"Racism" and "Speciesism" (?)

[AGOTFANBOI]

Playing a dwarf atm, and I must say, after encountering this xenianisim? Several times in game, not being able to quest because of it, being excluded from DM events due to it, and not being able to purchase goods again due to it, IT %$#^&*@! ROCKS!  Really fresh approach to the whole racist thing, instantly gives me something to work against, and strive to foil if I so choose.  May the Shining Hammer shine on right up to the point it is sundered to a million pieces under dwarven boot!  As a  victim of racism here in our fine game world, I give it a "thumbs up"!

[Thou tun'st this World]

This thread has convinced me to read more about the Order (ORDER LOL) of the Shining Hammer.  It's something to do while I wait for this darn hunk of iron to find its way slowly home.

Here, good proselyte, is all of it: The Illuminated Meditations of Pansophia Theochalybis: A Cyclopaedia of Works by the Shining Hammer Society.

[Ebok]

There are two main points to this that I would like to address.
1. What is Race? (yes howland address this too)
[INDENT]Okay, I think there is a general confusion on this point. Race is a misnomer. What we are talking about are different Species. Obviously genetics has been replaced by any number of things within Faerun but the concept still applies. There is a difference between elves and humans and goblins: like the difference between gray wolves and golden retrievers and Scorpions. It is not wrong to realize that a Dwarf is a Dwarf is a Dwarf, which inherently and impossibly different then a Human.

If you look over the setting information of the 3e faerun, you will find that very very few cities have diversity within the races. They are primarily one species, with a few stragglers of other races tagged on as a major minority. There are exceptions, but those are rare, and they do not change the fact that those species clash against each other. These clashes are what add the culture, its not bigotry.

Lets look at some monsters since they are far easier to separate from human norms. You will not see Gnolls, Orcs, and Goblins charging forward at you working together unless something is forcing them to. They all speak the same types of language, they all walk on two legs and use weapons and tools. They hunt the same food and predate the same human roads. Left alone they will attack each others until a dominance is found and the weaker species others are pushed into other territories or wiped out entirely.

Dwarvan Kingdoms and Dwarvan Gods. Human Kingdoms and Human Gods. etc etc. The humans of Netheril learned magic from the elves, and then used it to eradicate them from the landscape. You might say that was a long time ago, or that it was just those humans, not all humans. Except then, how did human claim most of the lands they have today? They took them. Species are in conflict with each other, this is the normal. Yes they can cooperate, but it is far from the norm.

Dwarves and elves have been fighting longer then humans have been walking the map. There are very cool cultural creations from this. Dwarves are greedy short stock hairy things that seek and labor day upon day into the stone for shiney metals and tools of war. It was said that during the hayday of their empire they would have annual dragon hunts, where a clan would find a lair and slay everything within, looting the place dry.

Dragons speak common. Dwarves speak common. They kill each other over resources and power. Like any species in the real world, when you set two races in the same area and they both rely on the same resources, one of those races will die off. Everyone has their nitch. If you want racism in the Realms, then look at the Humans: Damaran, Mulani, Chondanthon, Bedine, etc. Those are all humans with ingrained racial differences.

[/INDENT]2. What is the difference between random hate and learned behavior?
[INDENT]Thou tun'st this World is spot on when it talks about how your  characters belief structure should be accumulated from events or  society.

I am not going through lore to give you precise actualities, so excusing the details please look at the general point behind the examples.

I would say druid in their wisdom could look back upon the workings of  the world, and see that... where humans go, the forests die, the fey  are hunted into memory, the roads are carves through landscape, and artificial laws and war  are then set and fought on these territories without a care for what was here before. Humans are never in  balance, the druids are mandated to enforce this balance, so they must  fight for the wild. There doesn't always need to be a city and the wild in harmony, sometimes you just got to kick them out or kill them. Druids can look upon elves and see them as long time  allies and respectful races. They might then turn and look on dwarves  and see how their mining pollutes rivers and scars mountains... That they motivated by material and meaningless wealth in a constant engine of stone and metal. I would say that dwarves can be as much hated as orcs.

