Okay let’s break this down, because I just feel you guys are mostly uneducated about how bad the portrayal of the Grey Ones are. It isn’t “pretty good small bit of worldbuilding”, it’s a racist caricature. No, I’m not calling Vetex racist, I’m saying the caricature of the Grey Ones is racist as much as you say the intent behind it isnt racist. In fact, I agree Vetex didn’t mean to make it racist, but it’s still a fact that it’s an inherently racist portrayal of Native Americans.
Now, why would that be the case? I said so myself; Vetex isn’t racist, and most definitely didn’t mean for the Grey Ones to be a racist portrayal of Native Americans. Why is it still a problem?
This will have me to bring you back to around the 16th century. These caricatures of Native American people at the time were at an all time high. They were made to justify colonization by painting an image of villainy over Native Americans, and practically every single trait they held is the same of the Grey Ones;
- Native Americans were portrayed as bloodthirsty savages incapable of negotiation. Not because they are fighting for their homes, that they are in war with the colonizers, but because it’s in their genes. The general image for them in the past is that Native Americans were born with bloodthirst in their very own being, and that they are violent by nature.
The mageskin disease literally does this. You could argue that it’s only after they drank the potion, but that argument crumbles down into nothing the moment you ask yourself — How did they even manage to get their hands on the potion? What further proves this point is that they are basically born like that. The grey ones and their children are already grey ones, it is a genetical thing, that’s what Vetex literally shows you with the absurdly small content about the Grey Ones (which is a problem by itself i’ll address later). They literally, from info from an actual NPC ingame (Frederick Corelli), can’t live normal lives. In summary, the Grey Ones aren’t Grey because they did X thing. They simply are. They are the very own stereotype of Native American racism, and that’s a problem. Because there’s no point being made. Vetex doesn’t use the tribe as a plot device, as a point in the story, nothing. It’s just a side quest.
- Native Americans were portrayed as primitive people. People who live in the past that can’t progress and evolve their society technologically. The consensus was basically that these people are alien to modern society.
Again, it’s another trait found within the Grey Ones. They’re primitive, living in huts/teepees (an absurdly prevalent trait in old caricatures of natives), using rudimentary weapons made of bones and wearing clothing made of leaves and bones. I honestly have no idea why Vetex chose such a design to give them, given the history of such portrayal, specially with a group of people that are literally most known (and named after) for having a different skin color. Just like the previous point, where the Grey Ones don’t have any reasoning for being Grey (the potion, again, being a pointless argument for it, given they literally have no way of having gained access to it), there’s literally no reasoning for them to be primitive. And even if there was a reason, it would just be a cheap, weird way of saying they’re based off of native culture. They’re primitive because they’re Grey Ones, and they’re Grey Ones because Vetex said so. There’s no background to them, it’s just a bunch of savages that exist for you to be able to complete a side quest.
- Something that also ties towards the two previous points, is that the natives were not only portrayed as cannibals, but that they were also "so uncivilized” that they were incapable of speaking English. The first part is simple; the view over native american culture was centralized. If I recall correctly, it is mainly from the Iroquois, an indian tribe that did take part in cannibalistic rituals, that set off most of the stereotype. After this was discovered, it was yet another reason colonizers found to villanize native americans before they even did anything. For the second point, the natives were judged as “uneducated” to such a degree that they were incapable of speaking proper English. It wasnt because they had their own language, it was solely because they were “the red devils” (actual name given to natives at the time) and that they are primitive, and savages, and so on so forth.
The first point is obvious. The Grey Ones are cannibals. Reason? They just are. It’s just because they’re evil, because they have the mageskin disease i guess(???) not even the disease justifies it, because it’s not mentioned anywhere. They’re just cannibals solely because they need to be evil enough for the side quest, or something. The second point is literally proven by Vetex through an NPC. Frederick Corelli says it himself that the Grey Ones don’t speak their tongue (although that’s the less worse part of the whole thing). In summary, the Grey Ones are cannibals for the sake of being cannibals, as there’s nowhere you can find a reason for them to be like so.
At last, the Grey Ones are portrayed to be inhuman in general. Just like the title of “red devils” given to Native Americans in the past, the Grey Ones aren’t seen as actual humans. Again, proven by the NPC Frederick Corelli.
Everything in here shows, just like tbd has said, that it’s a one-dimensional portrayal of these people. And that’s bad writing. Because if you don’t give a damn about explaining the sources of this kind of behavior, you just end up with a racist caricature of native americans. The biggest problem here is that these racist caricatures are facts in the AO universe. The Grey Ones are canonically all of these points brought up, and that’s racism. It’s not how the skyhall people see them, it’s not a misunderstanding of what the mageskin disease does or what the tribe’s actual goals and reasons are, they are savage grey-skinned cannibals that eat the “poor white population” solely because they are, and that they should all be exterminated for it. Like, seriously, think for a second, imagine you even daring to mutter these words to someone, that there’s a tribe of grey people in AO that should be exterminated since they are savages. What difference does it make if you changed “grey” to “red” or “black” instead? Nothing changes. Being one-dimensional IS the problem, and this portrayal is a massive dumb caricature in general, because it’s literally just racism.
And again, repeating it to clear any doubt; I DON’T THINK VETEX IS RACIST. I just think he’s kind of dumb. He didn’t put thought in how bad this sounds, how bad making a primitive tribe of cannibal grey people that deserves being genocided sounds. And I also don’t want to fight, I don’t want to insult, I just want to explain why this portrayal is bad and racist. After all, this kind of imagery has showed up time and time again everywhere all around the world, and it’s just tiring to see it all the damn time, one personal reason being for me having not-to-far ancestors that are victims of this kind of imagery.
TL;DR; The Grey Ones is a racist portrayal not because Vetex is racist or anything. It’s also not the Skyhall people’s view over them, it’s literally just a racist stereotype. As much as the intent wasnt of making a racist portrayal, it’s still a racist native american stereotype, and that’s a problem, because it isn’t just “what the skyhall people see them as” or “what people see mageskin diseased as”, but because it’s a fact ingame, the racist stereotype is an actual thing ingame. I hope I cleared stuff out, really.
