This.Sexual Harassment Panda said:
Ultimately, just create it and THEN step back and go "Is this really in poor taste or am I just afraid of offending people?"
Either way, do what you want. Art should not fear the censor.
Creating a fantasy world...what to do about "Race"
- Thread starter Vault101
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Ultimately, just create it and THEN step back and go "Is this really in poor taste or am I just afraid of offending people?"
Either way, do what you want. Art should not fear the censor.
The quickest and easiest way to solve this is to make their skin color different, like grey or something. Of course, it is kind of cheap and you may have a little bit of a hard time explaining it to the reader, but it is an option.
Another way is to just NOT mention their skin color and just let the reader guess. More often than not, they'll go with black/dark skinned people and seeing as you didn't state anything, you avoid lighting a fire under your ass.
Another way is to just NOT mention their skin color and just let the reader guess. More often than not, they'll go with black/dark skinned people and seeing as you didn't state anything, you avoid lighting a fire under your ass.
Go wild, seriously the best way to do things these days is pull a Thor and not even contemplate race when making characters. Or just use whatever environment they live in to justify racial differences.
Do what you wanna do.
In a situation like this there's no way you won't get on somebody's bad side; Either you make the tribals black and be called racist, or you make 'm white and be called a politically correct pansy. There is no way out, so you're just gonna have to bite the bullet.
In a situation like this there's no way you won't get on somebody's bad side; Either you make the tribals black and be called racist, or you make 'm white and be called a politically correct pansy. There is no way out, so you're just gonna have to bite the bullet.
Personally I would make the appropriate skin colour to climatic zone that they inhabit, as long as you avoid the standard stereotypes. As to making them white, don't forget that 1800 years ago there where black soldiers defending the Roman empire from hordes of blond haired, blue eyed, head-hunting Germanic tribes. Its only within the last 500 years that northern Europe has became a more sophisticated society than Ethiopia. So you can easily and logically argue for a white tribal society practising voodoo style magic.
Make them mixed, as someone said: voodoo is for everyone 
Have your "tribes" split along lines of philosophy, not race. Easiest way to do it Maybe... then I again I am no writer. So take this with a bucket of salt.
Have your "tribes" split along lines of philosophy, not race. Easiest way to do it
Maybe... then I again I am no writer. So take this with a bucket of salt.
I think that as long as you also have non-white people existing as part of the non-voodoo cultures you're fine. If all the black guys were in a voodoo tribe you'd have a definite problem.
Just make the 'dominant' or 'most successful' Empire/Kingdom be black, or even better, similar to pacific islanders or some other pre-colonial native race.
Make a decimated/enslaved nation be white.
Problem solved.
Make a decimated/enslaved nation be white.
Problem solved.
Do what you think it's best. I would just suggest not stereotyping it much. (In my fantasy world for my D&D campaign we have only small nomadic tribes (mostly racially indifferent, since you can find all kinds of people adapting this lifestyle, given the circumstances. The only tribals are people who are not close enough to civilization, stoping at a primitive level because of the environment they are in- don't know if that makes sense to youVault101 said:
)My only policy regarding race is purely logical- each continent has it's own "main" race (and variations), but things are much more mingled together in towns and cities with big traffic, especially ports, or borders where nations collide together.
So, if you think it's right to do it, because it "fits" your world, go for it.
Also, they can still posses great wisdom and culture, even if they are tribal based culture (just look at some Native american tribes for example)
Hope this helps.
I'm also curious about what environment you're placing this tribe in.
And i see the suggestion of mixed society, and while i can understand that if you just want to establish voodoo as a religion i can't help but think that in a tribe they should probably all be of the same skin since a "tribe" usually means a closely tied society... doesn't it?
I'm a bit curious why you never see eskimos/inuits used for these kinds of things though. They seem to be a generally neglected people in all fantasy lore.
And i see the suggestion of mixed society, and while i can understand that if you just want to establish voodoo as a religion i can't help but think that in a tribe they should probably all be of the same skin since a "tribe" usually means a closely tied society... doesn't it?
I'm a bit curious why you never see eskimos/inuits used for these kinds of things though. They seem to be a generally neglected people in all fantasy lore.
