#dnd vistani

[leidensygdom]

Okay, I will try to explain this topic as well as I can. I will preface this with the fact this comes from personal experiences, and that they may not apply for everyone who has ties to this culture, but let's get to it:

What's the issue with Fortune tellers / "Exotic" circus performers, sexualized belly dancers and other forms of orientalism/Romani depictions?

So, as someone in the TTRPG world (specifically, the DnD community), this sort of trope is seen quite a lot. From the portrayal of Vistani (which has been tried to be fixed, but not... too well), to player characters in home games, as well as popular canon characters and podcasts, it's got quite normalized. Most of these tropes are based on Romani, which is a widespread ethnicity present all across the globe. Now, it feels almost strange to call it orientalism, given how Romani have been in Europe since the Middle Ages, even though they do have roots outside of Europe.

Romani face one of the biggest diaspora in the world: You will find Roma people under many names in very different countries, with cultures and traditions that can clash heavily. Their numbers can range from few hundred in some countries, to over a million in those they have a biggest presence. My own experience is tied to Spanish Roma, known as Gitanos, which is where my mother's side family comes from.

Gitanos are a widespread group, although they're most numerous in the southern part of Spain, Andalusia, where their presence has shaped the culture. Flamenco is thought to have been born from Gitano culture, and it has been adopted as a staple of the Andalusian identity, and the whole of Spain. Gitanos are hard to understand as their own ethnicity in Spain: There's been centuries of Gitanos and Spanish people mixing, and the average Andalusian is quite tan to start with (given Muslim presence there has also been pretty firm). It means it can be hard to "clock" a Spanish Romani person from a non-Romani one. It means you can find Romani people most would consider white, at least by Spanish standards. Most of the discrimination Gitanos face is cultural (and the whole ordeal can be a bit harder to explain from a more US-centric view).

Now, even when Gitanos have influenced Spanish culture a lot, they still face plenty of discrimination. They are one of the most marginalized groups out there. Laws have discriminated against them for centuries, on and off, which have put them in poverty. And poverty often develops into criminality, which has only seeded the idea that Gitanos are criminals, "lowlies", the bottom of society, "uncivilized", etc. Now, here comes a bit of my own experience with this.

My entire family is Andalusian, but both sides moved from there (the south) to Catalonia (north-east) in order to find a job during the Francoist (fascist) dictatorship. I won't get much into the specifics of the Catalan vs Andalusian beef because that's a bit of a massive topic too, but the important thing here is: My mother's side is Romani. My grandma faced some horrifying forms of discrimination, including the theft of her first child during the fascist dictatorship, which was taken from her by nuns (who ran hospitals at the time) to be placed into a "proper" family. (This is something that happened repeatedly at some hospitals during these times).

Now, she had two other children: My mother and my aunt. My aunt remained closely knit to Romani culture, and took part in it, which included marrying a Romani guy. She always did her best efforts to be part of it. I know she was into some culturally-related dances, which included some forms of bellydancing (which is also partially tied to Roma culture). But my mother decided she'd rather cut ties with her culture and become "civilised", by abandoning said culture.

This isn't too uncommon for Gitanos, to be honest. I've met a few people who come from similar backgrounds through my life. One of them was in university, where a fellow classmate gave an oral exposition about how his family had done a great job at "becoming civilised" by cutting ties with their own Roma roots. My university was a fairly progressive space, but no one batted an eye at that: The sheer hatred of Roma culture runs so deep even people who normally abhor racism and xenophobia consider Gitanos to be worth the hate.

There's a social pressure to do that, too. Everyone "knows" Gitano are criminals. I can't really even begin to explain how deeply does this sort of discrimination run. Roma are amongst the most hated minority groups in all of Europe (as well as most of the world). You will find that even in very leftist circles. People will try to erase the fact Roma have their own culture, and just make the world equal to "criminal", call them gy***** (which is a slur, btw), and detach them from being an actual culturally (and often racially) distinct group.

Now, this is only empowered by how media has taken our culture (it is almost hard for me to call it "our", given how much my mother ensured to take that away) and made it into a bad trope. Growing up, I was told my aunt was a sexual deviant who partook in indecent dances. Bellydancing is often seen as something very sexual (Wasn't, in origin), very unfitting. In media, bellydancers veer on the side of being a f*tish, and the common trope is the "bellydancer who seduces people in power for their own benefit". There's also the whole idea of shady fortune tellers and other magical tropes, that sort of weird mysticism that falls rapidly into orientalism. The idea that Roma will hex you, curse you, place an "Evil Eye" on you. And also the idea of travelling circus, people who perform in them being again full of that alluring exoticism, but beware! For they will enchant you, steal from you and run some massive criminal schemes on the way.

