Deconstructing Fantasy Races

I've just had this idea of taking some of the things associated with 'common' fantasy races (like dwarves or elves) and deconstructing or a least justifying them.

For example, with dwarves you could have them using slavery for menial tasks due to their declining population, becoming pale and almost blind due to spending so much time underground. They also have a resistance to poison gases due to spending so much time in cramped spaces with burning forges, and a combination of their typical anti socialness, alcoholism, slavery and creepy appearances mean their only allies are the humans and/or hobbits that feed their culture wide addiction to ale. Despite their quality many people refuse to use dwarf-made items on principle due to strained relations, and finally many dwarfs are extremely unhappy after making something due to needing to go sober for the duration of its forging.

Any other thoughts, suggestions or changes on this. Thanks

That sounds like pretty typical fare for a Darker and Edgier interpretation, to be honest. Some of the details sound pretty original, though; I like the idea of sort of combining dwarves with morlocks, as well as justifying that the reason other races dislike them (particularly elves, I assume by your description) is because they are, basically, the Token Evil Teammate of the Five Races.

I'm not sure what you mean by deconstructing a race; normally that's a thing you do to an ideology, or an expectation of the world...? (Searching it carefully to identify points of internal conflict and then playing out how they are dealt with in the absence of typical genre tropes? Sounds like Low Fantasy... not that that's in any way a bad thing, just a thing already exists in Fantasy) And justifying a race is basically what every fantasy writer does as part of worldbuilding.

If you just mean worldbuilding, though, I generally like what you've done so far. :)

What have you planned for elves? You could deconstruct their "connection to nature" to mean that they think everything is justified as long as it occures in nature. Including cannibalism, rape or murder. Thus they become the most "savage" of all the races.

Or that elves are isolationists because either they view themselves as so high and mighty they don't want anything to do with the other races, or the other races are just so offput seeing them as stuck up know it alls.

huh. deconstruction topics seem to be all the rage these days.

honestly i think people are better off focusing on adding interesting details to the common races (if they arent going to make their own- and frankly theres nothing inherently wrong with using the common races) rather than actively trying to deconstruct them and im not quite sure why its so popular to try.

could someone try explaining the appeal to me?

You're basically describing Dwarf Fortress dorfs .

@Antiteilchen: For deconstructed classic-fantasy elves, look no further than the Elder Scrolls series. Bosmer are cannibals with a strong hint of The Fair Folk, because that's what you get when you truly become close to nature. Altmer are a super-magical, long-lived race with an ancient and refined culture...who also tend to be horribly xenophobic arrogant assholes because that's the kind of person such a shut-in society tends to produce.

edited 8th Nov '14 2:12:50 PM by MattStriker

In other words altmer are just like every other less-than-noble elf culture then? :P

Like I said - I don't think any of this is deconstruction, just the same kind of worldbuilding to make traditional fantasy races the author's own that already happens regularly. I enjoy seeing original takes on dwarves and so forth, but "as usual but made dystopian" isn't interesting on its own... and there's a shortage of unconventional archetypes being used, too (which is why dwarven morlocks gets my attention).

edited 8th Nov '14 3:27:56 PM by Noaqiyeum

@Tarsen Kids who are new to worldbuilding, and have just discovered the words 'subversion' and 'deconstruction'. Replace 'kids' with 'new art-ers' as necessary.

Bobbias Sviggles, there's more to deconstruction-ing than just making something dark. You have to explain why and how things got to where they are - or why you aren't going to do so - and then show how everything else is affected by this new 'normal'. Otherwise, all you've accomplished as a worldbuilder is spouting off an idea, one which I guarantee you someone else has already had but simply has not followed up on. (Or alternately, one which we've all seen before and are a little weary of. There are enough deliberate dystopias out there, where conditions could only get that bad through the imagination of an author - a failing utopia would be more interesting at this point.)

Ideas don't matter; the execution of them, your spin on them, does. If you only remember one basic rule, remember this one.

What your initial post doesn't cover, for example, is how the dwarves take their lot in life (on the whole, not just as a justified reaction to some event). Happily? Morosely? Somewhere in between? Or do they try to non-aggressively/violently change their lot? You've described a race - not a culture - that gets its entire characterization based on their interactions with humans... Or the 'haves', if you were to call them something other than dwarves (robots, Africans, aliens, oxen, burdock roots, unicode text characters, etc.).

