man if it's blowing gamers minds that half of wow's races are based off really hideous stereotypes wait till they learn about star wars aliens

anyway since people wanna keep telling me it's not designs made based off prejudice, ignorance, and racism, and instead somehow labeled 'inspiring' lemme give u some quick pointers for how u can take bits of real world cultures and incorporate them in ur work as real inspiration:

environment: try pulling from the landscape/architecture/seasonal locations of said culture ur observing for writing a fantasy race. There's alot of well rounded inspiration to be had with this established in ur lore that can further ur writing based on where ur species lives.

observe patterns and colors of a culture: make sure to do ur research, especially with religious cultures some designs can be rather sacred or personal. keeping that in mind, you can begin to establish your own sets of patterns and color schemes that can be used for ur species

create ur OWN accents: accenting is hard, and often done on little research and appropriated in games. Beyond that, why would a fantasy universe have accents from earth. study language and how it's built, how different languages gravitate towards some sounds vs another. read up!

if there's a culture that's interesting and inspiring to u, and you'd love to take that inspiration to ur stories, really ask urself what PARTS of this culture you are finding interesting. If you are going to borrow aspects of someone else's culture on the basis of 'inspiration'-

-then do ur god damn homework, and know where lines need to be drawn. also recognize What cultures/races you are taking from, and What type of fantasy race you are putting them into. If the other half of this species is made up on no reference, how are u finishing this character

general things that are great to use as inspiration (still with careful lense as always): a cultures music, what their major exports are, social structures from partners, to families, to communities, to country, etc etc.

these are all vague facts cause its a thing that's too big to lay down strict this and that rules. ultimately it is on you and yourself to recognize how you interpret and take in information when learning about other cultures. question why you're interested more on this then that

if ur about to borrow living culture for writing and arts sake, it really couldn't hurt to ask someone that's apart of that culture for a second opinion. but also it's no one's responsibility to answer that, have a brain use manners.

anyone else of course feel free to add on, there's plenty of good situations where things from our world are the inspiration for neat and interesting stories, just unfortunately there's some people that Won't, and won't question their interpretation of another person's culture.

i also write very bluntly so if i took a step in the wrong direction anywhere in this thread im fine w/ being told/corrected. were all learning here fellas