The Problem With Fantasy Races 

That is why I separated cultures from biological heritage in my worldbuilding projects. Usually the cultures are composed out of various ancestries.

I like making subfactions for races with world views in opposition to eachother. My favorite example being groups of dwarfs using runes vs dwarfs using steam tech. The runes are literally holy to one group, while the less exclusive steam engine tech is a symbol of freedom to the other.

In regards to the Elven races, if you think about it, their lack of massively variant cultures when compared to Humans makes complete sense. Let's take D&D Elves for example. According to the background of Elves all three main sub-races of Elves used to be one culture worshiping the same gods and everything. So let's do a little experiment with Humans and Elves and make both races start as just two cultures, one for Humans and one for Elves. Now have both groups separate into different areas to live, in other words, separate the Elves into their 3 subraces and humans pretty much send them all over the world to live. Now we let 2000 years pass, with no contact between any of the groups. Humans live no more than 100 years thus any that are now alive have had at least 20 generations of living apart from the other groups of Humans thus making it completely logical that they would develop completely different cultures and languages. Elves on the other hand can live as long as 750 years, according to the current edition of D&D. This would mean that they're only in their 3rd maybe 4th generation apart from the other groups of Elves. Thus, their language and cultures really wouldn't have changed that much, if at all. The only reason Drow culture changed as much as it did from its surface counterparts is because of the influence of Lolth.

Consider this: Fantasy species are not Human, and are more or less aliens, therefore you shouldn't expect non-humans to be diverse in the same way humans are, they might have a completely different function in how they become diverse. Perhaps they adapt to the magical energy, perhaps they merely have an alien personality that seems evil and that humans can't understand them easily. Try reading Poul Anderson's, Three Hearts and Three Lions those Elves are quite interesting in their chaotic disposition.

"Humans are mostly named John. Unless this is The Dark Eye, then they're mostly named Alrik."

not to be that guy, but visians would definitely keep ladders around. I can't imagine how hard it would be to hammer a nail into something while flapping in place. ladders arent just for height, but stability as well. loved the video ; )

You have a facility for taking a fantastic (as in fantasy) idea and showing the proper extrapolations. And the specificity of these meanderings shows not only creativity and genuine care but allow us to see the paths not taken. Illuminating content.

I hadn't implemented it in any of my running campaigns, but for the world I'm building (which will likely be the backdrop for most future campaigns), I was already thinking 'Common' would be too easy and lazy, instead folk would take on a nation's language. Hadn't considered any of the other races though. Thanks for looking out for them as well ;)

There's actually a bunch more subraces for elves and other races in DnD that aren't mentioned in more recent rule books, and the racism in-universe I think is justifiable because they have innate abilities that separate them from each other. The names that the races have for themselves and their languages are also different from their Common translations. Even Common has it's own name, Thorasta, and it's a trade language that was developed much in the same way you described for the Visions. Something I like about the world of Toril (the planet setting that DnD is based in) is that it's described in ways that are deceptively simple so that players don't know a whole lot of information going in. Commoners in the medieval times didn't know much of anything about what was happening outside their local settlements because, for the most part, their knowledge came from the mouths of travelers that are most likely just trying to sell you something. I still think that there could be more blatant hints at what the world at large is actually like, maybe by making the unreliable narrator more obvious by including contradicting stories about the races, which would confuse the players enough for them to want to look into it and find the truth for themselves.

I don't think it's entirely wrong. Human civilizations, regardless of culture, do share broad similarities with each other and fall into archetypes because of the shared constrains of their circumstances.

I love your videos. They make me stop and think, as well as make my brain explode with ideas. 😊 Thank you!