You can deconstruct a thing by deconstructing what it is made up of, or by deconstructing its effect on others. So the answers may lie not in changing the race but changing its impact on the world.

As examples...

Elves are beautiful and their craftsmanship superb- so human cities are glutted with Elven culture, to the extent that humans have no art or music of their own. Why bother? An Elf with a century of practice plucking at a lyre can beat the greatest human grandmasters, yet might be considered little more than an apprentice among their own people. Human culture would be merely an ape of Elven mannerisms- we might even have their religion, no mortal prophet as charismatic or beautiful as even the dullest Elven priest.

Dwarves are industrious, hard-working craftsman, dealing in practical matters. So human markets are glutted with dwarven products and human craftsman simply can't keep up- can't make anything better, and can't make it cheaper, dwarves have that cornered too. Can't even make as good, for as cheap. So human industry suffers.

As for Orcs- powerful soldiers, stupid, love to fight. They are easily manipulated by everyone else and dominate mercenary matters, so humans can't compete on the field. Attempts by humans to expand militarily against the dwarven and elven empires is met with a horde of orcs that just so happens to attack- funny how that happens, isn't it, and always to the right people?

Now I'm not saying this is how it should be. Maybe humans are poisoning dwarven markets with cheap goods that function- dwarves spend too much time, perhaps, on work that's not really that much better. Maybe short human lives lends our beliefs a vitality no one else can match and the Elves worship human gods, instead- human faiths simply more lively, more exciting. Maybe Orcs are too stupid to really know how to fight and human tactics carries the day.

The important thing is that you look at the possible impacts in a different way than anyone has before, as I believe someone else already noted- it's the spin of the thing, in the end.

It is important to remember that the various D&D and Tolkien races were based on Real Life cultures and Peoples; ie. the Tolkien Dwarves are mixtures of Jewish and Norse cultures and values.

If you want to change how a race is perceived, base (the race) on a different but similar culture. Instead Jewish Vikings how about Orthodox Slavs?

As a writing exercise I love to play with Fantastic Race tropes, as it gives me an opportunity to research the coolest cultures and empires in history.

Personally, when I want to "shake up" a race I follow the cultures strengths and weaknesses to its logical conclusion:

Humanity naturally unites under one (Holy Roman Empire Esq.) banner; tired of the posturing of the longer lived Elvish/Dwarvish communities. This is devastating to the international economy as ,though individually not as skilled as a Dwarvish smith or an Elvish Seamstress, Humanity united can produce so much MORE for so Much less. Politically Dwarvish lords and Elvish Sages are forced to listen to Humanity now as their leaders now account for a significant potion of the global populace. This also sets a precedent for the various client races and half-breeds; "if humanity can do it why cant we?"

Any Dwarvish Empire collapses under its own weight, an Empire cannot be only supported by miners and artisans, and a xenophobic and isolationist outlook on life doesn't help neither. This can give birth to an even scarier empire; an empire of bureaucrats and farmers (based on the Vijayanagara Empire). In response to humanities economic clout, the disenfranchised Dwarvish underclass revolted and established a NEW empire with the hopes of benefiting off of the new international market. They reject the old school ways of isolationism and xenophobia as they are ever practical.

The Elves are devastated by any global change as they are maladjusted to it. Why change when you used to change the world? This massive lessening of their sphere of influence, leads to a massive introspective look at their fading culture (Similar to the Ming Empire of China). The elves need to adopt change and respect the lesser races or they will die off as slowly as they lived.

It is fun playing with race tropes as it can truly make a fantasy work unique. Ripping straight from history (especially if it is the lesser known histories) is great way to improve the sub-standard 5 races.

(I am in the process of building a custom setting for D&D so I had all this on hand)

I'm so tired of hearing "deconstruction this" and "reconstruction that". What ever happened to just writing a story? I know I get into world-building pretty heavy, but I still know that the POINT is to be able to write a story. I don't want to write like a literature professor, I want to write like a storyteller. I don't really think in terms of tropes, I think in terms of plot hooks, dramatic events. I've never thought "Gee, I sure would like to explore what makes a character a Mary Sue" but I have thought "Y'know, wouldn't it be interesting if there was a race of people who were so infuriatingly superior that they could literally convince the elements to do what they want?"

