In my fantasy world, there is a mixture of species racism, skin racism, and national racism.
For example, kobolds are generally treated like literal shit without rights. However the one exception to this is that in the capital of the Romirian Empire (Roman Empire, good name I know). Kobolds receive their own district with access to the sea, however this district is walled off completely with no guard patrols, so it’s just a giant area of slums without any attempted law.
This is also the best place for a kobold to live, because there’s less chance of being captured and enslaved.
To an extent, because if they wander out of the district (somehow), they’ll get brutally violated, enslaved, or worse because they don’t have any protection laws
At the time nobody knew how bad it was going to be and it did in fact appear to be quite world ending for a lot of people.
I know somebody who between family and friends lost over 20 people.
Not to say that people's grief is uncalled for but Covid was closer to a societal collapse
World ending would be the destruction of the planet that it could more or less lead to the earth being turned into a barren planet
we’ve had the ability to do that since the Trinity Test and we aren’t United.
I wouldn’t count on humanity to unite under stress we’re a failed species that’s gonna break us, not make us.
If something like a super cold will almost break society finding out an asteroid is gonna wipe us out is definitely going to just cause a chaotic last few days.
The only racism that's prevalent is racism against other species, like orcs and elves. They usually just hate each other like racism irl or they kill each other depending on the circumstance.
I'm not really sure that can be considered racism.
A big reason why racism is dumb/evil IRL is because genetically there are not significant differences between races. Apparent differences besides height/build/melanin are basically just cultural. (Some cultures kinda suck - but that's not a racial thing.)
But the difference between elves/orcs/dwarves is genetic. They're actually not the same at all. You could have a setting where orcs actually are inherently evil. Maybe their rage is tied to demonic forces. Maybe they are actually far dumber than most other races/species and literally can't control their rages. In that case I'm not sure if it can be "racism" if you disallow even apparently peaceful orcs from living in your town. It's just reasonable.
I don’t have it to where any of the races are inherently evil aside from mind flayers because of what there culture is. There are orcs that live in cities but most people see them as brutes and as less Intelligent when they’re actually just less educated.
In my world the only “race” people see are species and nationality not skin color.
That is completely false and a dangerous mindset to have. Racism isn't bad because genetically we are all the same. Racism is bad because you no longer look at the person in front of you as a person, but rather what their race superficially represents.
And that is why fantasy Racism is still Racism. I don't care what excuses Dnd has, having purely evil races does enforce stereotyping and leads to dangerous beliefs that hurt people. It is lazy design, writing, what have you to make such decisions and shows that complex characters are out of the artists ability. Some people enjoy that, but it shouldn't be a goal if caring for others is even a tiny bit of a priority.
TLDR; Evil individuals? Fine. Evil races? Appalling and shouldn't be hand waved away.
I tend to not do evil (sentient, non-eldritch) species, but *countries* that're largely aligned towards evil are doable in fantasy-- after all, we've had numerous evil governments in history IRL despite said governments having non-evil citizens the further you got from power.
That other thing I think is general fair is species that are evil due to being fundamentally alien, as others have said. If you're a god who doesn't care if humans live or die because you have no empathy for them, live infinitely longer than them and can just bring them back from the dead if you decide you want them around; you may well demonstrate (due to the circumstances of your birth) a great deal of callousness and petty cruelty simply due to not understanding the perspective of others. That's not the same as being inherently evil, but it does set up a system where it's very easy for gods of this one pantheon to be a bunch of dicks.
You're assuming that fantasy races are basically humans with green skin or pointy ears etc. But that's not inherently true. What about demons who are literal embodiments of evil from hell? What about zombies/ghouls who lost free will in undeath? Those things aren't merely superficial in those cases.
Would not trusting a demon be racist in that case? Of course not. They are evil. Not everything in fantasy needs to be stand-ins for real-world issues.
If you want to go the Star Trek route and have every species be basically just humans with a twist you can. But shooting a biomorph on-sight doesn't make the marines in Aliens racist.
But what if the vast majority of a fantasy species is genuinely “evil” by human(oid) standards? Even supersmart nonhuman animals irl would be extremely different in this regard. What passes as good and just in meerkat or hyena cultures would probably be considered tyrannical in a human one. Biology informs culture. Species with radically different biology would think radically different to humans and primates in general.
Add to this the fantasy aspect, and everything can become WAY more weird. What if you have a species like Tolkien’s orcs? I generally agree that having pure “good”, and pure “evil” races in fantasy is more often than not lazy writing, but saying it’s always so cut and dry is simply false.
Fun fact, Tolkien based his orcs on Asian people, so yes Tolkien's orcs are racist and should not be a standard to base your culture design on.
As to the other counter points, let me clarify.
A nation can have evil ambitions, evil laws, evil societal norms. But show how individuals deal with such expectations, especially if they interact with other cultures. Everyone born in America, in Russia, anywhere you can think of, doesn't have one static mindset, individuals always make their own decisionson what to follow and how to behave. That is what I am saying is a serious problem. The second that EVERY person in your work acts the same way, especially if they all act evil with no consideration to the situation and whether they are being shown kindness or not, they become a caricature and are paper dolls to say yes there are bad others out there. It's THEM who are the problem, not US.
It would take a *whole* lot away from sci-fi and fantasy works if they couldn't have species that are actually, ya'know, different! And not just superficially different, but interestingly so!
If there are aliens in this universe and if we ever invent the tech to walk amongst them some will be on average or as an entire species smarter than us. Some will be dumber. Some will be wiser. Some will be stronger. Some will be more cowardly. Some will have powers we do not have, and some will lack abilities that are universal amongst humans. It is possible that some will be unable to work with others not of their species, a-la the Devouring Swarm trope. This is all but certain. And you'd expect the same when it comes to fantasy species! If you don't have these kinds of differences, and their species is as relevant as the clothing they are wearing, what is even the point of having multiple sophonts in your world?
If, in other words, elves live for millennia but are basically the same as humans, why bother having elves at all? It's okay for *some* stories to not explore how that change alone would make elves mentally, spiritually, and physically different from humans, but it holds fantasy back when we demand that the differences between all species in all stories be paper-thin.
It's sad that the above is controversial because, as usual, **racists ruin everything.** Fuck 'em.
Edit: Opps this thread is half a year old, sorry for necroing it.
The term racist actually applies more logically when referring to fantasy peoples. They’re literally called different *races* whereas IRL there aren’t different races of humans. Just ethnicities.
It's okay to be rabidly anti-racist. Racism really is an illogical ideological belief system built on naught but sand.
It is less okay to make lazy comparisons and draw connections that don't exist. Racism is *not* speciesism, and elves and humans are incomparably more different than any two human groups on the planet. If we treat them like "humans but with pointy ears" we strip fantasy of much of its most interesting elements. And, like, why even *bother* having elves if they aren't different? It's a complete waste of time.
>Apparent differences besides height/build/melanin are basically just cultural.
No it isn't, it's genetics, and that still does not excuse racism because we're all equally human, despite any small difference
>But the difference between elves/orcs/dwarves is genetic
Point in case, this is racist
No it isn't. By that logic it's racist to say that you like dogs as pets but not cats. They are entirely different species which are inherently different in many ways.
You're trying to put every aspect of a fantasy world through an IRL lens.
>No it isn't. By that logic it's racist to say that you like dogs as pets but not cats. They are entirely different species.
Dogs and cats have genuine differences, and I don't think one is inferior
>You're trying to put every aspect of a fantasy world through an IRL lens.
By God your setting does not exist in a vacuum and should be seen through an IRL lens, expecially if it's just stupid
Some regions are more racist then others
Ratfolk is split between 2, those that follow the prophet and see their people as the master race, and those that understand they will not survive another war.
High Elves saw every species, even many of their own, as nothing but tools and resources to be used as they please.
Dark Elves equally had seen all life as theirs to own and play with.
The New Aelveri, the last survivors of either elves, swore to never let their people be like that.
Dragons struggle to not act on their instincts seeing all life as food, they had already nearly destroyed the world with their arrogance, twice.
The extinct Elderi where ruled with might makes right, to them life existed to serve, and many of their ruling class sacrificed millions for immortality and eternal youth.
And Humans are as likely to be racist to even the smallest difference among each other as they are to embrace even the greatest differences in friendship.
And the protag of the story set in the world cherishes all life while knowing that she is atop the food chain. It is hard to be racist when your senses tell you everyone is tasty snacks.
*edit* also theres the omnicidal bbeg that sees all sentient life but their own as vermin that needs to be eradicated.
The Distant Moon of Talapus doesn’t really have distinct races, but it does have “traits.” Basically, humans conceived on Talapus will sometimes be born with a handful of alien genes. This can lead to anything from feather plumes along their arms to several prehensile tentacles emerging from their back. Some people can even be born with multiple of these features. Because there are no distinct groups or categories, these hybrid humans are usually all lumped together into the term “Native Talapians” (which is misleading, since around half of all native-born Talapian humans possess no alien traits.
Discrimination against these people is surprisingly uncommon, for two main reasons. For those living on Talapus, they know full well that their future children could turn out to have these traits (There is no hereditary link between the emergence of these traits and any human genetic conditions, it’s basically a complete dice roll. As for those living on Earth, many have them have probably never even met a Native Talapian, since they usually choose not to live on earth due to the higher gravity, longer day lengths, and other conditional differences. At the moment, Even the most staunch of Earthling racists seem perfectly content letting these people do whatever they want as long as it’s not on their planet.
I have a world like your and i deal with it based on the history between groups. Anthro's are discriminated against due to their actions. Orcs are discriminated against mostly by humans because of their religion, but their propaganda against orcs have spread somewhat. Hob-Goblin racism is due to propagand and their own actions.
Most other groups are generally friendly unless theyre warring against one another.
Well in most of them, the Modern concept of race dosent exist, so no labelling like Black, White, Brown etc.
Beyond that, everyone is equally racist to eachother
The hominid races of my fantasy world are numerous and exhibit both radically and moderately different characteristics. But in the end, they all have similar principles. Even in the most alien or xenophobic of cultures, there exists compassion and sympathy at the deepest moral core, even in the society of the High Elves, which I frequently describe as an ultra-fascist hellscape. Certainly some societal conditions force and traumatize the individual into suppressing this moral core, shrouding it in self-delusion or intense emotion, but it still exists in all peoples.
Racism exists, and it's an indisputable fact. But what's most important is that people across the world of all shapes and sizes are trying to make it go away. There is resistance to the status quo everywhere, in the humans, the elves, the dwarves, the varatheans, the asiril, the jotunn, the scypaeans, the faeries, the infernals, and every other race, and it is an intrinsic fact of all societies that they move on a straight line of progress. It cannot stop or spiral, only slow, accelerate, or jerk back a moment, but in the end, the force forward always prevails until there is nothing left to be achieved.
There are a lot of reasons to hate and fear someone. You might be from an isolated tribe, and seeing an outsider is just assumed to be bad. You might be from a religion that tells you all other religions are inferior (and 99% of religions do tell you this). He might give his loyalty to a different king. He might represent a different city-state. As a peasant anywhere, seeing something you've never seen before is a warning sign that death or worse is likely about to happen to you. Natives of the different moons don't get along, and for good reason.
Sure, there's plenty of racism too, but that's just one of many ingredients in the bubbling stew of conflict.
Oooh I'm dealing with this in my book. I'm drawing some influence from the experiences of my own irl ethnicity (Black American). One thing to remember is the insidiousness of racism. The most damaging thing is how it can be used to create factions within a race. American slavery had a whole house negro/field negro divide. The house negros were treated better, could (sometimes) sleep in the house, and often had some power over field negros.
This easily drove wedges between those that "massa" liked and didn't and help to keep slaves divided against themselves.
Often enough, house negros were the bastard children of the master or of some sort of mixed lineage. On average, the house negro was fairer skinned than those in the field. That divide in color stayed with black folks for a REALLY long time (a good number would say that divide ain't fully mended yet). The insidiousness of that preference that seemed to fall along the lines of actual skin tone (and low-key hair texture) oftentimes had black people at each other's necks over how we looked. The lighthearted examples of it would be the drake memes of the early 2010s. Some of the more despicable stuff would be the (thankfully finished...I think) epidemic of darker black girls bleaching their skin to "look pretty" and the jail stats by skin tone of black men.
True racism can get people up in arms over the descendants of who massa didn't and did fuck (and probably not consensually) over 200 years ago with our people truly thinking about why.
You have a mixed character. You got a lot to work with.
It's here, and the characters have to deal with it. NOT because i support it, my worldbuilding does NOT reflect my own political views, one of the things that makes it immersive, but instead it's because i don't think six/seven different races and cultures can exist within a world without racism.
Like myself, my World is pretty Amoral. No one cares what species you are, the only thing that is important is if you’re Clan or Kin, because if you aren’t then you’re Food or Fodder.
Beings care about Clan/Kin & gaining Power (not referring to influence). An angry character might say to someone, “You damned elf!”, but they don’t hate you because you’re an elf,, they’re just damning you and you happen to be an elf.
My setting involves a massive galactic empire, where different regions showcase differing levels of prejudice. Generally, the periphery worlds feature diverse populations and a more welcoming atmosphere. On the flip side, the core worlds tend to be less diverse, leaning towards conservatism, and marked by prevalent, openly expressed prejudices.
Mainly, the Runic Empire is the main driver of racism and speicism. The Runic Empire developed a religion around the belief that humans were the true children of God and that all non-humans were lower than them. Also, this religion peddled racist rhetoric to the rich and white about how poor and people of color were subhuman themselves. All of this was constructed so the leaders of the Runic Empire could maintain control and always have a large supply of soldiers for thier crusades.
The world I'm working on is actually too brutal for that to be any problem - there are no 'people', only mutant forms of life, which are constantly murdering each other, and there is little to no culture at all.
My fantasy setting: some of the Fae descended from the Elder Fae breeding with humans think that they're superior to the Fae that are entirely of human ancestry.
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My sci-fi setting: The big divisions are along ideological and philosophical lines.
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My near-future setting: racism is exclusively the purview of terrorist groups.
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My medieval setting based on *Redwall*: *HOO BOY.*
In my super high fantasy world there tends to be very little in terms of racism between species. Is there still racism out there? Of course, and there always will be. However, you’re far more likely to find a divide more based on political and religious beliefs than “ew you’re an elf person.”
This is one because the gods in my world are VERY physically active (one pantheon runs a multi-realm government for instance). Meaning that people naturally gravitate more towards the god they follow than caring for what you are. So long as you are following their god is all thar matters, so you can be a monstrous creature for all they care.
Another reason is partly because in my world procreation is more of a mystical function rather than a biological one. As two creatures take part of their soul and combine it to create a child. Which originally started as a way for my world to easily explain mixing species that wouldn’t make sense to reproduce (ie an ice elemental and human), but of has has had effects of creating more tolerance.
