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<blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 8507644" data-attributes="member: 6879661">Surely in the case of genies, they are travelling from another plane. So while Eberron may not have a middle-eastern analogue, the elemental planes clearly do… it’s where the genies come from.<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">They do exist in context - travelers from another land</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">They aren’t depicted offensively</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">They fit with the established legend of genies - a legend exported around the world and not owned by any single group.</li>
</ul>Make sure your genies are 3 dimensional. Make sure they are interesting and don’t make them offensive. Do that, and I think for any reasonable person you have met the bar of standards.Now if you have a middle eastern player in your group who wants to have a more detailed exploration of the myths and legends then you may want to do more research. I don’t think people should go out of their way though - provided the ‘is it offensive’ test is passed.We can’t be setting unreasonable standards… having middle eastern analogues just so you can include a genie - but you never explore that area with your PCs (it’s there for the sake of it) is really just tokenism.Cultural fusion per se is not a problem. Not when it comes to architectural techniques, shared food, learning other languages, tourism etc. Only when a culture is being taken advantage of is appropriate a problem. I don’t believe using a cultures mythology causes any harm… as opposed to colonialists stealing the Benin Bronzes for their national museums, or multi-million dollar sports teams taking the people whose land they stole as mascots.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheSword, post: 8507644, member: 6879661"] Surely in the case of genies, they are travelling from another plane. So while Eberron may not have a middle-eastern analogue, the elemental planes clearly do… it’s where the genies come from. [LIST] [*]They do exist in context - travelers from another land [*]They aren’t depicted offensively [*]They fit with the established legend of genies - a legend exported around the world and not owned by any single group. [/LIST] Make sure your genies are 3 dimensional. Make sure they are interesting and don’t make them offensive. Do that, and I think for any reasonable person you have met the bar of standards. Now if you have a middle eastern player in your group who wants to have a more detailed exploration of the myths and legends then you may want to do more research. I don’t think people should go out of their way though - provided the ‘is it offensive’ test is passed. We can’t be setting unreasonable standards… having middle eastern analogues just so you can include a genie - but you never explore that area with your PCs (it’s there for the sake of it) is really just tokenism. Cultural fusion per se is not a problem. Not when it comes to architectural techniques, shared food, learning other languages, tourism etc. Only when a culture is being taken advantage of is appropriate a problem. I don’t believe using a cultures mythology causes any harm… as opposed to colonialists stealing the Benin Bronzes for their national museums, or multi-million dollar sports teams taking the people whose land they stole as mascots. [/QUOTE]

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