Anyway, ranting aside, I also like to play with the concepts of race and culture. Whenever elves are presented as better, they're OBJECTIVELY better, which is really odd because "better" and "worse" are subjectives. I think it would be cool to simply make the elves BELIEVE they are better without actually needing any justification - kind of like how racist people can think of themselves as automatically superior to another simply because they are of a certain ethnicity. Or religion. Or whatever. The point being that elves aren't as great as their arrogance and ignorance lead them to think.

As for dwarves, I'd say they're more typecast than elves. Every dwarf I've ever read about was a very earthy kind of being obsessed with money and booze. I'd like to see a dwarf who was airy and obsessed with music and tea; maybe one who was a scholar instead of a warrior, a baker instead of a smith. Instead of making them enemies of orcs or giants, make them allies. I dunno. Do something ACTUALLY different rather than ALMOST different.

Reminds me of Berserker from 8 Bit Theater.

In other news, stereotypes exist because of people only being exposed to one sort out of a group (hence stereotype, literally "one type"). Ancient french only being exposed to norse raiders gave us Horny Vikings, for example. Everyone expects the dwarf to be a Boisterous Bruiser and The Alcoholic and the elf to be a Cold Sniper by way of The Archer and are The Beautiful Elite because those are the stories Grandpa told them. So all we have to do is have a level-headed dwarf who thinks beer tastes like horsepiss and a plain (or even ugly) elf who can't shoot the bow and arrow for love or money and is actually fun to be around join the party.

edited 13th Nov '14 3:02:01 AM by dvorak

This is so common, I'm pretty sure it's a trope it its own right by now.

edited 13th Nov '14 9:20:27 AM by Parable

Really just another variation on Our Elves Are Better.

And possibly Screw You, Elves!

It's basically the love child of those two tropes- it's saying screw the elves because they THINK they're superior. So like a meta-trope, almost.

Really I prefer elves who ARE superior- and thus oppressors or enemies. Call it my liberal bias, but I prefer enemies who are strong and lordly, who radiate authority, for the heroes to fight. I like my bad guys on top of the social ladder, rather than on the bottom; more heroic and true.

Makes me think of an Elvish Abraham Lincoln.

Here's an idea, every fantasy race has all the same generic shit as always, but later in the story the heroes realize that race is a social construct.

Well, I think the idea behind Screw You, Elves! is usually "let's make them better but pretend like other people are justified in hating them for it" or "let's make them objectively equal or inferior", which is still the same problem in my opinion. I want to make the whole idea of better vs not better subjective. What I'm trying to suggest is more along the lines of "they're not better or worse, they just have different interests and aims than everyone else, and that makes them think of other people as inferior to them". Then again, that might still count as the trope, but I'm not trying to challenge a trope. I just want to do away with the whole question of elves being better or worse than everyone else.

BTW, this is perfect, really. Maybe that's how I should have said it lol.

edited 14th Nov '14 3:36:52 PM by nekomoon14

Technically, fantasy "races" are actually fantasy "species", and one can argue their differences stem as much from biology as from culture.

That's how it normally is, I'm suggesting making it not be like that.

Like, there would have always been rumors that for instance a human who lives among elves for too long will absorb some of their longevity (with elves being superstitious that this is because the human is absorbing the Light of Valinor or whatever and diluting the elvin race), but later on you reveal that this is actually just because elves eat more greens and less grain, and their air is so much better than heavily polluted human and dwarven cities.

Ah, I see. That really would be an interesting idea to play around with.

...Race as social construct in a fantasy setting. MY MIND = BLOWN

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=stereotype

1798, "method of printing from a plate," from French stéréotype (adj.) "printed by means of a solid plate of type," from Greek stereos "solid" (see stereo-) + French type "type" (see type (n.)). Meaning "a stereotype plate" is from 1817. Meaning "image perpetuated without change" is first recorded 1850, from the verb in this sense. Meaning "preconceived and oversimplified notion of characteristics typical of a person or group" is recorded from 1922.

I like my explaination better.