: Re: Avoiding racist tropes in fantasy I'm interested in starting a pleasure project: a fantasy story, along the lines of a witch delivering a prophecy to a king about a dangerous and deceitful foe

@Samaraweera193

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I'm not a writer, but I had similar thoughts about this. As a not-writer, I can give some practical suggestions that are based on what I've read.

Basically, in many fantasy books, only the tropes you mentioned are highlighted, however there are other cultural tropes that deserve attention.

Elves - I am definitely not a fan of those tall, all serious, super smart elves in some games and (IMHO lame) books of fiction. There are other tropes that can be attributed to elves, which make them more fun and relatable.

They are quirky and frisky, singing crazy songs without much reason and messing around with travellers who venture near their home in the forest with stupid pranks
They are irresponsible and will never refuse some good wine (as seen in The Hobbit, when the hobbits get the elves drunk to steal the keys)
They definitely are not tall as seen in pictures, forest terrain and vegetation benefit those of lower weight and stature (running under branches, climbing)

Orcs - I never understood why cave dwelling orcs should have darker skin at all. I never heard of them wearing braids. But they definitely should be barbaric.

Lot of writers draw the "barbaric" stereotype from Africa. That's probably something we want to avoid. How about you structure their culture around pagan religions, such as Vikings or Celts? Both are known for their raids.
They will probably same height as the elves
They are definitely skilled with metallurgy, they must have figured out that some of the rocks they dug out aren't just rocks
It may be worthwhile to intertwine metallurgy with their religion, that would allow you to explain that such a barbaric culture with high tech smithing.

Goblins - I haven't read much stories featuring goblins. But check out wikipedia on them and you will see that the particular stereotype is just one of many meanings of goblin so just pick some other one. And not all of them have the hooked nose. I am thinking of something like this:

Greed is common for many goblin stories, so let's keep that
They are close to fairies, and so they shall have some small magical powers and for their elders, also some magical wisdom (eg. not exactly seeing the future, but sometimes knowing things)
They are very small, but tough and stubborn
The above attributes make them creatures that will often move to other species' cities. They can do little magic work here and there for some of that precious gold and for food. Remember two carrots are a dinner for a goblin, and humans can farm entire fields of them.

Te above is just an example of simply ignoring the racial stereotypes and using those that have none to do with race and are often more fun.

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