The Empress of Salt and Fortune

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and religious discrimination.

Throughout the 21st century, fantasy novels have become increasingly influenced by Asian culture and folklore, with a growing number of Asian authors contributing to the genre—a shift that represents a broader movement away from fantasy’s Eurocentric roots. J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, is widely regarded as the father of modern fantasy writing and drew inspiration from the European Middle Ages when crafting his universe, Middle-earth. This medievalist aesthetic became the genre standard, and in its most sinister capacity, it has corresponded to exclusionary racial messaging. As Kora Quinn of Illumination Journal explains,

‘Habits of whiteness’ is a term used to describe the phenomenon of readers automatically assuming all the main characters are white unless the author specifically describes them as having black or brown skin. The reason for this is, simply, that the majority of medieval Europe was white (Quinn, Kora. “Eurocentricity and Race in Modern Fantasy.” Illumination Journal, 11 Oct. 2020).

The racial messaging of traditional fantasy universes is not limited to human characters.