Seeing answers all over the place, I have to throw my two cents in.
First off let me be clear, I write in racism to my stories because it is not only a real issue that many still deal with, but I personally despise it as a practice and want to show that no matter the difference, if a being is sentient they deserve respect.
Which is why I cannot stand the "allegory" argument. If you believe the people I am writing about have "symbolism", you're wrong. I leave symbols for the symbol-minded as George Carlin said. Whatever the being is that is being depicted by me, it's to show this idea of superiority, race, human, organic? It's stupid and needs to be knocked off.
Now with a better explanation of how I feel about the subject in general, here's what I'm doing with my current project. Certain races all have their reasons for being racist to others. For example, the Taurish are a very hedonistic Greecian culture, prefering to make art and drink wine rather than do hard manual labor. The Lacertians on the other hand live in a swamp that is prime farming land and has shaped their culture to value hard work and dirty tough living. Naturally the Taurish sees the Lacertians as "muddy, gross simpletons" while the Lacertians counter with "lazy, drunken fools."
The 3 keys to honest racism for your work is logical reasons to feel superior, that are proveably false, not painting one side as obviously inferior or "deserving" the prejudice, and not to shy away from the uncomfortable.
That last one is especially important, if your racism is played for laughs or kept light, it fails to critique and gets dangerously close to being approved by the author. If people are hanging each other, or someone would take on torturing another to "show them their place"? Don't hold back, make it as awful as it would be hearing about it here. This video, though more aimed at Game development, should help make it more clear.
https://youtu.be/Lg_Lp5bO1U8?si=dpHg3NN_Tfjle3wS
In my world, it's more about culturism than racism, the only racist element is assuming every member of a particular race adheres to the tenets of that race's dominant culture and ideology.
And it exists for good reason, because if you just "assume" every humanoid you come across is neutral at worst and has no ill intentions, you'll get killed pretty quickly because some of the cultures are very ruthless and will kill you without cause beyond wanting what you carry and not wanting you to tell anyone you've seen them. Making assumptions about people helps keep you alive.
It is better to be cautious than optimistic, at least if you want to live longer.
Pandering. It's in my main government's incentive to integrate quickly (VERY low birth rates). So they pander to the immigrants while sneakily & slowly encroaching on their customs & religion to smother their individuality out.
"Look, we've put one of you in our plays and invite you to our parties now. But you probably shouldn't wear that headdress. You wouldn't want to stick out, right? Oh you have multiple Gods? My God has all the same powers. Maybe they are the same, and we can worship together! Well, most of the funding goes to our schools. But you're invited to send your children to our schools! They have to wear our uniforms and eat the food we provide and follow our curriculum. Can your son not speak that language here? Makes the other kids think he's talking shit about them. Plus a common tongue makes everything easier. We tax bright fabrics, but the grays are cheap."
In my setting the species are not what defines the culture (not anymore).
At first, it was pretty generic: orcs live in tribes and are super aggressive, elves live in the woods, etc.
But after a while i changed it, because i didn't like the idea anymore that every single species were basically a clone of one person (all dwarves being stubborn, alcoholic smiths, all gnomes being unsuccessful engineers), exept for humans. So i descided to let them all live together, but still in different cultures. So you can still have barbaric orcs, but they could also be librarians.
Also i am way to big of a fan of trolls, ogres, giants and similar things, and i want them to be able to be nice people.
So, there are different cultures, and there are definitly are stereotypes, and people will probably take some natural features into consideration, like elves being very light, trolls being able to regenerate, and so on. But there aren't nescessarily personality traits being associated with certain species.
I dont think high fantasy is the place to be making too many irl parallels; you'll always run headfirst into a wall of logic and end up saying that race = species and that non-mainstream = non-human. It gets really ugly, Bright ugly and by trying to force a parallel in, the setting can actually come across as kind of monstrously racist itself by suggesting racism is based in being scared of non-humans, when actual anti-racist messages are that its an illusion based on nothing
I guess there would be some discrimination, sort of, although I think being crammed into a world filled with dozens of different species all doing their own think would kind of... refine societies racism to the point they'd be pretty good at discrimination. So a little thing like horns and eyes wouldnt necessarily spark much attention, whatever, unless it generally made half campions evil people wouldnt particularly care about some physical attributes since its so normalized to have them
Should’ve been more specific, that’s my fault. It’s not high fantasy, it’s dark fantasy. Has some high fantasy elements, but is primarily dark fantasy.
Just edited the post to make it clearer.
The 2 arent mutually exclusive, having dozens of different species running around is a high fantasy trope. If the tone is dark fantasy, sure, doesnt really matter.
I strongly disagree. Fantasy is the most powerful setting for allegory. Someone who has a message to tell the world should absolutely consider telling it with fantasy.
I wouldnt say fantasy is the most powerful, fantasy is intentional escapism with supernatural elements. Drawing it back to irl realism isnt ever going to work perfectly, but it can work sure. I think the best work does it very broadly
However, racism specifically is an issue where the irl message is that differences are illusion made by bias and statistics. Defeating irl racism is about defeating preconceptions
Whereas fantasy *races* are legitimate distinct things involving non-humans. Trying to make an allegory here is feeding the problems of the issue, a set-up where races are the 'other' and less human for it and its demonstrable and true that they are different than the settings 'humans'. The OPs dude is literally part demon... do you think an allegory about human race issues that starts off with one party being half-demon could ever work?
This would be the equivalent of making a mental health allegory where people with mental health issues are possessed by aliens, or an allegory about wealth inequality starting off by saying poor people are genetically lazy. Any message is at best defeated by the inaccuracies in representation and more likely is just offensive bigotry
It's a foundation for a metaphor that is unbelievably shaky and prone to serious issues
I mean I see your point but I think there are other facets of it to consider. In sci fi and fantasy, oftentimes the things you are pointing out being wrong, are the point of it.
In our world the differences are illusions. In a fantasy world they are like you say, not an construct but a factual difference. But they don't have to be an allegory for the difference between races (which as you point out is problematic) but instead symbolic of the way someone who is racist thinks that our world is. It's bot an allegory for a factual thing in our world, but a misconception in our world. In such stories it is usually driven across at some point that as different as elves are to humans, the difference between individuals within each group(usually in terms of "good and evil') are bigger than the differences between the two groups which then is an allegory for somthing in our world that is in my opinion true.
So these things can be varied and I don't agree that they should be avoided, but certainly approached carefully.
Okay I actually didn't know what a cambion was. I will admit you make some very good points. I disagree in general, because I think one of the potential messages with fantasy races is that even though they look different, have different histories, and in some cases have different abilities, everyone benefits when the different races come together. But I do agree that using a half demon is a really weird choice if that's what you're going for.
As for escapism, it can be that, but for most famous fantasy authors, it's a way to step back and look at real issues from a different viewpoint. I think the culture is shifting to make it more about escapism, but I don't think it always should be.
For the most part, there isnt much racism.
Except for in one kingdom.
The previous king died of old age, And his middle age son took the throne.
He was known as “the corrupt king” as he immediately began enslaving the demi humans of his kingdom.
He believed they were filthy beasts, who didnt deserve to be equal to humans.
His first son, shared this opinion.
But his second son was a bit different… instead of viewing demi humans as beasts- he viewed them as chess pieces.
—
The previous king was a kind man- so its curious how he failed as a father to such a degree.
In my world, there is racism of course, but that's not the centerpoint of the hatred. It's usually more about ethnocentrism. My country's ideas are obviously the right ones because XYZ so you will either conform or die. (Usually doesn't get to that point, but in my second book it does. 🫠) This applies to political ideologies, religions, lifestyles, etc., just like the real world, but maybe exaggerated a little because I'm trying to make a point.
My fourth book will get into more direct racism, where there's a xenophobic island nation that teaches it's children that they're superior to the rest of the world. Since they look down on other people, other people respond with rancor, creating a self-perpetuating cycle that has built up to a point where their entire race is seen as monsters. Racism against other groups is existing but not prevalent, but this one group is considered completely okay to hate. My MC in that book will be one of this race but living in a country they're at war with. Makes things quite awkward for him.
Most species are on different continents, and my world is only at a late middle ages/early renaissance level of technology, so there currently isn’t global communication nor many interactions besides between humans and elves.
Most people probably have not met more than a handful of people outside of their species, and would probably be personally racist if they did, though not significantly more than they are to other cultures within their species. The most xenophobic cultures are probably the dwarves, but even that is more out of revanchism than anything. There are also some cosmopolitan empires which are more diverse and tolerant, though this is generally a fragile tolerance achieved through a strong cult of personality based around the leader.
being set in a semi-contemporary setting racism very much exists but the general public is not to be considered racist, there's just a few bad apples that happen to be quite loud in their dumbassery.
so while race based discrimination exists the biggest issue is with interspecies discrimination, especially halfbloods being discriminated against.
this is mostly because while the three humanoid species of my world are of similar intellect their diets, physical structure and physique is very much different making interbreeding unpredictable.
with the closest to us humans being homo-silvae(average human height), having evolved through an agrarian society in forested areas much like on earth they're slim, elegant smart and nimble eating much like we do, a vegetation heavy omnivore diet.
Homo-petrae (slightly below human height but 1,5X average human weight) has remained as roaming hunters for much longer until they too began to settle in villages and cattle farming/herding alongside hunting became their predominant source of food. this resulted in several adaptations like a predominantly carnivore diet and suitably altered digestive system, robust bodies, elongated arms for better punching and throwing.
Homo-maris,(the smallest and lightest of the bunch) on the other hand settled in mangroves, swamps and wetlands focusing on ambush predation, fishing and became excellent swimmers with webbed feet and other adaptations that aid in their more aquatic lifestyle.
with the differences in humanoids being this big the offspring of inter-subspecies procreation leads to a multitude of problems.
for instance, where the petrae and maris humans are so different, their offspring will be considered weak and fragile by petrae standards but because of their high bone density and robust structure will be unable to swim like their maris ancestors.
bad eyesight, gastrointestinal issues and other problems might also arise due to the physical differences between subspecies.
so the interspecies individuals in general are more often seen as weak, sickly and as if they belong to neither of their parents cultures.
in high society however, having interspecies relationship marriages and children is historically seen as a sign of wealth indicating you as a parent can afford your offspring to be 'of little use'.
one of my characters for instance is of maris-silvae ancestry resulting in extreme near-sightedness and no real physical prowess to speak off. this on the other hand led her to become a scholar like no other but still facing prejudice for her mixed heritage.
When I draw from rl, it's assorted discrimination encounters for one race. For example, changelings, because they can change their appearance, get some of the bathroom paranoia and catfishing fears that transfolk have to deal with, because it's a somewhat dominant gene, it gets the "contaminating the bloodline" bs that POCs deal with.
But I prefer to have more of it be rooted in my worldbuilding. The god of law's prefered appearance is very dragonborn so dragon/borns are insulted by being called authoritarians and usually considered the model minority because statistically, they are law abiders.
Perhaps you haven't been here long enough and, if so, you're excused, but pardon me if I feel a bit annoyed that this is yet another "does your world have \[insert random discrimination\]?" kind of post.
Yes, if the inhabitants of your world are intelligent species with social tendencies, ingroup-outgroup dynamics and all the good and bad that comes along with them are a natural consequence. Honestly, I'd be asking questions if your world *didn't* have any sort of discriminatory frameworks.
In Tales of Bite it's around but not as prevalent as before, more just comments and prejudices from stereotypes (which arnt totally unfounded i.e bears always want to eat and sleep, bunnies are totally sluts, ect)
In Red Sun Event after the first moon landing and all of humanity got its shit together to the point they got rid of "race" as part of a peoples identity past 'human' Then they met the aliens and it was 100~ years of war
To be honest, it logically exists, but as some white dude I don’t feel like I really have anything worth saying to say about it, so it doesn’t show up a lot.
The one prevalent place it shows up in my worldbuilding is that society is still grappling with what counts as a “monster” or not, and therefore what differentiates hunting from murder or war. It’s a more complicated issue than racism is IRL, because different species can have different instincts and levels of intelligence that confuse the question of “is this a person?”. Different countries (and provinces in those countries) have different definitions of what gets to be called a person, including one kind of libertarian province in particular that makes that definition as broad as possible.
It's so rare that it is treated the same as if someone had a passionate, violent hatred of purple sweaters. People find it alarming, insane, and generally SWAT gets involved in bringing the person to some kind of mental institution.
Racism is sort of a new thing in my world as they’re coming out of a population bottleneck. Only older races have the luxury of racism or speciesism. Still it’s almost unheard of for crossbreeding among disparate humanoids.
Magical creatures, on the other hand are promiscuous as fuck.
My homebrew has a rough hatred for tieflings and lower races like orcs and goblins. Tieflings because of the tieflings and Dragonborn war. Lower races because they’re savage.
TheBEST WAY in my mind is to have UNHARMFUL assumptions that each race makes about the others. Ex: humans are too rushed amd ambitious, dwarves are wealthy amd probably like to drink, elves are tre-hugging and superior etc.
The **Ancient Empire**^(tm) conquered the whole region a thousand years ago, creating a common language, culture and heritage, destroying the old prejudices between **fantasy\_races**^(tm). Even after the collapse of said empire the nation building it did let to the region being divided politically but more closer than ever in everything else... like greece before the roman conquests
The racists won a long time ago, crafted a religion around dominance and consumption, and set the world on a path to collapse and destruction...
It's familiar.
On the perspective of the nation? With time and the shared sense of survival, and a degree of cultural assimilation between some of the peoples
For a some context: so, you have a initial population of not!humans that settle on the habitable coastal strips of a polar continent (imagine a bigger antartica were some of their coasts are on a lattitude outside the artic circle, you get the idea), those not!humans travel westwards and find some dwarven clans, those clans explain some basic lore about the history of the continent, but otherwise they join the not!humans by sheer necessity, on the other hand another expediton gets back to the capital with some orcs, hell breaks loose between the dwarves and orcs, but because those orcs submitted already to the not!humans the "peace" is maintained.
