Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
It is my understanding that corrupted things, in Ashes, are bad. So if you were playing a corrupt elf/any-race, you would be bad. The non-corrupt would be naturally inclined to attack the corrupt. When a player is flagged red for killing a green player, they become corrupt.
I like the whole "Drizzt" dark elf becomes good story line, but I think it's been played out (or should be at least).
I know your goal is to not suggest a racial faction conflict (and that you said nothing about Drizzt), I am just saying I think that's the route it would go. My post was aimed at the "...needs corrupted race variants..." comment.
For Elves in Ashes, the dualistic, "opposing" philosophical views will be the cultural differences between the Py'Rai and Empyrean:
Nature. Balance. Fury. vs Imperial. Pride. Culture.
Rather than Good vs Evil.
Are dark elves really corrupt bad guys ? Perhaps in your view. Not in mine. Which kind of makes it subjective doesnt it. I see them as rebellious anti established order. I seem theme as highly advanced. I see them as an equal. I guess we all see what we want to see.
This entire conversation seems out of place and I think we should all just formally agree to disagree to avoid any negative progression on the subject matter.
And should not be a private discussion when that concept is shared publicly.
Having dark skinned races or people of color be intrinsically Evil or savage or primitive and of low intelligence while light-skinned races are intrinsically Good or civilized or highly intelligent is inherently racist.
Which is why it's great that Ashes has moved away from that racist trope.
Easy enough to laud Ashes for having cultural differences for the player races that are not based on Good v Evil or where skin color determines whether a race is savage or highly intellectual.
We should just hope that the character creator allows enough variety that both Py'Rai and Empyrean can achieve something close to the appearance of Dark Elves if there are enough players interested in playing with that appearance.
It was only said that Dark Elves give people the idea of a corrupted race, this doesn't mean that they are primitive or of low inteligence but rather a change to the species itself due to certain events, in this case it could be the Elves who failed to leave through the gates being corrupted by whatever caused the cataclysm causing their skin to change into dark/gray color, mental changes could be included like unjustified hatred of the races that managed to leave. Though there could be a complete degradation of the species into mindless beasts due to the cataclysm but we don't know anything about that. In fact Dark Elves are not even a mentioned race.
If an author/creator decides that the race of Dark Elves in his universe are a corrupted race due to some sort of circumstances then that's it, fictional races are not good grounds for racism given that there are squid-people, cow-people, dog-people, slimes, walking crocodiles etc. otherwise we would be flooded with animal activitists ages ago...
I do understand where you are coming from though
Dark Elves do not have to have all the negative connotation you are suggesting, nor do they in many popular franchises. You seem to be fishing for an argument and grasping at straws.
Again, I'll reiterate. We should drop the line of discussion, it was not the intent of the thread, nor is it beneficial to anyone.
Your opinion on that would be wrong since:
Corrupted Elves don't have to have dark skin.
Corruption should have nothing to do with the darkening of skin.
That perpetuates institutionalized racism.
I actually didn't state that Dark Elves are depicted as being primitive or of low intelligence - rather I stated that people of color in fantasy games fall into the categories of Evil or savage or primitive or of low intelligence as opposed to light-skinned races. That is the trope.
For Dark Elves, the category has been Evil; not primitive or of low intelligence.
Forcing dark-skinned races to inherently have unjustified hatred while light-skinned races have justified hatred is racist.
If an author/creator decides that the race of Dark Elves in their universe are a corrupted race while the light-skinned Elves are altruistic, that author/creator is perpetuating racism.
Ashes doesn't have Dark Elves.
Ashes doesn't have Good v Evil.
Ashes does have Corruption.
Corruption should not be associated with dark skin... and as far as I know it's not.
Which is an exemplary, positive aspect of Ashes lore.
People who wish to play Corrupted Elves can allow their Pyrian Elves to accrue Corruption. Skin color should be irrelevant with regard to that.
People who wish to stop talking about connecting dark skin to Evil and hatred and Corruption can simply stop talking about it.
And the discussion should organically move back to character creation options.
I do ask kindly that we do not attempt to bring real world racial issues into discussions about this wonderful game. Let's keep our discussions here focused on the world of Verra.