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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8860245" data-attributes="member: 58172">My commentary on the popular terms to replace race:Seven candidates rate 20% approval or higher:54.8% Ancestry32.9% Species29.0% Lineage25.8% Heritage22.6% Kin20.6% Origin20.0% FolkAll seven terms have official 5e usage already. But there is support to reuse them as a technical term to replace Race. Each has a different meaning, but perhaps, can work in its own way.Ancestry occurs in 5e technical jargon, such as Fey Ancestry and Draconic Ancestry, in the core book, Players Handbook. It vaguely characterizes traits that derive from distant ancestors, such as the elves who inhabit the Fey plane before entering the Material plane, or such as the diverse species of Dragon that continue to determine the expression of Dragonborn traits. Ancestry is also the official term for Pathfinder to replace Race, but support extends to other D&D players as well. In the past, the top two contenders to replace Race have been Ancestry and Species, but Ancestry seems to benefit from a recent upsurge in approval. Its ability to achieve a majority, even if a narrow one, is remarkable. Ancestry is a term that can double either for an entire species (compare descendants of Adam, descendants of Búri, descendants of Dvalinn, descendants of Ýmir, etcetera) or for an inheritable trait within a species (compare Draconic Ancestry). By focusing on heredity only, the term Ancestry seems able to escape the cultural assumptions that come with the personal identity of a "race". Ancestry also has the benefit of emphasizing multiple ancestors, each with ones own inheritable traits.While the term Species is novel, most D&D players mean "species" when they say Race. For example, the D&D Human Race is understood to mean the species Homo sapiens. So when Race becomes unavailable, its meaning Species still persists. The main objection to the term Species is its modern scientific connotation, sometimes in conflict with a pseudomedieval setting. Even so, players acknowledge its renaissance usage, even its medieval and ancient roots. A notable objection to Species calls attention to how the proposed D&D Species normally admix to produce offspring, thus complicating or invalidating the use of the scientific term "species". Despite objections, there seems a feeling that players can probably "get used to it" as a gaming jargon to communicate a general concept.Lineage is an official 5e term that replaces Race. It appears in the supplemental book Tashas Cauldron of Everything in the context of the Custom Lineage. Its current usage awkwardly means any new Race that isnt one of the official Races. A future product can easily reuse the technical jargon Lineage instead of Race. Lineage has the benefit of including the transmission of traits without biological inheritance, such as a parent Warforged constructing an offspring Warforged, or a parent Vampire siring an offspring Vampire. Even if a character descends from multiple Lineages, the singular Lineage only calls attention to one of them. This exclusion might make sense in the context of character creation rules where a character who descends from multiple Lineages only chooses one of them to determine the gaming mechanics of the character.I am jumping ahead to mention Kin. Kin too is an official technical term that replaces Race. Albeit, it is undefined, mentioned in passing, and obscure. In Tashas, the Custom Lineage mentions that fellow members of the Lineage are called a Kin. In reallife, "kin" means ones extended family. In some contexts, it includes a wider kinship system that extends to an entire tribal nation or even multiple tribes, all understood as ones legal next-of-kin. Kin means family while including family relations by marriage, adoption, and other nonbiological family members. D&D can use the term Kin to technically mean inherited traits without implying a culture, but its assumption of cultural characteristics requires caution for the same reason that the term Race requires caution. Even so, the term Kin enjoys connotations of being both endearing and archaic, with tight-knit bonds, and medieval usage. Kin can also function secondarily to mean the members of a "kind", such as the "kin of Elves", which can serve toward a D&D approximation for Species.The next terms, Heritage, Origin, and Folk mainly refer to the culture of an ethnicity but might also include biologically inherited characteristics as well. To emphasize a culture is a culture, can help avoid the problematic where Race tends to bioessentialize cultural stereotypes.Heritage is official 5e jargon. In the supplemental book Fizbans Treasury of Dragons, it describes different Species of Dragonborn, each transmitting traits from a different Species of Dragon: Chromatic Dragonborn, Gem Dragonborn, or Metallic Dragonborn. The taxonomy of Dragon is complex, including magical engineering, and Heritage vaguely alludes to such complexity. <a href="https://a5e.tools/rules/elf" target="_blank">Heritage</a> is an official term for the indy 5e publisher, Level Up Advanced 5th Edition, here at ENWorld. It alludes to both nature and nurture, but separately. In the character creation process, the Heritage "Traits" represent the heredity. Meanwhile, the Heritage associates a number of possible "Cultures" that relate to it. For example, a Dwarf might grow up in the High Elf Culture, thus be part of the elven Heritage even when lacking the biological elven Traits. The inclusion of diverse Cultures helps avoid the reductionism of bioessentializing cultural stereotypes. In reallife, I use the term "heritage" often enough, such as when referring to Norse heritage, Jewish heritage, African American heritage, and so on. It connotes an ethnic identity that derives from a biological progeny but emphasizes the transmission of its cultural identity to the future offspring, and includes outsiders who marry into it or otherwise join its cultural identity to become insiders of it. Heritage is cultural and requires effort, and if taken for granted can diminish and vanish among future generations.Origin is an official 5e term, such as Sorcerous Origin in the Players Handbook. It identifies an inheritable trait. The trait can be a Bloodline that partially transmits some other species, or alternatively originates in some novel event, such as a pact with a Dragon or a Fey, or some other exposure to a magical energy. But from then on, the characteristic can transmit to future offspring. In the One D&D playtest UAs, Origin is a jargon that means the decision points during the character creation process, until the choice of Class. Character Origin includes: the assignment of Abilities, the selection of Species, and the cultural Background and Feat. These are the preludes to ones decision to become a member of a Class. The term origin can reuse more narrowly to replace Race. In reallife, "origins" (often plural) refers to the persistent influences from ones parentage or ethnicity. Altho narrower than "race", similar generalizations might make this sense of "origins" problematic. One D&D uses Origin for separate choices of Abilities, Species and cultural Background, to help avoid unfortunate generalization.Folk exists in D&D 5e in terms such as Merfolk and Lizardfolk. In these contexts, the one-syllable term Folk replaces "maid" and "man", and means a "person". Folk is gender-neutral to include any person regardless of male, female, both, or neither, as well as of any age. The term connotes endearment and quaintness, such as in the expression, "How are you folks doing?" Alternatively, it can refer to a Kin, the members of ones family. Also in the widest sense, Folk can mean the citizenry, especially in the context of the citizens of a self-governing nation. This widest meaning relates terms like "folk music" referring to the expression of a traditional ethnic culture. It emphasizes the people of a culture, as opposed to a state governmental decree. It applies in "folk lore" to concepts such as the "fairy folk". Sadly the term "folk" has currency in reallife racist discourse, misconstrued to mean racial purity and supremacism. Perhaps for One D&D, the term Folk in the sense of any person might be most useful.In sum, each of these popular terms to replace Race already enjoys official usage in D&D 5e. The preference for these terms suggests a conservative impulse − at least here at ENWorld − to maintain a jargon that is already familiar within the D&D traditions.</blockquote>

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