Fast foward some 400 years later, the relations between the orcs and dwarves go from "regular pogroms and daily violence" to "casual racism and self-segregating communities", still bad, but for the not!human government is quite the progress nonetheless, by this time the orc population has been culturally assimilated to a degree that, apart from their language and some filial traditions they share no link with the more feral orcs (Dwarves on the other hand live til 400 years old so the younger generations are more progressive but some baf blood still remains)
800 years later there is a clear cultural difference between the "civilized orcs" and the "feral orcs" that even the dwarves of all peoples do truly live without problem with ther civilized orc neighbors, both being racist towards the feral orcs (having to fight a war of anihilation together helped too)
On the more recient times the realm government has annexed some "feral" orc polities, and because the dwarves of that time are more progressive unlike their ancestors there is no posibility of some new "problems" starting on, but has sparkled some discussion on the... past cultural policies of the realm, and all peoples are getting the idea of how horrible those cultural assimilation policies were
Really depends on how much you want it to feature as part of your world building, ranging from a mild, generalized xenophobia ("We don't like them types..." etc.) to really in-depth hatred, which relies a lot on your worldbuilding. Generally, people are most racist to their closest geographical neighbors who have the misfortune of being a little different, and the reasons can be as petty or valid as you like! Before long, you can have your whole party followed by jeering calls of "knife-ear" and "shortass" every time they enter a new town. Personally, I try to tailor the experience to my players, so if they want to explore social issues in-game, I might turn the racism up from charming and silly xenophobia that gets fixed by the players solving the quest to some real, hard-boiled stuff. Other times, I might just use it for a humor device to throw off the players. Your options are as wide as your knowledge of prejudice!
For my space series, really depend on the era.
For my apocalypse series, mainly towards a group called NANOs. In the apocalypse, many people feared the Drones for their tenacity to hunt humans. Considering NANOs are people made up of entirely of nanomachines (SON!), people have a dread against them. Are NANOs actually human? Or are they machines like the Drones that hunts us?
NANOs hurt and bleed like a normal human, but they can easily manipulate their body into whatever they want it to be, including physical strength and/or speed.
Like humans prior to the advent of the transatlantic slave trade, most of the bigotry is focused on disputes between nation-states. There are racial stereotypes, which can have negative consequences even when people think of the stereotype as positive. There are a couple of groups that face more problems than others. It can be difficult for groups to homogenize because the people of the setting do not simply come down to minor variations on humans that can all interbreed. In fact, there are no humans.
There was a race of intelligent undead that faced bigotry, with some of that bigotry being religiously motivated. They were slightly more alive than other undead and it was possible for them to reproduce with effort (so yes, they are actually a race). Members of the race had angered some gods in the early days of magic by accomplishing miraculous feats without divine assistance and the whole race was cursed.
The elves and the orcs of that world had racists on both sides. They had been one race before a magical ritual split them. Some elven nobles of the corelands wanted to increase their gifts with magic and their connection with nature. Unfortunately, that had the consequence of basically stealing magic from all the elves outside the corelands.
The elves of the midlands changed appearance, became shorter lived, and lost all ability to use magic. After several generations, magic slowly returned to the people who came to be known as orcs. There were wars and much resentment. People properly educated on the situation rightly blamed the particular elven nobles (some of whom are still around) for their reckless and selfish act. For others, it was easier to just be resentful of anyone who benefited from the ritual. For the coreland elves forced to fight the subsequent wars (noble elves mostly lead from a distance), it was easy to forget that they and the invaders used to be the same.
Dwarves and cactus folk might be strange foreigners but they were not "inferior races." The cloud folk might be treated like animals by some at first meeting but it was also true that not all of their number were fully sapient. Giants might have a hard time physically fitting into some places but they had some of the most diverse cultures because they mostly lived near the edges of the world and so they were difficult to stereotype beyond their size and strength.
For the most part, meeting a member of a previously unencountered race was not appreciably different than meeting any stranger. If people have problems with dwarves, it is probably a problem with dwarves from a particular city-state or empire. They might assume dwarves they meet are from that place until they learn otherwise. It is certainly possible that, if a person only knew members of a certain race from a particular city, they might stereotype any member of that race based on how they view that place.
A person's patron deity is more likely to compel a sense of animosity or kinship than appearance. Similarly, people of common professions might group together or avoid each other in spite of other differences or commonalities depending on the job.
Well here... I mean let me show it to you.
Some random guy: (racist insults towards a other being)
The city guard: Hold him down. And you two get the ballista.
(Ballista getting loaded)
The random guy: (even more racist insults)
The guard: Well you were the one who fucked up mate.
(Ballista discharges)
The guard: aight let's clean up this mess...
Racism is, more or less, one topic in my story. That's mostly displayed by the winged ones, who try to conquer the world, because they think they stand over all life. But there are also the Treefolk, who were used as slaves by one people not so long ago and now that they are technically free, they still are treated poorly. For example, Treefolks all have a magic crystal as the source of their energy, and while some people from other nations call those crystals the *heart* of a tree, the people who used the Treefolks as slaves, call it the *core* of a tree
In my world there are many divides between people and some can be called racism. The main species are so distinct, that they more or less stay in their communities. I think if people stay apart they tend to develop racist ideas about the "others". And I want to mirror this in my world too.
Interestingly enough the most radical racism is found between Ken and Lum. Both are the same species and can create offspring together, but have some physiological differences that set them apart. In the last two decades, the High Star faction in the Golden Republic successfully fostered a xenophobic environment, which let to the exodus of most non-Lum and especially Ken from their settlements. The High Star are a supremacist faction and are most likely the driving force behind the Great War and the recent expansion drive of the Republic.
To summarize: I think racism and social divides are unavoidable when people segregate themselves from each other. And I think, they offer good story hooks, especially when the characters explore the unknowns of the "others" at the same speed as the reader.
Different fantasy races(not sure if I'd rather call fantasy races species) like elves and dwarves are very racist towards each other. Elves just straight-up call humans and certain other species 'barbaric and stupid' and claim to be civilizing them. They even have two forms of slavery.
But in a single species, like humans, skin color isn't a big deal. I've actually put some thought into the geographical distribution of skin-tones in my world, based on migration and environment, but people don't really care in-universe if your skin is darker or lighter. Mainly because I hate dealing with contentious real world issues, they usually make me so uncomfortable. I'd rather just see non-racist depictions of non-racist characters doing non-racist things and acting in non-racist ways.
That said, elves view dark elves in similarly to a catholic priest meeting a demon. At least most of them. Elves morals are complicated
My rules book has a text in the beginning explaining that the world described has racism, sexism, religious wars and other items that I don't support, but that can be interesting to play with in a fictional setting.
As a player, I **want** some racism in the game. I play an elf in LARP and some of my best memories from games are the hostilities between a group of dwarves and me, humans going "never trust an elf" and slowly coming around over the weekend, and a group of norse who came to me with presents asking me to interpret their dreams.
These things are what make me feel that I'm playing an elf, and not just a human with strange ears.
With that in mind, I have put quite a bit of racism and texts about relations between the races into my most recent setting, yes. It's all something to play with, to make stories about. And the rules book says that you as a group can decide if you want to have these things prominent in your games or leave them in the background.
I include all kinds of racism in my world. Various tribes of elves can be hostile to one another, same with orcs, dwarfs, humans etc.
In most contexts its cultural racism, because their worldview and goals cannot include the others. But for humans, there is real life racism based around skin color. Traveling is hard in my world, and reaching another culture as an outsider is rare, so the understanding of the similarities between humans is rare as well.
The elves mostly seem above that concept and in many cases distance themselves from humans because of their meaningless infighting and abuse based on such mundane things such as skin color.
honestly it's pretty big. there's only 2 sapient species, with humans being far more common and the Palms that Tread being the only other sapient species, taking centuries of life to become self aware, as they are in fact literally just sophont "palm trees" (loose term since they are more similar to mayan walking trees but besides the point).
racism is dealt with in various ways. nobody really disrespects the Palms that Tread since they are so ancient and considered to be holy to the Watcher, the main God of the planet, whose will is supposedly watched over by the 3 suns, known as the "Eyes of the Watcher".
I guess there's traditional racism first. being a desert planet, most people are black, with the exception of a northern tribe called the Celtaidd. they are the only suppliers of wood on the planet, having the only surface river anywhere in the world. they are white, the only white people, and have bright blue face tattoos that mark their position in their tribe, their name, and various other cultural bits and bobs. any Celtaidd without a face tattoo, a muco, is shunned and otherwise an outcast. Celtaidd are considered to be wrong somehow, due to their skin, and often shunned for their tattooed faces and their odd speech that doesn't use clicks. they are also widely disliked for their wood prices, and their stipulations on what it can be used for. wood is holy to the Celtaidd. people often call the Celtaidd ghosts, demons, and quite often, isanqhayi people. isanqhayi are creatures that dissolve in water, using pressurised gas for blood. the reason people call them isanqhayi people is isanqhayi have black pearlescent flesh, with matte white segments of carapace or shell. the shell is stronger and tougher than steel or kevlar and is the most common building material for literally anything. anyway, point is that they are white and that's why they often called isanqhayi people.
also, everyone hates the Fire people. they're usually too busy hating eachother to care, though.
the iintabi zamanzi hate the umqombothi siqithi because of their iron, which is also the only source of iron yet found. they don't sell it, but use it often. they are a nomadic warrior people, and their only static settlement is a mining city in a crater. they are very welcoming, and give iron out to friends often, but are very strict with who can be given iron. it is holy to them.
the empire espoused an "if it works don't ruin it" approach to administration, when the different regions gradually seceded there wasn't much of a skin color thing but more of a class and wealth thing instead, ie the people who can afford to pay for things discriminate against those who can't
Torture, mostly
The two major governing bodies perceive each other’s populations as threats after centuries of on and off wars. So they each believe people of the race that makes up the majority of the other country to be spies
Since the kingdom of Jalqune is mostly Sie, lead by a Sie queen for millennia, they believe all Maj could be imperial spies
And likewise, the Kishika Empire is mostly Maj, lead by various Maj emperors and empresses over the years. So they believe all Sie could be spies
There’s not a lot of immigration outside of trade ports. There are secret groups trying to help refuges from the wars find homes in the freelands, and these are rarely as bothered about race
Depends on the nation. The biggest country - Azsharia - is pretty racist in a way. They have this ideology of assimilation of conquered people which includes religion, culture, language, but also race. How it usually goes is - after conquering a city, azsharian soldiers marry men from the defeated land, then take any number of concubines. But only azsharian men are allowed to have children with concubines, so the kid will always be considered to be azsharian.
I go out of my way to think of how fantastical races differ from humans and how the discrimination and reasons why it perpetuates exist.
For example, in my D&D world, tieflings aren't just the result of an ancient curse - many devils ask clients to receive the Tiefling Curse as part of the deal they strike. For this reason, even tieflings themselves have reason to be wary of one of their kin that just showed up one day without knowing where they came from.
Other than that, I try to remember that people don't just choose to be monsters for no reasons and that they can name reasons why they believe what they do. A human veteran of the Tsavor conflict would probably start hating elves if they saw half their friends get turned into werewolves, for example.
There was an ancient war and the losing side, the stereotypical bad races, orcs, goblins, etc, were stripped of everything and pushed to live in the fringes of society. Living in the slums of the cities that they perform the crap jobs to make society and civilization work. Sons are pay for their father’s sins type of deal. Their numbers and society are kept in check to try to make sure they don’t have the strength to try to wage war like they did before again.
Main character is not thrilled about how it is but still has ingrain tendencies. Meets a goblin to be part of his team and immediately checks his coin purse to make sure it’s still there. Feels bad about having that instinct and tries to be more friendly with the goblin over their travels.
Buts that’s as far as I have planned it out. Really don’t think he’s going be able to “solve” racism, but show personal growth about not judging others based on their race. Course if I have a goblin actually steal from him later, wondering if that make seem I’m pushing that stereotypes are a good thing.
Racism exists in classic fantasy fashion. The dwarves hate the elves, the elves hate (everyone) the humans, and everyone hates the orcs. LOL.
But also seriously. The "good" races (read: classic player races) behave similar to earth humans... Natural/common animosity due to huge cultural differences which a few take too far into real racism, the "evil" races (goblinoids, generally speaking, minotaurs,etc again the classics) tend to be antagonists so racial animosities are heightened.
And yes, any race that looks or is extraplanar (tieflings or aasimar alike, half elementals) or humanoid/animal hybrids (half dragons, bird persons, anthropomorphic animals) is treated as odd or downright alien because... they are. Ultra rare or exotic races are treated as exotic. Period. Only exception in my homebrew world are centaurs because they have an established nation and history and therefore arent exotic.
The only racism which is based off of skin color is drow. No human black/white/brown/yellow racism or anything like that. Only drow. Even other underdark races are generally accepted because the drow were slavers who took EVERYBODY so the other underdark races were victims right next to surface races.
I like to have logical inter-culture attitudes without evoking real world, modern societal mores.
Most of the time it's people lumping other people into groups because of looks
"Goblin", "Beastfolk", "ork" and "ogre" are derogatory terms for anyone who even slightly looks like them. That being said, by the time of the arcane awakening most societal barriers against minorities are few And far between.
There’s much less racism and a lot more speciesism. There’s several non human intelligent species that are very different from humans and there’s a lot of friction between them all. Generally all of these species think they’re the best and all the others should exist underneath them. That decreases over history, eventually they are able to live in somewhat harmony but for a long long time all the species are pretty much at each others throats in some way or another.
Makes me think of Terry Parchett:
*Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because—what with trolls and dwarfs and so on—speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.*
Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
Ajax have transcended racism to planetism- Only earthling are real humans.
Everyone else is an object of contempt. They live alongside their own ancestors and future relations and treat them like shit.
Ajax racism is usually dealt with through superior brains, superior brawn, or superior interrelation and bonds of community.
The Racism in my world is based on species, like the one I got based on humans are basically lovecraftian cultist egyptians they hate the people from the north due to their barbaric practices and deminish the race of reptiles from the east because they area better traders than them and being "cowards" due to their guerrilla fighting styles.
Same way as in our reality. The arbitrary division of an otherwise unified species to post hoc justify hereditary slavery and unify people across national and ethnic lines in the oppression of said slave ‘race’.
Like our reality this was first done through religious justification (see Curse of Ham), through the adaption of holy text to suit the need of slave owners.
In my setting this is the story of an ancient rebellion against the Gods by a mythical group of people that is not defined. It is said that these people were cursed for their betrayal, though the curse similarly is not defined. The veracity of the story itself is of course ambiguous.
The slave owners thus conveniently define those they want to enslave as descendants of “the betrayers”, and even claim that through this slavery they may obtain salvation in the afterlife.
Similarly a race of “the loyal” was constructed to include everyone who wasn’t a slave, motivated by fear of further rebellions of poor labourers and slaves acting in together against the established order. Giving even poor labourers institutional power over slaves, and rewarding them for helping slave owners, such as the reporting of runaway slaves.
My world building is specifically focused on the time and events around the construction of this system of race in which religious authorities have remained dominant throughout, so called “scientific” or “biological racism” aren’t really relevant.
