I'm curious about this, what's your stance on this or what is your opinion? Are all your elves blond, delicate and white? Or are all your dwarfs ambiguously dark-skinned, bearded shortstacks? Are your orcs green-skinned not-natives or not-blacks?
I feel like diversity in human ethnicities is expected, but I rarely if ever see anyone approaching that topic. We could use the same basic idea for human variations on other races, right? For example, elves who live in arid deserts, have evolved to have darker skin, Dwarfs could be extremely light skinned for arctic climates, etc.This is a serious thread, not /pol/ or tumblr bait, please keep both extremes to a minimum.
Shadowrun can have multiethnic I suppose.
>>46968258
I meant more specifically for your typical fantasy setting, but I'm sure that Shadowrun allows for such things too. Not to familiar with the setting, but they're basically mutated humans, right?
>>46968225
It's good.
I guess the typical one is wood elf, high elf, dark elf but more standard D&D style settings will have at least some variation between different kinds of dwarf, halflings, gnome, and sometimes others.
>>46968225
>Dwarfs could be extremely light skinned for arctic climates, etc.
>horrible underground troglodyte people
>possessing any biodiversity with regards to skin-tone
Unlikely, it's not like they need melanin.
My setting is all human mostly. They are all of different ethnicities, which stand in as different races, but none of them are gross and dark skinned.
>>46968225
Well, firstly there's the fact that individual fantasy species are naturally drawn towards a specific kind of habitat. So dwarves will always live in mountainous regions, with the odd advanced human or multicultural metropolis.
But there's definitely the chance to create variety in a race by simply deciding what their local resources and climate are. However I usually try to not overrepresent if it doesn't benefit the current campaign:
There's no point to have plains-indian-Tieflings in a campaign that is all about, say, caribbean age of sails, just as much as there's no need for western-european dwarves in a war of three kingdoms in notAsia.
But both those campaigns can potentially play in the same setting, it's all about establishing a sensible history of how and why mystical races in one place have migrated.
Makes them too human, should be back and white ganging up on green. Not this.
>>46968296
basically kinda sort of yeah. The magic returned and babies started being born as elves and dwarves, then some really unlucky gits went through the mother of all puberties and became orcs and trolls. Now they just kinda breed true for the most part as far as i can tell.
in other news i like this thread, this is a good point, and if i ever run a fantastical setting where this would be relevant i will be sure to keep this in mind.
>>46968225
That's how the setting I'm currently playing in does it. Princedom to the west is Persian/Ottoman brown elves, one of the city states in the immediate area is populated by "Normal" Elves and I know that Drow are somewhere around but they're not evil underground dwelling matriarchial Lolth adherents. I think there's more Brown elves off of the Southern Coast.
>>46968225
My elves range from the archetypical blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryans to dark chocolate depending on what region they're from. Because of their closeness with nature, each elven ethnicity is perfectly adapted to their biome.
My dwarves, on the other hand, are all pale as snow and sunburn like hell. This is because they were born underground and were never really "meant" to be exposed to sunlight. Most dwarves you see on the surface carry around parasols and stick to the shade.
>>46968225
My fantasy races have considerable racial diversity. Elves in particular have a tendency to change themselves to fit their environment over time, whether they know they're doing so or not.
Most other races, all except humans, actually, were either created for or by the elves, or at least changed by them at some point, and often mirror the branch of elfdom which created them. Dwarfs, for example, tend to take after rocks. There are marble-coloured dwarfs, obsidian dwarves, sandstone dwarves, and so on.
Humans are refugees from another planet and, since each nation on that world tried to escape to a different planet, diversity is significantly less prevalent among humans.
>>46968427
>Dwarfs, for example, tend to take after rocks. There are marble-coloured dwarfs, obsidian dwarves, sandstone dwarves, and so on.
Ooh, I like that.
>>46968320
You're right. I've also considered ridiculously pale, blind dwarves. But that's a bit too edgy, right? Besides, we're counting on dwarfs that live in complex underground settings.
It's not like you can find mountain ranges in savannas and the like, what would dwarfs do in such a setting?
>>46968368
I'm basically 100% with you there. It's my approach to the topic and the way I handle multiple ethnicities among fantasy races. But I was curious about the way other people did it!
>>46968427
Fuck, I love the rocks idea, man. I'm stealing it.
