# New race



## antibaka (Mar 10, 2010)

alright, as a chinese myself, and i've just watched the movie and just some random thoughts came to my mind. i was wondering wouldnt it be cool if they were some black and asian looking humans in the LOTR ? i mean after all they are part of the human race. And actually not only LOTR, there werent any asians in other fantasy movies and books too. Dont get me wrong, i dont mean racism in here. lol. its just some random thoughts. So yeah, what do you guys out there think ??


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## YayGollum (Mar 11, 2010)

Wouldn't it be cool if there were? Nah. As you typed, they're all part of the human race. I prefer the crazily fantastical races, since I have to deal with all types of humans in real life. Anyways, are not the Southrons black? And, towards other fantastical type stories, I have noticed that some elves are made to look Asian, for some reason, although they're like Tolkien's elves in most other ways. I figure that if they're going to make their own type of elf, make it a bit more different from Tolkien's, or, more preferably, just be original and don't use nasssty elveses! Ick. Ah, and that adds another point to help with bringing this back to the main topic ---> Don't use boring humans, at all. Adding some really Cayuga-looking humans to the story doesn't make it more interesting. Bring on the people who have evolved from plants. You know. The ones that have evolved as far or more interestingly farther than we have from apes. Ones that aren't all obsessed with how much better plants are than other things, since, truly, how much do we really care about apes and how superior they are to other things?


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## HLGStrider (Mar 11, 2010)

The majority of civilizations in fantasy novels tend to "copy" to some degree an existing civilization. Lord of the Rings is Tolkien's idea for a true mythology for England (his homeland), so it would be expected that the races dwelling there would mirror the races originally of that land (ie pre Norman invasion). Tolkien also was highly influenced by Norse mythology, again, basically we're going to get a very European look from these races.

I find a lot of fantasy writers skirt around the race issue, partially because directly saying someone is "Asian" or "African" takes you out of the fantasy. If you say a person has dark skin in your writing it is up to the reader to interpret the degree of dark, which the person will normally do to the degree of their experience. So you might get people imagining everything from African American to just very tan. 

Very occasionally you'll find fantasy worlds that are based in a non-European setting. I find a lot of Robin McKinley's cultures to have a very Middle Eastern feel and I imagine the people to look that way, for instance. 

Basically, you have to paint your culture the way you want it, and that includes the "look" of the people. Most people are going to paint from the pallet of their experiences or favorite stories as a child.


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