Jul 30
Whats the caste system? I haven’t heard of it before
are you serious
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Whats the caste system? I haven’t heard of it before
are you serious
Avoiding Orientalist Stereotypes when Writing a South Indian Vampire
Vanillaateaa asks:
CW: very brief/non-explicit mentions of sex
My character is a Punjabi South Indian-coded woman who does not consider herself religious. She is a vampire NPC in a gothic romance/horror TTRPG. The game is set in an isolated demi-plane (an extra-dimensional space about the size of one of the larger U.S states) that pulls in people from other worlds, and is ruled by a corrupt vampiric aristocracy.
She is one of the few forces of humanity and goodness left in this demi-plane. She “feeds” on all kinds of love (romantic, platonic, familial, ect) instead of blood, and is the patron of a rotating group of performers and artists that provide sources of love for her while she takes care of them & protects them in return. Her relationships with them vary — some are romantic or sexual, some are platonic, others queerplatonic or familial, but all of them love her deeply in their own way. Some of the relationships aren’t always entirely healthy, as she is able to feed off of toxic love and devotion too (but she tries to avoid it).
Given all of this, I want to tread very carefully and avoid orientalist stereotypes of sexualization and objectification, and make sure not to reduce her to just an “object of desire”. I’ve also tried to make sure she isn’t presented as a “seductress” & I also have several other prominent Indian NPCs in this setting. Do you have any feedback about what else I can do to avoid these harmful stereotypes while maintaining her narrative role? Thank you so much for your help and time!
I for one would love to see more Indian/South Asian vampire characters in gothic romances–Armand, as portrayed by Assad Zaman in AMC’s Interview with The Vampire, is possibly one of my favorite fictional vampires ever! (Even though he is not exactly a force of humanity and goodness.)
Based on what you have described so far about your project, it looks pretty good, especially the fact that you have several other Indian characters–this can prevent the dangers of token representation. Here are some additional pointers to think of.
Appearance
Is this character dark-skinned? And if so, is she the only example of a dark-skinned South Asian woman in the entire project?
India as such is very heterogeneous; even if you have, say, more than five major characters sharing the same nationality, they may look and sound entirely different. Given India’s rampant history of colorism, and social linkages of skin color to caste “purity”, it would be quite refreshing to have a powerful dark-skinned Indian female character with magical abilities, if she is not exoticized.
Abilities
What you have described of her magic sounds like a mix of vampirism and succubus-like tendencies (“feeding off” love or desire). I would be slightly cautious about leaning into these powers if she is the only character, South Asian or otherwise, who carries out this type of feeding.
Are there other vampires in your worldbuilding who also feed off emotions instead of blood, and are any of them tied to the domain of “love” like she is? If not, you might want to trace your logic about why you have linked a racialized female character’s magical abilities explicitly to desire and sexuality, be it romantic or otherwise. I have always found the allotment of magical powers to be a fascinating area where our subconscious bias seeps through.
(Example: In the anime-manga Demon Slayer, there are only two female “Hashira” warriors, as opposed to seven male ones. While the latter’s powerful abilities are linked to elemental domains like water, fire, wind, et cetera–of the two women warriors, one is described to be physically weaker, while the other’s fighting style draws from the “love” domain. She is also the only Hashira depicted in a sexualized, uncomfortable outfit. Just something to think about.)
Also, mainly because I’m interested in Gothic literary/cultural signifiers–I would want to know why you chose to make this character feed off emotions and not blood. Is there an ethical implication? Clearly, from your description, she is not solely consuming negative emotions. Feeding off emotions is not morally neutral, just as depending on blood isn’t inherently immoral; both would ideally involve some sort of agreement or contract, related to bodily autonomy.
Agency
Does your character have a fair bit of significance in other plotlines too? For example:
Does she help with politicking or strategizing?
Does she assist other characters with magical rituals?
Does she have moments of bonding/friendship entirely removed from her abilities?
Does she have a rich inner life with a backstory, or a pressing issue she needs to overcome (say, maybe conflicts with the corrupt vampiric aristocracy in this universe?)
You have mentioned that you don’t simply want her to be a “seductress”, which is appreciated, but what are the steps you are taking to avoid orientalist/racialized sexualization, and to give her a full personhood beyond her magic?
