racism against black elves (non drow)

[Hairfoot]

Terry Pratchet trumped this one a while back, when he wrote that racism would be largely irrelevant in a world where multiple species co-exist. Elves might notice the difference, but it's probable that everyone else would view it as no more aberrant than a nose-ring.

 

[Afrodyte]

At first I was thrilled with the idea of including elves who resemble humans of different ethnic groups. Now I am sort of just shaking my head at it being more of the same stuff.

While you could technically say that people would react to a dark-skinned elf the same way they react to Drow, I think that a bit of artistic license in this case would be warranted, if only to solidify the fact that the campaign takes place in a fantasy setting, not the real world with the same fears, attitudes, and ideology only with elves and magic thrown in. I'm not offended, just . . . disappointed.

Now, to answer your question, as others have said it all depends upon the way the elves themselves look. You mention that they have dark grey skin color, then it sorta reasons that people may react to them as some sort of Drow. However, if they had more natural shades of brown (see pics of people in equatorial Africa), I doubt they'd react to that with the same fear and revulsion they would towards the Drow. It sort of depends on what you want and who's playing at your table, if you get my drift.

This is just my own personal opinion, but moving away from the association of dark skin with evil is a good thing, and moving away from real-world predjudices that mirror that would be a good thing too.

 

[punkorange]

I must say that when I think of dark skinned elves being evil, it in no way reflects my views in the real world. The reasoning behind the elves in my campaign world being dark skinned is simply because it made more sense for the drow to have no need for skin pigment, so they are pale white with white eyes, like very deep sea fish. So I went the other way with surface elves, who spend long days under the sun, by giving them black skin. They are accepted just as any other elf is in my game world.

My concern is their journey through a portal into the forgotten realms, where the ignorant folk of the realms would assume a black skinned elf is evil.

 

[Sundragon2012]

On this tangent, anybody else REALLY annoyed when artists make drow brown skinned?

Yes, yes a thousand times yes.

I am part African American and the very thought that some artists see drow as brown skinned is stupid for a couple of reasons. For one thing, drow are black skinned, not racially black such as the humans of chult. It annoys me that the elves with my father's skin tone are nearly usiversally depraved. Obsidian black skin is alien but brown skin is tacky for a race defined by both its skin tone and its moral wickedness. One of my best friends, first noticed the cover of the Waterdeep setting book with the dark elven girl, the beholder and the the others. His skin tone was a little darker than hers and he laughed saying that he might not want to walk around in FR if drow have gone from black to brown skinned.

I believe that the Illithiri (those who became drow) always had dark skin, they were tropical and thus likely brown skinned, but the magic that turned them into drow gave them black skin if I remember my Realms lore. Lets face it, the pale elves of goodness and light and the pitch black elves of darkness is more than a little cliche anyway. Why didn't Gary just make them wear white and black hats. Its tradition I know and I like drow, but it seems silly.



Chris

 

[Sundragon2012]

In my campaign/setting the evil elves are bone white, with gleaming red eyes and feral yet beautiful features. They are bone white as an adaptation from millenia of living in the dark and not made dark to reflect the wickedness of their hearts which is soooo terribly similar to long ago justifications for human racism i.e. the Curse of Cain or some such nonsense. Their hair also tends to white or very pale blonde. They are essentially albino without the pink eyes. They are also light sensitive. Their whiteness is stark and eerie, like the pallor of a vampire, and distinctly different from their high elven cousins who tend to being fair (human caucasian colored) skin.

In my setting the desert elves are brown skinned and just as good and wonderful as their high elven kin.

Also, as a note, it may be important to note that giving the drow the brown skin of human Africans is about the same as making dwarves look like human dwarves. There is a massive difference between the two and I doubt that would be acceptable


Chris