I think you're forgetting a key component to all of this; religion. If there's some kind of racial Dwarf deity, who is responsible or having formed the Dwarves from out of stone for example, then the Dwarven language and culture will be influenced by that deity. Sort of like the ancient Hebrew people. And there may be other deities of general concepts rather than of the races, and their culture can ab adopted and absorbed on an individual basis; a Dwarf who adheres to the principals of Torag (war domain) will have a vastly different cultural perspective than one who adheres to the principals of Erastil (animal, plants) The thing is, you're also guilty of generalizing; your "Visions" seem to think that they're better than all of the other flightless races, calling them derogatory names like "dirty mud walker", and I have to assume that that's going to remain the same, regardless of where in the world I encounter them. And you know what- there's nothing wrong with that... Elves live much longer lifespans, yes, but it also takes them longer to make social, cultural, technological, magical, linguistic, political, and religious shifts/advancements, than it does for the shorter lived races. And when every Elf is living for the same thousand year span, most of the elves you meet, in your meager Human lifetime, are going to appear incredibly similar, until you take the equivalent of a few college credits, studying Elvish cultures in depth. Dwarves also a a built-in excuse; although they don't live for nearly as long as the Elves, their sense of tradition is what keeps their way of life thriving after centuries. The only race that doesn't follow this formula are, as you pointed out, the Humans. Because of our inherent Human-ness. Honestly, it sounds like a bit of a nitpick on your part.

GAD DAWG IT BROTHER.... You are awesome. You gave this more thought than Hollywood does to their shows.

I hate the "planet of the hats" trope too. In my story there are demons and humans, but "demon" isn't a race, it's a species like humans. Variety and even a couple different languages. One of the protagonists is a girl from a race of demons. She's not the only weird out of the race, there are tons of them already living among the humans, and forming couples with humans even tho they can't have kids with each other. They all adapt to human society so their culture is the same as the city they live in. This race was used and oppressed so they have no culture of their own until the start of the story where they are set free. Like this one there are a few more demon races that differ from one another and also have variety among themselves.

One thing I really hate is how a TON of people like to think that the main characters always need to be human because you can't relate to a non human. If you think about it for more than 5 seconds you understand why it's total BS For the same reason I also hate how in settings with many intelligent races we almost always follow the human perspective only. Fantasy has infinite potential that people are too afraid to use. I want more god damn elf and dwarf protagonists. Show me how THEY see the world and interact with it.

Damn man…. Every video you put out I feel another veil lift. Thanks sooooo much!!

