Why is everyone so racially tolerant?

[Knight]

I remember in BG2 Viconia was almost burned at the stake despite not doing anything to harm the people there. When you ask why they're doing it, they say it's "because she's a drow." She'd even call them out for their madness.

Even putting her in your party, you'd lose reputation just from the occassional whispers of people who noticed. People hated and feared drow.

It was even implied throughout those games the only reason people didn't outright attack your party was because she was always keeping her face tucked away under a cowl.

The good aligned companions themselves would be averse to taking her in as a companion, not knowing anything about her. So even the "good guy squad" would be suspicious about someone based on nothing more than race.

I wanted to see the reaction.

Imagine my surprise then, I, a drow, walking next to a literal devil and a gith, entered baldur's gate armed to the teeth.

I was expecting to get attacked. Or some special dialogue with people looking at me in fear. But instead a little girl comes up and asks where her parents are with a cat. A guy invites me to the circus, and a flaming fist is checking to see if I'm a refugee, suspicious I might not have anything of value to trade.

Seems no one gives a ♥♥♥♥. In fact there are drow prostitutes at the brothel nearby and a scamming djinn as well as a "dryad" at the circus.

[Mizu]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

They are tolerant because the game establishes the existence of Seldarine which probably at least slightly softened them up towards drow.

Heck no, the vast, overwhelming majority of the drow population are Lolth-Sworn. Only a very small fraction of them defect from her cult, and most who do are hunted down and assassinated before they manage to escape drow society and make it to the surface.

Encountering a good drow is like encountering a unicorn, or some other mythical creature. It's a once in a life time experience that you'll probably never see again, unless that drow happens to actually take up residence in your local area.

On the other hand, they are also much more likely to be on the surface then a Lolth sworn despite being outnumbered in terms of total population. Those spider worshiping losers mostly stay in the underdark and murder each other instead of living on the surface like renegade drow that have pulled a Drizzt.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by krugg.the.gamer:

I think it's the most poorly done part of the game tbh, it's one of the only times i'd call for moar racism. lol. Because it's pretty integral to the D&D world and it's weird having races that literally hate each other just casually talking like they don't. But honestly I didn't expect it to be as colorful as past rpgs. I mean even the scene Tiefling being punished caused a mini uproar on twitter over micro reggressions and how sad racism is or whatever. So I could imagine the sht storm if they really went all out traditional with it. So while I'd like it, I totally understand why they didn't. It's impossible for us to have fun in the current social environment.

What's weird is that the Society of Arcane Brilliance is populated with hobgoblins, duergar and even an illithid of all things, yet they still feel the need to use a Githyanki in an experiment to prove whether or not there is such a thing as 'genetic morality.'

Like, they do realize that they're all races that society at large considers to be evil, right?

You can even bring this up to Esther if you're a drow, and she comments that they know now that not all drow are evil... so why do they need to explore this further with the Githyanki?

[Mizu]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Originally posted by krugg.the.gamer:

I think it's the most poorly done part of the game tbh, it's one of the only times i'd call for moar racism. lol. Because it's pretty integral to the D&D world and it's weird having races that literally hate each other just casually talking like they don't. But honestly I didn't expect it to be as colorful as past rpgs. I mean even the scene Tiefling being punished caused a mini uproar on twitter over micro reggressions and how sad racism is or whatever. So I could imagine the sht storm if they really went all out traditional with it. So while I'd like it, I totally understand why they didn't. It's impossible for us to have fun in the current social environment.

What's weird is that the Society of Arcane Brilliance is populated with hobgoblins, duergar and even an illithid of all things, yet they still feel the need to use a Githyanki in an experiment to prove whether or not there is such a thing as 'genetic morality.'

Like, they do realize that they're all races that society at large considers to be evil, right?

You can even bring this up to Esther if you're a drow, and she comments that they know now that not all drow are evil... so why do they need to explore this further with the Githyanki?

