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. "

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[Steampunkette]

Are you going to at least show me a few examples of cultures that associate light with "evil" and darkness with "good". Because honestly, I find it quite baffling your claim that this is 100% cultural and not rooted in the fact that we are completely blind in the absence of light.

People found Fire at some point in prehistory. It was a big part of what allowed us to continue to evolve.

Even unto the Middle Ages there were no Street Lights. People walked around in darkness with only the light of the moon and stars to guide them.

IF Darkness is evil, why wouldn't people have created semi-permanent lights to have control over darkness inside their communities? This was back in a time where animals could (And would) wander right into your community and commit terrible acts of violence.

But there's FEAR of the Dark. Kids are afraid of it. And we're trained by our parents to slowly be less and less afraid of it. Why? If Darkness -is- evil, -biologically- evil, evolutionary psychology EVIL DANGER BAD WRONG NO GOOD why would we ever try to stop being afraid of it?

We're afraid of things which are dangerous. But we're not afraid of the dark as adults... Why? We -sleep- in Darkness rather than in Light! Once Fire was tamed, shouldn't humans have become entirely adapted to the idea of sleeping in light with sleeping in Darkness considered abhorrent and wrong? After all you're both vulnerable from darkness and stillness, unaware of your surroundings!

This is why I say it's a cultural thing. People lived with Darkness for the VAST MAJORITY of time that people have existed, and only in the last 800 years or so have we made a concerted effort to change our environment to have less darkness unless we're actively awake. Hell. There was major pushback against Daylight Savings Time because people were just -used- to it.

Darkness being "Evil" is 100% Cultural.

You want an example? Egypt. They didn't have a Light/Dark Good/Evil dichotomy. Instead they had Black/Red. Black Good, Red Bad. Because the Soil of the Nile was a rich black color while the Red Clay of the surrounding desert was considered bad. Meanwhile Eastern cultures often consider Black and Darkness to be sacred and stable while Red is Joyful and Light and White are associated with Death.

 

[DemoMonkey]

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

Correlation does not equal causation. There may be less objectification BECAUSE more women are playing, and it's easier to sell them books if you don't offend them.

Never ascribe virtue to what can be explained by good old-fashioned greed.

 

[Charlaquin]

Aren't they, though? Dracula, too. Yet...crickets in response to all the vampire shows and books that, really, play off that creepy rape vibe.

Well, Dracula as he was originally depicted is a slightly less unsubtle allegory for foreigners, though rape is tied up in the various fears about foreigners Dracula was expressing. Later vampire fiction steered harder into the sexual assault elements and away from the xenophobia. But, to your point, the reason vampire fiction doesn’t generally see the same sort of critique is because in both cases, the sexual assault is portrayed as horrific. Contrary to what you seem to be trying to suggest here, modern critical analysis doesn’t blindly condemn all depictions of things considered immoral (as the concerned parents of the Satanic Panic did). It’s concerned with what works of fiction actually say about their subject matter.

But to your point, the Drow do have something important in common with the xenomorphs: they're both fictional.

Indeed, and fiction is upstream of culture.

 

[Umbran]

I did, and nothing about it suggested that he believes drow are an attempt to depict a real-world ethnicity.

I don't actually care too much about the intent at this point. The very original intent is a half-century ago. I am more concerned with the present and the future.

You can be jumping around on a dance floor, and smack someone in the face. Whether you intended it or not, you should stop waving your arms around like that.

 

[Sacrosanct]

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.

Well, the Prose Edda actually describes Dökkálfar as "darker than pitch".

 

[lyle.spade]

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.

If it's a good story I'll happily read it.

 

[oriaxx77]

Everyone is good, there is no evil. I got it. Drows are good, but their pr is bad. Everyone loves everyone, If there is a conflict it is just a big misunderstanding. All good. All hug each other. PEACE just to be polcorrect
.

 

[Umbran]

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

Correlation does not equal causation. There may be less objectification BECAUSE more women are playing, and it's easier to sell them books if you don't offend them.

Never ascribe virtue to what can be explained by good old-fashioned greed.

Um, you seem to be conflating cause-and-effect with motivation.

 

[Doug McCrae]

The argument that drow can't be racist because they aren't real is a bad one.

All racist portrayals involve an element of fiction, sometimes a very strong element. If they were 100% truthful portrayals they could not be racist, because racism always involves a lie.

Nazi propaganda employed images of a vampire bat with the head of a caricature of a Jewish person, or a rat with a similar head. American anti-Japanese WWII propaganda featured the "Tokio Kid" -- a monstrous being with pointed ears, fangs, and claws.

Part-antisemitic caricature/part-bat creatures, part-antisemitic caricature/part-rat creatures, and the goblin-like Tokio kid are all fictional. No such beings exist. They are imaginary monsters. But that doesn't prevent such depictions from being racist.

They worked by bringing together both the real (or at least something perceived to be real, such as racist caricatures) and the fictional -- the monstrous. Drow also combine the real -- dark skin -- with the monstrous.

The intent of Nazi and WWII propaganda was different, but it is not the purpose of this post to argue about intent. The point is that the argument that drow or any other fictional creation can't be racist because it's not real is a bad one. All racist depictions are fictional, sometimes fantastically so.

 

[whimsychris123]

Correlation does not equal causation. There may be less objectification BECAUSE more women are playing...and it's easier to sell them books if you don't offend them.

It's easier to sell books to women if you don't offend them? Priceless advice.

And a good argument for why WotC may not want to offend Black people.