People Of Color in Fantasy

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CalloftheNir

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Hello! I'm writing a high-fantasy story. I hate the fact that high-fantasy gets whitewashed so often, so I'm trying to make my world as diverse as possible. I'm posting descriptions of the peoples here to make sure that I don't inadvertently put in an offensive stereotype. (I did my research, but I still want to be certain)

There is a people who live in the south. Their kingdom is called Sulifar, and the people call themselves Thyna. They have extremely dark skin to protect from the increased sunlight (It's a barren plains region with a high temperature). Their society is split through the middle. In the south (of Sulifar) people live mostly in cities around a mountain range that is home to Drakes, Wyverns, and Dragons. Since the area is infused with the magic of said creatures some Thyna are born with dragon-like eyes and telepathic ability. The Drakes, Wyverns, and Dragons are sentient and have human-level intelligence, so these people often learn magic (normally healing) from the Wyrms (Umbrella term for all the above creatures). These "Dragon-kin" go on to serve as leaders, generals, healers, etc. and hold respected places in society. In the north however, Wyrms are kept as pets and work animals. (their magic is suppressed). Since Wyrms are respected in the South (And are a big part of life) the two sides went to war (There were also disagreements about government and representation) The north has many sprawling, self-sufficient city-states, whereas the south has a network of small cities that trade.

The Elves (Heilstor and Myrnen) have lighter brown, warmer skin. There are two elven kingdoms, Teynar and Ga Yavern. Teynar is nearly at war with the northern humans (Norfren) and the Ga Yavern is extremely isolated and shrouded in legend. In Teynar the elves use a lot of illusion magic and tend to be more violent than elves are generally held to be. Their king rules in a totalitarian manner and banishings are common. There is some sort of black magic at play.

Ga Yavern was once a forest cloaked in golden leaves. Now, the leaves never change from their winter-silver and no elves are ever seen. Within the forest, strange things occur. Whenever someone goes inside, they see strange hallucinations and rarely make it out. The elves (Myrnen) are presumed extinct (not really) They actually live on in small, close-knit family communities. They have high telepathic ability and have grown resistant to the hallucinogenic magic. They communicate almost entirely in images through their minds. The elves of the forest attempted to cast an extremely powerful spell to ward the forest of the incoming darkness (long story), but it backfired and that's how it ended up the way it is.

Other than that there are the Norfren, a human race of pale-skinned people who live in the snowy northern kingdom of Hachlin. Also, there are two anthropomorphic races (An-mar and Dri'ja) with fur relating to the animal they portray. And the Irisad, who live behind a massive wall in a nation cursed to complete darkness. Their skin is bordering on albino, they are naturally blind, and have extreme sensitivity to sunlight.

If anything was unclear I apologize and am happy to clarify. Thank you for your help!
 

Kitty27

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Hello! I'm writing a high-fantasy story. I hate the fact that high-fantasy gets whitewashed so often, so I'm trying to make my world as diverse as possible. I'm posting descriptions of the peoples here to make sure that I don't inadvertently put in an offensive stereotype. (I did my research, but I still want to be certain)

There is a people who live in the south. Their kingdom is called Sulifar, and the people call themselves Thyna. They have extremely dark skin to protect from the increased sunlight (It's a barren plains region with a high temperature). Their society is split through the middle. In the south (of Sulifar) people live mostly in cities around a mountain range that is home to Drakes, Wyverns, and Dragons. Since the area is infused with the magic of said creatures some Thyna are born with dragon-like eyes and telepathic ability. The Drakes, Wyverns, and Dragons are sentient and have human-level intelligence, so these people often learn magic (normally healing) from the Wyrms (Umbrella term for all the above creatures). These "Dragon-kin" go on to serve as leaders, generals, healers, etc. and hold respected places in society. In the north however, Wyrms are kept as pets and work animals. (their magic is suppressed). Since Wyrms are respected in the South (And are a big part of life) the two sides went to war (There were also disagreements about government and representation) The north has many sprawling, self-sufficient city-states, whereas the south has a network of small cities that trade.

The Elves (Heilstor and Myrnen) have lighter brown, warmer skin. There are two elven kingdoms, Teynar and Ga Yavern. Teynar is nearly at war with the northern humans (Norfren) and the Ga Yavern is extremely isolated and shrouded in legend. In Teynar the elves use a lot of illusion magic and tend to be more violent than elves are generally held to be. Their king rules in a totalitarian manner and banishings are common. There is some sort of black magic at play.

Ga Yavern was once a forest cloaked in golden leaves. Now, the leaves never change from their winter-silver and no elves are ever seen. Within the forest, strange things occur. Whenever someone goes inside, they see strange hallucinations and rarely make it out. The elves (Myrnen) are presumed extinct (not really) They actually live on in small, close-knit family communities. They have high telepathic ability and have grown resistant to the hallucinogenic magic. They communicate almost entirely in images through their minds. The elves of the forest attempted to cast an extremely powerful spell to ward the forest of the incoming darkness (long story), but it backfired and that's how it ended up the way it is.

Other than that there are the Norfren, a human race of pale-skinned people who live in the snowy northern kingdom of Hachlin. Also, there are two anthropomorphic races (An-mar and Dri'ja) with fur relating to the animal they portray. And the Irisad, who live behind a massive wall in a nation cursed to complete darkness. Their skin is bordering on albino, they are naturally blind, and have extreme sensitivity to sunlight.

If anything was unclear I apologize and am happy to clarify. Thank you for your help!

First, I like it! You had me from the beginning.
Second, it's good to see a writer asking this. It's really good!

I can't really see anything wrong. Some people will find anything to pick at, though. That's a fact. So keep writing and if you feel anything is problematic, we're always here to offer input.
 
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emmajmcwill

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It looks good to me!! My issue is when PoC get cast only as the villains or as "rebels" in fantasy stories, so it looks like you are neatly avoiding that, and I like that you are explicitly stating your Elves to be PoC--too often they are the ones to be described as being "fair" as part of their species in high fantasy.
 
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