Finally, here are some asks the WWC team have answered before, regarding Orientalist tropes and SFF, which may be useful for your character:
Praising Beauty Without Fetishizing POC
Orientalist Character Designs in Sci-fi/Fantasy Worldbuilding
Religion vs Vampirism Depictions: Islam, Judaism
Hypersexualization of WoC
I hope this was helpful. Here’s my kofi; appreciate a tip.
Mod Mimi
Happy Ambedkar Jayanti to all my moots.💙Babasaheb can enlighten more in one page than a million Hindu shastras and Manusmritis.
The Tragic Mulatto: An American Lie
currently watching. already loving how she’s clocking European countries who usually get away with their hand in starting and sustaining their own countries off of the trans atlantic chattel slave trade. as well as the acknowledgment of the way enslaved Black people were transported at any point in their lives to and from the Caribbean to the US and vice/versa so our history is all mixed up further.
i will say, mulatto is a derogatory slur based on the idea that mixed race Black and white offspring are literally “mules”, with white people representing the “purebred horses” and Black people representing the donkeys in this equation; i still feel like having the rapper Mulatto change her stage name was an overcorrection and not our place to police as monoracial Black people, especially Black ppl not even culturally from America telling a biracial Black young woman how to reclaim a slur that directly impacts and has been used against her, literally growing up in the heart of the south. i was there in the audience listening for the whole Clubhouse call when the change took place and happened. many people carried and projected while dismissing her own experiences and identity, imo.
TFO Megatron is illiterate.
I had this idea about TFO. So in real life caste systems, especially medieval and back, most of the lower and lowest castes are mostly or completely illiterate. So, miners are the lowest ranking caste and their only job is to mine and follow orders.
After Orion becomes Optimus Prime (and effectively the supreme leader of cybertron) he puts time and resources into educating the ex miners and himself. However, Megatron basically only has himself and the high guard as resources. He's not about to admit to any of these power hungry nutjobs that he can't read.
The high guard has no idea since they weren't present in Iacon during Sentinal's reign. They just assumed their fearsome leader can do something as basic as reading.
To avoid being caught, Megatron acts like it is below him to read his own messages or write them. He commands Starscream to do it like a medieval king commands a squire to write his decrees.
26th November 2025
9:01am
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People keep repeating that line - “we’re made in God’s image” - like it’s some cosmic truth carved in stone. But the older I get, the more obvious the real trick becomes: we keep remaking God in our image. Every generation redraws His face the way they want the world to see them.
Right now, we’ve got AI-Shiva with cheekbones that could slice bread, Krishna with a jawline and blue eyes engineered by Photoshop, abs glowing like they’re some model on runway. A Divine masculinity sponsored by the algorithm.
But walk back a few centuries, and the story isn’t so glossy. Imagine a small tribal village at dusk. The upper-caste temple looms somewhere far away, its gates closed to anyone whose feet have touched too much soil, whose hands carry too much labour. The priests have rules. Lists. Boundaries. "You people are not allowed in", and they practice untouchability without any remorse. So these people; the very people who were banned from entering the temple; make their own sanctum, their own Gods.
A pot-bellied Shiva sitting like someone’s favourite uncle. A Krishna as dark as the monsoon; with body hair and scars. Women place flowers around them because these gods look like they might actually laugh with you, not judge you. Men sing bhajans that sound more like lullabies. Children touch the idol’s belly and giggle because their god has one too.
And slowly, a strange kind of warmth fills the room:
not awe, not fear… just belonging.
These weren’t perfect gods. They were human gods. Gods who could sit beside a fire and eat whatever was cooked that day. Gods who danced, God who got tired, who looked like someone’s father or brother or neighbour or uncle.
A God who could exist.
And maybe that’s the point.
Maybe holiness was never supposed to look untouchable. Maybe it was supposed to look familiar enough that you could trust it.
Maybe the most sacred thing is recognising yourself in something divine instead of feeling like you must shrink to deserve it. So yes, let the world chase their airbrushed gods. I’ll keep the ones who look like people. Because a god who looks human is a god who loves without conditions.
I see so many hindutva wadis arguing that caste system is a foreign concept and hinduism only had the varna system. As if the varna system was fair? Also isn't caste derived from the varna system? Like brahmins and Kshatriyas became upper castes, vaishyas became obc and shudra were dalits?
