I was not talking to you and I never called you a racist. The post was directed to DumbleDorf who keeps bringing up identity politics. SHAME on you for insulting me when I wasn't even talking to you. Shows how immature you are. At the end of the day this is just a video game.
I think the OP has flounced so probably won't respond.
However, for the record, I agree with you. I'm uncomfortable in assigning Terran human ethnic characteristics to non-human Faerun races just to meet a diversity target and reflect the world in which we live, but by all means have dwarfs that have negroid facial features or elves that are Asian in appearance. However, make that the effect of the world in which THEY live and not the world in which WE live. If we use Tolkien as the base reference, and most fantasy RPG elves follow his model, then they are all fair skinned and tall. Despite being a South African by birth, Tolkien had no reason to use another ethnic group as his base appearance and culture because he knew what he wanted his elves to look like. That does not mean that another fantasy world creator cannot make elves who are Asian, brown, black or even small and green.
Fantasy races look like they do because that's how we, as consumers and creators of fantasy worlds, visualise them. My 'perfect' model for an elf will look very different to yours and will probably reflect my own culture and upbringing. However, we should both have the option to create a character based on our own vision.
Wrong as the looks or elves where already outlined and there is no room for "interpretation" and "I want". The visualization is already done by the the creators of DnD.
You dont slap pointy ears on human and call it a Eleve.
What some of us are saying is that you can still have elves look like traditional DnD elves but there is nothing wrong with making the elves slightly resemble real world ethnicities. For example, an African resembling elf would have a wider nose, full lips, darker skin and curly dark hair OR you can have each different race of elves culture represent the different real world cultures. This also can include their clothing option as representative of where they are from. For example, say you have elves that live in the desert, that could be a representation of the Arabian culture. I think that would be cool if game designers did that.