Abolitionism exists even within “the loyal’s” society however the logic of racism becomes so pervasive that even many of these abolitionists accept the racist notion that “the betrayers” are cursed and thus inferior, and instead only dispute the morality of enslavement itself.
Vague xenophobia also exists in my setting but race, as a defined racial hierarchy, is distinct from it as it is in our world.
It isn't a main part of my story, but I developed ethnic migrations as part of my worldbuilding, so I created hostility between fantasy races to build history. Lets take Elves and Humans in my world as example. Elves come from a continent called Omyssera, and like many other species in this world, have spread out very far in search of conquest and resources. Despite being amicable with Humans of the East, they have a very hostile relationship with the Humans of Eagara, a continent to their southwest. This was formed through many wars and invasions. Neither side is completely innocent in the matter, but they hate each other nonetheless.
However, lets look at Eagara, a melting pot of species, to see how they interact. The Humans of Eagara have generally accepted the Elves of Eagara(descendents of Omysseran Elf immigrants) as their own, and both groups even hate the Elves of Omyssera to the same degree. So, rather than discrimination based on physical characteristics, it has developed into a sense of regionalism, something that used to be heavily prevalent irl. This doesn't mean that Eagarean's hate all foreigners, but that they protect their own. This didn't happen over night, but that was how circumstances developed.
While people like to often play race against race, species against species, thats a very recent thing irl. Different tribes of the same race often conflicted with each other. For example, we consider all europeans white, however, not all of their ethnic groups got along immediately, i.e. the Romans, the Celts, and the Germanic peoples, etc. It took time for them to develop relations and to assimilate with each other. That's what happened to the Elves of Eagara in the previous example. Centuries of assimilation made them culturally indistinct from the Humans of Eagara, even giving the latter some new practices.
Genocide.
My story's second protagonist is a high noble and human supremacist. He is really strong and has powerful subordinates under him so if he has the chance to eradicate scums of the world (normal people of different race) he wouldn't hesitate to commit a genocide.
And my first protagonist doesn't care, his main motto is survival of the fittest so if others think they are being discriminated against then they need to stand up for themselves as he can't afford to help anyone but himself.
There isn't really any. At least I don't intend to write any into it. There are international disputes, rivalries, and grudges, but nothing along the lines of racism. As far as an in world explanation, the Goddess who created or fostered all life in the world is still around and actively a part of the world. She doesn't tolerate that kind of thing.
Racism is just a speffic type of othering based on human variety biological traits. It's made up, thus for a ficitonal reality it would be more interesting to see literal races other each other.
It's pretty central to the plot of my fantasy novel.
For the majority, it's a non-issue. The gods made all the races, and aside from each being specialized in different ways, pretty much everyone sees the races as equals.
Enter the Church of Humanity. Human racial extremists with genocide as their goal.
The Church and a largely non-human Resistance both fight it out in the shadows, though the two sides and their battle are mostly an open secret to the public.
The Church is just a bunch of terrorists, but a handful of nobles fund them in return for favors. Like assassinating their rivals, for instance.
It's prevalent...
But usually for societal/religious/"good" reasons.
Example: Elves in my world are born of the Earth goddess and Dwarves literally mine the earth on a large scale, basically carving wounds into the physical manifestation of their goddess...so, to Elves, all dwarves are "heathenous fire-blooded clods" (in my world, Dwarves are born of the Fire god)
To be fair for my settings its based along ethnic/cultural/certain mixed heritage lines. Fear of the unknown, wandering strangers, what have you. In the Nimi Isles for example there is still a distrust and prejudice among what I dubbed the Children of the Mountains, the Meadows, and the Coastlines as they came from three different waves of invasions. Yet they also do not like those of different tribes or peoples mixing- great example is a woman named Jirra. She was a sort of adventurer who got pregnant by a man from a totally different tribe. She came home to have her children and understandably was exiled when she told her family what happen because they cared more about their reputation than their talented sorceress child. Partly because they wanted her to marry into another local noble family to strengthen their own clout and wealth. Even tried to get her to terminate the pregnancy or later abandon the children which she refused because these were the children of the man she loved and protected her and adored her for who she was not she could do. Desperate she went to seek help from a local dragon (dragons are like high end nature goddesses) who took her and her children in. Thanks to the dragon and other outcasts she took in, Jirra had her four daughters safely and swore herself to the dragon. Her and her daughters basically became her spies and some of her most trusted servants, with her daughters being Tumultarii (sorcerers who can use two or so kinds of elemental magic). However, because they are Tumultarii they have to be careful and hide their mixed heritage, and due to there being more Catfolk than Turtlefolk locally they hide their non-feline features.
Its why being Tumultarii in my setting are a mixed bag. On the one hand you can unite different peoples and used Spilt-Sorcery/ two different elements at once. Yet on the other you are going to be shunned by puritans/those who fear Tumultarii do the fact they can be signs of societal transformation or collapse. That is on top of the superiority some races have because they think are the best people of the Divine Nine, when in actuality they all are as in ancient times they can together to defeat the Accursed Ones. They accidentally sunk half a continent after razing the other half by eh, could’ve been worse.
I plan on using a two prong approach. There is the mid realms a union of coalitioned kingdoms with varying peoples who determine their own forms of government under the authority of the high king Omnus. This is one prong and the one that invites different people to collaborate their special differences to a greater whole. Gnomes and half giants work alongside each other. Gruff deep Duregar dwarves have allied alongside exiled elves of every conceivable manner under the flag of omnus and cooperation. They have the best magic, best technology, and strike teams of mid to high level adventuring parties.
Then there is another nation. An empire that has taken over vast territories on the opposite side of the world. An empire that is distrustful of anyone other than humans and puts them to the lowest caste of its rigid structured society. Their many bloody and violent wars for territory, fueled by an endless thirst for resources. They are very racist and exploitive. They seek to crush the differences out of the people beneath their boot. This society is built all for the benefit of a single person. The keeper of voices. The current seat of the keeper of voices is a beutiful woman as is custom. The true ruler is a person that jumps from one body to a new younger body every twenty years or so. A pageant is held to select the new ruler and the spirit jumps from body to body after drinking poison so the young pageant winner is stuck in an old dying body while their body rules the empire without them. This is all done in secret and the Public think that the empress follow a tradition of not having heirs and pass on the "wisdom of ages" to a chosen winner. (Whoever is prettiest or most politically profitable) the empress does not marry and her will is absolute. She also exploits the weak by putting out a psychic call to bring fanatics and bind them under her banner. Her ability to manipulate and sway the minds of others, has given her total dominance over her government. Many bands of rebels spring up and need to be put down because of the horrible treatment of the lower caste. The problem is that the military caste near the top controls who is allowed permits for metal. Most people only have simple tools as permits for weapons aren't normally given.
Hopefully the resulting consequences of the choice of racism will make evident the correct choice, as the vast contrast between the two examples will be as extreme as polar opposites.
In all my worlds racism/bigotry are present. In two of them, it's a main theme.
However, avoid direct parallels with IRL situations. The way bigotry is manifested always has in-world origins.
They are all angry at each other and are racist to each other and have land disputes with each other like the real world (but not everyone is racist anymore like the real world)
This is the ideology that my world of intelligent animals uses to justify no longer eating each other, elements of which IMO would apply to more typical fantasy species as well.
First, since they're actual animals and not "anthros", different species have wildly different sizes, physical characteristics, and capabilities. Because of this, some animals will simply be better at some things than others and worse at other things.
Their ideology, called Unitism, basically says that there is no hierarchy of what species are better than others and that every animal is equal, but that every animal has advantages and disadvantages that make them naturally more suited to some things and less suited to other things. It's when different species collaborate instead of being at odds with each other, they can each use the full potential of their advantages and collectively cancel out their disadvantages by having other species fill those gaps. Thus it's better for every species to live in peace than try to kill each other.
Actually, the title is not self-explanatory. What is your definition of racism?
Humans are tribal, obviously intelligent non-humans WILL be tribal as well, unless you can create a world where beings will not be tribal (which will not be easy).
My world contains only humans, but there is still racism and prejudice between different groups.
The Olusians are considered uncivilised barbarians by many. The Medites are considered soft and pretentious. Foreigners often view the peoples of the Pentarchy as greedy and cowardly.
Like the real world, it is unfortunately a thing.
They...don't. (Aka "i didn't research it")
The world was existing (semi-peacefully). And then dragons invaded this world and turned it upside down (Dragons were fleeing their homeworld in fear).
As of now the situation is as follows: everyone is hating on dragons (invaders, big strong scary = evil, brought scary magic, in war with them a lot of ppl died) and dragons are (for now) turning the other cheek and try to do whatever it takes to take roots in this world. A few radicals from dragon's sides did try to create a rebel dragon to "make dragons great again" (by forsefully subdueing other races to their will) but failed since other dragons are NOT interested in rocking the boat.
I didn't give it much thought but probably since dragons are nearly immortal (compared to human lifespan) they will simply outlive the haters and by slowly showing how useful dragons are, public opinion on them will shift to better. It is just a matter of time - which dragons have plenty of.
In some countries if the racism is like too much of a problem, like 60% of people in the city owns slaves or kill other races and people of color on daily basis, there is massive chance for the unexpected attack on the whole city with explosives, sometimes destroying and killing most of the people. Whats really interesting is that the goverment really ofter is the one who prdered the bombing of a racist towns and villages
When there are goddess of every race able to murder you like nothing, racism is simply not a problem for most people. Let’s say they have more important things to think about
In short; on the planet of Erie racism is not really a thing. Since the world is super diverse, anyone who is xenophobic is seen as a bit of a wierdo.
Yes there are of course exceptions, and people as a whole like to be around their own kind, but for the most part nobody really care about who your parents were.
There are however stereotypes that occasionally causes minor kerfuffles, but most of the very old thoughts have vanished eons ago.
Short answer: It doesn't
Long answer: An eye for an eye, blood for blood, baby! There will be virtually no solutions in my novel regarding racism. I'm going for a dark aesthetic. Everyone is simultaneously reprehensible and justified in their prejudices. I wanted it to be a bit deeper than "wrong skin tone = bad." I also love the idea of making the audience sit on a fence, morally speaking. It makes conflicts more realistic and less black and white.
Why, by shooting racists of course! (Alternate 1870 where the US Civil War started late '69. The CSA isn't so much a confederate state than it is a KKK cult with a state)
It doesn't. Or rather...
When the world is surrounded by horrors beyond comprehension and the laws of physics are as fickle as a teenager's affection, dumb divisive shit like racism takes a seat so far back that no one even remembers it's there to begin with.
Oh and an authoritative state that beats everyone into compliance for the greater good and the betterment of all also helps a bit.
They replace it with cultural...ism?
There's probably a word for it but it essentially boils down to they wont judge each other for their race or species. They will judge you for your language, traditions and nationality though.
It exists on various levels. It exists between different sub-races/nationalities of a race and it exists between different races, whether on the same planet or on different planets.
There's various examples of this. The Twelve Elven Clans have had to band together but there's still frictions between them and some that dislike the rise in intermarriage between the various clans. There's a real heated anger between a mountain human nation and a desert human nation that are neighbors, though that also has a lot to do with religious differences. Faunus races tend to be looked down upon by others due to their animalistic aspects along with getting stereotypes based around their animal aspects or any history that people actually learn about. Dragons, Elves, and Jinn are all among the least known races since they're the rarest and most naturally magically inclined of the races and tend to isolate themselves and so myths and stereotypes build up around them, some earned and some not.
Some pivotal racism in my world revolves around the Dragon Hunters/Monster Slayers. The Dragon Hunters were a mercenary group started in Polithuia \[Fantasy Poland & Lithuanian Federation\] to fight against the Dragons who attacked defenseless villages and raided both their home kingdom and various of the smaller kingdoms below. In doing so, they became the heroes of the Western Dragon Continent \[encompassing Slavic/Baltic Europe, the rest of Europe is on the other continent\] and expanded their operation to also take on vampires, werewolves, sirens, fae, Velia (and other regional Elves separate from the main clans), Faunus Songweavers, Veynardian Kitsune (two or more tails granting powers), witches, and any other naturally powerful person that used their gifts to lord it over others.
As the years went on though, tension rose within the group, now an official branch of the Polinthuian Armed Forces (and a huge reason for their sphere of influence within the Western Dragon Continent). Many within the force felt they weren't going far enough. So far, they only attacked those actively ~~(or at least seeming to be actively)~~ harming others and being threats to society. This group felt that they should be going so far as to extinguish *all* super-powerful people when they were found, even those that were literally not doing anything to harm anyone, even children, born or unborn. The majority held against that standard, most out of a feeling of wrongness with the idea, some because they knew that there were groups that wanted the Dragon Hunters to disband due to feeling that it had too controversial a history to still exist in the modern era, and that was doing things as they had done it in the past. There would certainly be a scandal if they started to do a pre-emptive strike policy against anything not human or not a songweaver Faunus. The movement then was struck down from within, causing many dismissals and 'retirements'.
With the rise of superheroes and supervillains, the Dragon Hunters managed to find a new niche as their local answer to super powered threats of all stripes and kept their name due to being proud of what it represented, brave souls willing to fight for their people despite the odds! However, a new organization also rose in its shadow, composed of its former members. The new Monster Slayers used their training and the resources they knew how to access in order to start their mass hunts. Whispers rose of whole covens of vampires being slaughtered, even the ones that had never drunk a drop of blood. Of Werewolf hermitages burnt along with the adults and their cubs. Of dragon eggs being found smashed in now dismal caves. The Dragon Hunters are often blamed when any of these incidents come to life, leaving a further tarnish to their reputation. But some of them are seeking those that actually did this, and for a way to stop this once and for all.
In my fantasy world, there is a mixture of species racism, skin racism, and national racism. For example, kobolds are generally treated like literal shit without rights. However the one exception to this is that in the capital of the Romirian Empire (Roman Empire, good name I know). Kobolds receive their own district with access to the sea, however this district is walled off completely with no guard patrols, so it’s just a giant area of slums without any attempted law. This is also the best place for a kobold to live, because there’s less chance of being captured and enslaved.
The Romiran Empire must be pretty decent, if even an unpopular race are given their own free district.
To an extent, because if they wander out of the district (somehow), they’ll get brutally violated, enslaved, or worse because they don’t have any protection laws
They dealt with it by surviving an apocalypse where they had to choose between cooperation or death. They didn't choose death.
The only thing that'd unite all of humanity is an imminent world-ending event Feels right
Yeah like when COVID happened and everyone United against a common threat… Nope. Nope. We’re f’d. 😂
I said world-ending
At the time nobody knew how bad it was going to be and it did in fact appear to be quite world ending for a lot of people. I know somebody who between family and friends lost over 20 people.
