Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[MoroMurasaki]

So anyway, I may have gone a bit off-track, but my point is - the world of Hydaelyn has no definite Africa equivalent for "African" Hyurans to originate from, so from a lore-building perspective, where would an African-looking Hyuran have come from? The argument that "it's medieval Europe and there actually were Africans in medieval Europe" doesn't simply transfer over, because those Africans still had to migrate there, which they can't if there's no Africa to migrate from.

You can get creative with the lore and say they're Meracydian... for now. But if we ever go there as part of the story and it turns out that actual Meracydians aren't like that, it's back to the question of "how can Africans exist if there's no Africa?"

Perhaps you don't care about lore yourself, but it's still something to think about.

This entire post is very well articulated but this section is specifically why I've prefaced all of my agreements with these character creator changes with "assuming it fits within established lore" and at this point I think t that is questionable at best.

It's clear Iscah has a stronger understanding of Eorzean history and geography than most so to the people making these requests I'm curious how you would navigate this particular hurdle?

[Nandina]

Ah, I guess I must have misread or just saw what I wanted to see then, I apologize for putting words in your mouth

Apologies accepted!

...

This entire post is very well articulated but this section is specifically why I've prefaced all of my agreements with these character creator changes with "assuming it fits within established lore" and at this point I think t that is questionable at best.

It's clear Iscah has a stronger understanding of Eorzean history and geography than most so to the people making these requests I'm curious how you would navigate this particular hurdle?

The thing is, I never really saw Eorzea as a whole as being inspired by Europe. When I see Limsa, I see a tropical environment that reminds me an awful lot of the Carribean. When I look at Ul'Dah, I see Northern Africa, especially with all the ancient ruins and what not. Using real world history, Northern Africa historically was black and many of these people migrated South (and a lot of tribes in Sub-Sahara say they came from the North) due to constant invasions and other reasons. Due to close proximity to Europe, many Greeks and Romans moved inward; and a lot of Italians immigrated to Libya in the early 1900s. That's why if you go look at today, there's a HUGE array of phenotypes, including traditionally black ones. The one place that really gave me medieval vibes truly was Ishgard. That reminded me a lot of the Crusade Era.