I'm just going to leave these vandalized chapter comics here.

[Robert Vance]

Wasn't the leader of the Sidereal "independent" faction also a black man? Or am I misremembering?

The fact that both you and I can only kinda hazily recall that guy is probably a good indicator that's he not a prominent character.

[Erinys]

Nazri? He's the head of the Convention of Fire, I think, and tries to help young independents, but he isn't a leader of them, because that's like herding cats. And he's probably too dedicated to his actual job to bother with that even if some independents wanted him to lead a new faction.

I dunno what he looks like.

The setting's only prominent Black male is the son of a single mother who is a prostitute. He becomes a prizefighter and starts pointless beef onstage so he can get rich. He spends all his money on hookers and blow. He Exalts during a hangover and becomes a holy-roller who runs around Creation with his shirt off showing off his tattoos, alternately yelling at his problems and punching them in the face. At one point he mugs a Lunar Exalt for his bling. And he's an angry Black man. Named Panther.

Weellll I didn't know/remember most of that or see it in that light before. Wow, yeah that's not good.

Also I just remembered that the most prominant black woman was sold into slavery as a baby and grew up in an evil demon cult. Which would probably be fine and an interesting background for a Solar*, on her own, but suddenly in the context of the sig circle it looks less cool.


*I do have to laugh though at the Salmalin for kicking her out. A woman they raised from birth told them she had magical Exalted powers and asked how the demons wanted her to use them, and they somehow decided they didn't want a completely loyal Solar akuma in their cult. *shakes head*

[TheCountAlucard]

To be fair, her backstory predates akuma.

[UltraFennec]

Nazri has a little headshot in MoEP: Sidereals in the same section that has bits on um...Chejop's there, and Ayesha Ura, I think Gracious Shaia too? And like one other person, maybe. He looked vaguely Nigerian to me, and was smiling warmly.

[Khantalas]

The other person is Righteous Tsunami, and he is the best.

((I keep calling Tya "he" despite that all the game text so far has called them "she". Is that right? Is there a Tya-specific pronoun we should use while speaking English, or is "she" actually correct? Tya confuse me immensely, linguistically speaking.))

[TheCountAlucard]

(My understanding was that since the Tya consider themselves male, referring to one as "she" would be pretty rude.)

[Robert Vance]

((I keep calling Tya "he" despite that all the game text so far has called them "she". Is that right? Is there a Tya-specific pronoun we should use while speaking English, or is "she" actually correct? Tya confuse me immensely, linguistically speaking.))

It's going to vary from person to person. For some Tya, their status might have nothing to do with their gender or sexual identity, relating only to the gendered roles they want to perform. For others, it is a matter of how they identify themselves. Good manners in the West would default to the male pronoun, but I'm not sure which Righteous Tsunami was written with.

[Khantalas]

(My understanding was that since the Tya consider themselves male, referring to one as "she" would be pretty rude.)

Tya don't consider themselves male so much as everyone else considers them to be male. Which is unlike Dereth, who explicitly consider themselves as a specific gender.

[Jen]

Jen... If you read this message... this thread calls out for you like nothing else.

Eh, I'm not sure what am I suppose to do here :'O

[Chejop Kejak]

I recall Tya being written consistently with female pronouns. That makes a kind of sense, since the books only focused on Tya-ing as a way for women to be sailors in the West... but, obviously, that's overlooking a pretty massive aspect of ritually giving up one's womanhood, which should be a big damn deal.

Nazri had a pretty sweet picture in the 2E Sidereals book which did, indeed, look like someone from north-central Africa. I liked, and I liked him... and, no, he is not a prominent character. But the stranger thing I just realized: Sad Ivory is from Halta. Why the christ is she so pale?

In fact, why are there no other black Sidereals? Or, indeed, black members of any of the non-Solar sig circles? It's really pathetic how I never noticed that until now...

[Mr.Jaxus]

*I do have to laugh though at the Salmalin for kicking her out. A woman they raised from birth told them she had magical Exalted powers and asked how the demons wanted her to use them, and they somehow decided they didn't want a completely loyal Solar akuma in their cult. *shakes head*

Probably just a fanatical and incompetent priest who found out she was a solar and instantly went to 'MURDER THE YOZI-IMPRISING MONSTER' mode, without communicating with any higher power for orders to corrupt or bargain with her.

[Lula]

The setting had other Black men, but none were prominently displayed. The two Black male Sidereals were Nazri (not prominent—it was essentially his job not to be prominent) and Crimson Banner Executioner (completely concealed and also only probably Black). The stereotypical incompetent African warlord from the back of the South book was a mortal and you don't remember him. Ahlat I don't count for various reasons, such as that, even though he's an archery god, he has a Thrown specialty in javelins and ANOTHER Thrown specialty in spears, apparently solely to make sure we know we can accurately apply the s-word to him. I haven't read it, but Autochthonia may have introduced more—I recall Vance talking about an older man who fought with whips at one point.

[Major]

The fact that both you and I can only kinda hazily recall that guy is probably a good indicator that's he not a prominent character.

Or that he really is Sidereal. Dun dun dun!

[Robert Vance]

I haven't read it, but Autochthonia may have introduced more—I recall Vance talking about an older man who fought with whips at one point.

Didn't get an illo, so probably doesn't count much for representation.

[Mizu]

Probably just a fanatical and incompetent priest who found out she was a solar and instantly went to 'MURDER THE YOZI-IMPRISING MONSTER' mode, without communicating with any higher power for orders to corrupt or bargain with her.

They probably didn't get a very good performance review next time Sondak called them in for one. And not just because I'm pretty sure they were dead.