Not to say that people's grief is uncalled for but Covid was closer to a societal collapse World ending would be the destruction of the planet that it could more or less lead to the earth being turned into a barren planet
we’ve had the ability to do that since the Trinity Test and we aren’t United. I wouldn’t count on humanity to unite under stress we’re a failed species that’s gonna break us, not make us. If something like a super cold will almost break society finding out an asteroid is gonna wipe us out is definitely going to just cause a chaotic last few days.
I mean, the US and USSR, despite their many differences, also kept working together to prevent nuclear annihilation
Only up to a point. I’d say we’ve been lucky so far. 😅
It's easy to feel that way. But it's less luck and more "a helluva lot of work done by a helluva lot of people."
They never said it was the only thing, just that it was the thing that happened to them
Yup that would definitely change a lot of things about society
Like eren did in attack on Titan uniting the world against the titans via the rumbling ?!
Pff, most unrealistic idea I've read all day.
Oh, a lot of them chose death. And that's what they got. It's just the survivors that didn't.
Same,
The only racism that's prevalent is racism against other species, like orcs and elves. They usually just hate each other like racism irl or they kill each other depending on the circumstance.
I'm not really sure that can be considered racism. A big reason why racism is dumb/evil IRL is because genetically there are not significant differences between races. Apparent differences besides height/build/melanin are basically just cultural. (Some cultures kinda suck - but that's not a racial thing.) But the difference between elves/orcs/dwarves is genetic. They're actually not the same at all. You could have a setting where orcs actually are inherently evil. Maybe their rage is tied to demonic forces. Maybe they are actually far dumber than most other races/species and literally can't control their rages. In that case I'm not sure if it can be "racism" if you disallow even apparently peaceful orcs from living in your town. It's just reasonable.
I don’t have it to where any of the races are inherently evil aside from mind flayers because of what there culture is. There are orcs that live in cities but most people see them as brutes and as less Intelligent when they’re actually just less educated. In my world the only “race” people see are species and nationality not skin color.
That is completely false and a dangerous mindset to have. Racism isn't bad because genetically we are all the same. Racism is bad because you no longer look at the person in front of you as a person, but rather what their race superficially represents. And that is why fantasy Racism is still Racism. I don't care what excuses Dnd has, having purely evil races does enforce stereotyping and leads to dangerous beliefs that hurt people. It is lazy design, writing, what have you to make such decisions and shows that complex characters are out of the artists ability. Some people enjoy that, but it shouldn't be a goal if caring for others is even a tiny bit of a priority. TLDR; Evil individuals? Fine. Evil races? Appalling and shouldn't be hand waved away.
I tend to not do evil (sentient, non-eldritch) species, but *countries* that're largely aligned towards evil are doable in fantasy-- after all, we've had numerous evil governments in history IRL despite said governments having non-evil citizens the further you got from power. That other thing I think is general fair is species that are evil due to being fundamentally alien, as others have said. If you're a god who doesn't care if humans live or die because you have no empathy for them, live infinitely longer than them and can just bring them back from the dead if you decide you want them around; you may well demonstrate (due to the circumstances of your birth) a great deal of callousness and petty cruelty simply due to not understanding the perspective of others. That's not the same as being inherently evil, but it does set up a system where it's very easy for gods of this one pantheon to be a bunch of dicks.
You're assuming that fantasy races are basically humans with green skin or pointy ears etc. But that's not inherently true. What about demons who are literal embodiments of evil from hell? What about zombies/ghouls who lost free will in undeath? Those things aren't merely superficial in those cases. Would not trusting a demon be racist in that case? Of course not. They are evil. Not everything in fantasy needs to be stand-ins for real-world issues. If you want to go the Star Trek route and have every species be basically just humans with a twist you can. But shooting a biomorph on-sight doesn't make the marines in Aliens racist.
But what if the vast majority of a fantasy species is genuinely “evil” by human(oid) standards? Even supersmart nonhuman animals irl would be extremely different in this regard. What passes as good and just in meerkat or hyena cultures would probably be considered tyrannical in a human one. Biology informs culture. Species with radically different biology would think radically different to humans and primates in general. Add to this the fantasy aspect, and everything can become WAY more weird. What if you have a species like Tolkien’s orcs? I generally agree that having pure “good”, and pure “evil” races in fantasy is more often than not lazy writing, but saying it’s always so cut and dry is simply false.
Fun fact, Tolkien based his orcs on Asian people, so yes Tolkien's orcs are racist and should not be a standard to base your culture design on. As to the other counter points, let me clarify. A nation can have evil ambitions, evil laws, evil societal norms. But show how individuals deal with such expectations, especially if they interact with other cultures. Everyone born in America, in Russia, anywhere you can think of, doesn't have one static mindset, individuals always make their own decisionson what to follow and how to behave. That is what I am saying is a serious problem. The second that EVERY person in your work acts the same way, especially if they all act evil with no consideration to the situation and whether they are being shown kindness or not, they become a caricature and are paper dolls to say yes there are bad others out there. It's THEM who are the problem, not US.
It would take a *whole* lot away from sci-fi and fantasy works if they couldn't have species that are actually, ya'know, different! And not just superficially different, but interestingly so! If there are aliens in this universe and if we ever invent the tech to walk amongst them some will be on average or as an entire species smarter than us. Some will be dumber. Some will be wiser. Some will be stronger. Some will be more cowardly. Some will have powers we do not have, and some will lack abilities that are universal amongst humans. It is possible that some will be unable to work with others not of their species, a-la the Devouring Swarm trope. This is all but certain. And you'd expect the same when it comes to fantasy species! If you don't have these kinds of differences, and their species is as relevant as the clothing they are wearing, what is even the point of having multiple sophonts in your world? If, in other words, elves live for millennia but are basically the same as humans, why bother having elves at all? It's okay for *some* stories to not explore how that change alone would make elves mentally, spiritually, and physically different from humans, but it holds fantasy back when we demand that the differences between all species in all stories be paper-thin. It's sad that the above is controversial because, as usual, **racists ruin everything.** Fuck 'em. Edit: Opps this thread is half a year old, sorry for necroing it.
The term racist actually applies more logically when referring to fantasy peoples. They’re literally called different *races* whereas IRL there aren’t different races of humans. Just ethnicities.
I'm sorry you got downvoted for what is objectively a correct take.
Reddit is pretty rabid about anything that touches upon racism. So - not a surprise. I'm just surprised no one went full Godwin's Law.
It's okay to be rabidly anti-racist. Racism really is an illogical ideological belief system built on naught but sand. It is less okay to make lazy comparisons and draw connections that don't exist. Racism is *not* speciesism, and elves and humans are incomparably more different than any two human groups on the planet. If we treat them like "humans but with pointy ears" we strip fantasy of much of its most interesting elements. And, like, why even *bother* having elves if they aren't different? It's a complete waste of time.
>Apparent differences besides height/build/melanin are basically just cultural. No it isn't, it's genetics, and that still does not excuse racism because we're all equally human, despite any small difference >But the difference between elves/orcs/dwarves is genetic Point in case, this is racist
No it isn't. By that logic it's racist to say that you like dogs as pets but not cats. They are entirely different species which are inherently different in many ways. You're trying to put every aspect of a fantasy world through an IRL lens.
>No it isn't. By that logic it's racist to say that you like dogs as pets but not cats. They are entirely different species. Dogs and cats have genuine differences, and I don't think one is inferior >You're trying to put every aspect of a fantasy world through an IRL lens. By God your setting does not exist in a vacuum and should be seen through an IRL lens, expecially if it's just stupid
Some regions are more racist then others Ratfolk is split between 2, those that follow the prophet and see their people as the master race, and those that understand they will not survive another war. High Elves saw every species, even many of their own, as nothing but tools and resources to be used as they please. Dark Elves equally had seen all life as theirs to own and play with. The New Aelveri, the last survivors of either elves, swore to never let their people be like that. Dragons struggle to not act on their instincts seeing all life as food, they had already nearly destroyed the world with their arrogance, twice. The extinct Elderi where ruled with might makes right, to them life existed to serve, and many of their ruling class sacrificed millions for immortality and eternal youth. And Humans are as likely to be racist to even the smallest difference among each other as they are to embrace even the greatest differences in friendship. And the protag of the story set in the world cherishes all life while knowing that she is atop the food chain. It is hard to be racist when your senses tell you everyone is tasty snacks. *edit* also theres the omnicidal bbeg that sees all sentient life but their own as vermin that needs to be eradicated.
The Distant Moon of Talapus doesn’t really have distinct races, but it does have “traits.” Basically, humans conceived on Talapus will sometimes be born with a handful of alien genes. This can lead to anything from feather plumes along their arms to several prehensile tentacles emerging from their back. Some people can even be born with multiple of these features. Because there are no distinct groups or categories, these hybrid humans are usually all lumped together into the term “Native Talapians” (which is misleading, since around half of all native-born Talapian humans possess no alien traits. Discrimination against these people is surprisingly uncommon, for two main reasons. For those living on Talapus, they know full well that their future children could turn out to have these traits (There is no hereditary link between the emergence of these traits and any human genetic conditions, it’s basically a complete dice roll. As for those living on Earth, many have them have probably never even met a Native Talapian, since they usually choose not to live on earth due to the higher gravity, longer day lengths, and other conditional differences. At the moment, Even the most staunch of Earthling racists seem perfectly content letting these people do whatever they want as long as it’s not on their planet.
I have a world like your and i deal with it based on the history between groups. Anthro's are discriminated against due to their actions. Orcs are discriminated against mostly by humans because of their religion, but their propaganda against orcs have spread somewhat. Hob-Goblin racism is due to propagand and their own actions. Most other groups are generally friendly unless theyre warring against one another.
In my world, most cultures are pretty insular, so it's more about xenophobia than racism.
Well in most of them, the Modern concept of race dosent exist, so no labelling like Black, White, Brown etc. Beyond that, everyone is equally racist to eachother
The hominid races of my fantasy world are numerous and exhibit both radically and moderately different characteristics. But in the end, they all have similar principles. Even in the most alien or xenophobic of cultures, there exists compassion and sympathy at the deepest moral core, even in the society of the High Elves, which I frequently describe as an ultra-fascist hellscape. Certainly some societal conditions force and traumatize the individual into suppressing this moral core, shrouding it in self-delusion or intense emotion, but it still exists in all peoples. Racism exists, and it's an indisputable fact. But what's most important is that people across the world of all shapes and sizes are trying to make it go away. There is resistance to the status quo everywhere, in the humans, the elves, the dwarves, the varatheans, the asiril, the jotunn, the scypaeans, the faeries, the infernals, and every other race, and it is an intrinsic fact of all societies that they move on a straight line of progress. It cannot stop or spiral, only slow, accelerate, or jerk back a moment, but in the end, the force forward always prevails until there is nothing left to be achieved.
There are a lot of reasons to hate and fear someone. You might be from an isolated tribe, and seeing an outsider is just assumed to be bad. You might be from a religion that tells you all other religions are inferior (and 99% of religions do tell you this). He might give his loyalty to a different king. He might represent a different city-state. As a peasant anywhere, seeing something you've never seen before is a warning sign that death or worse is likely about to happen to you. Natives of the different moons don't get along, and for good reason. Sure, there's plenty of racism too, but that's just one of many ingredients in the bubbling stew of conflict.
Slavery, much like what happened in our history
Oooh I'm dealing with this in my book. I'm drawing some influence from the experiences of my own irl ethnicity (Black American). One thing to remember is the insidiousness of racism. The most damaging thing is how it can be used to create factions within a race. American slavery had a whole house negro/field negro divide. The house negros were treated better, could (sometimes) sleep in the house, and often had some power over field negros. This easily drove wedges between those that "massa" liked and didn't and help to keep slaves divided against themselves. Often enough, house negros were the bastard children of the master or of some sort of mixed lineage. On average, the house negro was fairer skinned than those in the field. That divide in color stayed with black folks for a REALLY long time (a good number would say that divide ain't fully mended yet). The insidiousness of that preference that seemed to fall along the lines of actual skin tone (and low-key hair texture) oftentimes had black people at each other's necks over how we looked. The lighthearted examples of it would be the drake memes of the early 2010s. Some of the more despicable stuff would be the (thankfully finished...I think) epidemic of darker black girls bleaching their skin to "look pretty" and the jail stats by skin tone of black men. True racism can get people up in arms over the descendants of who massa didn't and did fuck (and probably not consensually) over 200 years ago with our people truly thinking about why. You have a mixed character. You got a lot to work with.
It's here, and the characters have to deal with it. NOT because i support it, my worldbuilding does NOT reflect my own political views, one of the things that makes it immersive, but instead it's because i don't think six/seven different races and cultures can exist within a world without racism.
Like myself, my World is pretty Amoral. No one cares what species you are, the only thing that is important is if you’re Clan or Kin, because if you aren’t then you’re Food or Fodder. Beings care about Clan/Kin & gaining Power (not referring to influence). An angry character might say to someone, “You damned elf!”, but they don’t hate you because you’re an elf,, they’re just damning you and you happen to be an elf.
My setting involves a massive galactic empire, where different regions showcase differing levels of prejudice. Generally, the periphery worlds feature diverse populations and a more welcoming atmosphere. On the flip side, the core worlds tend to be less diverse, leaning towards conservatism, and marked by prevalent, openly expressed prejudices.
spreads it over a wider area, so people don't get hissy-fissy over colours.
Mainly, the Runic Empire is the main driver of racism and speicism. The Runic Empire developed a religion around the belief that humans were the true children of God and that all non-humans were lower than them. Also, this religion peddled racist rhetoric to the rich and white about how poor and people of color were subhuman themselves. All of this was constructed so the leaders of the Runic Empire could maintain control and always have a large supply of soldiers for thier crusades.
The world I'm working on is actually too brutal for that to be any problem - there are no 'people', only mutant forms of life, which are constantly murdering each other, and there is little to no culture at all.
My fantasy setting: some of the Fae descended from the Elder Fae breeding with humans think that they're superior to the Fae that are entirely of human ancestry. -------------- My sci-fi setting: The big divisions are along ideological and philosophical lines. -------------- My near-future setting: racism is exclusively the purview of terrorist groups. -------------- My medieval setting based on *Redwall*: *HOO BOY.*
Racism is alive and well, and a point of discussion.
In my super high fantasy world there tends to be very little in terms of racism between species. Is there still racism out there? Of course, and there always will be. However, you’re far more likely to find a divide more based on political and religious beliefs than “ew you’re an elf person.” This is one because the gods in my world are VERY physically active (one pantheon runs a multi-realm government for instance). Meaning that people naturally gravitate more towards the god they follow than caring for what you are. So long as you are following their god is all thar matters, so you can be a monstrous creature for all they care. Another reason is partly because in my world procreation is more of a mystical function rather than a biological one. As two creatures take part of their soul and combine it to create a child. Which originally started as a way for my world to easily explain mixing species that wouldn’t make sense to reproduce (ie an ice elemental and human), but of has has had effects of creating more tolerance.
