D&D 5E D&D Races: Evolution, Fantasy Stereotypes & Escapism

[gamerprinter]

I mostly create Starfinder aliens now, and very often not humanoids, so no way to appropriate nor stereotype. Here's my most recent, the Cheladeans, a sentient hermit crab race - enslaved by a militant humanoid race, experimented on, eventually given cybernetic jacks to connect into vehicles like "hermit crab shells" for additional function, but always including a functional humanoid form to utilize existing weapons and technology. The Cheladeans proved to be pacifistic in nature, and though adapted to use war machines, they would not fight for their captors, who subsequently annihilated themselves in a civil war. Now the Cheladeans are free peoples, just now joining the starfaring civlizations as an eager new member... (yeah, I know it's not D&D proper, but similar vibe and fits the discussion, I think.)

 

[Bohandas]

What if we rejiggered the evil races to be based on 1800's colonial europe?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Then the 'good' races would lose their shtick

 

[Scott Christian]

What if we rejiggered the evil races to be based on 1800's colonial europe?

Not all 1800's, but do you mean like the soldiers in the Crusades? The barbaric Vikings of the north? The Spanish Inquisitions? The Ottoman Empire conquerors?

These have all been done.

 

[Bohandas]

Not all 1800's, but do you mean like the soldiers in the Crusades? The barbaric Vikings of the north? The Spanish Inquisitions? The Ottoman Empire conquerors?

These have all been done.

The orcs already look like the vikings officially. They're marauding berserkers who worship a one-eyed god.

 

[Greg Benage]

Were the various species/ancestries/lineages still created by different deities in D&D, or are their origins left unstated now?

 

[Bluebell]

The orcs already look like the vikings officially. They're marauding berserkers who worship a one-eyed god.

What a shame the lore doesn't lean into that further. Orcs as vikings should be extremely clean and well-groomed, with excellent craftsmanship and intricate trade routes.

 

[Hussar]

What a shame the lore doesn't lean into that further. Orcs as vikings should be extremely clean and well-groomed, with excellent craftsmanship and intricate trade routes.

Which does rather nicely highlight the actual issue. If orcs=vikings, they would be the world's greatest explorers (or at least among them), renowned for their contributions to culture, law, and civilization. Heck, throughout much of Viking history, you were far more likely to get sued by your neighboring Scandinavian marauder than you were to be attacked.

One rather wonders what could possibly be the reason that orcs aren't Vikings...

 

[Bohandas]

They're the vikings as seen by the English