D&D General RA Salvatore Wants To Correct Drizzt’s Racist Tropes

In an interview with Polygon, the author talks about how the drow are currently being redefined in D&D, and how he wants to be part of that process.

”But on the other hand, if the drow are being portrayed as evil, that’s a trope that has to go away, be buried under the deepest pit, and never brought out again. I was unaware of that. I admit it. I was oblivious.

Drow are now split into (at least) three types — the familiar Udadrow of Menzoberranzan, the arctic-themed Aevendrow, and the jungle-themed Lorendrow. Salvatore's new novel, Starlight Enclave, helps to expand the drows' role in the narrative.

D&D’s Drizzt books were built on racist tropes. R.A. Salvatore wants to change that

‘If the drow are being portrayed as evil, that’s a trope that has to go away’

www.polygon.com

In 2020 WotC made a public statement about how they would be treating drow and orcs going forward -- "Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game—orcs and drow being two of the prime examples—have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated. That’s just not right, and it’s not something we believe in. "

Commitment to Diversity | Dungeons & Dragons

D&D continues to be made as diverse as possible with the reminder that only a diverse group of adventurers can overcome obstacles.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[DemoMonkey]

That may not be what you are concerned about Charlaquin. But there seems to be quite a multiplicity of takes going on here.

Which makes for an interesting discussion!

 

[Umbran]

Agreed! We should start by agreeing that the Drow aren't real and that their color or behavior has zero bearing on reality.

That is very easy to say... when it is not your daily reality in question.

I do hope nobody starts writing a stories about an entirely fictional person named Shmyle Shmade, who has poor hygiene, lives in their mother's basement, and is best known for their poor impulse control and even worse life choices.

 

[Weiley31]

Actually, also in regards to the Xenomorphs of Aliens, if you went back to a number of the comics done by Dark Horse Comics, they were primarily colored as "Blue" instead of black. Spider-Man's "blue" pattern on his costume was/is "supposedly" technically black originally. The reason why the color blue was prioritized/used was because drawing something in black ink was harder to do when it came to scenes that were considered "dark" or dimly-lit/black background. Same thing applied to the Xenomorphs. Kinda like how, IIRC, somebody on this post mentioned how the color black was outlined in blue or something.

 

[dave2008]

I like how Critical Role has subverted the take on the drow that the Forgotten Realms used for so long.

• Drow pre-existed Lolth's influence.
• Drow went into the Underdark during a global Calamity where the gods warred against each other. During said war Lolth got taken-out first and stayed impaled on the side of a cliff for who knows how long.
• Once the evil gods, including Lolth, had been banished, some drow remained in the Underdark as her followers and some rejected her and returned to the surface (this latter group effectively was in the Underdark for a very short time).
• The drow who rejected Lolth and returned to the surface are flourishing and creating a nation of beings who have also rejected the evil entities who used them as minions during the Calamity. Lolthite drow society, meanwhile, has been falling apart to the point that many drow are fleeing for the surface, willingly turning themselves into driders so they can survive independently in the Underdark, or turning their allegiance to Tharizdun.
• There are some drow Lolth followers on the surface, but so few that most are led by a drow follower of Lolth but largely made-up of non-drow converts to Lolth's service.

So, basically, Lolth herself is the problem, and in the setting of Exandria she's essentially an incompetent goddess who is consistently losing followers either due to them rejecting her or those who stay loyal dying-off because of the horribly impractical society she encouraged.

Well I hate that version of Lolth and the Drow.

 

[Sacrosanct]

"Because if that were true, then if when D&D came out all the art depicted gay black people and not white European male heroes with scantily clad women, none of these same people making that argument would have played it to begin with."

Interesting theory.

Why do you think that?

Probably because they are the same arguments made by the same people who lose their minds any time a LGBTQ character is introduced into the game. The same ones who say "Stop forcing that down my throat! Stop being political" by simply acknowledging and including LGBTQ people into the game without realizing their hypocrisy.

I'll repeat here what I said a few weeks ago in the TSR drama thread when LaNassa and crew said, "We keep politics at the door." If the mere acknowledgement of someone who is LGBTQ is political, and you say you keep politics at the door, then you are literally saying you want to keep LGBTQ people at the door.

Dinehart, is that you?

 

[Hexmage-EN]

White Hair, Black Heart - TV Tropes

In many works, especially anime and video games, white hair quite frequently indicates a villain or, at the very least, someone to watch out for. Especially in characters typically too young to have white hair. Despite the wide range and use of …

tvtropes.org

I should've discussed it in my original post, but a lot of white-haired bishounen in anime and manga are bad guys.

It's interesting that one example of this is Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts, who in his younger incarnation has white hair despite the dude being all about Darkness and opposing Light.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Again, you missed my whole point. My point is that when bikini armor was a regular thing, not many females played D&D. Now that it's not a thing, more females play.

I was making an analogy suggesting that if we adjust or get rid of the "black-skinned evil race" portrayal in D&D, more people of color may feel comfortable at the table.

The less we objectified women, the more women started gaming. Gee, who would have thunk?

 

[Umbran]

Black = Bad came out of wars against the Moors and the Crusades.

And, just to note, there's a very strong argument that, when referring to "dark elves" the Norse were not speaking about color of skin, but darkness of spirit or heart.

 

[billd91]

And why should we be shackled by our prejudices, even those built into our biology? We have the privilege of being sapient animals with the capacity for complex thought. Let's not squander that.

That... may not be the best argument because, by the same token, shouldn't we be able to separate darkness = unknown/danger/even evil from real-world race relations? Avoiding the metaphor of dark = evil/unknown/danger because of real-world race relations suggests that we can't or can't be expected to unshackle the two.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

And, just to note, there's a very strong argument that, when referring to "dark elves" the Norse were not speaking about color of skin, but darkness of spirit or heart.

That's still saying that darkness is attributed to evil, though, even if they mean metaphorical darkness.

I highly doubt that the connotations of darkness and night with evil, death, disease, etc are consistent among all cultures and could have one root cause. Like I mentioned earlier, the Black Death was called that because Europeans noticed infected, dying tissue blackening.