"Look man, just because all these other races turned out to not be literally born evil doesn't mean its not true this time! We won't know for sure until we do horrifically unethical social experiments on a Githyanki and find out."

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Mizu:

On the other hand, they are also much more likely to be on the surface then a Lolth sworn despite being outnumbered in terms of total population. Those spider worshiping losers mostly stay in the underdark and murder each other instead of living on the surface like renegade drow that have pulled a Drizzt.

BG3 does a poor job of showing this, but it's supposed to take weeks of travel to get from the surface to the Underdark and vice versa. It's not just a network of caves you can go spelunking in, it's practically a whole new world located many miles beneath the surface of Toril.

Fleeing to the surface is a long, arduous journey that most escapees will not survive before Lolth's assassins catch up to them.

And to make matters even worse, the Drow have a special 'coming of age' ceremony where they send their youths up to the surface to commit a cold blooded murder before they are welcomed back into society as proper adults. In order to carry out this ceremony, one of their favorite tactics is to pretend to be a defector who fled the cult of Lolth.

It convinces surface dwellers to lower their guard, so they can be killed in their moment of weakness.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Welcome to modern day woke politic's shoved into everything.

Racism is the ultimate evil in the woke eyes and shoudnt be allowed even in fiction.
Same with gender or sexism.

Stories suffer because we arent allowed to offend the snowflakes.
It is the thing we have been warning you about for the last 10 years.

Story will remain bad as long companies keep cattering to the woke.
I suggest voting with your wallet and stop buying games infected by the woke.

[sick duck]

Originally posted by Malaficus Shaikan:

Welcome to modern day woke politic's shoved into everything.

Racism is the ultimate evil in the woke eyes and shoudnt be allowed even in fiction.
Same with gender or sexism.

Stories suffer because we arent allowed to offend the snowflakes.
It is the thing we have been warning you about for the last 10 years.

Story will remain bad as long companies keep cattering to the woke.
I suggest voting with your wallet and stop buying games infected by the woke.

Oh no, that is terrible I am so sorry for you. What will they think of next, adding pronouns? The horror.

[zero]

Originally posted by Malaficus Shaikan:

Welcome to modern day woke politic's shoved into everything.

Racism is the ultimate evil in the woke eyes and shoudnt be allowed even in fiction.

there is literal racism the second you get to the grove.

also

define woke

[Mizu]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Originally posted by Mizu:

On the other hand, they are also much more likely to be on the surface then a Lolth sworn despite being outnumbered in terms of total population. Those spider worshiping losers mostly stay in the underdark and murder each other instead of living on the surface like renegade drow that have pulled a Drizzt.

BG3 does a poor job of showing this, but it's supposed to take weeks of travel to get from the surface to the Underdark and vice versa. It's not just a network of caves you can go spelunking in, it's practically a whole new world located many miles beneath the surface of Toril.

Fleeing to the surface is a long, arduous journey that most escapees will not survive before Lolth's assassins catch up to them.

And to make matters even worse, the Drow have a special 'coming of age' ceremony where they send their youths up to the surface to commit a cold blooded murder before they are welcomed back into society as proper adults. In order to carry out this ceremony, one of their favorite tactics is to pretend to be a defector who fled the cult of Lolth.

It convinces surface dwellers to lower their guard, so they can be killed in their moment of weakness.

That kind of sounds like a great time to defect for real, then. I mean your matriarch was nice enough to give you an all expenses paid trip right up to the surface so you could perform a really impractical ritual.

Also, I really don't think they thought through the logistics of that ritual. The Drow are supposed to be a reasonably numerous race, right? Thats a lot of people who get murdered without the surface world bothering to come down and start a war over it. I don't know how evil religions like Bhaal cults that demand you commit at least one murder every tenday or Sharran ones where you have to sacrifice a Selunite once a month or something manage to not get ferreted out despite the fact they are supposedly hidden.

