Race in Fantasy
So I was reading a favorite series again last night when once again, like a bolt of lightning to my brain, I was struck by how pale all of the characters were. There were many "races," but all of them were described as looking similar, with perhaps olive skin as the darkest skin could get
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You should go further. Do your dark-skinned characters still have typically caucasian facial features? Is there a "reason" for their dark skin (such as them being evil)? And does their skin color set them apart, or is it normal?
The "dark elves" of so much derivative fantasy is an example of a type of dark-skinned character that doesn't equal inclusion of other races at all.
Their features are still typically caucasian, their skin is dark because the author is making an association with night and the underworld and evil, and their skin color sets them apart from the light elves, dwarves, and humans who are all white.
(Wouldn't the group that settled in the caves likely turn out to be lighter than the group above ground? I'm thinking of all the albino cave species, here. Maybe I'm misreading you, though.)
I also think that you have to take into account your motives for making a character a specific race. In a lot of amateur urban fantasy, protagonists are Japanese, but that's because the authors fetishize the Japanese. Not exactly a striking a blow for racial equality in fiction.
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lighter than the group above ground? I'm thinking of all the albino cave
species, here. Maybe I'm misreading you, though.
The melanin on this planet is different than the melanin on Earth; it's light. You tan by staying out of the sun; in the sun you are burnt pale.
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