D&D (2024) What new jargon do you want to replace "Race"?

[Yaarel]

@Yaarel, would it be too much to ask to put People on the poll as an option? It tied for third with Folk on this poll two years ago behind Species and Ancestry. There were 139 respondents 36 of which chose People as one of their preferred terms.

Ok, I am updating the poll to include People.

People can update votes too.

 

[squibbles]

To be clear here, I wasn't advocating for the use of the term people or peoples. I think the difference between human groups is not at all like the difference between demi humans in fantasy.

Right. I understood that you weren't advocating it and didn't intend to misrepresent your view.

I quoted you because you stated one of the common usages of 'people' in a very clear way--it just so happens that that usage, which (if I understood correctly) you think is a reason 'people' shouldn't replace 'race', is also a reason that I think it should.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Well, WotC said that while race is out, species isn’t necessarily in, and they’ll gather feedback on that too. That’s why I’m advocating for a different term, because I don’t think species is a good one.

Oh, well that explains things. Didn't realize that. Good luck!

 

[Yaarel]

When people think of the term "species", they probably have Darwin in mind, directly or indirectly. His On the Origin of the Species is modern, from the 1800s.

But Darwin himself used the term "species" because that is term in use since centuries earlier.

Linnaeus was already innovating the scientific names for species during the 1700s. He used the term species because that is the term.



The word species is Latin. It literally means "a look", either looking at something or the way that something looks. The verb is specere, "to look". It relates to words like spectator, spectacles, spectacular, speculate, inspect, and so on.

In the Medieval Period, in the 1300s, species came mean to mean things that have a similar look, namely a type, class, or kind.

By the Renaissance Period in the 1500s, even the English language was using this Medieval term, and by about year 1600 used it to refer to different species of animals.



For D&D, the term species belongs in the same game that has renaissance rapiers and full plate. Really the term is even earlier and medieval.

 

[Yaarel]

Currently Ancestry, with Bloodline for special cases.

Not Kin, as that's a word I commonly use.

Im curious. In what contexts do you use "kin"?

For me, I mainly tend to use it in academic contexts relating to tribal kinship systems. Even then I might instead use the term "family" with the understanding of extended family.

 

[Yaarel]

The term Ancestry can mean "species".

For example, in reallife, if one asked who ones ancestor is, some groups might say, "Adam".

The name Adam literally means "Humanity" as separate species. Humans are the "descendants of Adam".

In Norse traditions, there is reference to Askr and Embla as the ancestor of humans. Dvalinn as one of dvergar. Ýmir as the one of jǫtnar. Búri as the one of æsir. And so on.

Ancestry seems to do double duty, to refer to both "species" and "lineage".

Ancestry can even refer to nonbiological lineage, such as that of immaterial Elf and construct Warforged.

 

[Yaarel]

There are now 100 votes. Currently the top votes are:

56% Ancestry
37% Species
27% Lineage
27% Heritage
25% Folk
23% Kin
20% Origin
14% Kindred
11% Kind
09% Bloodline

 

[Yaarel]

The problem for me isn’t that it sounds too sci-fi, it’s that the word species is part of a system that organizes life forms by their evolutionary branch from a common ancestor, which just isn’t how it works in D&D.

Hypothetically,

If we found radically distinct extraterrestrial lifeforms, or new understandings of life, such as an entire planet being collectively alive, or different kinds of artificial life whether DNA splicing or synthetic forms,

scientists would still probably use the term "species" for them, in order to include these into the current scientific taxonomy.

 

[Blue Orange]

'Ancestry' or 'lineage', it describes who the character's ancestors are, and avoids all the messes with hybridization of some of the groups like humans and elves or orcs (there are apparently cases where species A can breed with B and B with C but not A with C). 'Species' also does sound a little more sci-fi than fantasy. I still like it better than, say, 'folk', which could refer to a specific geographic population of one group, 'kin' which similarly refers to a more immediate family, 'heritage' which could be cultural too, 'origin' which is kind of vague, 'kind' which is even vaguer (aren't wizards also a 'kind'), or 'bloodline' which to me refers to a specific family--the bloodline of the Targaryens or something.

 

[Charlaquin]

Hypothetically,

If we found radically distinct extraterrestrial lifeforms, or new understandings of life, such as an entire planet being collectively alive, or different kinds of artificial life whether DNA splicing or synthetic forms,

scientists would still probably use the term "species" for them, in order to include these into the current scientific taxonomy.

Yes, it would. And our relationship to them
would still be vastly unlike that between elves and dwarves.