I read an interesting
tweet the other day regarding this, and racially homogeneous
societies/worlds in fantasy being justified by historical reference.
This little ramble will look at how things were historically, and
how/whether this should affect fantasy writing in an ancient/medieval
setting.
First off, a disclaimer
on my own approach. My serious fantasy all occurs within the same
world within which every book has multiple races (mostly of human),
skin colours etc. The comedy of Sir Edric doesn’t ever actually
refer to human skin colour (he’s white on the cover because he has
to be a colour, though I can’t recall if I actually specified that
to my artist). There’s also elves, Ursk (tall, red-skinned
carnivores), feathery chaps, gnomes, dwarves etc.
In a given farming
village, in England in the medieval world, travelling would happen.
Every so often the nearest market town (walking distance) would be
visited to either sell or buy. More infrequent travel to a larger
town or city (NB ‘city’ in this context might just be a
settlement with a few thousand people) would happen to attend court
or for other serious business. The population of the village itself
would not change substantially in terms of people leaving or
newcomers arriving. The largest churn would be marrying people from a
nearby village.
Jumping from that to
the opposite end of the spectrum (sticking with England, for now),
London was the largest city by a mile. Smaller than several
continental capitals, it still drew in people from the surrounding
area (especially true after the Black Death which also threw the
feudal servitude system up in the air). Not only that, but merchants
from continental Europe and further afield were constantly coming and
going. On a more permanent basis, there were embassies from foreign
powers, and establishments set up by prosperous foreign merchants.
Leaping perhaps a few
centuries back, and a few thousand miles away, we have Byzantium. Or
Constantinople. Or Mikligard, if you’re feeling Viking. Or, as it’s
currently known, Istanbul. Now, you might think a capital city at the
heart of the Eastern Roman Empire wouldn’t have many Englishmen.
And you’d be wrong. Basil II, who was a great military leader but
whose treatment of prisoners is about as far away from the Geneva
Convention as you can get, is emperor. He establishes the Varangian
Guard, a bodyguard for emperors made up of non-Byzantines. Initially,
it’s largely composed of Anglo-Saxons, irked at the pesky Normans
who have conquered England. Later, it gains a more Viking flavour as
Scandinavians prefer getting paid a small fortune for guard duty to
raiding.
Under Basil II (and his
co-emperors/predecessors Nicephorus “White Death of the Saracens”
Phocas and John Tzimisces), the city has been enjoyed continual
military triumphs. The city is bustling with merchants from the
rising Italian commercial powers of Genoa and Venice. Soldiers are
largely drawn from Anatolia, modern day Turkey.
In short, scale and
geography determine to a substantial degree how homogeneous or
diverse a settlement (or story) is. Before mass transit and easy
travel, getting to the Shetlands was quite a slog. If you set a story
there you could, depending on the period, credibly feature Picts,
Scots, Scandinavians. But if you put Saracens and Byzantines there it
would feel a bit odd.
Similarly, if you wrote
about the Eastern Roman Empire it would be odd to paint
Constantinople as a city of one people only. It was effectively the
global (or at least continental) capital, at the crossroads of Europe
and Asia, and drew in a correspondingly cosmopolitan population.
However, we should be
wary both of imposing our own norms on the past, or of
neglecting/misunderstanding those of history. It’s easy to overlook
the prevalence of religion in medieval history (and they were
addicted to philosophical religious debates in Byzantium). Similarly,
the terror of disease or urban fire (arson in ancient Rome was
reckoned a crime second only to parricide). There were, particularly
in large continental cities, substantial populations of minorities
(often same race, different country) but not on the scale that we see
today.
What about a pure
fantasy land? An island could legitimately be mono-cultural. And, of course, you can gerrymander the rules of science and
nature as you please. Personally, I think that could feel quite odd,
particularly if your story happens in major cities on a large
continent. More importantly, different cultures and races also
present opportunities for conflict which can help drive stories.
Although a game rather
than book, I was not impressed when some people bleated about The
Witcher 3 having no black people in it (it has white humans, elves,
dwarves and halflings. And the odd troll). Does it come across as
unrealistic because of this? Absolutely not. The world has a great
backstory and lore. Just as it seems ridiculous to me that some
criticised Idris Elba being in Thor (did amuse me some people were
happy with a magic rainbow bridge that threw almost invincible
demi-gods across the universe, but thought a black guy being in
charge of it was unrealistic), it’s not right to condemn a
fantastic game because it’s deemed to have committed the sin of
being ‘too white’.
Ultimately, it’s down
to the author’s own whim. I don’t think other people should be
trying to constrain creative freedom and dictate that their own
personal perspective is The Only Way To Do Things.
Thaddeus
Traitor’s Prize, the
sequel to Kingdom Asunder, is out today.