Comment I’m glad you covered this! I’ve wrestled with the same questions. When creating new “racial” concepts in fiction and have found that it’s difficult to veer out from stereotypes that have been so emphasized that to alter them would disperse the very traditional concepts that have come to define them, which, as you pointed out, have a genesis in a homogenized viewpoint. Is an elf still an elf if it departs immensely from that traditional Tolkien mold? I believe it can. A lot depends on how it is written. Except the truth is that not all of us are exceptional writers with the skill to “sell it.” Instead, you might just find folks saying, “dude, that’s just something else entirely with pointed ears.” Or the reverse, in that you create sometime with a different name and set of behaviors that are not like traditional elves, yet keep enough of the traditional flavor there so as to not completely obliterate the thing you wanted-to play elves-only to have the concept come across as elves nonetheless, making some wonder, “why not just call them elves?” Sometimes you risk creating confusion, so you either create something entirely new, or just prone a bit of the edges of the old concept, yet largely retain the stereotypical traditions that have come to define it, which are, sadly, homogenic. I hope this makes sense. I caution with the use of the term “racist,” which is a charged term (though not in its entirety untrue), as evident by some of the reactions in the comments, which appeared to dismiss, mock, excuse, or get defensive (I can’t imagine why in this society, LOL). Consider this: if a whole bunch of people of a certain background got together and created “races” (note: that label itself is problematic; more like “species”) for their setting, more than likely their creations will all have a similar slant based on their own background. I’m Puerto Rican, so when I create material, there is that bias towards islander Latino ‘cuz,” it’s in the blood” (LOL). It would be wishful thinking for me to write from the viewpoint of a white man, or Asian, or black. Therefore, my viewpoint it’s going to be, whether I like it or not, biased towards what I’m familiar with. I don’t believe that will make me inherently racist. It just simply means I will be less capable of writing from a different vantage point as effectively because I lack the nuanced perspective of what it means to live a different race other than my own. Just as I would not be able to write well from the vantage point of a woman. I am not a woman. I can imagine what that might be like, but imagination and facts are not buddies. Still, I can certain try to understand and approximate as best possible. Not to do so would be, as you perfectly critiqued, lazy writing. Regardless, what this highlights (and I believe where your “racist” critique better lands) is whether or not companies have the interest or wisdom to diversify the types of writers that are developing content and whether or not they’re interested in exploring ideas that might not inherently appear equivalent across-the-board to one of the races in our society who is dominant and in power. Anybody who takes offense at this idea is, frankly, is out of touch, and likely associated with the dominant group about whom this video is making a critique. Yet, it cannot be understated that many of these companies were created and remained owned by people associated with a specific group. So, just because they are not diversifying does it mean they are racist (more like closed-minded or uninteresting). They do, however unintentional it might be for some of them, perpetuating flawed ideas corresponding to race, but also gender and belief. Although, belief has seen a lot more progress as far as detaching itself from the judeo-christian layer that used to be the norm in western fiction, followed by gender, with race being the one that seems more stuck in, well, whiteness. The reality, however, is that when you stop to actually think about the traditional concepts corresponding to races in fantasy, as you humorously proposed, the level of work required to achieve more profound ideas corresponding to a species, such as an elf, or an orc, or a dwarf or… whatever… is quite intense, as I have discovered. It’s much easier to play a fantasy world full of humans than one with species other than human to achieve what you are explaining. And even then, when you boil down the world’s problems, you might find yourself galactically shocked by how many of them involve race, gender, and belief. In other words, even if you had a world of fiction where only humans existed, how likely would it be for it to have a realistic flavor or feel if such dilemmas as race, gender, and belief would be excised just to create something that didn’t feel like a copy of on humanity’s own standard problems superimposed on other species? Nevertheless, I do descent from the use of the word “racist” only because I don’t believe a lot of people who do this are racist as much as they just have a homogenic point of view corresponding to what they know and understand. What they feel comfortable with. That they may not go outside of their comfort zone when creating ideas doesn’t make them, by default, racists. However, the systems that could deploy better ideas corresponding to the creation of interesting concepts can, and should, be more expansive in what they create to avoid the same kind of crap being photocopied over and over and over again. If we had companies providing more intelligent and interesting renditions of unique species as complex as humans, then we would all have better models to follow when attempting creations of our own. Anyway, just an opinion, either way, great video and thanks for provoking the thoughts!

Rewatching this video has, once again, been very useful for my writing.

The reason that humans have genetic variety is because groups of human are genetically isolated for many many generations i.e. homogenous gene pool with no race mixing. isolated groups of people will develop their own cultural since they are ISOLATED. So descriptions of "races" are also just descriptions of different cultures because of they developed in isolation. So wood elves would have a cultural their own, and their own language because that cultural and language developed in isolation. Diversity in terms of nations is a product of modern mass transportation and still only American EU are diverse. Most of the countries in the world don't have much diversity. Japan for example is only 2 percent non-japanese.

Yeah, surprising that a Game that traditionally only focuses on a small part of a world tends to not have 100 different cultures written down.

Yeah i made my races have unique cultures and shit. The orcs were mostly secluded from everyone else via a giant mountain range and they only got a mild amount of land so they have less diversity though. Oh no wait later on it's discovered that there's an entire separate continent close to the south pole filled with pale orcs, like orcs but white colored with more fat on them and they all have a bunch of different unique cultures to them as well

I defined common as a thing God of knolegde made and spread for knolegde to more acessable

i don't call "Common" "Common." i call it "Trader's Tongue" and make it a pidgin of human regional languages designed for trade.