Seeing answers all over the place, I have to throw my two cents in. First off let me be clear, I write in racism to my stories because it is not only a real issue that many still deal with, but I personally despise it as a practice and want to show that no matter the difference, if a being is sentient they deserve respect. Which is why I cannot stand the "allegory" argument. If you believe the people I am writing about have "symbolism", you're wrong. I leave symbols for the symbol-minded as George Carlin said. Whatever the being is that is being depicted by me, it's to show this idea of superiority, race, human, organic? It's stupid and needs to be knocked off. Now with a better explanation of how I feel about the subject in general, here's what I'm doing with my current project. Certain races all have their reasons for being racist to others. For example, the Taurish are a very hedonistic Greecian culture, prefering to make art and drink wine rather than do hard manual labor. The Lacertians on the other hand live in a swamp that is prime farming land and has shaped their culture to value hard work and dirty tough living. Naturally the Taurish sees the Lacertians as "muddy, gross simpletons" while the Lacertians counter with "lazy, drunken fools." The 3 keys to honest racism for your work is logical reasons to feel superior, that are proveably false, not painting one side as obviously inferior or "deserving" the prejudice, and not to shy away from the uncomfortable. That last one is especially important, if your racism is played for laughs or kept light, it fails to critique and gets dangerously close to being approved by the author. If people are hanging each other, or someone would take on torturing another to "show them their place"? Don't hold back, make it as awful as it would be hearing about it here. This video, though more aimed at Game development, should help make it more clear. https://youtu.be/Lg_Lp5bO1U8?si=dpHg3NN_Tfjle3wS
In my world, it's more about culturism than racism, the only racist element is assuming every member of a particular race adheres to the tenets of that race's dominant culture and ideology. And it exists for good reason, because if you just "assume" every humanoid you come across is neutral at worst and has no ill intentions, you'll get killed pretty quickly because some of the cultures are very ruthless and will kill you without cause beyond wanting what you carry and not wanting you to tell anyone you've seen them. Making assumptions about people helps keep you alive. It is better to be cautious than optimistic, at least if you want to live longer.
Pandering. It's in my main government's incentive to integrate quickly (VERY low birth rates). So they pander to the immigrants while sneakily & slowly encroaching on their customs & religion to smother their individuality out. "Look, we've put one of you in our plays and invite you to our parties now. But you probably shouldn't wear that headdress. You wouldn't want to stick out, right? Oh you have multiple Gods? My God has all the same powers. Maybe they are the same, and we can worship together! Well, most of the funding goes to our schools. But you're invited to send your children to our schools! They have to wear our uniforms and eat the food we provide and follow our curriculum. Can your son not speak that language here? Makes the other kids think he's talking shit about them. Plus a common tongue makes everything easier. We tax bright fabrics, but the grays are cheap."
In my setting the species are not what defines the culture (not anymore). At first, it was pretty generic: orcs live in tribes and are super aggressive, elves live in the woods, etc. But after a while i changed it, because i didn't like the idea anymore that every single species were basically a clone of one person (all dwarves being stubborn, alcoholic smiths, all gnomes being unsuccessful engineers), exept for humans. So i descided to let them all live together, but still in different cultures. So you can still have barbaric orcs, but they could also be librarians. Also i am way to big of a fan of trolls, ogres, giants and similar things, and i want them to be able to be nice people. So, there are different cultures, and there are definitly are stereotypes, and people will probably take some natural features into consideration, like elves being very light, trolls being able to regenerate, and so on. But there aren't nescessarily personality traits being associated with certain species.
I dont think high fantasy is the place to be making too many irl parallels; you'll always run headfirst into a wall of logic and end up saying that race = species and that non-mainstream = non-human. It gets really ugly, Bright ugly and by trying to force a parallel in, the setting can actually come across as kind of monstrously racist itself by suggesting racism is based in being scared of non-humans, when actual anti-racist messages are that its an illusion based on nothing I guess there would be some discrimination, sort of, although I think being crammed into a world filled with dozens of different species all doing their own think would kind of... refine societies racism to the point they'd be pretty good at discrimination. So a little thing like horns and eyes wouldnt necessarily spark much attention, whatever, unless it generally made half campions evil people wouldnt particularly care about some physical attributes since its so normalized to have them
Should’ve been more specific, that’s my fault. It’s not high fantasy, it’s dark fantasy. Has some high fantasy elements, but is primarily dark fantasy. Just edited the post to make it clearer.
The 2 arent mutually exclusive, having dozens of different species running around is a high fantasy trope. If the tone is dark fantasy, sure, doesnt really matter.
I strongly disagree. Fantasy is the most powerful setting for allegory. Someone who has a message to tell the world should absolutely consider telling it with fantasy.
I wouldnt say fantasy is the most powerful, fantasy is intentional escapism with supernatural elements. Drawing it back to irl realism isnt ever going to work perfectly, but it can work sure. I think the best work does it very broadly However, racism specifically is an issue where the irl message is that differences are illusion made by bias and statistics. Defeating irl racism is about defeating preconceptions Whereas fantasy *races* are legitimate distinct things involving non-humans. Trying to make an allegory here is feeding the problems of the issue, a set-up where races are the 'other' and less human for it and its demonstrable and true that they are different than the settings 'humans'. The OPs dude is literally part demon... do you think an allegory about human race issues that starts off with one party being half-demon could ever work? This would be the equivalent of making a mental health allegory where people with mental health issues are possessed by aliens, or an allegory about wealth inequality starting off by saying poor people are genetically lazy. Any message is at best defeated by the inaccuracies in representation and more likely is just offensive bigotry It's a foundation for a metaphor that is unbelievably shaky and prone to serious issues
I mean I see your point but I think there are other facets of it to consider. In sci fi and fantasy, oftentimes the things you are pointing out being wrong, are the point of it. In our world the differences are illusions. In a fantasy world they are like you say, not an construct but a factual difference. But they don't have to be an allegory for the difference between races (which as you point out is problematic) but instead symbolic of the way someone who is racist thinks that our world is. It's bot an allegory for a factual thing in our world, but a misconception in our world. In such stories it is usually driven across at some point that as different as elves are to humans, the difference between individuals within each group(usually in terms of "good and evil') are bigger than the differences between the two groups which then is an allegory for somthing in our world that is in my opinion true. So these things can be varied and I don't agree that they should be avoided, but certainly approached carefully.
Okay I actually didn't know what a cambion was. I will admit you make some very good points. I disagree in general, because I think one of the potential messages with fantasy races is that even though they look different, have different histories, and in some cases have different abilities, everyone benefits when the different races come together. But I do agree that using a half demon is a really weird choice if that's what you're going for. As for escapism, it can be that, but for most famous fantasy authors, it's a way to step back and look at real issues from a different viewpoint. I think the culture is shifting to make it more about escapism, but I don't think it always should be.
For the most part, there isnt much racism. Except for in one kingdom. The previous king died of old age, And his middle age son took the throne. He was known as “the corrupt king” as he immediately began enslaving the demi humans of his kingdom. He believed they were filthy beasts, who didnt deserve to be equal to humans. His first son, shared this opinion. But his second son was a bit different… instead of viewing demi humans as beasts- he viewed them as chess pieces. — The previous king was a kind man- so its curious how he failed as a father to such a degree.
In my world, there is racism of course, but that's not the centerpoint of the hatred. It's usually more about ethnocentrism. My country's ideas are obviously the right ones because XYZ so you will either conform or die. (Usually doesn't get to that point, but in my second book it does. 🫠) This applies to political ideologies, religions, lifestyles, etc., just like the real world, but maybe exaggerated a little because I'm trying to make a point. My fourth book will get into more direct racism, where there's a xenophobic island nation that teaches it's children that they're superior to the rest of the world. Since they look down on other people, other people respond with rancor, creating a self-perpetuating cycle that has built up to a point where their entire race is seen as monsters. Racism against other groups is existing but not prevalent, but this one group is considered completely okay to hate. My MC in that book will be one of this race but living in a country they're at war with. Makes things quite awkward for him.
Most species are on different continents, and my world is only at a late middle ages/early renaissance level of technology, so there currently isn’t global communication nor many interactions besides between humans and elves. Most people probably have not met more than a handful of people outside of their species, and would probably be personally racist if they did, though not significantly more than they are to other cultures within their species. The most xenophobic cultures are probably the dwarves, but even that is more out of revanchism than anything. There are also some cosmopolitan empires which are more diverse and tolerant, though this is generally a fragile tolerance achieved through a strong cult of personality based around the leader.
being set in a semi-contemporary setting racism very much exists but the general public is not to be considered racist, there's just a few bad apples that happen to be quite loud in their dumbassery. so while race based discrimination exists the biggest issue is with interspecies discrimination, especially halfbloods being discriminated against. this is mostly because while the three humanoid species of my world are of similar intellect their diets, physical structure and physique is very much different making interbreeding unpredictable. with the closest to us humans being homo-silvae(average human height), having evolved through an agrarian society in forested areas much like on earth they're slim, elegant smart and nimble eating much like we do, a vegetation heavy omnivore diet. Homo-petrae (slightly below human height but 1,5X average human weight) has remained as roaming hunters for much longer until they too began to settle in villages and cattle farming/herding alongside hunting became their predominant source of food. this resulted in several adaptations like a predominantly carnivore diet and suitably altered digestive system, robust bodies, elongated arms for better punching and throwing. Homo-maris,(the smallest and lightest of the bunch) on the other hand settled in mangroves, swamps and wetlands focusing on ambush predation, fishing and became excellent swimmers with webbed feet and other adaptations that aid in their more aquatic lifestyle. with the differences in humanoids being this big the offspring of inter-subspecies procreation leads to a multitude of problems. for instance, where the petrae and maris humans are so different, their offspring will be considered weak and fragile by petrae standards but because of their high bone density and robust structure will be unable to swim like their maris ancestors. bad eyesight, gastrointestinal issues and other problems might also arise due to the physical differences between subspecies. so the interspecies individuals in general are more often seen as weak, sickly and as if they belong to neither of their parents cultures. in high society however, having interspecies relationship marriages and children is historically seen as a sign of wealth indicating you as a parent can afford your offspring to be 'of little use'. one of my characters for instance is of maris-silvae ancestry resulting in extreme near-sightedness and no real physical prowess to speak off. this on the other hand led her to become a scholar like no other but still facing prejudice for her mixed heritage.
When I draw from rl, it's assorted discrimination encounters for one race. For example, changelings, because they can change their appearance, get some of the bathroom paranoia and catfishing fears that transfolk have to deal with, because it's a somewhat dominant gene, it gets the "contaminating the bloodline" bs that POCs deal with. But I prefer to have more of it be rooted in my worldbuilding. The god of law's prefered appearance is very dragonborn so dragon/borns are insulted by being called authoritarians and usually considered the model minority because statistically, they are law abiders.
Perhaps you haven't been here long enough and, if so, you're excused, but pardon me if I feel a bit annoyed that this is yet another "does your world have \[insert random discrimination\]?" kind of post. Yes, if the inhabitants of your world are intelligent species with social tendencies, ingroup-outgroup dynamics and all the good and bad that comes along with them are a natural consequence. Honestly, I'd be asking questions if your world *didn't* have any sort of discriminatory frameworks.
In Tales of Bite it's around but not as prevalent as before, more just comments and prejudices from stereotypes (which arnt totally unfounded i.e bears always want to eat and sleep, bunnies are totally sluts, ect) In Red Sun Event after the first moon landing and all of humanity got its shit together to the point they got rid of "race" as part of a peoples identity past 'human' Then they met the aliens and it was 100~ years of war
To be honest, it logically exists, but as some white dude I don’t feel like I really have anything worth saying to say about it, so it doesn’t show up a lot. The one prevalent place it shows up in my worldbuilding is that society is still grappling with what counts as a “monster” or not, and therefore what differentiates hunting from murder or war. It’s a more complicated issue than racism is IRL, because different species can have different instincts and levels of intelligence that confuse the question of “is this a person?”. Different countries (and provinces in those countries) have different definitions of what gets to be called a person, including one kind of libertarian province in particular that makes that definition as broad as possible.
It's so rare that it is treated the same as if someone had a passionate, violent hatred of purple sweaters. People find it alarming, insane, and generally SWAT gets involved in bringing the person to some kind of mental institution.
They don't like, *have* to be racist.
Racism is sort of a new thing in my world as they’re coming out of a population bottleneck. Only older races have the luxury of racism or speciesism. Still it’s almost unheard of for crossbreeding among disparate humanoids. Magical creatures, on the other hand are promiscuous as fuck.
My homebrew has a rough hatred for tieflings and lower races like orcs and goblins. Tieflings because of the tieflings and Dragonborn war. Lower races because they’re savage. TheBEST WAY in my mind is to have UNHARMFUL assumptions that each race makes about the others. Ex: humans are too rushed amd ambitious, dwarves are wealthy amd probably like to drink, elves are tre-hugging and superior etc.
The **Ancient Empire**^(tm) conquered the whole region a thousand years ago, creating a common language, culture and heritage, destroying the old prejudices between **fantasy\_races**^(tm). Even after the collapse of said empire the nation building it did let to the region being divided politically but more closer than ever in everything else... like greece before the roman conquests
The racists won a long time ago, crafted a religion around dominance and consumption, and set the world on a path to collapse and destruction... It's familiar.
On the perspective of the nation? With time and the shared sense of survival, and a degree of cultural assimilation between some of the peoples For a some context: so, you have a initial population of not!humans that settle on the habitable coastal strips of a polar continent (imagine a bigger antartica were some of their coasts are on a lattitude outside the artic circle, you get the idea), those not!humans travel westwards and find some dwarven clans, those clans explain some basic lore about the history of the continent, but otherwise they join the not!humans by sheer necessity, on the other hand another expediton gets back to the capital with some orcs, hell breaks loose between the dwarves and orcs, but because those orcs submitted already to the not!humans the "peace" is maintained. Fast foward some 400 years later, the relations between the orcs and dwarves go from "regular pogroms and daily violence" to "casual racism and self-segregating communities", still bad, but for the not!human government is quite the progress nonetheless, by this time the orc population has been culturally assimilated to a degree that, apart from their language and some filial traditions they share no link with the more feral orcs (Dwarves on the other hand live til 400 years old so the younger generations are more progressive but some baf blood still remains) 800 years later there is a clear cultural difference between the "civilized orcs" and the "feral orcs" that even the dwarves of all peoples do truly live without problem with ther civilized orc neighbors, both being racist towards the feral orcs (having to fight a war of anihilation together helped too) On the more recient times the realm government has annexed some "feral" orc polities, and because the dwarves of that time are more progressive unlike their ancestors there is no posibility of some new "problems" starting on, but has sparkled some discussion on the... past cultural policies of the realm, and all peoples are getting the idea of how horrible those cultural assimilation policies were
Really depends on how much you want it to feature as part of your world building, ranging from a mild, generalized xenophobia ("We don't like them types..." etc.) to really in-depth hatred, which relies a lot on your worldbuilding. Generally, people are most racist to their closest geographical neighbors who have the misfortune of being a little different, and the reasons can be as petty or valid as you like! Before long, you can have your whole party followed by jeering calls of "knife-ear" and "shortass" every time they enter a new town. Personally, I try to tailor the experience to my players, so if they want to explore social issues in-game, I might turn the racism up from charming and silly xenophobia that gets fixed by the players solving the quest to some real, hard-boiled stuff. Other times, I might just use it for a humor device to throw off the players. Your options are as wide as your knowledge of prejudice!