My advice is, make the fantasy feels rather connected to the real world. Create a grueling history and lore that may excite you to continue the fantasy role. One of the good example of non-typical fantasy world is probably like Game Of Thrones, but that's just for Medieval setting of course
thats the best way to lose my interest.....don;t get me wrong its good advice but I think I'd vomit if I attempt to do anything rmotley tolkein-esque or "based on mythology"Hafiz said:
I guess it doesnt so much have to be a typical tribe but rather a religion/idea/philosphyUlquiorra4sama said:
[quote/]I'm a bit curious why you never see eskimos/inuits used for these kinds of things though. They seem to be a generally neglected people in all fantasy lore.[/quote]
I totally would but I dont think theres any polar ice caps in my setting...
well, there were shamanistic religions in europe before misguided christians stomped them (celts, germans before karl the great, slavs for instance), if you want to avoid being accused of "white-washing", try to portray different members of the cultures in question different depending on who they are, what influenced them during their lifetime and so forth.
for instance, you could have a joung, druid-like charakter in it who questions the voodoo-thing, while you could have a black- or asian-like scholar who ventures the lands on the search for answers to all the big questions who came from some kind of monotheistic, work-for-your-salvation-religion, which may or may be not the original religion of his or her people.
try to untie your world building from our world, rather try to portray your characters as human as possible since you only use humans, make religion a part of their personality, but not the be-all-end-all, most people in reality believe in some things without letting every possible decesion guide by thoose believs.
think about it this way, even today there are christians who rather pray to mother mary than jesus or god, despite it going against the doctrine of pretty every christian sect, on the other hand catholics are required by the teachings of the popes to believe in angels for which they get frequently criticized by muslim scholars who believe that this makes catholizism a polytheistic rather than a monotheistic religion.
for instance, you could have a joung, druid-like charakter in it who questions the voodoo-thing, while you could have a black- or asian-like scholar who ventures the lands on the search for answers to all the big questions who came from some kind of monotheistic, work-for-your-salvation-religion, which may or may be not the original religion of his or her people.
try to untie your world building from our world, rather try to portray your characters as human as possible since you only use humans, make religion a part of their personality, but not the be-all-end-all, most people in reality believe in some things without letting every possible decesion guide by thoose believs.
think about it this way, even today there are christians who rather pray to mother mary than jesus or god, despite it going against the doctrine of pretty every christian sect, on the other hand catholics are required by the teachings of the popes to believe in angels for which they get frequently criticized by muslim scholars who believe that this makes catholizism a polytheistic rather than a monotheistic religion.
Just thought of something, I'll bounce the idea off you, feel free to discard it: don't have traditional races. Don't have "white people" and "black people", just make up new colours. As I said before, you can have ash grey coloured skins, green tinted ones, also maybe bluish-purple-ish, as well as, pale to the point of albinism. Should be realistic - they won't be out right night elves or whatever, but non-standard enough. Also, aside from just swapping all colours, remix all the stereotypes - take some "white men" stereotypes, and add in "Asians" or something to them, then give them grey skin. Take other "white men" stereotypes, then "black men" ones, and give them green-ish skin. And so on. That can fix all the racism issues.Vault101 said:
I'm starting to find that efforts to be overly PC are more apparent than the occasional stereotyping it seeks to avoid. Of course, if you yourself are white you could just have no whites in the story and you'd be pretty much untouchable.
Panda's advice seems pretty solid. I'd follow that if you're at a loss of what to do.
Panda's advice seems pretty solid. I'd follow that if you're at a loss of what to do.
This! yes people will probably nit pick because hey look at farcry. BUT! others will stick by you assuming your not actually being blatantly racist.Sexual Harassment Panda said:
that said do some research into tribal customs that way when someone trys to say "OH ITS A TROPE DURRRHHH" you can point to your research and say "No ***** thats how real people live"
drops mic......
Why not just go with a world where skin color developed slightly differently and it's more like say eye color. Different regions might feature certain eye colors more prominently but overall each color occurs pretty much everywhere it seems.
Each culture would feature pretty much every skin color and instead be differentiated by clothing styles, building styles, customs etc.
Alternatively if you want to stick by the standard development why not have some major historical ark event in your fantasy world's past. World was about to be destroyed because of reasons, people gathered themselves and animals in an ark thingy to survive said catastrophe, people mixed whilst there and when they departed to found the cultures of your world they did so based on new bonds formed whilst on that ark, not based on their skin color.
Each culture would feature pretty much every skin color and instead be differentiated by clothing styles, building styles, customs etc.
Alternatively if you want to stick by the standard development why not have some major historical ark event in your fantasy world's past. World was about to be destroyed because of reasons, people gathered themselves and animals in an ark thingy to survive said catastrophe, people mixed whilst there and when they departed to found the cultures of your world they did so based on new bonds formed whilst on that ark, not based on their skin color.
In that case a mixed society seems like the better idea. The religious practices could have attracted different people from all around [name of fantasy world]. It could still be a cult society or a well-known religion depending on what your vision was.Vault101 said:
It's like how in Skyrim the necromancer cults and the likes could have any race in them, from elves to orcs to humans.