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I'll admit I haven't read deeply into the main Pathfinder Campaign Setting book, so if this information is in there (I put NOTHING past the Paizo crew) my apologies for not looking deeper.
That said, does anyone know/have any idea/use any specific racial slurs in their games regarding the various fantastic races and such? Things like the following:
What do goblins call orcs?
What do orcs call elves?
What do dragons call dwarves?
What do brave people call drow?
What do gnomes call halflings?
I'm looking for the fighting words, the names that get arched eyebrows at best and start vendettas at worst. If anyone has any, official or not, I'd love to know/hear about them!
Yar.
Honestly, I think there is enough expressiveness in existing language to serve the needs of roleplayers without inventing some kind of bizarre new slurs.
I'm going to say the opposite. Its gets somewhat tired to hear the same curses and insults all over again all the time regardless of who says it and who it’s directed at. However, there is nothing stopping you from getting creative with what we already know (some people are rather proficient at this as well), but some specific insults based on Golarion racial stereotypes could be interesting.
I like that the OP suggested what creature A calls creature B. That way it's not just "how derogatory can we be, as a human playing a character, using real life terminology" but instead it becomes "this race views this other race like this, and has this name for them. Level of insult (or compliment) based on that word may vary". I think it can help bring some more regional and racial flavor to the campaign, provided it is done with intent to add spice, and not simply to be derogatory.
~P
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I the story "The Lost Pathfinder" here on the web one of the main characters, a tiefling, calls a halfling servant a Slip. And it is common, at least in Cheliax, to call a tiefling Hellspawn. Oh and if I remember correctly in Cheliax half-elves are refereed to as half breeds.
But to be honest from what I can tell most slang and such is more regional than racial. So its not so much what do the elves call orcs more so what do the people of Cheliax call orcs. But don't get me wrong, I am sure there are race to race slang as well.
Oh and by the way I am getting this information cause I am in the process of reading that book, then I will be reading the follow up "Prince of Wolves", and I am running a Council of Thieves game. So I am knee deep in Cheliax as of right now, LOL.
Some quick thoughts I had between classes...
What do goblins call orcs? massa (honestly couldn't come up with anything)
What do orcs call elves? bloody doves (implying that elves have frail bones like birds)
What do dragons call dwarves? ants (as their numerous, tiny, industrious, and strong)
What do brave people call drow? ink elves (honestly according to much of the story so far, most people don't even know what drow are)
What do gnomes call halflings? shackled (being that so many halflings were inslaved by Cheliax)
What do gnomes call halflings?
Kender.
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There's a list of derogatory and less deragotary names for all the most common races for the city of Kaer Maga in the City of Strangers guidebook. Keeping that in mind, I think it is fair game to say there's going to be common slang words for very ethnicity and race in Golarion, both local and international.
IIRC, another instance of having a slur for a certain ethnicity is in the Guide to Korvosa, which has Varisians calling the Chelaxian colonists "chels". Supposedly this gets them really riled up :D.
What do brave people call drow? ink elves (honestly according to much of the story so far, most people don't even know what drow are)
Brave? Bah- Drow ain't nothin' but a thing. :P
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What do goblins call orcs?
What do orcs call elves?
What do dragons call dwarves?
What do brave people call drow?
What do gnomes call halflings?
orcs = meat, meatshield, musclehead etc...
elves = pansies, wussies, a mix of the two words at my table.dwarves = gristle.
drow = as elves, XP.
shorties = slips, furniture, toadstool...
Actually Goblins in Golarion refer to everything as..."FOOOOOOOOOD!!!"
Kinda funny story about Shadowrun's "trog"
In a D&D campaign I was in way back when, a guy was playing a half orc and I was playing a very ethnocentric drow. So I started calling him "grog" after the Shadowrun slur. The player's name was Greg, and where he worked they had actually screwed up his name tag to read "Grog". He was so used to being called that name at work, it didn't initialy sink in that I was being a racist jerk to him...
In Pathfinder most people dont know the Drow (Rymes with Toe) even exist... Only the surface Elves who are at war with them, and the Dwarves who quested for sky would have reccord of them if they dont have bardic stories of legend of them... The Orcs of Belkzen might have legends of them to scare their children...
Drow rymes with toe acording to Gygax who brought them into the game ;)
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Drow rymes with toe acording to Gygax who brought them into the game ;)
Out of curiosity, what's your source for this? I don't mean to de-rail the thread.
Either way, I imagine deliberate mispronunciations of race names would be taken as insults.
Slips tends to be a derogatory name for Halfling slaves, and sometimes servants, based on the reading I've done.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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There were a few racial slurs mentioned in the Guide to Korvosa.
Chel = Someone of Chelish descent. (Pretty mild in most of the world, but around Korvosa it's a serious insult)
Moth = A full blooded Varisian. (Not all Varisians take offense to it)
Horser = Highly inflammatory term for a Shoanti person. Holds strong connotations of bestiality.
In Second Darkness, some of the pirate slang for a group of Varisians is "Cattle".
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Dwarven insult: "You throw like an elf!"
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.Actually,... all races use that slur.
Even elves.
That (and low con) is why they use bows.
I played in a game years ago where some really nasty words were used for parents of half breeds that were very effective in setting the tone for the game, mostly derived from Nazi terminology.
As long as we're reviving this thread, it should be noted that 'hellspawn' is a slur name for Tieflings.