Portrait of The Artist in the Moment

(1934-2026)

To be clear: a story that includes inherently evil/good races is founded on racist rhetoric. The idea that someone can be born into a moral prerogative is racism. D&D isn’t unique in this regard, and it is not isolated to TTRPGS.

I looked at D&D’s recent (last decade) shift from “these races are for sure evil” to “well they can be any alignment, but you’re most likely to find X alignment” to be a sign of progress. Is it still racist? Yes. But it’s a softer racism, and at least it’s not as bad as 20 years ago. The mainstream is shifting as slowly as it always does.

The result is that all D&D games have a facet of racism baked into them. A campaign might not address it, but it’s still there. CR campaigns 1-3 brushed against it, but only gave some shallow and predictable themes on racism, and almost all of them from a white perspective: actually, these brutish savages we’ve presumed to be enemies aren’t all that bad (not like those other ones we slaughtered). The few instances where a PC experienced racism were always limited to backstory or small-scale interactions. The framing was racism as a personal opinion, not an institutionalized strategy for the preservation of a ruling class. It’s not shocking from a founding cast of white people; it’s progressive that they even dipped a toe into it. But it’s still just a toe, and they have had multiple instances of either not examining their own biases or just not caring.

I did not expect Brennan to do any better, and he’s surprised me. It’s not just the worldbuilding around the Shapers as gods literally creating races in their own images and pitting them against each other so they would view their own gods as their rightful overlords. It’s not just that the orcs were victims of this system and led the fight to destroy it by freeing themselves. It’s not just the aristocratic humans rushing in to secure power in other races’ lands and politics and that this is a fight they will repeat in perpetuity. All that is nice to see, and refusing to be subtle about it earned a lot of good will.

However, Brennan included demons. My immediate and ongoing conclusion was, “Well, there’s still an evil ‘race,’ we’re just not calling it a race. But this story is better than others about it.” At least there’s the orcs addressing racism outright, so a fuckup over demons isn’t that offputting. The hints against this (Tyranny’s inner turmoil, Tsul’rekshi’s anarchy, etc.) didn’t really phase me because the overarching idea of demons as evil had not been dispelled. Individual anecdotes are exceptions to the rule. My view was that any episode now, we’re going to learn of some special reason that Tyranny and Tsul’reskshi are different.

Kattigan’s insight into Tyranny clears up that issue in its entirety: she truly is a demon through and through, there’s nothing less demonic about her in particular, and she is not evil. Demons aren’t evil.

The conclusion is then that Ksha'aravi is the head of a faction and has built a myth of demon kind that suits him, not any differently than Yanessa has built a cult around the idea that people need redemption by the light. Tyranny may have a penchant for destruction, as does Bolaire, as do all of the mercenary/soldier PCs—but destruction itself is not evil. Ksha'aravi and his kin are not naturally vile. Demons can choose to behave as they please, like anyone else can choose. He’s just like the shapers: constructing a world view that divides people into categories so that they view their leader as righteous and infallible. Racism maintains the status quo, and individuals’ racist mentality need to be demolished before they can fully appreciate the degree to which they have been manipulated and used.

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Quick B'Elanna for practice! Timelapse on Reddit.