This stands true for everything, and the more you narrow your approach the more you can find what might make your PC tick. Being hateful to be hateful is the shorthand of real belief. The first gives immediate conflict but the second moves others to act as well.
[/INDENT]

[Wafflecone]

It's important to remember of course that Halflings are better then all the other races of course because they incorporate a balanced reverence for nature and civilization along with a very lawful but freedom loving society, and they alone amongst the races (excluding the gnomes) have not have a failed destroyed empire.
 
Frankly, everyone will be better off when the longshanks realize they aren't the future anymore and accept their 3 foot overlords.

Also less halflings worshiping human gods.
 
TO BE SERIOUS NAO THOUGH, yes, racism does make sense, though it's hard for us to simply remove decades of enlightenment from our behavior and thinking process. I think it's a wonderful thing that 'racism bad' is so ingrained in our mentality now that we have difficulty even PRETENDING it isn't. Ofc we could adjust this for roleplay and it makes for an interesting experiance.
 
Speaking from experiance, 'soft racism' is easy to get away with and adds alot of flavor to characters. For example, Sigrun and Drem talking shit about humans capacity to ruin -everything- amongst one another, and telling the poor simple humans 'they just don't understand' what it's like to have gods that really love and look out for them like Yondalla's children. Does this mean they HATE humans? No, they just acknowledge how -clearly- inferior the poor half mad humans are and wonder if the world might not be better off without them.
 
Fastforeward 100 years, deathcamps.

[AClockworkMelon]

Frankly, everyone will be better off when the longshanks realize ...

I'm glad I started using this: It's spreading! New derisive term for non-hin/dwarf/gnome ftw!

But seriously, racism is good! My only concern is that there isn't enough of it!

[Seanzie]

I ... have such strong feelings about racism that I don't like this.. :( I just feel sick to my stomach when I see racism in EFU as much as I do in RL. I know that its a game, but in a non roleplay game if someone is Racist, it is them who is racist, but in here its the character who is, hopefully not them. I just tend to make my characters not hate other races. I hope the Team and Players don't think any worse of me for that.

[O Fortuna]

It's important to remember that the "racism" present in EFU is not at all parallel to real life racism. It just isn't the same thing, nor is it even similar.

[Seanzie]

Its not the things they say, or who they say them to, its the idea of racism and how it effects people that gets at me. Even if its a game, I cried during Toy Story 3, and its toys.

[Wafflecone]

Racism is one of those RL things that -can- upset people, so above all it's important to have class.

[Big Orc Man]

We don't like racism in real life because all races of people have the same inherent value in civilized society.

That's not the case in Forgotten Realms, where the different "races" may as well be different species altogether.

They really are different, with differing predispositions and abilities.

[Cluckyx]

Its not the things they say, or who they say them to, its the idea of racism and how it effects people that gets at me. Even if its a game, I cried during Toy Story 3, and its toys.

You're concered about racism in game as you see reflections of real life racism? It must really upset you when they.. You know... Start stabbing eachother to death with swords.

[Drakill Tannan]

Druids are probably the most isolationist groups of people in Faerun.They are suspicious of every non-druid, never to talk about druidic secrets to them. They could certainly despise / fear people from civilization, in fact, it's very easy to picture...

That's so... undruidish. But who am i to argue? Sounds like fun.

[AntiDruid]

Down with racist scum! Elves, dwarves, humans and hin are all equal (but we prefer not to talk about the gnomes)!



Also, we prefer the term "Undead-American."

Ahem... But seriously, IG racism is great. A rivalry between elves and dwarves, hatred between dwarves and orcs (even half-orcs), elves hunting drow and vice versa, wanton slaughter of kobolds and goblins by gnomes and halflings... Many races even get racial feats to deal with their race's enemies. There is a line, though, and that line is where people start bringing in RL racism into RP, like not liking people based on the color of their skin.

[Seanzie]

You're concered about racism in game as you see reflections of real life racism? It must really upset you when they.. You know... Start stabbing eachother to death with swords.

I'm not saying I'm a humanitarian or anything, I just don't appreciate racism in any shape or form. :\ its just how I am.

[AClockworkMelon]

I'm not saying I'm a humanitarian or anything, I just don't appreciate racism in any shape or form. :\ its just how I am.

Again: You hate racism but murder you don't seem to have a problem with.