How come there are no different ethnicities of fantasy races?

[Hectix777]

Its incredibly safe to say that everyone here has played a fantasy game at least once in there life that had multiple races, like dwarves, orcs, elves, etc. As anyone knows humans come in more than one color and facial variety, but in fantasy games we're always white and have english accents. Sometimes there is a character that does have darker features, but they're typically human never an orc or dwarf. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this in fantasy settings and also if they find this a bit off?

 

[MammothBlade]

Ladiez, may I introduce you to the many playable clans of vampire in The World of Darkness...

Or the 3+ elven races in The Elder Scrolls...

 

[omegaweopon]

Elf. High Elf. Wood Elf. Drow.

In almost every fantasy setting you will encounter, there are various ethnicities of the other races. You often just have to dig deep into the backstory, and heed what you read.

Orcs are often separated by tribes and bloodlines, each with their own various differences. Some are green, some are black, some are brown. They won't outwardly call each other any sort of racial thing, because they are all just plain orcs.

Believe me. There are subraces, all over the fantasy world.

 

[gazumped]

I dunno, there are some races which have different types/ethnicities. You've got dark elves (drow) for example... although they're usually evil, which doesn't exactly make them the poster boys for fantastical diversity. In the Elder Scrolls they divide them into wood elves and high elves, although they're both white iirc I guess the idea is that they're still different ethnicities. You get goblins and hobgoblins (the difference between green and orange skin rather than white or black). I guess it really depends on the fantasy setting/lore surrounding it, but you're right, there are a hella lotta white faces in fantasy.

I mean, obviously Tolkien can get away with it in Lord of the Rings 'cause England wasn't exactly diverse in the 1930s, also some might argue that as fantasy is often set in Northern-esque climates there wouldn't BE darker skinned folk, but I think in this day and age creators should really put the effort in to not make non-white consumers think it's just a white folk's media.

*Got ninja'd on the elf stuff TWICE

 

[Dr. Cakey]

While as has been noted there are actually a number of "sub-races" and such, there's also the important fact that different "races" are essentially a politically correct (read: not racist) substitution for different ethnicities.

 

[DoPo]

Ladiez, may I introduce you to the many playable clans of vampire in The World of Darkness...

Good call, we can expand that to werewolves, magicians, and all other manner of monstrosities that stalk the night.

Also, the Elder Scrolls games gave different ethnicities of the races. Though not in the same game - the Argonians are different between Morrowind/Oblivion and the Khajiit come in variety of shapes and sizes. Literally. Even the vampires are different between regions with Vvardenfell having three different...well, subtypes of the "Morrowind vampire" variety.

But as for why it's actually rare - it's because the authors go for broad strokes - here are the elves, here are the dwarves, here are the orcs. If they are feeling generous, there are probably two or three varieties of elves/dwarves but that doesn't matter much, as they are still considered pretty much different races, not just "gypsy elves" or something. It also shows up in sci-fi - planets are usually monolithic in their government, religion, culture and so on. I suppose adding extra details like aliens from one side of the planet being more green, others less green and how the society treats each is too much of a hassle. It's been bothering me a lot, actually, any time I watch/play/read some space opera-ish thing I feel incredibly bored from each alien being a full representation of all aliens from its species.

 

[80sboy]

Well, you have noticed that most fantasies today take place in a medieval version of England...that's why!

Personally, I can't wait for game designers and film makers to move away from that setting and stop ripping off JRR Toilkens or Warhammer. What ever happened to fantasy's being otherworldly and not being restricted to having the same old orcs, dwarves, and elves? Or, what ever happened to fantasies from other cultures like Middle Eastern ones like Sinbad the...oh wait!

I know what happened!

-_-

 

[shrekfan246]

I've noticed it for dwarves, and aliens in sci-fi are often like that, but it's been a while since I saw a fantasy game that encompassed an entire world or something and didn't have variety in features. Even beyond simple cosmetics, a lot of universes have completely separate 'races' of elves, at the very least.

But then, maybe it's because my two biggest exposures to fantasy universes have been The Lord of the Rings (Eldar/Avari Elves [Among others], Goblins/Orcs/Uruk-hai, Trolls, various Hobbits outside of the Shire) and Warcraft (Draenei/Man'ari Eredar, Fel/Horde Orcs, Night/Blood Elves).

 

[madwarper]

But then, maybe it's because my two biggest exposures to fantasy universes have been The Lord of the Rings (Eldar/Avari Elves [Among others],

But, even of tribes of Elves in LotR, there are the Calaquendi and the Moriquendi, those who have and have not lived in Aman under the light of the great trees. And, the latter being considered inferior to the former.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Elves in Tolkien's Middle Earth have a LOT of races, but they're mostly discussed in The Silmarillion. Checking on Robert Foster's Guide to Middle Earth, I see Elves initially divided between the Eldar (those who accepted the Valar's calling) and the Avari (those who refused). The Eldar were divided between the Vanyar, who were blonde, chill and the gods' favorites; the Noldor, who were remarkable smiths and had "dark hair and grey eyes"; and the Teleri, who dwelled by the sea and were allegedly the better singers. A large chunk of Teleri that didn't finish the journey home became Umanyar, who in turn split between Nandor, who loved the woods and weren't very good at warfare; the Laiquendi, who were "excellent rangers" and led a covert life; and the Sindar, who weren't as powerful as the Calaquendi nor as good craftsmen as the Noldor, but were musically gifted and had beautiful singing voices... etc, etc, etc. And I'm not even counting Orcs and their many branching brethren, who are directly descended from Elves.

Anyway, most of these "elvish families" had a distinctive hair color, skin tone and whatever makes up an ethnicity. But I wouldn't know about other literary works, I'm solely versed on Tolkien's.

 

[DANEgerous]

I think the answer is in the question you see we say fantasy races and not fantasy ethnic groups. We go "oh look that is a human his race (and thus ethnicity) is also human and so each human gets at most a slightly different personality but not the way we tend to inappropriately think of race being we see various skin pigment as race despite not only are those not races as we are all one race but they are not even ethnic groups BECAUSE THERE ARE WHITE PEOPLE IN AFRICA AN SUPER POLITICALLY CORRECT PEOPLE WAN TO CALL ALL BLACK AFRICAN AMERICAN EVEN IF THEY LIVE AND HAVE LIVE IN FRANCE FOR GENERATIONS ANS THUS ARE NOT AFRICAN NOR AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah that was a massive rant

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Ethnicity in Fantasy settings is often sidestepped by just making the alternate color person a different "Race". See Elder Scrolls and its human races, White Nords, Olive Imperials, Black Redguards, and English Bretons.

 

[BeeGeenie]

I seem to remember seeing a token black Dwarf somewhere... or maybe I'm thinking of a token black guy in "Willow"