>>46968225
In my setting dwarves only really come in one ethnicity, due to being a relatively small and tightly knit group. They have holds along the lenght of a mountain range than runs north to south through most of the continent, but they're all the same group of dwarves, who've just spread and colonized the area. There's some regional variation in appearance and style of dress because of the local climate, but not enough to call them a different ethnicity or even different culture.
Elves, on the other hand, vary a lot more. They're mostly "wood elf" style tribal people, and different tribes in different places can differ heavily in appearance. Desert-dwelling elves have dark skin and large ears with lots of bloodvessels to help them cool themselves, while arctic elves are larger and have more bodyfat to keep themselves warm in cold climate. And then there's dark elves who are a distinct offshoot culturally and physically, although in their case the physical differences are due to near-constant exposure to what amounts to magical radiation.
Elves in general are supposed to be very adaptable in the setting, though. You stick a bunch of elves into a new climate and in a few generations they've adapted to it. Given enough time and specialized environment, you'd get completely a difference species: merfolk for example are descended from coastal-dwelling elves that over time adapted into first a semi-aquatic and eventually a fully aquatic lifestyle (and have since then specialized further, from tropical to arctic to creepy deep sea variants).
>>46968225
I do think that it makes a lot of sense if the races, like humans, don't all live in the same general sort of area. I'd expect an insular race that has its entire population concentrated in a specific part of the world to be ethnically homogeneous, but if there's elves that live in the arctic, elves that live in the jungle, and elves that live in the desert, ethnic diversity among those elves would make sense to me.
>>46968225
>I rarely if ever see anyone approaching that topic
New to the board, man? Here, we approach the topic every fucking day.
Also, I don't think I've ever played in a game that just used the cliche races and cultures.
>>46968578
I've never seen this topic approached on a more "serious" way instead of "BROWN ELF BEST ELF" and weird racism.
But I've liked the explanations and ideas so far, I might be stealing some for my own games. I really loved >>46968488 's idea of desert elves. It sure goes beyond simply saying "Yeah, desert elves are black, arctic elves are fat, fin"
I've some questions. What would you say about asian elves? Setting-wise or on a cultural level?
Also, we've been focusing too much on dwarfs and elves, do you have any other races that could be expanded in this way?
>>46968578
>Here, we approach the topic every fucking day.
>not /pol/ or tumblr bait
not really, we usually do the exact opposite
Down south in the jungles, my elves are brown and speak Spanish; my players and I are in Texas, so all the people playing elves speak Spanish. The northern elves of Alfheimr speak Portuguese and are pale 'High Elves'. Dwarven variation is small. Theyve got the Tinker Dwarves, who are descended from the only gnome in the world and the standard dwarves.
Humans come in every flavor.
>>46968851
>Spanish is a ethnic Amerindian language
>>46968966
I'm sure he meant South-American elves? Sounds cool for me, are they like not-mayan elves or ?
>>46968851
>The northern elves of Alfheimr speak Portuguese and are pale 'High Elves'
This is pretty disgusting.
>>46968983
Theyre not-aztec, but noone in my group spoke Nahuatl. That, and I wanted to tie the elven languages to Esperanto… which the Fae speak.
The Tinker Dwarves, unlike the pasty beardy normal dwarves, have a sallow skin tone and whispy beards that they often shave off, or into Fu Manchu style moustache and goattee.
>>46969000
Thats the point! Theyre AWFUL. Hoity toity bitch elves that dont worship the Savage Gods of the elven pantheon anymore.
>>46968225
I think you're a self interested sodomite.
YOU CUUUNT!
>>46968478
>But that's a bit too edgy, right?
If it makes more sense to have dwarves as something other than short and bearding men, I don't see why it would be a bad thing to change their physical features.
>>46968658
How would they evolve into Asians? I can figure out black and white but made Asians into Asians?
>>46969235
Rice?
Considering most games are in fantasy Europe, most characters being white is a non-issue. If a player wants to play someone with a different ethnicity thats fine so long as they can get some decent fluff behind it.
Son of a trader who wanted to go on adventure, a traveler from a distant land with their own little quest arc, a disgraced part of an ambassador's retinue who wants to regain their honour... i dunno something good.
>>46969235
You're starting under the assumption that white is the default? Maybe they just evolved into having the facial features we recognize as asian the same ways human did ? A mix of environment, adaptation and genetics.
