One of the main factions in The Witcher are the militant Nilfgaardians who invade from the south, known colloquially as “the black ones.”
The Polish word for “black person” or “black man” is murzyn, which comes from the same root as moor.
Please continue to discuss how this game was made in a blissful paradise free from racist bias. [/sarcasm]
For what it’s worth, I fucking love this series of games. I put about 80 hours into W1, played through W2 twice, and have 120+ hours into W3 and am still in the first act.
It’s an amazingly complex reflection of the world, with craven profiteers, heart-rending callousness, charity, and grace. The non-human struggle for equality, the powerful cabal of sorceresses with their own political agency. The stark treatment of serious issues like domestic violence, abuse, alcoholism. The constant reminders and slurs that you, as Geralt, are a freak, an other, a mutie, an object of scorn. On most of these issues, the game presents a pretty nuanced and mature take. Not perfect, but who’s art is perfect? Who’s life is perfect? This game series is not afraid to take on serious real-life dilemmas.
That seriousness makes it all the more noticeable when The Witcher falls short. The one person of color reported to be found in the game is a murderous female succubus. It would be laughable if it weren’t so terrible.
Let’s not use the canon of the author as a defense, because it’s not. I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know for certain that the author didn’t dictate the skin Temerian as pearly, the Kaedweni’s as milky, the Redanians as chalky, and the Nilfgaards as snowy. But even if the canon would dictate the Pantone colours of each faction, there’s no reason to be beholden to it. Re-makes and re-boots white-wash all the time, let’s be a little creative and do some brown-washing.*
After all, a game that includes in-jokes to Assassin’s Creed, Aliens, 300, and Call of Cthulu (among others) can’t rely on the defense of “But…canon!”
*My recommended concept art for a rebooted Yennifer of Vengerberg.
