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> But if you use human ethnicities as the basis for your games monsters… yeah, that’s a real problem.

But they don't? The concept of an orc (big, strong and dumb) does not depend on the existence of any real races.




In a private letter, Tolkien described orcs as

“squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.”

Again, not saying we have to “cancel” Tolkien, but we should be aware of the issues and do better in future.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean%E2%80%93Nogai_slave_ra...

Same register as the vastly more mediatized Atlantic slave trade. This raises a fundamental question: Is it possible to mend centuries of abject & violent abuse across racial lines, where the most common interaction with members of the other racial group was through a slaver's whip. Not sure that 'do better' scolding, especially if inconsistently applied, is sufficient.


You picked the one fictional species that does have a questionable origin.




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