And people with those specific traits reproducing more than the rest because of cultural standards of beauty.
I like to include a lot of diversity in terms of ethnicities but I never include black looking characters since IMO they're facial features are ugly.
>>46969357
>most games are in fantasy Europe, most characters being white is a non-issue
Is such a lazy excuse. European countries / races were far from as secluded as most people seem to believe they were. The same goes for the entire African continent. It's really ridiculous to believe that two decently-sized continents didn't have contact with each other at all except for hand-picked examples!
Hell we even have art of black knights. And I remember I once saw one of an asian knight too? Which was a bit rarer, all things considered!
>>46968225
Maybe elves and dwarves are exactly the kind of races that wouldn't show great environmental adaptation, because they usually are so traditionalistic and conservative.
>>46968422
>carry around parasols
>walk down the road
>see a parasol being twirled around
>short, probably a young lady
>go to escort the young lady
>"Would you like an escort my la-"
>see the parasol doubles as a hammer
>see she is ripped as fuck
>see she has a beard
>that's a man.jpg
>"Oi ye shi' u fokkin wot"
>back away slowly
Fucking dwarves
>>46968225
Why do they have to be multi-ethnic?
Why are you using established races?
If yo have already all ethnicities represented in humans why do they also need to be represented in mythical creatures?
What next, black leprechauns? Mexican Rusalkas?
Its really hard not see this as /pol/ or /tumblr/-bait when the reasoning for this thread is so poor in the first place.
Depending on the setting there are a myriad of elven races with some already having different skin colour/looks.
If you want to make a chinese-looking race aztecs dwarfs then just do it, but why would you go out of your way to still call them dwarves?
What you are doing so far is literally only adding diversity for diversities` sake. It serves no purpose what so ever. It does not enrich the setting. You wont get any Social Justice Brownie-Points from anyone in here.
>>46969710
If theyre a part of the world, they are shaped by the world. That implies adaptation to said world, which is shown by physical and cultural changes befitting the area theyre in.
>>46968658
>>46968488
But why still call them Elves?
You have just made them so human already they might differently coloured pointy-eared humans at this point.
How are they different from humans anyway?
Pushing ethnicities onto elves and dwarfs and other fantasy-species is literally missing the point of those fantasy-species being there in the first place.
>>46969801
That said, magical or fey beings are not required to adapt to the world as theyre 'otherworldly'
>>46969801
>If they're a part of the world, they are shaped by the world. That implies adaptation to said world, which is shown by physical and cultural changes befitting the area theyre in.
Sure. If you treat them like humans. But they are not supposed to be just another flavour of humans, are they?
>>46969814
There can be many reasons to still call them elves.
They might call themselves 'elf', they might be called that after myths humans have, they might have a connection with the feywilds... we can go on if need be.
>>46969855
No, not another flavor of human, a physical being like any other animal. If theyre spirits or some shit, your point stands.
>>46969867
>They might call themselves 'elf',
No see, calling them elves means invoking a certain image of a species. If you go with fantasy it will most probably be the image of Tolkien-esque elves.
> they might be called that after myths humans have
No, now you are just making a reason up for the use of "elf". Why not call them "Herpaderpadurr"? Why are you so obsessed on using the word "elf" for a race that barely has anything to do with elves? Why not Aesir if you just want differently-coloured Übermenschen?
You still have not explained why they have to be elves other than because I WANT TO.
>>46969903
>No, not another flavor of human,
But you have made them just another flavour of human by adding more human characteristics like ethnicities..
>>46969417
I'm not starting out with any default, I had no particular base in mind when I asked the question; If you like we can start with black. What, specifically, turned them from black to Asian over the thousand+ years?
>>46968225
My fantasy races tend to be somewhat monoethnic, but that's because when I'm doing something set in, say, not!Asia, then I want to load it up with no!Asian fantasy races, and not just not!European fantasy races transplanted into not!Asia.
So using not!Asia as the example, I'll have things like half-ogres, spirit folk, babi ngepeti, vanara, koro-pok-guru, and hengeyokai/beastmen in the place of half-orcs, half-elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and elves, respectively.
Were I making a not!Africa, or not!Americas setting, I'd do the same thing.
>>46968225
I tried to have elves and dwarves have different features from humans that also emphasized their (admittedly stereotypical) aspects.
