@kiley_arrants Premium Supporter
So, I’ve been writing a fantasy YA type book for some time and what I want to do is incorporate a group of people or a race that is basically Native American/ Indigenous. I’m doing more research into cultural beliefs and traditions, but as a white person it’s not my place to decide what could be offensive to others.
Basically, in this fantasy world, this race is called Mountain Natives, or Spiritual Native. In the world there are gods and goddesses, and they praise the goddess of nature and creation. They live away from the current civilization and govern themselves in different tribes. They are closely connected with both nature and the spiritual world. In this world there are also Fae, who have magic abilities, and I want to incorporate these elemental abilities into the race as in power to manipulate and control water, earth, and wind.
I want to have this race mimic the culture of Indigenous people as closely as possible, but here is my problem. Basically in the book there’s a tyrant who is so focused on having unmatched power that she has enslaved and killed and burned many magic creatures such as the fae, witches, nymphs, sirens, etc. Since this race has magic abilities, they would be apart of it, and would eventually revolt against the Empire alongside others. But because of how powerful they are, they would be this tyrants main target and greatly impacted by enslavement and murder and taking of their lands.
This is of course terrible and it will be painted as such in the story. But before writing about any of it, I wanted to make sure people who are actually apart of Native American or indigenous culture or descent do not find it offensive or degrading, because it is not my place to decide what is and what is not.
