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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Turjan" data-source="post: 1307182" data-attributes="member: 3477">As much as I see your problem from your personal point of view, I don't see an easy solution for this, and I don't think that this would be desirable, either. For an European like me, the American strife for PC'ness often borders on the edge of ridicule. Elves and orcs are taken from the heritage of European myth, somewhat converted by the pseudomyths from Tolkien. They are wondrous creatures, creatures of magic (at least elves <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) and something special. Orcs (according to Tolkien some twisted elves, so no resemblance to human races here <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) represent the element of dark, dark as in "beneath the earth, where the horrors dwell", whereas elves represent the element of light, mostly good, though fickle and not to be trusted. Therefore, these are icons of European (=white) fantasy, and there is not much that can be done about it. They are not derived from tales of the ancestors of African Americans, no matter how hard you try.I think, the problems came in, when first Tolkien and then D&D made elves and orcs much more humanlike than they were before. This means, no wondrous creatures anymore, and this leads to questions like those posed by you. Giving in to your request and making all of the D&D races within themselves resembling a mirror of the current U.S.American society means to me that D&D loses lots of its fantasy appeal. This leaves us with elves as humans - be it African Americans, Caucasians or whatever - with pointy ears. How incredibly bland!I only see two solutions to your problem:1) Create your own setting. All D&D races can have whatever colour and cultural background you want. Changing the flavour of those races by adding other cultural traits can be a lot of fun.2) Play a different game. Even other d20 games come into my mind, like Arcana Unearthed. Races like bipedal dogs and cats are the hallmark of PC'ness. Although my cat might think different about that <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.</blockquote>

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