Elves can have hair that's blond or brown or red, but they also have green (dark or light) and white. Skins range from various browns and reds like tree bark, a shocking white like birch, or even occasional flowery hues like yellow or pink. Eyes vary the most - greens, purples, pale blues, amber, silver. No browns, and some reds (though those get killed off in vampire scares). Culturally I based them heavily off of traditional high and wood elves, and threw in some Native American and Mongol horsemen achetypes.
Dwarves are a bit less human in some ways - their skin can be soft and white like marble, or dark and craggy like onyx. They also have a more 'normal' sandstone color. Their hair is usually metallic - silver, copper, gold, brass. Their eyes don't have as much variety - usually they're flinty, but sometimes they have green like malachite or even multi-hued like an opal.
>>46969999
Black and artic bears. They're the same species, adapted to thier environment. That's putting aside the different varietes of, say, salmon. Environments affect the creatures that live within them. Assuming all elves are snow white, 10 ft tall, etc every fucking where without taking in any influence from their environment is just lazy.
>>46970031
Oh, I forgot to mention the Dwarves are very Roman. If Rome liked really heavy armor and enjoyed beards.
Look like /pol/ woke up.
What a mess.
>>46970000
I already explained you how it worked! I'm a historian and I've looked into the reasons behind the traits specific to asian people and apparently scientists can't quite pinpoint the reason behind them. Closest we got was that their eyes (and small boobs in women) were more commonplace because women with those characteristics were sexually desired the most, so they bred more.
Basically; asians look the way they do because of fetishes according to scientists.
>>46969984
>calling them elves means invoking a certain image of a species
What's next, all elves share a completely homogenous culture?
>>46968225
My elves are celts, my humans are black, my goblins are greek, and my dwarves are japanese.
fite me
>>46970091
All everywhere?
>>46969485
>Hell we even have art of black knights.
That's because one of the Arthurian knights was black dipshit.
>>46970091
Japanese dwarfs you say.Or are those chinese?
>>46970043
>Black and artic bears. They're the same species, adapted to thier environment.
I dont remind black, arctic or even brown bears having different ethnicities though. So your argument still absolutely falls flat.
>>46968658
Elves seem to honestly fit the Chinese especially as a culture.
>>46969999
Nice quads, but every animal has variation in it from aesthetic top level shit to subspecies level stuff.
>>46969984
Extratextually i call em elves so theyre recognizable to my players. Personally Id rather develop a language for them and have them be called by an exonym developed by mankind. In world, theyre called elves from 'alfr', which is a Durstgartian word for 'other'. Their name literally means 'the others'
>>46970043
EXACTLY THIS.
>>46968225
Elves have a bit of diversity in the form of their high, dark and wood subraces in most games. Usually the rest of the races don't, but Warcraft surprisingly has diversity in almost every race.
Personally I don't have a problem with it or even really care. Every species of animal on the planet has some kind of diversity among its vast populations, including humans, so most likely other races in fantasy should probably also work that way, but I don't care if they don't. Creating an entirely new race and culture of creatures is hard and I can't blame most fantasy and game writers for going the easy route of "this race is basically just a ripoff of an already existing human ethnicity/culture".
>>46970072
>Look like /pol/ woke up.
Where?
>What a mess.
What?
You might want to leave 4chan if you are already offended.
>>46970114
I know, I know. I'm not saying otherwise, I didn't even get into specifics! I merely refer to the fact that some people use the setting being medieval not-Europe as an excuse to exclude other ethnicities; tumblr and other stuff aside, it's completely ridiculous to act like each major ethnic group was separated and secluded from the others.
We've got legends of black knights, Sir Morien. I can't believe if it was legends or legit proof that vikings traded with the chinese? Etc.
>>46970145
>Nice quads, but every animal has variation in it from aesthetic top level shit to subspecies level stuff.
Show me some animals with different ethnicities.
>>46970124
>I dont remind black, arctic or even brown bears having different ethnicities though. So your argument still absolutely falls flat.
So you're saying that Black, Arctic and Brown bears are all completely the same and haven't adapted to their environments at all?
That's all that's being described by the multi-ethnic fantasy races. They adapt to their environments.
