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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 8506634" data-attributes="member: 7635">I think you are looking at this from the wrong direction.Eberron wanted to do something different with fiends and celestials in 3.5 rather than use the classic Demon/Devil/Blood War model that existed in almost every D&D product at that time. As such, they opted to use Native Outsiders (a strange contradictory subgroup of monsters, see also living construct) of which there were only two in the 3.5 MM: Coutals, and Raksasha. So, they tried to make of them important to Eberron's story tying the raksasha's to imprisoned fiends below the earth and the couatls to the Silver Flame. That is really the only reason they got prominent placement in Eberron. Are the Raksasha's of Eberron Asian-coded? A little. Their titles are, and some of their dress style is, but it doesn't really reflect the culture the raksasha actually have. (To wit: the 3.5 Eberron book also has a<a href="http://klubbsaga2015.wdfiles.com/local--files/goblinoid/Goblinoids%20-%20Hobgoblin%2001a.png" target="_blank"> hobgoblin</a> in full samurai armor and an <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/eberron/images/d/d8/Orc.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/400?cb=20120204005752" target="_blank">orc</a> in conical hat standing in a rice field, and neither orcs nor goblins in Eberron are Asian analogs). The Carrion tribes are your archetypal barbarians who also worship fiends, and the only <a href="https://media.miniaturemarket.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/d/ddab46.jpg" target="_blank">art</a> around them is in nowhere India-inspired. They look like classic barbarians closer to the Uthgardt than anything Indian. Of course, Eberron is one of the few settings that lacks classic "fantasy X" areas to represent Africa, Asian, the Middle East, etc. Eberron does have people of color, but they are so integrated that they lack unique cultures and instead are members of the culture of the nation they were born into. (Jaela Daran, the leader of the Church of the Silver Flame and Thrane, is canonically black). The problem here is we're at a catch-22. Eberron lacks an Asia analog area, so does that mean it cannot use Asian-inspired elements in its dress or art? Are classically Asian monsters not applicable? Can Raksasha's or genies exist but without the cultural garb of their ancestry (I just imagined a bunch of raksasha's wearing polos and khakis...) Is the same true of the overtly Norse-inspired dress of frost giants or the Grecco-inspired clothing of the medusa? And if so, how do you promote diversity in your art if doing so will be appropriation of the style?</blockquote>

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