Seriously, lovelies: if you want to make a brown or dark skinned elf, gnome, hobbit, dwarf, human, whatever character in a fantasy setting, you do NOT have to justify them not being white with scientific theories or anthropological reasoning.
Diversity does not have to be justified. It can just BE.
As a GM who likes good worldbuilding, I would appreciate it if your dark-skinned character at least had ancestors from the tropics. Black-skinned underground-dwelling elves still stick in my craw–though at least the Realms Timeline conceded that Illythiri (drow ancestors) were from the sub-tropical forests.
I am pretty sure you can accept fire breathing dragons that can shapeshift, walking skeleton warriors with the strength to cleave a man in half, and items of ethereal power that allow time travel without much justification beyond “it’s magic.”
So you should be able to just accept dark skinned characters without some “From the tropics or they have to be drow” bullshit.
You can worldbuild the anthropological and cultural facets of your world and its people, if you want to but you do not HAVE to.
I’ll say it again:
Non-white fantasy characters do not HAVE to be justified.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE A REASON FOR YOUR CHARACTER TO BE DARK-SKINNED.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE A REASON FOR YOUR CHARACTER TO BE GAY/BI/ASEXUAL/TRANS OR ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE SPECTRUMS.
If people can accept dragons, shapeshifters, elves and all that other shit, it is straight up racist/homophobic/transphobic/ect. to say that you have to have a scientific reason for your character to be anything but white/cis/straight.
If anyone demands a reason from you, you know immediately that they are not worth talking to and thus not worth any of your attention whatsoever.
This^^^^^^^^
You know, except where it might seem out of sorts either culturally or geographically for it to be not a thing, I guess. Maybe not the gay thing, since that’s more-or-less genetic/inherent. But the skin color thing is usually a result of geographic and environmental evolution. I.e. a world with no high temperature, high UV radiation, desert etc climates would likely feature a lot less dark skinned individuals but since most worlds generally have many different geographic ‘zones’ you can usually make a case for any ‘race’ if you’re so inclined.
Better advice would be to just make a character and make their race, gender, sexuality etc the least part of their development since experiences > birth features anyway. Ultimately no one (should) care if a character is $color/$race/$sexuality etc and the only time it generally should be brought up is if it’s part of the character’s actual development (i.e. a dark skinned character trying to ascent to Roman Citizenship/nobility when Moors were generally considered to be inferior as per the culture of the nation in question). If you make a character that is “omgblack trans person” as the first and foremost trait of character design then you’ve honestly fucked up and are on the path to the world’s most uninteresting character ever written.
Stop.
On what planet do you people live that darker-skinned peoples ONLY live near deserts and the tropics?! Like, where is that a thing?! That’s not a thing anymore nor do I think it ever has been.
Okay let’s say that your “Must adhere to strict environmental factors that relate to genetic evolution” is even a thing in this fantasy world of dragons and magic and time travel (because, FYI, fantasy worlds don’t HAVE to be dictated by this.) What if it’s like a gagillion years after the first humanoids began to walk the lands. Yanno, like how our Earth currently is which explains why there are people of various genetic features including darker skinned EVERYWHERE.
Darker skinned peoples live in fucking icy tundras and temperate forests and mild plains and everywhere now. THERE ARE ASIANS AND BLACK PEOPLE IN MINNESOTA FOR FUCKS SAKE, are you telling me there can’t be a dark skinned elf in a goddamn temperate forest?!
Stop. Stooooooooooop. Stop with this barely veiled prejudice and racism.
Again for the people on the Mezzanine:
Non-white fantasy races DO NO HAVE TO BE justified.
(Also wtf about that comment about making a black and trans character with those traits being first and foremost is uninteresting you are the fucking worst like wow.)
