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sundin13 on 11 September 2018
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Mummelmann said:
sundin13 said:

Yeah, but why?

I believe I've read all of your posts (but I could be wrong. This is a big thread), but I've yet to see a convincing reason why there can't be any minorities in this fictional world. It doesn't matter if the fictional world was inspired by Scandinavia, because it is a fictional world. To have someone who is Asian, you don't have to start throwing Samurai into the story, they can just look a little different. Writing fantasy is about creating worlds and cultures. If a brown person destroys that world, then that seems to me to be a shortcoming of the source material, and I personally have a little more faith in The Witcher.

I've never said there can't be minorities in the world, in fact; there are minorities in this universe. The racial tension issues are mostly described through the hatred and oppression towards non-humans, as a very direct and on-the nose way of showing cultural and physical differences and clashes.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before; Ciri's mother is a descendant of elves and her father is the Imperator (Emperor) of the Empire of Nilfgaard. He was marked by aggression in his expansionist ambition and policy but actually surprisingly lenient and accepting of the outsider races, such as Elves and Dwarves, which is a significant point in his overall character since it clashes with the overall Nilfgaardian beliefs and norms and their varying degrees of disdain for certain colonies, provinces and annexed kingdoms and races/cultures.

From the wiki pages of Nilfgaard; "The Empire's inhabitants believe that "real" Nilfgaardians are only those born in the heart of the Empire, and not those born in the conquered provinces."

So they're pretty much like white supremacists in many ways, making Emhyr var Emreis something of a revolutionary in his more accepting views, he opposed certain racist notions despite being a "real" Nilfgaardian. Do you see how this could be problematic if you changed his ethnicity? It's a huge point in the setting and the marking of a new direction for the Empire and its dealings with many provinces and cultures, he could never have been who he was without his "clean" heritage, it would turn part of the entire world's political history on its head.

As for the mother, Pavetta, she is of the kingdom of Cintra, a northern kingdom where there is absolutely zero chance of anyone other than a true northerner being heir to the throne. The way in which she met Emhyr is quite famous and rather scandalous, it broke with traditions and eventually led to Emhyr launching a second massive attack on Cintra later on. He failed to conquer it but they managed to kidnap a girl resembling Ciri (who was known to be heir to the Cintra throne at the time) and absorbed Cintra by means of marriage to this girl.

These are huge events with global ramifications on the lore and setting and are even central plot points in some of the books. Yes, it might seem trivial to change the ethnicity of a fictional characters, but in this case it would result in a great deal of rather massive changes in the setting and story.

Edit; and don't ask "but what if Ciri had different parents?", that would nullify literally the entire point of her character since her heritage is paramount to her role in the world.

I should have specified, when I mentioned minorities, I mean "people who are typically considered to be racial minorities in America", not that the concept of a "minority" doesn't exist.

Besides that, why can't you change the skin color? You seem to be attaching our concepts of ethnicity to these characters where they don't necessarily exist. I am not asking why can't a "Cintra" person be a "Other Location" person, I am asking why can't a "Cintra" person be kind of tan?