Now, when every tie a culture has on media is portrayed in a negative light, it's much harder for that culture to recover any sort of respect from the general populace. And that includes even people who are part of said culture, or people who have been removed from it. It has taken me so many years to unlearn a lot of these biases and realize where it has come from, and now I'm far too distant and far away from my grandmother to actually ever significantly connect to my heritage.

I've had the opportunity to witness what Romani culture is actually about, as I used to live with my grandmother during summers. A lot of the "mysticism" she took part of was actually about wards and protection. A lot of them were actually medicinal in nature, even if others were more superstitious. Red thread in the forehead for sickness and protection to curses, parfums (which contained alcohol or other antiseptics) on wounds, that stuff. My aunt was never a "sexual" deviant, she was keen on recovering and partaking on traditions from a culture that is slowly disappearing. The entire "promiscuous" idea is bullshit, Gitanos place a massive amount of power to marriage and loyalty. I had the luck to witness my cousin's marriage, which was a festivity like none other I had seen in my life, a colorful spectacle full of the most delightful attires, and my mother was whining the entire time over about how it was all an "uncivilised circus".

Now, this is why representation in media is key. Roma culture is broken into a thousand pieces and lost with every passing day. When someone decides to write an ambulant circus performer/fortune teller clad in exotic clothes full of golden jewellery, writes them as a criminal and makes the entire thing extremely sexual, they are feeding into the negative stereotypes about Roma.

Now, there's a lot of people who aren't even aware what culture does that trope even actually come from. I've seen people draw characters clad in Romani attires (often in, uh, rather pin-up or sexual contexts) and claim they're inspired by "x piece of media", where the trope is portrayed in the first place. I literally saw someone make a drawing in that way and call it "inspired by x (non-Roma) artist" instead of acknowledging where does all that come from.

I'm not asking people to not portray Roma people in media. Far from that. I just wish representation was better. Good representation is key towards making a culture seen in a more positive light, and teaching other peoples about it, and making people from said culture resonate with it. The very few times I've seen positive representations of Roma I've felt a bit of that connection with something that was taken from me. I want people to do a bit of research before giving a try to a Roma-coded character. Make an effort to not make Roma always the morally dubious fortune teller, the exotic alluring circus traveller, the bellydancer seductress. It's hard for Romani to produce widespread mainstream media because of how impoverished most communities are (because of the systematic discrimination Roma face all around the world), so the least non-Roma people can do is to be kind when they use their voice to talk or represent us.

I know this is a massive post, and I'm tagging it as "long post" for that reason, but I hope it is helpful for people. Feel free to ask or add your own experience if this is something that resonates with you too. Ask away if you want. I've been wanting to tell a bit my own personal experience, as this has always been a hard spot for me, and even if just a handful of people read this and understand what is this all about, I think it will have been worth it.

[anae-art]

I'm so glad my players finally got to meet Ezmeralda! It was a very positive meeting, and since they didn't do anything to upset her at the beginning (who knows, knows) it could be the beginning of a very nice relationship And she joined the party (along with a new player, a certain powerful paladin!) so their power level increased a lot!

[leenalecklin]

The wooden boy with the borrowed soul 🌱 Amento is the character I play in our Curse of Strahd campaign. He’s a wooden puppet druid - who apparently wasn’t a puppet at first at all! He is looking for his druid master Vladislava who disappeared one day leaving only her cloak and hat behind. Amento didn’t remember anything about his past at first, and the memories he is now getting back are making him just more confused. 💦

I got a drawing frenzy last weekend and drew Amento in so many outfits! His normal outfit consist of a cloak and a hat that were left behind by his master when she disappeared. Under the cloak he has his own Vistani clothes that he doesn’t remember where he got from. The night gown Amento borrowed once from another player when his own clothes were soaked, and the jester costume I drew because we found out that Amento was a jester in his previous life - it’s also what mini-Amento wears. 

I’ve been enjoying this campaign so much 💖

[calebisdrawing]

Arabelle the Vistana (her stuffed saber-tooth’s name is Ramses).