Thank you! This gives me a few new ideas about culture. Especially the languages. 🙂 And can it be that minions always deserve to die? And there are some people like me, who laught and throw hundreds more into the meat grinder?

amazing rant! I fully agree, very well presented

Pfft. It's totally fine. I'm sure Tolkien and is very upset to find out about his lAzY wRiTiNg. 🥴

Thanks for sharing, I like this one. I knew I was doing the right thing. I have a world that is full of celebration, custom, history, culture, lanuage. In fact, there are 400 languages known in existence, 1,000 that are yet to be recognised and an 2 official languages. Trellish and Trellish Sign Language. So many species, subspecies and races within my world. All diversified in some way. 152bn inhabitants....how many species? the number isn't officially known, but there are so many different types. 40% of the world population has some kind of disability. Everyone has thier personality, religion, custom, celebration, national celebrated event. The world is full and rich of history spanning eons. Terrellium is a complex world and I didn't stop there. I have an entire universe teaming with different beings from other worlds. Yes. Earth is there... or rather Tellus Sol III...the people there are called Terrans. Anyway Terrellium has unique culture, regions, history, war, ceremonies, celebrations, funerals, politics, social dynamics, unique sports, unique food, unique resources, strange plants, extreme weather events. The people here are either shapeshifters, monsters, mythical beings, supernatural creatures, unusual combinations, humanoids, scary beings, complex magic structure, education, working conditions. Unusual technology, unusual punishments, justice systems, laws, rules.....Terrellium is a 13bn year old planet that has gone through a lot, a place with 3 suns, 5 moons....very advanced technology. What can I say, it is complex in some way. The names are unique and strange, it all has some meaning. In my world. nobody is the same

A fun way to make a culture for a race is to find a commonality in two irl cultures and put them in a blender

I like the idea of languages, but my worldbuilding has ... solved ... that problem, to a degree. I use a novel (pun intended) take on telepathy, the process works by expressing a concept/message, and the recipient's brain interprets the message as best it can. Brains are pattern recognition filters, for the most part, and so the concept is filtered through the education, instincts, and life experiences of the recipient to form something that as closely approximates the original idea as the recipient is capable of understanding. That means in my writing everything is expressed in italicized English because guess what? You, the reader, are the recipient, and that's as close to the actual concept as your brain is capable of processing. Saying it out loud makes me realize that it isn't insulting in the slightest. Oh, well. At least you can understand one another, unless you possess so little empathy that you can't even conceive of the notion of mental communication being a legitimate thing. In which case, don't stare at the blank pages of my book. There's nothing for you to read. ;p

Yeah, non-human races exist for power gamers. They usually just crib a non-western human culture to make the stat bonuses and extra powers have some flavor. There's always a jillion non-humans for no other reason than game abilities.

Visian are so cool!

Scriptic sounds amazing.

Stop calling me out bro. Made me think a lot😂

🗿👍

Racism in D&D is interesting, giving opportunities for storytelling and other aspects, as well as realism. And the best of all is that it has no impact on real life, because there are people who know the difference between fiction and reality, since murder and wars are frequent not only in fiction but also in reality, why specifically wouldn't that be ok? ? People organize themselves into groups and in such an explicit way that it would be strange not to have this aspect in the story. This is a puritanical view that limits the exploration of options. If you just want fantasy with small degrees of violence, that's fine, but don't tell me that it's problematic in any way or that it's a bad way to tell a story. From that moment on I start to agree with the rest of the video, people tend to see themselves in that universe so much that they end up neglecting other races in this way, and that's why they create mistakes like this example of elves being so different but in the end it continues to be the same. And it also served as a learning experience for me because in my universe humans vary so much that I would give different languages with names that didn't refer to anything while the other races I would give to "gnomish" gnomes, "dwarfish" dwarfs like in D&D... which if looked at from a technical point of view is lazy and doesn't make sense as well as how cultures are approached, the main characters who are spontaneously different from everyone else, a group of people who are more like a race than people. And it was also a great tip on how to create a race from scratch and how to make them interesting and deep.

Right, whatever.

Yeah i made my races have unique cultures and shit. The orcs were mostly secluded from everyone else via a giant mountain range and they only got a mild amount of land so they have less diversity though. Oh no wait later on it's discovered that there's an entire separate continent close to the south pole filled with pale orcs, like orcs but white colored with more fat on them and they all have a bunch of different unique cultures to them as well