>>46970102
Just as a general rule. Most beings in my setting are mixed heritage anyway, so it's more like:
>True Elves are extinct
>"Elves" are Neo-Celtic Revivalists
>Humans are rarely white, except in the tribes/nations where Giant and/or elven blood is common, whereupon they will generally have a comfy dark-tan-to-brown hue except when in their homeland of Not!Africa/Carribbean
>Goblins are whatever culture their rulers are (human or elf), but they used to have an archaic-greek culture prior to the elves dicking them over (it's ok though since humans dicked THEM over afterwards). They are always a greyish hue, however.
>Dwarves are dark-haired, pale motherfuckers from a long way away who work as mercenaries in other people's countries. They have a warrior culture, but replace katanas folded ONE MIRRION TIMES with Fucking Cannons
>Half-elves are borderline humans with trace elven, dwarven, goblin, giant, etc, ancestry, and generally make up 85% of world population, but no ones identifies as half-elf so it doesn't matter
>>46970120
Those look Chinese.
>>46968393
You mean black using green to finally end his grudge with white.
>>46970114
And one of the Arthurian knights was black because the people who wrote it knew what a fucking black person was. Black people had been living there since the days of the Roman empire.
Humans do not excel in any particular environment, for their excellence is their ability to adapt to wherever they find themselves. Because of this powerful adaptability, humans who settle down in particularly extreme areas or abide by social codes eventually branch off from humanity and become their own race. Because of the very specific conditions under which an offshoot humanoid is created, it's very rare to see diversity among them. Yes, dwarves who come to the surface become more tanned than the dwarves who stay below, and a group of a race who join with a group of another may form some mixed race, but beyond that, it is their secular nature that molded them into who they are. As for humanity, it is their outgoing, vigorous nature that prevents evolution from shaping them differently.
>>46970247
>So you're saying that Black, Arctic and Brown bears are all completely the same
No, where did I say that?
I questioned how much sense it makes forcing ethnicities, something that is only seen in humans, on non-humans for the sake of diversity. So once again: Why would you force a human concept on a species that you clearly wanted to NOT MAKE the same as humans?
>and haven't adapted to their environments at all?
Thats not at all what ethnicity means.
>That's all that's being described by the multi-ethnic fantasy races. They adapt to their environments.
You might want to look up what ethnicity actually means in a dictionary.
>>46970220
Norse traders got everywhere, so I would believe it. I would believe it if they found a ship on the moon.
There will always be cases, all of them rare, of exotic foreign soldiers of high social standing in history.
>>46970321
>Black people had been living there since the days of the Roman empire.
In what is now France? No, not really. If you mean the Earth then yes, people knew black people existed.
>>46970398
I can't remember*, not believe. But yes, we did see a lot of different intercultural / interracial deals and contact; so it's why I don't really allow that as an excuse as a DM or player.
Of course, I do agree that they're rare and far. But they exist.
>>46970443
There have been written documents talking about major black settlements in France during the medieval times, actually! I'll post if I can find them. But they're far from being definite or large groups, basically just camps and a couple traders.
One of my players asked if they could play a black Dwarf. I said "Sure." I'm not sure why this is apparently a strange concept.
>>46970374
'Ethnicity' is just the word that's being used to describe the collection of differences among races caused by different environments in this context. It's not being done for diversity, it's being done because some people like more complex worlds than: "All elves are 10ft tall, birch white, proud etc and for a culture all elves worship Y in X way etc."
>>46970443
England. And yes, really. Roman soldiers and/or slaves from Africa lived there, as well as a small population (non-soldier/slave) dating back to at least the 12th century.
>>46970647
>>46970577
>>46970732
> http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/morien.html
You get your (you), your direct translation from his legend and his actual historical depiction. Now please stop samefagging.
>>46970114
There was also a Middle Eastern Knight. Palamedes.
>>46970781
>a statistical anomaly means medieval Europe was multicultural
Personal setting?
Elves - Young elves magically adapt to their environment until they hit adulthood and "lock" into their elven archetype. Look mostly human based on where they hail from i.e. savannah-adapted elves are very dark skinned, tundra-adapted elves are pale, etc. Unusual/unnatural environments results in unusual/unnatural coloration; elves underground become "drow", extra-planar elves have otherwise impossible hair colors, etc.
Dwarves - Universally ruddy and stone-colored, some more grey/black and others red/tan/brown and such, but nothing too out of line with human norms. Note - most dwarves don't live too far from the surface.
