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<blockquote data-quote="TheAlkaizer" data-source="post: 8320803" data-attributes="member: 7024893">Ok, I'll bite.I don't know all the details, but I do know that D&amp;D has inherited a ton of things from mythology and folklore, and from influences like pulp fantasy and Lord of the Rings. And like many authors at the time, their work was coated in their view of the world, which often had racist undertones. A very good friend of mine did his master's on racism in fantasy literature and we talked about it many times, it's interesting stuff.Personally, I have absolutely no issues with using Orcs as a tribalistic, brutal, savage society that are mostly evil. But I always had a little discomfort with the way D&amp;D portrayed Hobgoblins as eastern asians. To me, they're monsters. You can still reason with them, possibly ally them and all that in-game. But I most often use them as a force to be reckoned with. But I could absolutely see how the language used to describe them could be problematic, but that's something I'll leave for others to judge.But, and this is my main point, can we agree that we should absolutely care if the concept of an elf was based on the Picts more than a thousand years ago? The concept and idea of an elf today is so far removed, both in time and subject, to what it was back then that it should absolutely not matter. The parallels that people draw between some species in fantasy sometimes are tied to groups that are still minorities today and suffer from it, or come from a somewhat recent reinvention (orcs, elves, etc), but talking about picts seems like borderline insanity to me.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheAlkaizer, post: 8320803, member: 7024893"] Ok, I'll bite. I don't know all the details, but I do know that D&D has inherited a ton of things from mythology and folklore, and from influences like pulp fantasy and Lord of the Rings. And like many authors at the time, their work was coated in their view of the world, which often had racist undertones. A very good friend of mine did his master's on racism in fantasy literature and we talked about it many times, it's interesting stuff. Personally, I have absolutely no issues with using Orcs as a tribalistic, brutal, savage society that are mostly evil. But I always had a little discomfort with the way D&D portrayed Hobgoblins as eastern asians. To me, they're monsters. You can still reason with them, possibly ally them and all that in-game. But I most often use them as a force to be reckoned with. But I could absolutely see how the language used to describe them could be problematic, but that's something I'll leave for others to judge. But, and this is my main point, can we agree that we should absolutely care if the concept of an elf was based on the Picts more than a thousand years ago? The concept and idea of an elf today is so far removed, both in time and subject, to what it was back then that it should absolutely not matter. The parallels that people draw between some species in fantasy sometimes are tied to groups that are still minorities today and suffer from it, or come from a somewhat recent reinvention (orcs, elves, etc), but talking about picts seems like borderline insanity to me. [/QUOTE]

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