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circus

Historically, circuses were often the home of freak shows, sites of exploitation of people of color, very fat people, and disabled people who in many cases could not access other forms of income. Be careful how you depict characters and normalize mistreatment in a circus setting. Further reading: Disability in the Archive: Freaks & Geeks (Meg Szydlik, Massachusetts Historical Society), African Americans & The Circus (National Museum of African American History & Culture).

cartel

Formally, a cartel is an association of manufacturers or suppliers restricting competition and maintaining high prices. Informally, the term is often used in a loaded way linking to organized crime selling drugs.

tribe

The term "tribe" is often used to recognize distinct groups within Indigenous cultures. It is also often harmfully linked to negative associations of primitiveness and savagery. Be mindful when worldbuilding groups that parallel real-world cultures, and of which cultural associations you ascribe to them in your lore. Further reading: The Trouble With Tribe (Chris Lowe, Southern Poverty Law Center).

formed out of colonial interests or resistance; reclaim or restore a homeland or sacred location

Be mindful of worldbuilding or storytelling that parallels real-world movements and struggles, especially where the parallels involve colonialism, oppression, violence, or genocide. Be especially cautious about oversimplifying the causes, effects, and solutions of colonialism and oppression. Further reading: Writing the Margins from the Centre and Other Moral Geometries (Amal El-Mohtar, Uncanny Magazine), Never Say You Can’t Survive: When Is It Okay To Write About Someone Else’s Culture or Experience? (Charlie Jane Anders, Tor.com).

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chieftain

The term "chieftain" is often used to describe leaders in Indigenous cultures and tribal groups. See "tribe" under "Faction Cards."

personality or physical traits of a creature

Exercise caution when associating people with animals. There is a long and racist history of dehumanizing people of color, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups by comparing them to animals. Many animals were used (and are still used) as hate symbols. Further reading: What Happens When Groups Of People Are Described As Animals (Shereen Marisol Meraji, NPR), The Racist Trope That Won't Die (Brent Staples, The New York Times).

mumbles or stutters

A stutter is a common form of speech disorder that usually follows specific patterns, such as repeated or prolonged sounds, syllables, and words, often accompanied by eye blinks, link tremors, or other indicators of struggle. When writing speech disorders or disruptions, it helps to research the patterns and stressors that may be relevant to the character's experience. Further reading: Stuttering (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders).

culturally specific headwear

Be mindful of real-world cultural contexts when writing about headwear. Certain forms of headwear are tied to culturally specific traditions, often with a long history of oppression, prejudice, or marginalization. Examples include Tignon laws in the United States, the confiscation and appropriation of Indigenous headdresses in North America, and Islamophobic responses to turbans and headscarves worldwide. Further reading: What is Tignon Law? (Wrap Life), Headwrap: A Cultural Symbol (Krystle DeSantos, AphroChic), An Open Letter to Non-Natives in Headdresses (âpihtawikosisân, apihtawikosisan.com), Indigenous Regalia in Canada (The Canadian Encyclopedia), Muslim Women and the Politics of the Headscarf (Anna Piela, JSTOR Daily).

noticeable scar or wound

Depictions of characters with scars and wounds sometimes fall into certain ableist tropes, especially when it comes to facial disfigurement, burn scars, or wounds that affect physical or mental ability.  Further reading: Hey Hollywood – Scars Don’t Make You Evil (Lise Deguire, Face Equality International), Writing Disabilities, Part 4: Villains and Disabilities (Rachel Spencer, Listen Up), Tips for Writing About Characters With Burn Scars (Niki Averton, Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors).

wears glasses or an aid to see or hear

Assistive devices can help with visual and auditory impairment, two disabilities that are often misrepresented. Be mindful and accurate when depicting characters who blind, deaf, or hard of sight or hearing. Further reading: Constructing Blindness (Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Reactor Magazine), So, You Wanna Write a Blind Character (Elsa S. Henry, Terrible Minds).

regionally specific or mixed accent

Accents and dialect can help regionalize characters, and can be an empowering experience for writers presenting their own dialects and accents, but can extremely demeaning if done badly or with ill intent. Further reading: The POC Guide to Writing Dialect In Fiction (Kai Ashante Wilson, Reactor Magazine), Writing Characters of Different Races and Ethnicities (Writing the Other).

seek or develop a treatment for an illness; recover from the effects of an event; chronic pain or illness

Narratives about cures for illness, injury, or disability can often fall into ableist tropes where a character is not considered complete or realized until their disability is erased. This is especially true for stigmatized conditions, chronic illnesses, and disabilities that are frequently misunderstood or misrepresented. Be careful how you depict disabled characters and healing (especially magical healing) in your work. Further reading: The lure of the magical cure (Chloe Johnson, The Bookseller), Power Structures Are Meant to Be Broken (Elsa Sjunneson, Fireside Fiction Company), 4 Tips for Writing About a Character With Chronic Illness (Katrina Quarry, The Mighty).

prosthesis or missing limb

Amputations, limb differences, and prosthetics are often misrepresented in fiction and are linked to a variety of harmful tropes. The experiences of amputees may vary immensely depending on the degree and location of amputation(s) and the choice (and options) for prosthetics. Do research and be mindful when representing the experience of people with limb differences. Further reading: 10 Things Amputees and People With Limb Differences Want You to Know (Susie Armitage, SELF), Writing Amputees (Diane Morrison, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America).

