Describing race in a fantasy setting

If you're writing in a secondary world, then Asian etc is going to be really jarring. I've got around it by describing a person of X culture, and then later saying that another was of similar looks, or say 'obviously a mainlander' or whatever culture. Or someone comments/thinks that they are 'Too fair/brown/whatever' to be of culture Y.

You can slide in a bit of description without going overboard too. For instance, I've just edited a scene where an MC has one arm poisoned, making it go a funny colour. Someone else grabs him 'by the arm that was still brown and whole'.

Etc etc. A few subtle things can go very far indeed.

Also, you only really need to describe the major players, not everyone, which shoudl help keep it down a bit! If you've made it clear, for instance, that everyone in this city is dark skinned and haired, then a couple of subtle references afterwards is all you need, unless someone is obviously different in looks (in a way that a POV character might notice/think about).

As above, you can't reference anything real world if the real world is not in your universe to reference. So you can say an alien who visits earth has skin tones akin to an African American - or whatever - but you cannot say that your fantasy race from another universe has skin like an African American because neither Africa nor America exist in that world. You can, however, mention that someone has 'the jet black skin typical of someone from the lands south of Halparta' or 'the olive complexion of a Jarkatan native'.

If you think this is hard, try what I had to put up with. I created a sci fi universe where the concepts of 'mankind' or 'humanity' and even 'earth' were long lost in history (the usual exodus from a dying earth schtick). There were humans out there in space, among all the aliens, but they called themselves something else (in fact there were several 'human' groups, all of whom assumed they were different alien races from each other rather than slight variations on the same species...). This was especially difficult as you could not use terms like 'mankind' or 'humanity' in any context. Let's just say it caused some headaches...

I have a similar situation, with my science-fantasy secondary world. The major race is humanoid, but with some differences from human normal. One short story is set in a time period before true humans went extinct. The narrator makes note of exotic things like short-lived, round-eared people, and green plants that don't match the native blue-green vegetation. It was fun, making humans into an alien species.

I think Garth Nix does a good job of it in his books. He just describes how people look, and often times they have no real life comparison (for example, there's a race where the people are described as having brown skin but light blonde hair).

I'm writing a fantasy story right now that's set in a kind of alternate Renaissance England. My main character's father comes from faux England, but her mother is from (what in our world would be) the middle east. Since my world is very closely based on ours, it's a bit easier for me since I can make references to places and most people will get it.

In my current story I write from the point of view of one protagonist. The people she meets are described how she sees them. I make no "Eartly" references, but in my opinion I manage to make the reader see what the natives of the protagonist's homeland look like (they are dark-skinned) and how are the members of her own race (who, in general, have pale skin with a green undertone, green eyes and green or brownish hair).

The characters being described as black or white doesn't bother me in fantasy. "Asian" does, but one can make characters look like them and explain it in another way.

Promethean Dreams said:

The world I am creating was created with earth as its inspiration. The inhabitants of this world are human and multicultural in appearance. However these appearances have nothing to do with the cultures of the world. When describing human characters on different worlds do descriptions like, black, white, or Asian throw the reader off. Or is it appropiate as a short hand since decribing the skin tone and facial features of too many characters could get repetitive.

Click to expand...

1. Do not use food (Unless you jest or everyone is compared to food because you have a chef who can't get their head out of it) Avoid animals too, unless you mean to filter it through the POV of a character. If so--play your hand evenly.
2. If you describe the PoCs, describe the white characters--do not make white the default.
3. Asia is a HUGE region with 48 countries. There are White people in Asia. There is this country--it is called Russia and there are white people there. There are also the Ainu Tocharians, not to mention you have Arabs, Indians, etc in that group. I know, at least 3-4 wars in the US with ignorant young soldiers has really slanted the view of Asia as only one segment of Asia. Look up the ethnicities of China, for example to undo some of that thinking.

Europeans themselves also have the Romani which came from India by evidence and they aren't white-skinned either... so not everyone in Asia looks like a Mongolian (who, BTW, did a thorough rape of Eastern Europe). The continent is Eurasia... 'cause Europeans wanted to separate themselves from the "other", but look at the geology--it's a continent.
4. KISS it. Light brown, medium brown, dark brown, yellow undertones, white, etc.
5. Not everyone in the same country looks the same. Variation in every population. For example, using what you listed... Africa has the tallest ethnicity of people and the shortest. Ethiopians can be lighter-skinned or darker-skinned. There is a Japanese actor that is over 6 feet tall overthrowing backwards stereotypes about Japanese. One look does not fit all. Honor that.
6. Melanin count does not determine personality. Keep a variety of characters or at least slide a mention of them in.

Follow that and you should be in the safe zone.

Oh I should note that if you do want to include a certain feature to look at the anthropology about why that trait might be useful. Not everything has an answer, but the epicanthic eyefold was useful against snow glare, it is thought. (This does not show up in all of the Mongolian population, though... just noting that.)

Sometimes a very simple description can become exoticising just because you keep repeating it. If most people in an area have black hair, you don't need to keep saying it every time you mention hair. A couple of references go a long way.

...and if you compare anyone's skin to coffee and/or chocolate, and it's not done as an obvious joke (the coffee obsessive who describes the whole world via coffee), I'm going to stick sporks in you. Just to warn you.