Orcs - Basically look like rainbows run through a gray-scale filter; brick red, muddy green, steel-blue, clay orange, sandy yellow, etc. as well as grey, black, white. Skin tones are mostly cultural/familial rather than environmental. Crossbred orcs have marbled skin.
Halfings - All brown and roughly evenly toned, adapted for generally all environments and nomadic lifestyles.
Gnomes - Same as halflings, except sverneblins who are dark grey-brown.
>>46968478
>But that's a bit too edgy, right?
Edgy seems like the wrong term for introducing some variation to what's normally the most homogeneous fantasy race across works.
Hell, I've even played with the idea of having dwarves actually be fungi. They reproduce by cutting off part of their "beard" of mycelium and planting it in the ground, where it grows into a new dwarf.
I even found a way to incorporate the famous dwarven alcoholism; dwarves create their variety of yeast-based brews purely for flavor, and other races who reacted to the alcohol developed the stereotype that the dwarves must be drunkards.
I have a few other ideas I can throw out if this interests anyone.
>>46970930
but if they don't turn your argument into a strawman how are they supposed to win anon? how?!
>>46969485
Whoa, a painting of a black guy in European armor! I guess you're right, Europe was always an enlightened, multicultural society with a white minority!
They even had rabbits riding dogs, how did we write that out of history?
>>46970936
Fuck, this is such a great idea. Please post all you got!
>>46970914
I love the elves idea; I've seen that thrown around a bit, that Elves are really easily adaptable to their biomes. It could be nice to see them adapt in like a generation or two to whatever new environment they emigrate to.
Also, as a general advice for this whole thread, simply don't reply to obvious bait!
>>46970930
His point is that non-Europeans were prevalent in Europe because Europeans were aware that they existed which is retarded.
>>46971031
That's obviously not the point at all. The only people who are saying anything about them being prevalent are dipshits like >>46970990
They existed, a few lived there, so play a dark-skinned elf or whatever if you want, without worrying about being ahistorical.
>>46971030
> I love the elves idea; I've seen that thrown around a bit, that Elves are really easily adaptable to their biomes. It could be nice to see them adapt in like a generation or two to whatever new environment they emigrate to.
That'd be the more sensible option, but they way I typically describe my elves is; if you take a newborn elf and throw it in a pond, it will start breathing water and swimming before it even has a chance to drown. Until they hit adulthood, they are just that adaptable.
>>46968225
Races like this picture crumple my jimmies. Real world culture but elves/dwarves/etc. is lazy and boring. You should be casting such a wide net of inspiration and original ideas that it's impossible to label them not-cultures.
>>46970936
That is brilliant!
+10 horse points.
>>46970374
>ethnicities, something that is only seen in humans
Jesus Christ
>>46971113
To be fair, I feel that way about fantasy settings in general. I don't think it's necessarily bad? I think the cultures we already have are pretty adaptable and interesting, as long as you don't rely too much on not-Xculture and instead focus on taking aesthetic bits and pieces you like , I think it's okay.
>>46971089>>46970990 here, I actually agree with you and my own homebrew has a somewhat similar approach, but the faulty rhetoric like claiming one painting proves any sort of point about a huge continent really shits me up the wall.
>>46968478
Probably any underground race of pseudo-humans would be pale and have poor vision, but really any step away from Tolkien garbage is a good one regardless of 'edgy'.
>>46971145
I agree mostly, I just hate people copying tolkien or real life peoples whole cloth. This is a game of imagination, use it!
>>46968225
Every race in my setting has two to three ethnicity. They don't give any bonuses or anything, but it feels more realistic if every race has some variation
>>46968225
While I'm 100% for having different subspecies (and cultures) for all the creatures in the setting, I think that choosing this picture was a massive mistake. I don't like doing it like that at all, if you're gonna roll with amerindian elves or chinese elves you might as well make your elves all the same at this point. Which doesn't mean you should, but it's gonna be exactly as silly.
When I introduce a non human race in a world I'm creating, the first that I do is to divide them culturally, creating the cultural regional differences. It's later that I decide if a certain culture should have different colors for skin, hair or eyes (or not).
>>46971211
If they can interbreed with humans, they are already pretty fucking similar anyways. Besides that black elf lady is fucking amazing.
>>46971113
The fact that they're using 'standard' fantasy races in the first place indicates that they're too creatively bankrupt to do any of that.