prone to delusion or paranoia

Delusion and paranoia are often symptoms of mental health disorders, such as a schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and postnatal psychosis, among others. These symptoms and the disorders they are linked to are often harmfully and/or inaccurately represented in media. By mindful of how you present these traits, and how the characters who present them are framed in your storytelling. Further reading: Paranoia and Delusional Disorders (Mental Health America), Paranoia (Mind.org.uk), How to Treat Mentally Ill Characters When Writing a Novel (Sonja Yoerg, Writer's Digest).

notable hairstyle, facial hair, or body hair

Be mindful of racial bias that exists around hair and hairstyles, especially for Black people and other people of color, as well as misogyny directed at women's facial and body hair. Further reading: ‘Plucked’: Race, gender, science, medicine converge in history of hair removal (Doug Hubley, Bates College), How Hair Discrimination Affects Black Women at Work (Janice Gassam Asare, Harvard Business Review).

serious phobia of a creature

Phobias are recognized as anxiety disorders. Be mindful of introducing phobias for comedic effect, or treating them as delusions or mindset issues that can be cured by forcing contact with the phobia in an uncontrolled setting. Further Reading: What Is a Phobia? Fostering Understanding and Reducing Stigma (Stigma-Free Society).

anxious or fearful mannerisms

Anxiety is a broad category of disorders and a symptom of a variety of medical conditions. Be mindful and accurate when representing anxiety or its symptoms. Further Reading: What You Need To Know to Write Anxiety in Fiction (Everly Reed, everlyreed.com).

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riot(s)

"Riot" is a loaded term often used by governments and groups in power to de-legitimize protests, demonstrations, and other resistance movements that use social discomfort or disrupt the status quo, especially with regards to race. Consider why a particular event would be labeled a "riot" instead of a "protest" or "resistance," and who would use (or not use) that term to describe it. Further reading: A riot or an uprising? (Angelyn Francis, The Toronto Star), Riot or Rebellion? The Meaning of Violent Protest from the 1960s to George Floyd (Elizabeth Hinton, Vera).

massacre

Be mindful of depictions of extreme violence, especially when that violence is directed at a specific culture, race, religion, or other protected group and/or parallels real-world events. Consider providing a content advisory, content warning, or trigger warning. Further reading: Content Warnings (DePaul Teaching Commons, DePaul University).

heavily politicized (by a Faction)

The term "politicized" generally has a negative connotation and can encompass a variety of scenarios, some of which evoke bias toward minority groups. People from marginalized or targeted groups are often dismissed as "making things political" when they speak about their lived experience, especially when that experience makes people in the dominant cultural group uncomfortable. Consider carefully what you, and the power groups in your world, consider to be "political," and who benefits when a conversation, perspective, or stance receives that label.

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pyramid

Pyramid structures appear in a variety of cultures worldwide and are often sacred sites. Popular media depicting pyramids often falls into tomb-raiding or archaeological colonialism tropes with little regard for the cultures involved. Be careful of the tropes you choose to include. Additionally, pyramids are frequently associated with outdated colonial images of Egypt and Egyptomania. Be mindful about reproducing colonial or Orientalist tropes when writing about Egypt-inspired settings. Further reading: Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism (Nicholas C. Laluk and Joseph Aguilar, Sapiens Anthropology Magazine), The Adventuring Archaeologist Trope (Katy Meyers, Play the Past), The Casual Colonialism of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones (Daniel A. Gross, Hyperallergic).

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headwrap

See "culturally specific headwear" under "Figure Cards."

repairing, restorative, or healing properties

See "seek or develop a treatment for an illness" under "Figure Cards."

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affects moods or emotions

Substances that affect mood and emotions are often linked to psychiatric medications and mood disorders, both of which carry significant social stigma and are often misunderstood and misrepresented. Be mindful of falling into harmful tropes that depict medications as a social evil, or that indicate medication should be mandatory. Further reading: The Stigma Around Psychiatric Medication Is Forcing People to Suffer In Silence (Dominique Michelle Astorino, Shape).

traditionally used by only one sex or gender

Be mindful of worldbuilding that assigns essential biological characteristics to sex or gender. Further reading: Moving Beyond Binaries in Gender-Based Magic Systems: The Wheel of Time and Iron Widow (Tor.com), Writing Characters of Different Genders | Trans, Non-Binary, Cisgender, More (Writing the Other).

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associated with a cultural value or personal quality

See "personality or physical traits of a creature" under "Figure Cards."

hunted as a rite of passage (by a Faction)

Animal hunts are part of some sacred and/or subsistence-based Indigenous traditions, many of which are represented with colonial bias in media. Be mindful of your own bias and assumptions when depicting a rite of passage that parallels a real-world cultural tradition. Further reading: Facing the Lion (Maasai Warriors, Maasai Association), An 'Angry Inuk' defends the seal hunt, again (Alexandra Pope, Canadian Geographic).

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exile or persecution of a deity's followers

Be mindful of depicting violence or oppression that parallels real-world religious conflicts or colonial experiences. Be especially careful of writing a story that oversimplifies the causes of persecution and bigotry, or implies the violence was in any way provoked or deserved. Further reading: Ethics in Magical World-Building: Fantasy Bigotry (Dorian Dawes, Medium).

considered a healing site

See "seek or develop a treatment for an illness" under "Figure Cards."

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golem

While in fantasy the term "golem" is often used generically to refer to a living or animated construct, the word comes from the Jewish tradition and has specific meanings dating back to the Ketuvim and Talmud. Be mindful of the religious and cultural origins of the word. Further reading: Golem (Jewish Museum Berlin), Modern Jewish History: The Golem (Alden Oreck, Jewish Virtual Library).