart anymore. So, I bid you adieu. :v


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