hey garrett! it’s mentioned in the nightblade books by a few characters that loren has a thick accent. i was wondering if there is any equivalent/accent similar to hers in our world? thx <3
So the first and almost-too-obvious answer is that no, there IS no equivalent accent in our world. Why? Well, because of course…
LOREN DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH.
NOBODY IN UNDERREALM DOES.
Because Underrealm is not Earth! The odds of Underrealm evolving a language ANYTHING like an Earth language is infinitesimally small! The books are only WRITTEN in an Earth language (English) because they HAVE to be in order to be understood!
WHICH REALLY THROWS ME FOR A FUCKING LOOP SOMETIMES, IN THIS AND OTHER WAYS.
I’ve recently put together a binder for live events. I want to show the representation present in the Underrealm books and the authors as well. So there’s pages of characters, and for each character we give a little bit about their backstory, their ethnicity, sexuality, gender, etc.
Easy, right? WRONG.
Here’s what Mag looks like:
Easy enough, right?
So I’m putting together Mag’s sheet for the binder.
What…
…what do I list her ethnicity as?
Asian, right?
Of course it’s not Asian! For two reasons! One of them is that “Asia” doesn’t FUCKING EXIST in Underrealm!
The second and probably more important reason is that “Asian” is almost blindingly generic and covers such a broad swath of ethnicities and physical appearances that it’s useless as a descriptor.
Okay, should I narrow it down to “Asian (Korean)” like the model I based the artwork off of?
THAT’S EVEN WORSE (maybe). If Asia doesn’t exist in Underrealm, Korea DEFINITELY doesn’t fucking exist!
So what the fuck do I dooo???
I could just list her “in-world” ethnicity: Dulmish. But that doesn’t fucking mean anything in OUR world. And so THEN I feel like I’m erasing the Asian representation we DO have.
Okay, you might not think that’s SUCH a big deal. Her entry might say “Dulmish,” but she LOOKS Asian. So the erasure is minimal, right?
WHAT ABOUT FUCKING JORDEL?
You’re very likely to THINK, looking at that artwork, that that is a white man.
YOU WOULD BE WRONG.
That is a Latino man, drawn by a Mexican artist, designed in collaboration with that artist. He was modeled after Jimmy Smits:
with hair like Jorge Ramos.
So, what? I’m supposed to list him as “Selvan?”
You KNOW Those Motherfuckers are going to go, “Ah, Selvans are Teh Whitez.”
FUCKING WRONG.
So it’s this unbearably impossible situation where if I go one way, I risk erasing the representation I’m TRYING to put into the world.
If I go another way, I risk giving an unrealistic “definition” of who these people are, and way more importantly, use HOPELESSLY generic and broad terminology that’s probably not ACTUALLY helpful in establishing that representation.
So I have no idea what to do and I’m asking everyone I can, and until I figure out the perfect answer I’m fucken winging it, y’all.
But the answer to your question that you PROBABLY wanted was that I picture Loren as having a thick Southern accent, but like a Southern Belle, slightly more “aristocratic” than the rest of her village, because she always listened to Bracken’s stories and tried to mimic his (to her mind, “highfalutin”) style of speech.
maybe in the bios for them you can list their in world nationality and then something like: In our world, this people of this(in world) nationality are analogous to ________.
Or list that somewhere else. Like at the beginning say
“Dulmish is analogous to _____________” And then list her nationality as Dulmish when you’re on her specific page?
idk I’m just throwing idea out 😛 I don’t have to worry about that because all my sapient races are non-human. Well. Most of them/
thisacelovesheadcanons 