>>46968225
Elves have various ethnic groups but they don't map their features onto human races. There are no African-looking elves.
Dwarfs are relatively ethnically similar.
>>46971211
I don't understand. How does a picture where all the elves are different mean OP should make them all the same?
If he just wants to remake real world cultures with elves, that's fine. It's a common thing in fantasy, and if his setting has multiple races living in the same areas it's not so strange.
>Long ago before time began, the Celestial Bureaucracy held for the countless spirits of creation a contest - whichever spirit could create the most beautiful creature would ascend to godhood and join the Bureaucracy as a full-time member.
>Every being in the universe, from the lowly river spirit to the towering spirit of the mountain, crafted for the Bureaucracy a sculpture for consideration.
>As is common with such things, unfortunately, several dishonest spirits decided to even out their competition by sabotaging promising submissions from other spirits.
>What started as a few sabotages ended up in a full-scale war. Spirits from across the universe marred and defaced each others' creations.
>The Bureaucracy, disgusted, punished every spirit by trapping them within their elements and aligning them to the sculptures they defaced. Then they gave each and every sculpture life, creating the menagerie of animals and people on Earth and beyond.
>>46968225
It's almost implausible that any species would develop without a few sub-species or breeds of differing appearance. I can't think of any exceptions to this, dogs, cats, even humans to an extent, all have regional variants with pronounced differences. Elves would probably be the same.
>>46971275
Why does using nonstandard races end up as lolbeastraces 9 times out of ten. They're equally as boring as generic fantasy ones.
>>46971249
>If they can interbreed with humans
That's a very big "if". Some settings go with that, some don't.
>>46971282
My point was that, in my opinion, there's no point on trying to be original by rejecting the idea that all elves are the same and then give them cultures that are copies of human ethnicities. It's not wrong, just unoriginal.
>>46970936
>>46971030
While dwarves are quite new to the surface, their history stretches back far into the past. According to legend, they originated in a wide-open world which they call the First Sky, with the surface referred to by them as the Second Sky. They were forced to begin moving underground with the arrival of apocalyptic monsters known as the Grakken (working name). As the Grakken began to eat away at the world, the dwarves began their mass exodus, burrowing as far as they could and collapsing their tunnels as they went to evade their destruction.
This led to the primary dwarven lifestyle for a long time; living in relatively small colonies bound together by family bonds and eventually branching off if they exceeded a certain size so that they remain self-sufficient. Gradually they worked their way upward/downward in this style, although eventually some would try to break with tradition.
I'm going to take a break for a bit to do some work, but I'll probably return to continue with the story of the Empire and how dwarves get on now.
>>46971353
It's plausible if the species isn't wide spread.
>>46971353
It's also implausible that every single "fantasy author" in the last 50 years would take the same races from Lord of the Rings and call it original work by putting tattoos on some of them. But here we are!
>>46971436
Something that already happened can't really be implausible, the plausibility is derived from the fact that it definitely occured.
The word you're looking for is "retarded."
>>46971453
Random pedantic anon here, implausible can also mean unreasonable.
>>46971453
Not if you use the frequentist model of probability. Just restart the universe a couple times and see how much this happens.
>>46971517
Glad to see a fellow unhelpful pedant weigh in.
>>46971558
Probably it would happen every time, since the entire point of the fantasy genre is to avoid original ideas that risk challenging the reader.
>>46970072
Rarely have I seem a post more full of shit
>>46971834
Ref:
>>46971649
Checkmate.
FWIW, fake races in my games are based on player expectations, not the theoretical models of some bean-counting Grievance Studies freshman with a hateboner for white "racists." Sorry your kind consider history and maths to be "lame excuses."
>>46968225
My elves are all white.
See, they *tried* to stop looking down on humans, dwarves, and even orcs. "Tried" being the operative word. They still do, they're just a lot friendlier about it. Instead of open discrimination, they try to white-knight for them in order to show other elves how progressive and not-racist they are. That's how they cockfight with each other.
It's still an improvement, mostly because it's funny as hell. They're still condescending pricks who think they're better than everyone else, but at least they're *trying.*
>>46968225
elder scrolls has all sorts of different ethnicities within each race. For example there are typical elves with light skin and blonde hair, then theres dark elves, drow, snow elves, wild elves, moon elves etc they all dress and appear differently too.