[Tingly]

Given infinite time and resources, the game may have had bespoke interactions for every race you could play at all times. Obviously we don't have infinite time and resources.

Of course, there is a discussion to be had about whether we should be able to play these races that feel like they should drastically change every encounter. I'm inclined to think it was a bad idea, but I'm sure there's plenty of players who would really want to play a drow to the point that they don't mind if the implementation is half-hearted.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Mizu:

That kind of sounds like a great time to defect for real, then. I mean your matriarch was nice enough to give you an all expenses paid trip right up to the surface so you could perform a really impractical ritual.

Also, I really don't think they thought through the logistics of that ritual. The Drow are supposed to be a reasonably numerous race, right? Thats a lot of people who get murdered without the surface world bothering to come down and start a war over it. I don't know how evil religions like Bhaal cults that demand you commit at least one murder every tenday or Sharran ones where you have to sacrifice a Selunite once a month or something manage to not get ferreted out despite the fact they are supposedly hidden.

You severely underestimate just how much of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the Underdark ecosystem is, if you think invading it to wipe out the drow is even remotely a good idea.

Drow age at about the same rate as regular elves, so far as I know. And elves don't consider each other proper adults until after their first century.

Sending your kids up to commit murder may be overlooked, if the killings are done centuries apart, as opposed to decades.

[Mizu]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Originally posted by Mizu:

That kind of sounds like a great time to defect for real, then. I mean your matriarch was nice enough to give you an all expenses paid trip right up to the surface so you could perform a really impractical ritual.

Also, I really don't think they thought through the logistics of that ritual. The Drow are supposed to be a reasonably numerous race, right? Thats a lot of people who get murdered without the surface world bothering to come down and start a war over it. I don't know how evil religions like Bhaal cults that demand you commit at least one murder every tenday or Sharran ones where you have to sacrifice a Selunite once a month or something manage to not get ferreted out despite the fact they are supposedly hidden.

You severely underestimate just how much of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the Underdark ecosystem is, if you think invading it to wipe out the drow is even remotely a good idea.

Drow age at about the same rate as regular elves, so far as I know. And elves don't consider each other proper adults until after their first century.

Sending your kids up to commit murder may be overlooked, if the killings are done centuries apart, as opposed to decades.

Since when has something being a bad idea stopped humans from doing it?

For some reason I am under the impression they breed more frequently then surface elves. Mostly to keep up with the attrition from all the infighting they do to amuse Lolth. Though I guess a lot of those deaths might just happen to occur before they are old enough to do the ritual you mentioned.

[Zolvolt]

It's been a 100 years since BG2. There has been some progress but obviously theres still racism in the world. I mean if you play drow the druids are not nice to you.

[Darkaiser]

Originally posted by venn:

Originally posted by GARFIELF:

Drizzt did a lot of PR work in that 120 year gap.

Ah, yes... he was all over the ole streamin' services in the Forgotten Realms. HUGE audience reach.

He dual-wields and has a cat. EVERYONE loves cats!Likely did an ad for the ASPCA or something...

[Darkaiser]

As to the OP: The Dark Gnomes that meet a Drow Main Character are all shocked if you don't abuse or enslave them pretty much on sight.

The Tieflings are nearly booted from the Grove for being 'Hellspawn'.

Just because every race doesn't hate every other race doesn't mean there isn't racism. You're just not seeing it.

[Koshetz]

Originally posted by Malaficus Shaikan:

Welcome to modern day woke politic's shoved into everything.

Racism is the ultimate evil in the woke eyes and shoudnt be allowed even in fiction.
Same with gender or sexism.

Stories suffer because we arent allowed to offend the snowflakes.
It is the thing we have been warning you about for the last 10 years.

Story will remain bad as long companies keep cattering to the woke.
I suggest voting with your wallet and stop buying games infected by the woke.

Oh my god racism in BG3 is literally one of the first things you encounter

Also WOTC had strong female characters in power since 90s
Perhaps try to not live under the rock or something