- original source: https://www.tumblr.com/firebirdeternal/616605850794065920/you-know-whats-more-fun-than-worldbuilding-that
The post, in case you don't want to click on an offsite link:
You know what’s more fun than worldbuilding that makes some fantasy races EEEEVIIIIIIILLLLL!!!!?
Worldbuilding that gives the different races cultural differences that help explain why there’s a lot of conflict between them:
Goblin culture doesn’t have a concept of “Property”. A stick on the ground and a tool in a locked shed are equally up for grabs if a thing needs doing. They casually take and leave things all over their communities, eat from communal pots, and genuinely Do Not Understand why the Core Races are so Angry and prone to Violence all the time.
Consequently Goblins who live near Core communities develop a reputation as “Thieves” despite not even having a word for that. (The closest word they have is more like “Greedy” and it means a person that hides things so nobody else can use them, and it’s a surefire fight-starter to call a Goblin that)
Common Orc Spiritual beliefs hold that a Soul can only grow stronger by overcoming Challenges in life, and see intruding on another person’s Challenge unasked for as not just Rude, but Deeply Harmful. You’re Stealing their chance to Grow. Asking for help is deeply personal and doing so can be both a way to grow closer with them or a too-personal intrusion, depending on your existing relationship with them. An exception is Children, as far as most Orcs are concerned, all Children are fundamentally the responsibility of the Whole Community, regardless of whose child they are, or even if said child is an Orc at all.
This means that Orcs who live near Core neighbors often seem Rude and Standoffish if not outright hostile, because they neither ask for nor offer aid even in times of trouble, and respond to unasked for aid themselves with Anger. There are even rumors that they Steal Children, because if an Orc finds a child lost in the woods they’re pretty much immediately going to start feeding it, and if they can’t find where to bring it back to, or it doesn’t seem to be well cared for, they’re just gonna keep it.*
I just love the idea. It's a lot more believable and nuanced than the "this race is inheritely evil/good/dumb/advanced for no particular reason" some RPGs pull off, and makes certain allegedly "evil" races actually playable if you're not relying on a system that already has them as playable characters.
Do you have any similar homebrew concepts for your versions of Goblins, Kobolds, Orcs, Dwarves etc.?
There is a lot of critic against the whole Good/Evil Lawful/Chaotic alignment and most RPG either don't have any morality system, or different compass.. A simplified D&D style alignment is great for board-gaming where you want to quickly says who is good and who is evil, but isn't representative of real-life and doesn't work for RPG, at least at the moment you want to write conflict a bit more complicated than Good versus Evil.
More important than culture, there is the point of view of various factions. Orcs are seen as dangerous barbarians who attack humans, but may-be orcs see human flesh very nourishing, need to give human flesh to kids if we want them to grow big and strong. Elves are at war against human, but may-be human are cutting the trees that elves need to live in. You example regarding property is pretty interesting. We're on lemmy so let's get political, in real-life many left-winger would agree that property is robberry Who is evil ? the person deciding that a piece of land and the cattle growing there is their's or the person who cross that land and hunt that cattle to feed their family ? Isn't the farmer asking gold to people wanting to feed their family the bad guy of the story ? Look at real-life, there is no such thing as good or evil only people with different opinion and objectives.
So when writing conflict, you need to take into account everybody opinion. Everybody needs the water from the river to water their crop, but the upstream clan decide to build a few canal to water more crop leading to drought in the downstream territories. There is plenty of real-life conflict based on that and it's a very good pitch to start a war with things more complicated than evil orcs like to eat humans
I agree that the traditional D&D alignment is way too simple for role play.
But I still have a soft spot for Lawful/Chaotic. I think many people display a tendency to conform to the standards of their society and are comforted by norms and tradition, whereas others prefer independence and break from order. This tendency seems more universal than good or evil, since it depends slighly less on cultural norms.
I definitely agree with your focus on factions. In fact, I think many differences between fantasy races derive from the ecogical niche they inhabit, which is emphasized more using factions.