I like my fantasy ethnicities to be completely unrelated to human ones, and with completely different pigments. So dwarves will range from white to black, but it'll be the white of chalk and the black of obsidian, while elves favor blues, greens, and purples.
>>46971113
I agree, but people can draw parallels from anything. 'Nothing is original' is an entirely real thing - you could work your entire life to make a setting that's as original as possible - someone is still going to notice how something in it resembles something else.
In my opinion it's better to make a good setting than an original one.
>not having unique non-human races for each continent
>not having human beans of different 'ethnicities' having been made by different gods
>non-human races even have skin color as an applicable difference
plebs
>>46972819
Player expectations are generic garbage. It's only by overcoming these expectations that you can get good quality content.
>>46973490
So your elves are (White) sjw. Amazing.
>>46970256
neat
>>46973584
Same here.
>>46968225
All elves in your settings better be white as fuck. Have them live in forests, or deserts, or jungles, or wherever, but it's not an elf if it's not fair. Tolkien renamed dark elves to dwarves because dark elves are gay as hell.
>>46976660
But muh delicious brown
>>46976711
What is the source on Bedouin Dreams? I remember that fucking face from somewhere.
>>46968225
I tend to have fantasy races in various ethnicities as well (influenced by Forgotten Realms which has some impressive physical diversity amongst it's fantasy races), but they tend not to be 1-for-1 ethnic groups based off Earth ones.
If the race of elves that lives on sunny tropical islands is tanned heavily or has perpetually bronze or browned skin they aren't gonna be Maori elves or whatever.
>>46968225
They're based on Germanic mythology, so they look Germanic.
>>46968225
I say it's a must to have multi-ethnic races if you're in a setting where it's conceivable that different ethnicities of a race might somehow come into contact. But in a standard medieval fantasy setting? It's going to be pretty rare.
>>46978479
im fairly sure she is from the Ladies versus butlers anime
HELLO SHITTERS.
ALMOST EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD IS USING THE WORD "ETHNICITY" INCORRECTLY.
WHEN REFERRING TO ENVIRONMENTALLY INFLUENCED PHYSICAL MORPHOLOGY THE WORD YOU USE IS "PHENOTYPE". PHENOME IS ALSO ACCEPTABLE IN CERTAIN CONTEXTS.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT OPEN A DICTIONARY BEFORE YOU TYPE SHIT OUT.
>>46978517
In standard fantasy settings travel over long distances is usually very plausible and very easy (flying beasts, portals, etc. etc.), so realistically different races should come into contact much earlier than on earth.
>>46978544
Thank you, angry anon.
>>46968225
Elves having racial diversity in fantasy is far more common than humans having it from what I've seen.
>>46979235
Many settings have not-Africa and Arabian Niiiiiights! though.
>>46968225
While not mapping to human ethnicities this has been an element of fantasy pretty much forever. Tolkein had his different races of elf and dwarf right there with the different races of man. D&D has had racial subtypes since at least second edition if there wasn't a 1e supplement I've forgotten.
It seems like it's pretty much a given in any setting with even half decent world building.
>>46968348
You're a faggot.
>>46970072
>Asian look like Asians because of fetishism
This some bad history/anthropology right here. Please, never act like an authority on this subject again.
>>46969235
Steppe winds made their eyes narrow to not get loads of dust in them. No idea what changed their skin color.
>>46968225
Not with Elves because fantastic racism + magic + low birth rate means that essentially each elf is a designer baby made to the parents specs.
Also they like to genocide.
Dwarves are all clones who are produced naturally from the earth and unnaturally be high concentrations of refined metals.
Orcs are Orks.
Halflings are super creepy and always insist they're just the same as whatever population they might find themselves in. Maybe a little short or pale in comparison, but we'll within standard deviation. They insist. The all look the same and are possibly some sort of escaped bio project but they're overall useful and despite being super creepy there's no record of them actually ever doing anything sinister.
So I guess my fantasy races don't really have subaraces because I try really hard to not just make them humans with a gimmick, you boring ass basic bitch.
>>46968225
If you think it makes sense for the scale and setting you're building, then go for it. The world is fucking huge.
Any /pol/lack who calls you a cuck or Tumblrist who calls you a racist is full of shit.
>>46968320
Most mountain dwarfs are portrayed as farming in mountain valleys and chopping trees etc so high altitude plus snow reflection