I had the impression that the caste system was the documentation of people who already belonged to the varna system. Do correct me if I'm wrong.
It's a little more complicated than that. Currently, we live under the jaati(or jāti) system broadly speaking. When people talk about the caste system in modern India, it is this system superimposed on the varna system that they are referring to. Functionally, the caste system now is a hybrid of the two systems.
The Varna system and the Jaati System are both systems of social hierarchy.
As everyone is already aware, under the varna system, the society is divided into four categories(i.e. brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras) which are hierarchical in nature and mentioned in the various ancient religious texts. Crucially important to this system is the existence of a fifth category, the untouchables(I assume you're already aware of the practice of untouchability) and the outsiders(often termed as "mlechhas", which is now a derogatory xenophobic{and casteist!} slur coming back into popular use thanks to the resurgence of regressive ideas under hindutva politics). These are important to mention because the marginalization of these people was based on them being an out-group i.e. not part of the varna system. People claim the varnas were mutable based on a handful of examples in said texts but I would like to point out that those examples are said to be exceptions rather than the rule.
The Jaati System would be more familiar to you in terms of lived experience. Under this system, society is divided into socio-ethnic endogamous groups or communities and each of the groups have different socio-economic standing in society. The practice of endogamy(marriage limited to within a social group) is important to this system as there is emphasis on one's birth. This is why people say that intermarriage is the most significant step towards dismantling the entire system, but I digress. Prior to the colonization of India, these groups worked on a purely social basis of privilege and exclusion. Villages and cities were(and still are!) segregated based on these jatis. One's occupation was defined by their birth as long as they lived in their specific society.
I would like to emphasize that this system existed and thrived even before the colonisers ever came knocking on the subcontinent's doors. We can find mentions of the system in the historical accounts of both people of the subcontinent and travellers from outside. A study of people's DNA by some scholars claims that the endogamous groups can be traced back to as far as the Gupta Empire(mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE).
The assertion that the caste system is a purely colonial fabrication is absurd. People point to the term "caste" as being of foreign origin but the term "jaati" already existed and was in use. "Caste" is just another way of referring to jaatis.
Now on to some legitimacy hidden in the nonsensical claims, in the 1901 census of the subcontinent, the British bureaucracy fit the various jatis under the broad classification of the four varnas. It was not a clean fit, leaving many in an awkward position of having been classified wrongly. This is their fault. Not the construction of the system but rather the wrongful categorisation of it.
Officially, there are over 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India. Take these numbers with a grain of salt because there are many unregistered castes and sub-castes to this day fighting their own battles of legal recognition.
The castes do not cleanly map onto the varnas. There are many castes who are in the upper strata of the hierarchy in one region and the lower strata in different regions. The system is incredibly nuanced and complex and our current legal systems have not caught up to the sophistication required to deal with it because of the people in power's adamant insistence of ignoring the system simply because they profit off of the oppression of others.
I don't want to add to the miscategorization but I feel like I should correct you on the fact that broadly speaking shudras are classified more under OBCs. (Please keep in mind that this not a clear category and there can be some castes who are said to be shudra who can be other categories as well.) There's much to be said about that because there's no distinction made between the land owner castes and the landless castes. And no, the creamy layer is not a good marker either.
There are some castes(1,108 of them to be exact) who were listed as scheduled castes(SC) in the Constitution of India for affirmative action. This was done to socially reform the country and help those in the marginalized sections of society to gain social mobility. The hope was to remove caste discrimination. As we know, it wasn't successful because caste discrimination still exists and caste based violence is on the rise again.
The term dalit is a contemporary word for the untouchable castes who were and are subjected to despicable discrimination in society.
The reason that I say that we now function under a hybrid of the two systems is that the superimposition of the varna system over the jaati system has been accepted and in many cases, embraced by the people now. You will find many a "upper caste" people proudly flaunting their Brahmin or kshatriya identities. The varna system is now interlinked with the jaati or the caste system whether we like it or not.
The system is complicated and fucked. We should get rid of it, guys. And with your help, you can make that dream a reality.
-Mod S
How many braincells did I lose by arguing with a casteist about reservation..
the answer is all of them because their ignorance towards reality made them disappear.