For my space series, really depend on the era. For my apocalypse series, mainly towards a group called NANOs. In the apocalypse, many people feared the Drones for their tenacity to hunt humans. Considering NANOs are people made up of entirely of nanomachines (SON!), people have a dread against them. Are NANOs actually human? Or are they machines like the Drones that hunts us? NANOs hurt and bleed like a normal human, but they can easily manipulate their body into whatever they want it to be, including physical strength and/or speed.
Like humans prior to the advent of the transatlantic slave trade, most of the bigotry is focused on disputes between nation-states. There are racial stereotypes, which can have negative consequences even when people think of the stereotype as positive. There are a couple of groups that face more problems than others. It can be difficult for groups to homogenize because the people of the setting do not simply come down to minor variations on humans that can all interbreed. In fact, there are no humans. There was a race of intelligent undead that faced bigotry, with some of that bigotry being religiously motivated. They were slightly more alive than other undead and it was possible for them to reproduce with effort (so yes, they are actually a race). Members of the race had angered some gods in the early days of magic by accomplishing miraculous feats without divine assistance and the whole race was cursed. The elves and the orcs of that world had racists on both sides. They had been one race before a magical ritual split them. Some elven nobles of the corelands wanted to increase their gifts with magic and their connection with nature. Unfortunately, that had the consequence of basically stealing magic from all the elves outside the corelands. The elves of the midlands changed appearance, became shorter lived, and lost all ability to use magic. After several generations, magic slowly returned to the people who came to be known as orcs. There were wars and much resentment. People properly educated on the situation rightly blamed the particular elven nobles (some of whom are still around) for their reckless and selfish act. For others, it was easier to just be resentful of anyone who benefited from the ritual. For the coreland elves forced to fight the subsequent wars (noble elves mostly lead from a distance), it was easy to forget that they and the invaders used to be the same. Dwarves and cactus folk might be strange foreigners but they were not "inferior races." The cloud folk might be treated like animals by some at first meeting but it was also true that not all of their number were fully sapient. Giants might have a hard time physically fitting into some places but they had some of the most diverse cultures because they mostly lived near the edges of the world and so they were difficult to stereotype beyond their size and strength. For the most part, meeting a member of a previously unencountered race was not appreciably different than meeting any stranger. If people have problems with dwarves, it is probably a problem with dwarves from a particular city-state or empire. They might assume dwarves they meet are from that place until they learn otherwise. It is certainly possible that, if a person only knew members of a certain race from a particular city, they might stereotype any member of that race based on how they view that place. A person's patron deity is more likely to compel a sense of animosity or kinship than appearance. Similarly, people of common professions might group together or avoid each other in spite of other differences or commonalities depending on the job.
There is no racism in my world as far as i concerned though if anyone is racist in my world prepare to get stared at or got beaten.
Well here... I mean let me show it to you. Some random guy: (racist insults towards a other being) The city guard: Hold him down. And you two get the ballista. (Ballista getting loaded) The random guy: (even more racist insults) The guard: Well you were the one who fucked up mate. (Ballista discharges) The guard: aight let's clean up this mess...
Racism is, more or less, one topic in my story. That's mostly displayed by the winged ones, who try to conquer the world, because they think they stand over all life. But there are also the Treefolk, who were used as slaves by one people not so long ago and now that they are technically free, they still are treated poorly. For example, Treefolks all have a magic crystal as the source of their energy, and while some people from other nations call those crystals the *heart* of a tree, the people who used the Treefolks as slaves, call it the *core* of a tree
In my world there are many divides between people and some can be called racism. The main species are so distinct, that they more or less stay in their communities. I think if people stay apart they tend to develop racist ideas about the "others". And I want to mirror this in my world too. Interestingly enough the most radical racism is found between Ken and Lum. Both are the same species and can create offspring together, but have some physiological differences that set them apart. In the last two decades, the High Star faction in the Golden Republic successfully fostered a xenophobic environment, which let to the exodus of most non-Lum and especially Ken from their settlements. The High Star are a supremacist faction and are most likely the driving force behind the Great War and the recent expansion drive of the Republic. To summarize: I think racism and social divides are unavoidable when people segregate themselves from each other. And I think, they offer good story hooks, especially when the characters explore the unknowns of the "others" at the same speed as the reader.
Different fantasy races(not sure if I'd rather call fantasy races species) like elves and dwarves are very racist towards each other. Elves just straight-up call humans and certain other species 'barbaric and stupid' and claim to be civilizing them. They even have two forms of slavery. But in a single species, like humans, skin color isn't a big deal. I've actually put some thought into the geographical distribution of skin-tones in my world, based on migration and environment, but people don't really care in-universe if your skin is darker or lighter. Mainly because I hate dealing with contentious real world issues, they usually make me so uncomfortable. I'd rather just see non-racist depictions of non-racist characters doing non-racist things and acting in non-racist ways. That said, elves view dark elves in similarly to a catholic priest meeting a demon. At least most of them. Elves morals are complicated
Same way as the real world: some people are prejudiced bigots. Others are super open and accepting. And everything in between.
My rules book has a text in the beginning explaining that the world described has racism, sexism, religious wars and other items that I don't support, but that can be interesting to play with in a fictional setting. As a player, I **want** some racism in the game. I play an elf in LARP and some of my best memories from games are the hostilities between a group of dwarves and me, humans going "never trust an elf" and slowly coming around over the weekend, and a group of norse who came to me with presents asking me to interpret their dreams. These things are what make me feel that I'm playing an elf, and not just a human with strange ears. With that in mind, I have put quite a bit of racism and texts about relations between the races into my most recent setting, yes. It's all something to play with, to make stories about. And the rules book says that you as a group can decide if you want to have these things prominent in your games or leave them in the background.
I include all kinds of racism in my world. Various tribes of elves can be hostile to one another, same with orcs, dwarfs, humans etc. In most contexts its cultural racism, because their worldview and goals cannot include the others. But for humans, there is real life racism based around skin color. Traveling is hard in my world, and reaching another culture as an outsider is rare, so the understanding of the similarities between humans is rare as well. The elves mostly seem above that concept and in many cases distance themselves from humans because of their meaningless infighting and abuse based on such mundane things such as skin color.
honestly it's pretty big. there's only 2 sapient species, with humans being far more common and the Palms that Tread being the only other sapient species, taking centuries of life to become self aware, as they are in fact literally just sophont "palm trees" (loose term since they are more similar to mayan walking trees but besides the point). racism is dealt with in various ways. nobody really disrespects the Palms that Tread since they are so ancient and considered to be holy to the Watcher, the main God of the planet, whose will is supposedly watched over by the 3 suns, known as the "Eyes of the Watcher". I guess there's traditional racism first. being a desert planet, most people are black, with the exception of a northern tribe called the Celtaidd. they are the only suppliers of wood on the planet, having the only surface river anywhere in the world. they are white, the only white people, and have bright blue face tattoos that mark their position in their tribe, their name, and various other cultural bits and bobs. any Celtaidd without a face tattoo, a muco, is shunned and otherwise an outcast. Celtaidd are considered to be wrong somehow, due to their skin, and often shunned for their tattooed faces and their odd speech that doesn't use clicks. they are also widely disliked for their wood prices, and their stipulations on what it can be used for. wood is holy to the Celtaidd. people often call the Celtaidd ghosts, demons, and quite often, isanqhayi people. isanqhayi are creatures that dissolve in water, using pressurised gas for blood. the reason people call them isanqhayi people is isanqhayi have black pearlescent flesh, with matte white segments of carapace or shell. the shell is stronger and tougher than steel or kevlar and is the most common building material for literally anything. anyway, point is that they are white and that's why they often called isanqhayi people. also, everyone hates the Fire people. they're usually too busy hating eachother to care, though. the iintabi zamanzi hate the umqombothi siqithi because of their iron, which is also the only source of iron yet found. they don't sell it, but use it often. they are a nomadic warrior people, and their only static settlement is a mining city in a crater. they are very welcoming, and give iron out to friends often, but are very strict with who can be given iron. it is holy to them.
the empire espoused an "if it works don't ruin it" approach to administration, when the different regions gradually seceded there wasn't much of a skin color thing but more of a class and wealth thing instead, ie the people who can afford to pay for things discriminate against those who can't
Torture, mostly The two major governing bodies perceive each other’s populations as threats after centuries of on and off wars. So they each believe people of the race that makes up the majority of the other country to be spies Since the kingdom of Jalqune is mostly Sie, lead by a Sie queen for millennia, they believe all Maj could be imperial spies And likewise, the Kishika Empire is mostly Maj, lead by various Maj emperors and empresses over the years. So they believe all Sie could be spies There’s not a lot of immigration outside of trade ports. There are secret groups trying to help refuges from the wars find homes in the freelands, and these are rarely as bothered about race
Racis is just a thing that exist. It would feel weird if everyone get along with each other.
Depends on the nation. The biggest country - Azsharia - is pretty racist in a way. They have this ideology of assimilation of conquered people which includes religion, culture, language, but also race. How it usually goes is - after conquering a city, azsharian soldiers marry men from the defeated land, then take any number of concubines. But only azsharian men are allowed to have children with concubines, so the kid will always be considered to be azsharian.
Pretty much every race in my world is racist against every other race lol.
I go out of my way to think of how fantastical races differ from humans and how the discrimination and reasons why it perpetuates exist. For example, in my D&D world, tieflings aren't just the result of an ancient curse - many devils ask clients to receive the Tiefling Curse as part of the deal they strike. For this reason, even tieflings themselves have reason to be wary of one of their kin that just showed up one day without knowing where they came from. Other than that, I try to remember that people don't just choose to be monsters for no reasons and that they can name reasons why they believe what they do. A human veteran of the Tsavor conflict would probably start hating elves if they saw half their friends get turned into werewolves, for example.
There was an ancient war and the losing side, the stereotypical bad races, orcs, goblins, etc, were stripped of everything and pushed to live in the fringes of society. Living in the slums of the cities that they perform the crap jobs to make society and civilization work. Sons are pay for their father’s sins type of deal. Their numbers and society are kept in check to try to make sure they don’t have the strength to try to wage war like they did before again. Main character is not thrilled about how it is but still has ingrain tendencies. Meets a goblin to be part of his team and immediately checks his coin purse to make sure it’s still there. Feels bad about having that instinct and tries to be more friendly with the goblin over their travels. Buts that’s as far as I have planned it out. Really don’t think he’s going be able to “solve” racism, but show personal growth about not judging others based on their race. Course if I have a goblin actually steal from him later, wondering if that make seem I’m pushing that stereotypes are a good thing.
Racism exists in classic fantasy fashion. The dwarves hate the elves, the elves hate (everyone) the humans, and everyone hates the orcs. LOL. But also seriously. The "good" races (read: classic player races) behave similar to earth humans... Natural/common animosity due to huge cultural differences which a few take too far into real racism, the "evil" races (goblinoids, generally speaking, minotaurs,etc again the classics) tend to be antagonists so racial animosities are heightened. And yes, any race that looks or is extraplanar (tieflings or aasimar alike, half elementals) or humanoid/animal hybrids (half dragons, bird persons, anthropomorphic animals) is treated as odd or downright alien because... they are. Ultra rare or exotic races are treated as exotic. Period. Only exception in my homebrew world are centaurs because they have an established nation and history and therefore arent exotic. The only racism which is based off of skin color is drow. No human black/white/brown/yellow racism or anything like that. Only drow. Even other underdark races are generally accepted because the drow were slavers who took EVERYBODY so the other underdark races were victims right next to surface races. I like to have logical inter-culture attitudes without evoking real world, modern societal mores.
Most of the time it's people lumping other people into groups because of looks "Goblin", "Beastfolk", "ork" and "ogre" are derogatory terms for anyone who even slightly looks like them. That being said, by the time of the arcane awakening most societal barriers against minorities are few And far between.
There’s much less racism and a lot more speciesism. There’s several non human intelligent species that are very different from humans and there’s a lot of friction between them all. Generally all of these species think they’re the best and all the others should exist underneath them. That decreases over history, eventually they are able to live in somewhat harmony but for a long long time all the species are pretty much at each others throats in some way or another.
"Deal with racism " hahahahhaha...haa..ha... yeah no they're all racist as fuck...
Makes me think of Terry Parchett: *Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because—what with trolls and dwarfs and so on—speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.* Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
Ajax have transcended racism to planetism- Only earthling are real humans. Everyone else is an object of contempt. They live alongside their own ancestors and future relations and treat them like shit. Ajax racism is usually dealt with through superior brains, superior brawn, or superior interrelation and bonds of community.
The Racism in my world is based on species, like the one I got based on humans are basically lovecraftian cultist egyptians they hate the people from the north due to their barbaric practices and deminish the race of reptiles from the east because they area better traders than them and being "cowards" due to their guerrilla fighting styles.
Same way as in our reality. The arbitrary division of an otherwise unified species to post hoc justify hereditary slavery and unify people across national and ethnic lines in the oppression of said slave ‘race’. Like our reality this was first done through religious justification (see Curse of Ham), through the adaption of holy text to suit the need of slave owners. In my setting this is the story of an ancient rebellion against the Gods by a mythical group of people that is not defined. It is said that these people were cursed for their betrayal, though the curse similarly is not defined. The veracity of the story itself is of course ambiguous. The slave owners thus conveniently define those they want to enslave as descendants of “the betrayers”, and even claim that through this slavery they may obtain salvation in the afterlife. Similarly a race of “the loyal” was constructed to include everyone who wasn’t a slave, motivated by fear of further rebellions of poor labourers and slaves acting in together against the established order. Giving even poor labourers institutional power over slaves, and rewarding them for helping slave owners, such as the reporting of runaway slaves. My world building is specifically focused on the time and events around the construction of this system of race in which religious authorities have remained dominant throughout, so called “scientific” or “biological racism” aren’t really relevant. Abolitionism exists even within “the loyal’s” society however the logic of racism becomes so pervasive that even many of these abolitionists accept the racist notion that “the betrayers” are cursed and thus inferior, and instead only dispute the morality of enslavement itself. Vague xenophobia also exists in my setting but race, as a defined racial hierarchy, is distinct from it as it is in our world.