Feel free to use in your game if you like!

[old-world-bird]

What if we kissed in the bewitched circus tent hiding amid the cursed mists of Barovia?

Elisabeta was in a dire situation where she was losing a lot of HP & needed to recover her energy quickly. She had also seen Yakov flirting with another person & gotten jealous, so it was hand in hand using her dhampiric nature for her benefit while it also controlled her. Yakov, on the other hand, was casually flirting with a friend and did not wish to risk Elisabeta’s identity being revealed, so he did not necessarily cheer her on or boo her. However, when she approached him, catcalling and hollering at him in Deep Speech, a language that only they can understand, he was immediately excited and allowed her to pull him in harshly for the bite-kiss.

Illustration commission for @knightinkosherarmour, the description provided by them and posted with their approval.

More info about commissions here

[luckyblackcatxiii]

Curse of Strahd doodles are back, baybeeee B3

Saverio’s 8 wisdom is in full force this time around and it’s almost embarrassing...if you can’t trust handsome men who gift you free drinks and carry assassin knives on them while showing off their totally legit mail to you, who CAN you trust??

🦇 (No spoilers please!) 🦇

(Future module doodles and art will be found in my CoS tag on my page!)

[c-cloudyy]

Fanepov! Fanepov! Fanepov! What if they held hands?!

Karpov is @azrithart ‘s!

[azrithart]

Fane, @c-cloudyy 's peace cleric and Karpov, my bloodhunter from Curse of Strahd! Love a good doomed romance 👀

[xyanmajor]

Just in love with the female version of my vistana PC character.

♡

I want to share her with the world ♡

@hikarinokusari when you will be in better health, she'll be yours to see. (Yeah im bothering you again with useless things)

[pathesis]

Before and After Circe♥

Sadly I never got the opportunity to play an ACTUAL campaign with Dash and get to build Kal's and Circe's relationship through RP. Kals game had long been over when we started character stuff. but building the post story in private is one of my biggest treasures and happy memories♥ I love these two so much♥

Here's the resulting kids:

[arugulafriend]

The Stolen Sun: A Curse of Strahd Comic - Prologue

Chapter 1 >>

Instant Gram

The Party! @addersmire @thefourofdiamondsart @maeowl

[ansburg]

cannot imagine getting mad about gnome racism when the main gnome cast is just like. white people who are purple

im very sorry barcus tucci but you are distracting from a serious conversation about racism in western fantasy when the slave-keeping race of dwarves overwhelmingly look like this

[leenalecklin]

Present for the servant of Lathander 🌱☀️ A bunch of Amento sketches! The first picture is a memory from our first session when Amento gave a flower to our paladin Matra. Amento is my wooden doll druid which I play in our Curse of Strahd Campaign. He’s shy and kind young boy who doesn’t remember anything about his past life before meeting his druid master Vladislava. She taught him the basics of druidic secrets and proved him that “everything is alive”, by growing a little sprout on his head.

Unfortunately, a year later Vladislava disappeared leaving behind her cape and hat that Amento now wears while looking for her. Under the cape he wears Vistani clothes - although he can’t remember how he got them or where.

I also have a cantrip called primal savagery that makes the druid grow fangs and claws that they can attack with, and I like to think that Amento turns pretty scary-looking when using it. He bit a chunk out of zombie’s butt in the last session so I guess the cantrip works well. 

[art-bit-me]

another batch of chibis, this time (most of) my favorite Curse of Strahd NPCS Row 1: Ez, Darcy, human!Escher Row 2: vampire!Escher, Ruby, Arlyn Row 3: Theo, Zaffy, Fira Row 4: Brahm, Johann, Nikola

[old-world-bird]

Some design commissions for other people's CoS campaigns

1 - Anastasia, Strahd’s daughter from Tatyana’s previous incarnation before Ireena. Commissioned by @blazingemstone

2 - Sasha Ivlikova, the construct, aka Strahd's fifth bride, aka the most traumatized Barbie of the Barovia. This and following are commissioned by @knightinkosherarmour

3 - Patrina Velikovna, who needs no presentation

4 - Yakov the Magnificent, once beheaded vistani boi en pointe

[aspenwitch]

Doodle during dnd, madame Eva (who I just learned is named madame Eva I have been writing Madame Ava in my notes for two years now)