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Sam and frodo dress up as orcs1/27/2024 ![]() Riot Games writer and editor Dante Douglas disingenuously concluded that “anyone who is saying that this discourse is about anything else is being obtuse or smokescreening.”Īs the debate around this issue continued to mount on social media, published an article decisively titled “ Why Orcs Are Problematic in Dungeons & Dragons,” in which writer Christian Hoffer attempts to infer that Orcs are inherently racist despite the fact, reported within the article, that “Tolkien noted in other letters that orcs were not meant to be representative of a particular culture of people, and that “orcs” could be found on both sides of any conflict along with genuinely good people.” Monkey’s Paw Games founder Nicholas Masyk bizarrely concluded after an extended Twitter rant that the continued employ of “dehumanizing/degrading language to describe nonhuman fantasy species, or use racial tension as a plot point” in Dungeons & Dragons and other fictional works somehow justified the racist ideologies of “race science” and “biological determinism.” ![]() This included Sinister Beard Games creator Oli Jeffrey, who connected the language used for Orcs with real-world, historical justifications for “slavery and genocide of indigenous peoples.” However, they were not alone in their views on the fictional race, as numerous independent table-top RPG developers and community figures quickly rushed to defend Welsh-Wilson, flaunting their progressive politics and doubling-down on the idea that lore-faithful descriptions of Orcs actively promoted racism. Just basic media analysis stuff ,” Welsh-Wilson would later explain that their statement was “ about language used by colonizers to justify colonial violence ,”stating that they were attempting to “ point out parallels in rhetoric and language in describing orcs to language historically used to dehumanize people and justify colonial violence. Welsh-Wilson quickly received a wave of backlash from fantasy fans who argued that not only are orcs, first conceptualized by J.R.R Tolkien in his famous Lord of the Rings series, a fictional race and are not based on real-world minorities, but that Welsh-Wilson’s assertion was itself racist for assuming that these descriptors were being used in reference to non-white races.Īfter initially asking their critics to “ please learn how to read texts. With its instinctive love of battle and its desire to prove its Strength, an orc trying to live within the confines of civilization is faced with a difficult task.” No matter how domesticated an orc might seem, its blood lust flows just beneath the surface. But unlike creatures who by their very Nature are evil, such as gnolls, it’s possible that an orc, if raised outside its culture, could develop a limited capacity for empathy, love, and compassion. “Most orcs have been indoctrinated into a life of destruction and slaughter. The ‘Roleplaying an Orc’ section describes how Orcs are “indoctrinated into a life of destruction and slaughter,” but hold the ability to “develop a limited capacity for empathy, love, and compassion.” ![]() ![]() On April 25 th, Arms of the Tide podcast host Quinn Welsh-Wilson asserted their disgust and shock at the in-game description of roleplaying as an Orc found in the 5 th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, claiming that the language used was “blatant racism.” (Archive link: archive.is/TUJRf) Orcs, the monstorous fictional fantasy race, are once again under attack by ‘nerd’ culture outlets and creators who are unable to separate fiction from reality for failing to conform to very specific standards of progressive politics.
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