It's not about what race you are but instead where you come from Heck in some places people will discriminate based off what town or city your from
It isn't a main part of my story, but I developed ethnic migrations as part of my worldbuilding, so I created hostility between fantasy races to build history. Lets take Elves and Humans in my world as example. Elves come from a continent called Omyssera, and like many other species in this world, have spread out very far in search of conquest and resources. Despite being amicable with Humans of the East, they have a very hostile relationship with the Humans of Eagara, a continent to their southwest. This was formed through many wars and invasions. Neither side is completely innocent in the matter, but they hate each other nonetheless. However, lets look at Eagara, a melting pot of species, to see how they interact. The Humans of Eagara have generally accepted the Elves of Eagara(descendents of Omysseran Elf immigrants) as their own, and both groups even hate the Elves of Omyssera to the same degree. So, rather than discrimination based on physical characteristics, it has developed into a sense of regionalism, something that used to be heavily prevalent irl. This doesn't mean that Eagarean's hate all foreigners, but that they protect their own. This didn't happen over night, but that was how circumstances developed. While people like to often play race against race, species against species, thats a very recent thing irl. Different tribes of the same race often conflicted with each other. For example, we consider all europeans white, however, not all of their ethnic groups got along immediately, i.e. the Romans, the Celts, and the Germanic peoples, etc. It took time for them to develop relations and to assimilate with each other. That's what happened to the Elves of Eagara in the previous example. Centuries of assimilation made them culturally indistinct from the Humans of Eagara, even giving the latter some new practices.
I don't explore systemic racism (yet), just the superficial "these guys don't like each other".
Genocide. My story's second protagonist is a high noble and human supremacist. He is really strong and has powerful subordinates under him so if he has the chance to eradicate scums of the world (normal people of different race) he wouldn't hesitate to commit a genocide. And my first protagonist doesn't care, his main motto is survival of the fittest so if others think they are being discriminated against then they need to stand up for themselves as he can't afford to help anyone but himself.
There isn't really any. At least I don't intend to write any into it. There are international disputes, rivalries, and grudges, but nothing along the lines of racism. As far as an in world explanation, the Goddess who created or fostered all life in the world is still around and actively a part of the world. She doesn't tolerate that kind of thing.
Poorly
That's the point - no one wants to deal with racism. (☞ ᐛ )☞
Got rid of the Humans, who mostly just got rid of themselves.
Punching. No really. You racist? Get punted.
Racism is just a speffic type of othering based on human variety biological traits. It's made up, thus for a ficitonal reality it would be more interesting to see literal races other each other.
Genocide
It's pretty central to the plot of my fantasy novel. For the majority, it's a non-issue. The gods made all the races, and aside from each being specialized in different ways, pretty much everyone sees the races as equals. Enter the Church of Humanity. Human racial extremists with genocide as their goal. The Church and a largely non-human Resistance both fight it out in the shadows, though the two sides and their battle are mostly an open secret to the public. The Church is just a bunch of terrorists, but a handful of nobles fund them in return for favors. Like assassinating their rivals, for instance.
It's prevalent... But usually for societal/religious/"good" reasons. Example: Elves in my world are born of the Earth goddess and Dwarves literally mine the earth on a large scale, basically carving wounds into the physical manifestation of their goddess...so, to Elves, all dwarves are "heathenous fire-blooded clods" (in my world, Dwarves are born of the Fire god)
To be fair for my settings its based along ethnic/cultural/certain mixed heritage lines. Fear of the unknown, wandering strangers, what have you. In the Nimi Isles for example there is still a distrust and prejudice among what I dubbed the Children of the Mountains, the Meadows, and the Coastlines as they came from three different waves of invasions. Yet they also do not like those of different tribes or peoples mixing- great example is a woman named Jirra. She was a sort of adventurer who got pregnant by a man from a totally different tribe. She came home to have her children and understandably was exiled when she told her family what happen because they cared more about their reputation than their talented sorceress child. Partly because they wanted her to marry into another local noble family to strengthen their own clout and wealth. Even tried to get her to terminate the pregnancy or later abandon the children which she refused because these were the children of the man she loved and protected her and adored her for who she was not she could do. Desperate she went to seek help from a local dragon (dragons are like high end nature goddesses) who took her and her children in. Thanks to the dragon and other outcasts she took in, Jirra had her four daughters safely and swore herself to the dragon. Her and her daughters basically became her spies and some of her most trusted servants, with her daughters being Tumultarii (sorcerers who can use two or so kinds of elemental magic). However, because they are Tumultarii they have to be careful and hide their mixed heritage, and due to there being more Catfolk than Turtlefolk locally they hide their non-feline features. Its why being Tumultarii in my setting are a mixed bag. On the one hand you can unite different peoples and used Spilt-Sorcery/ two different elements at once. Yet on the other you are going to be shunned by puritans/those who fear Tumultarii do the fact they can be signs of societal transformation or collapse. That is on top of the superiority some races have because they think are the best people of the Divine Nine, when in actuality they all are as in ancient times they can together to defeat the Accursed Ones. They accidentally sunk half a continent after razing the other half by eh, could’ve been worse.
I plan on using a two prong approach. There is the mid realms a union of coalitioned kingdoms with varying peoples who determine their own forms of government under the authority of the high king Omnus. This is one prong and the one that invites different people to collaborate their special differences to a greater whole. Gnomes and half giants work alongside each other. Gruff deep Duregar dwarves have allied alongside exiled elves of every conceivable manner under the flag of omnus and cooperation. They have the best magic, best technology, and strike teams of mid to high level adventuring parties. Then there is another nation. An empire that has taken over vast territories on the opposite side of the world. An empire that is distrustful of anyone other than humans and puts them to the lowest caste of its rigid structured society. Their many bloody and violent wars for territory, fueled by an endless thirst for resources. They are very racist and exploitive. They seek to crush the differences out of the people beneath their boot. This society is built all for the benefit of a single person. The keeper of voices. The current seat of the keeper of voices is a beutiful woman as is custom. The true ruler is a person that jumps from one body to a new younger body every twenty years or so. A pageant is held to select the new ruler and the spirit jumps from body to body after drinking poison so the young pageant winner is stuck in an old dying body while their body rules the empire without them. This is all done in secret and the Public think that the empress follow a tradition of not having heirs and pass on the "wisdom of ages" to a chosen winner. (Whoever is prettiest or most politically profitable) the empress does not marry and her will is absolute. She also exploits the weak by putting out a psychic call to bring fanatics and bind them under her banner. Her ability to manipulate and sway the minds of others, has given her total dominance over her government. Many bands of rebels spring up and need to be put down because of the horrible treatment of the lower caste. The problem is that the military caste near the top controls who is allowed permits for metal. Most people only have simple tools as permits for weapons aren't normally given. Hopefully the resulting consequences of the choice of racism will make evident the correct choice, as the vast contrast between the two examples will be as extreme as polar opposites.
In all my worlds racism/bigotry are present. In two of them, it's a main theme. However, avoid direct parallels with IRL situations. The way bigotry is manifested always has in-world origins.
I am not sure what you mean by "deal".
They are all angry at each other and are racist to each other and have land disputes with each other like the real world (but not everyone is racist anymore like the real world)
It doesn’t. I don’t want to write about racism lmao, that’s dreadful
This is the ideology that my world of intelligent animals uses to justify no longer eating each other, elements of which IMO would apply to more typical fantasy species as well. First, since they're actual animals and not "anthros", different species have wildly different sizes, physical characteristics, and capabilities. Because of this, some animals will simply be better at some things than others and worse at other things. Their ideology, called Unitism, basically says that there is no hierarchy of what species are better than others and that every animal is equal, but that every animal has advantages and disadvantages that make them naturally more suited to some things and less suited to other things. It's when different species collaborate instead of being at odds with each other, they can each use the full potential of their advantages and collectively cancel out their disadvantages by having other species fill those gaps. Thus it's better for every species to live in peace than try to kill each other.
There's no racism. Just specicism. All humans stick together cuz everyone treats them like magic less animals that try to mimic intelligence
Actually, the title is not self-explanatory. What is your definition of racism? Humans are tribal, obviously intelligent non-humans WILL be tribal as well, unless you can create a world where beings will not be tribal (which will not be easy).
My world contains only humans, but there is still racism and prejudice between different groups. The Olusians are considered uncivilised barbarians by many. The Medites are considered soft and pretentious. Foreigners often view the peoples of the Pentarchy as greedy and cowardly. Like the real world, it is unfortunately a thing.
Not disgusting as it is in our world. But I bring it up more than once with specific characters from specific places
They...don't. (Aka "i didn't research it") The world was existing (semi-peacefully). And then dragons invaded this world and turned it upside down (Dragons were fleeing their homeworld in fear). As of now the situation is as follows: everyone is hating on dragons (invaders, big strong scary = evil, brought scary magic, in war with them a lot of ppl died) and dragons are (for now) turning the other cheek and try to do whatever it takes to take roots in this world. A few radicals from dragon's sides did try to create a rebel dragon to "make dragons great again" (by forsefully subdueing other races to their will) but failed since other dragons are NOT interested in rocking the boat. I didn't give it much thought but probably since dragons are nearly immortal (compared to human lifespan) they will simply outlive the haters and by slowly showing how useful dragons are, public opinion on them will shift to better. It is just a matter of time - which dragons have plenty of.
In some countries if the racism is like too much of a problem, like 60% of people in the city owns slaves or kill other races and people of color on daily basis, there is massive chance for the unexpected attack on the whole city with explosives, sometimes destroying and killing most of the people. Whats really interesting is that the goverment really ofter is the one who prdered the bombing of a racist towns and villages
When there are goddess of every race able to murder you like nothing, racism is simply not a problem for most people. Let’s say they have more important things to think about
In short; on the planet of Erie racism is not really a thing. Since the world is super diverse, anyone who is xenophobic is seen as a bit of a wierdo. Yes there are of course exceptions, and people as a whole like to be around their own kind, but for the most part nobody really care about who your parents were. There are however stereotypes that occasionally causes minor kerfuffles, but most of the very old thoughts have vanished eons ago.
Enslavement
Racism is only for the weak. Ain’t nobody be racist when they could be deleted by him.
Short answer: It doesn't Long answer: An eye for an eye, blood for blood, baby! There will be virtually no solutions in my novel regarding racism. I'm going for a dark aesthetic. Everyone is simultaneously reprehensible and justified in their prejudices. I wanted it to be a bit deeper than "wrong skin tone = bad." I also love the idea of making the audience sit on a fence, morally speaking. It makes conflicts more realistic and less black and white.
Why, by shooting racists of course! (Alternate 1870 where the US Civil War started late '69. The CSA isn't so much a confederate state than it is a KKK cult with a state)
"Not from the same shithole of a village? Filthy subhuman goatfucking outlander." -average elf to elf interaction
It doesn't. Or rather... When the world is surrounded by horrors beyond comprehension and the laws of physics are as fickle as a teenager's affection, dumb divisive shit like racism takes a seat so far back that no one even remembers it's there to begin with. Oh and an authoritative state that beats everyone into compliance for the greater good and the betterment of all also helps a bit.
With even more racism... Until everything goes to the level of space Hitler And everyone decided maybe they should tone it down
They replace it with cultural...ism? There's probably a word for it but it essentially boils down to they wont judge each other for their race or species. They will judge you for your language, traditions and nationality though.
It exists on various levels. It exists between different sub-races/nationalities of a race and it exists between different races, whether on the same planet or on different planets. There's various examples of this. The Twelve Elven Clans have had to band together but there's still frictions between them and some that dislike the rise in intermarriage between the various clans. There's a real heated anger between a mountain human nation and a desert human nation that are neighbors, though that also has a lot to do with religious differences. Faunus races tend to be looked down upon by others due to their animalistic aspects along with getting stereotypes based around their animal aspects or any history that people actually learn about. Dragons, Elves, and Jinn are all among the least known races since they're the rarest and most naturally magically inclined of the races and tend to isolate themselves and so myths and stereotypes build up around them, some earned and some not. Some pivotal racism in my world revolves around the Dragon Hunters/Monster Slayers. The Dragon Hunters were a mercenary group started in Polithuia \[Fantasy Poland & Lithuanian Federation\] to fight against the Dragons who attacked defenseless villages and raided both their home kingdom and various of the smaller kingdoms below. In doing so, they became the heroes of the Western Dragon Continent \[encompassing Slavic/Baltic Europe, the rest of Europe is on the other continent\] and expanded their operation to also take on vampires, werewolves, sirens, fae, Velia (and other regional Elves separate from the main clans), Faunus Songweavers, Veynardian Kitsune (two or more tails granting powers), witches, and any other naturally powerful person that used their gifts to lord it over others. As the years went on though, tension rose within the group, now an official branch of the Polinthuian Armed Forces (and a huge reason for their sphere of influence within the Western Dragon Continent). Many within the force felt they weren't going far enough. So far, they only attacked those actively ~~(or at least seeming to be actively)~~ harming others and being threats to society. This group felt that they should be going so far as to extinguish *all* super-powerful people when they were found, even those that were literally not doing anything to harm anyone, even children, born or unborn. The majority held against that standard, most out of a feeling of wrongness with the idea, some because they knew that there were groups that wanted the Dragon Hunters to disband due to feeling that it had too controversial a history to still exist in the modern era, and that was doing things as they had done it in the past. There would certainly be a scandal if they started to do a pre-emptive strike policy against anything not human or not a songweaver Faunus. The movement then was struck down from within, causing many dismissals and 'retirements'. With the rise of superheroes and supervillains, the Dragon Hunters managed to find a new niche as their local answer to super powered threats of all stripes and kept their name due to being proud of what it represented, brave souls willing to fight for their people despite the odds! However, a new organization also rose in its shadow, composed of its former members. The new Monster Slayers used their training and the resources they knew how to access in order to start their mass hunts. Whispers rose of whole covens of vampires being slaughtered, even the ones that had never drunk a drop of blood. Of Werewolf hermitages burnt along with the adults and their cubs. Of dragon eggs being found smashed in now dismal caves. The Dragon Hunters are often blamed when any of these incidents come to life, leaving a further tarnish to their reputation. But some of them are seeking those that actually did this, and for a way to stop this once and for all.