D&D 5E New Drow cultures coming in Starlight Enclave, the Lorendrow and the Aevendrow

[Tales and Chronicles]

And my response to this Forgotten Realms racism is, yuck. Because these racists are somehow "Good", which is also, yuck. And these racists are somehow Chaotic individualists too, yuck.

The whole FR obsession with racist themes and racist tropes is, yuck.

Is the biological essence, all elves are inherently racists? Yuck.



I am not interested in a setting about racism. Especially, if only one of the races is being demonized by the writers.

The ''good races'' of Faerun are pretty evil from my point of view:

You have on one side the elves: they nearly destroyed the world because they wanted to merge the plane with their vision of Paradise, their main god is a chaotic being who ''needs'' 3 goddesses to merge to please it, the same god is the one of those who took pleasure in refusing a descent spot for the orcs to live, they have a paradise island where only elves get to live, they have an actual elven supremacist terrorist group as part of the political background of their paradise island, etc

On the other side you have the dwarves, so good that when their brothers were kidnapped by aberrations from the depths, instead of saving them, they just forget about them, and when said brothers came back, those good dwarves AND their gods found that the lawful good answer was to boot them back into the hands of their oppressor because they lost faith in those gods. They also have a blood sport where you have to kill any dragon, good or bad, to win!

On the OTHER side (yeah, its a 3-sided coin, go figure...), you have an evil race like the Githyanki, who are evil because...they are on a crusade to rid the universe of brain-eating octopi? Okay, their methods are a little overkill...more The Punisher than Gandhi, but still...they were food for those octo-dudes for centuries.

So yeah, the moral compass of the FR is a little...off.

 

[Dire Bare]

And my response to this Forgotten Realms racism is, yuck. Because these racists are somehow "Good", which is also, yuck. And these racists are somehow Chaotic individualists too, yuck.

The whole FR obsession with racist themes and racist tropes is, yuck.

Is the biological essence, all elves are inherently racists? Yuck.



I am not interested in a setting about racism. Especially, if only one of the races is being demonized by the writers.

I think you misread my comment, and also don't have a good feel for Realms lore.

It has never been true in Realms lore, that surface elves are biologically inclined towards racism towards drow or any other race. Nor has it ever been true that ALL surface elves are racist towards drow. Rather, that surface elf society has a problem with racism towards drow, orcs, and even (more mildly) humans. This has never been portrayed as "good", although of course the surface elves are positioned as "the good guys". Realms lore has never been "obsessed" with racism . . . but like the entirety of D&D and the larger fantasy genre, has issues with systemic racism in the world-building of cultures.

Real world American society has a problem with racism towards African-Americans. Does that mean that every white person in America is racist? We all certainly enjoy a degree of privilege, but many of us work hard to move past the racist past of our ancestors. Sadly, some of us remain virulently racist. Ditto this for the surface elves of the Realms.

 

[Dire Bare]

The ''good races'' of Faerun are pretty evil from my point of view:

You have on one side the elves: they nearly destroyed the world because they wanted to merge the plane with their vision of Paradise, their main god is a chaotic being who ''needs'' 3 goddesses to merge to please it, the same god is the one of those who took pleasure in refusing a descent spot for the orcs to live, they have a paradise island where only elves get to live, they have an actual elven supremacist terrorist group as part of the political background of their paradise island, etc

On the other side you have the dwarves, so good that when their brothers were kidnapped by aberrations from the depths, instead of saving them, they just forget about them, and when said brothers came back, those good dwarves AND their gods found that the lawful good answer was to boot them back into the hands of their oppressor because they lost faith in those gods. They also have a blood sport where you have to kill any dragon, good or bad, to win!

On the OTHER side (yeah, its a 3-sided coin, go figure...), you have an evil race like the Githyanki, who are evil because...they are on a crusade to rid the universe of brain-eating octopi? Okay, their methods are a little overkill...more The Punisher than Gandhi, but still...they were food for those octo-dudes for centuries.

So yeah, the moral compass of the FR is a little...off.

The traditional "good guy" races of Faerun are not evil. But they certainly aren't good. Flawed is the word I'd use. Just like humans in the real world . . . .

Corellon is a much darker god than most give him credit for, but your interpretation of Corellon and Angharadh is . . . odd. Corellon doesn't force three individual goddess to merge to please him, Angharadh is simply a goddess of triple aspect.

 

[Scribe]

Is the biological essence, all elves are inherently racists? Yuck.

I'm almost positive one of the early writers who provided the text for Elves, in an old old version of the game or MM or something, essentially said yes, Elves are racist.

I've tried to find it recently, as they went about defending there position throughout the article, only to end with 'and yes, they are racist' or something like that.

I highly doubt that's official canon anymore though.

 

[The Glen]

Seems this would borrow from the Shadow Elves of Mystara.

Shattenalfen. They took over the Azcan lands, the Shadow Elves don't really have a real-world equivalent. They have a step pyramid but none of the trappings of the Aztec.

 

[Dire Bare]

Shattenalfen. They took over the Azcan lands, the Shadow Elves don't really have a real-world equivalent. They have a step pyramid but none of the trappings of the Aztec.

Schattenalfen . . . which means shadow elf in German. Which is a culture of shadow elves in the Mystara setting. The schattenalfen certainly have more of an Aztec influence than the main shadow elf culture, but both cultures have connections, including the step pyramid you mention, and the god Atziann (or Atzanteotl).

@AdmundfortGeographer, your reference made perfect sense. The correction was unnecessary.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I’m about done with the book and yeah it’s probably my least liked of his Drizzt books.

The majority of it is just “look how good and nice and awesome these new Drow are.”

If ever a Drizzt book felt mandated by the suits, it’s this one.

 

[Zardnaar]

The bad things elves done are generally done by the evil elves.

I don't mind bad elves or racist elves or whatever. Makes them more relatable if anything.

Beats me why people expect elves to be all goidy two shoes just like some Drow are goid some Elves are evil (or racist or whatever).

Big problem when you sanitize stuff the story usually suffers.

They haven't explored those evil elves to much outside gamebooks.

 

[Faolyn]

I think that's a particularly egregious comparison. I see those who have left as much closer to defectors from a brutal dictatorship, which instead of having just a ruling council, has an actual god like being that can turn a defector into a half spider monstrosity....

Most people in a dictatorship aren't evil, though. They're normal people trying to live life under horrible circumstances.

 

[Faolyn]

On the other side you have the dwarves, so good that when their brothers were kidnapped by aberrations from the depths, instead of saving them, they just forget about them, and when said brothers came back, those good dwarves AND their gods found that the lawful good answer was to boot them back into the hands of their oppressor because they lost faith in those gods. They also have a blood sport where you have to kill any dragon, good or bad, to win!

And apparently none of the dwarf spellcasters cast any divinations to find out where the duergar went, and Moradin never sent any visions about it either...