Wizards of the Coast has been releasing new art and interviews on this year’s biggest book to come out of the company, Dungeons and Dragons Sixth Edition. Oh, sorry, I’m being told this is, in fact, not a new edition; it is actually called One DnD. Apologies again; it’s not even called One DnD; they are just referring to these as the 2024 Core Rule Books. Unless I haven’t made it entirely clear, Wizards of the Coast has been a bit inconsistent with this release.

Most, if not all, of their announcements about the changes made in this book are either incredibly vague or include information players have had for quite a while now, thanks to public playtesting of the new material. The secrecy is likely to prevent players from reverse engineering the rules and writing them down for themselves (yo ho yo ho maties). Instead of releasing rule changes, Wizards of the Coast has been releasing art. Which includes this piece:

This art was released almost a month ago by artist Mike Pape on Twitter (@WingBuffet) as part of the art reveals for the new rule books. He describes how he went about drawing the new Orc species, keeping in mind their shorter lifespan and how close knit families would be. Something you may have picked up on right away is the inspiration from Mexican culture in the art.

In the weeks since this art was posted, a tirade of conversations has begun debating the racial representation ethics of making Orcs Mexican. Everything from the Wizards of the Coast being racist to the use of stereotypes in media has been cited and argued. It’s worth pointing out that the Dungeons and Dragons community has been primed for this thanks to incidents the company has had previously. I highly recommend reading into writings by Cecilia D’anastasio and Benjamin J.J. Carpenter if this interests you.

I truly and honestly wish this article could be about this: the complex web of biases and history flowing through fantasy as a genre and Dungeons and Dragons as a game embodying that genre. Unfortunately, Wizards of the Coast doesn’t actually have the “huevos” to make anything explicitly Mexican. In fact, the fastest route to finding this art is through a Twitter post by the artist, who also did not make any claims that the art depicts Mexican culture in any way.

“Wait, so the Orcs aren’t Mexican?” you may be asking. Oh, don’t worry; they still are, but not because a large company said so. It isn’t necessarily because the artist said so either. Within their replies and comments, the closest they get to labeling the Orcs in any real-world terms is Western. The vague details make sense since Fantasy roleplaying is about what you could be, not what something is. So, who in the world is actually saying Orcs are Mexican?

That’s right, one of the predominant groups saying Orcs are Mexican now is, in fact, other Mexicans. Creators on TikTok, such as Dr. C, munchy_munk, Lysander, and many more, have taken to posting their ideas and excitement in response to this one piece of art. Aside from online creators, I showed some family and friends myself, only receiving amusement and joy in equal parts. This begs the question, where is the controversy coming from?

Largely, the oppositional opinions originate from two camps: not Orc enough and too Orc for Mexicans. The first group argues that the art depicts them in too similar a manner to humans. The argument is that Orcs are meant to be a monstrous race, so playing them should be far from human. The second group is largely convinced Orcs have origins rooted in racist stereotypes of other cultures, so their association with Mexican culture is an offense.

The issues that arise with the simple contradictory facts at hand. If Orcs are too relatable and human, then suddenly they don’t count as a separate fantasy species. The more monstrous Orcs are, the more any ounce of culture they have is brought into question. On top of that, these critiques are under the impression Wizards of the Coast themselves have attributed Mexican culture to the Orcs, when this couldn’t be further from the truth.

So, what the hell is anyone mad about again? To press this down into information paste, an artist from Wizards of the Coast released art of Orcs with vaguely desert-based themes and characters bearing some resemblance to Mexican people. In response, Mexicans appropriated Orcs as a form of representation, and largely non-Mexican people have leapt to defend them against a company that has admittedly messed up many times in the past.

I would be lying if I said this situation wasn’t gray at all. Even with all the new opportunities for introducing Mexican culture to the TTRPG community, it will still be strange doing so through another species. Truth be told, even with these issues this is far better representation than before. Where once we could only look and see dangerous temples in the jungle with dangerous natives sacrificing humans, now there’s a relatable family with a new face.

Latiné representation is often few and far between in today’s media. Either a character is an over-the-top collection of stereotypes screaming, “Please love me target demographic”, or they’re a generic character with Lopez as a last name. This has led to Mexicans, among other Latiné groups, taking any character that fits their culture and declaring them Mexican. From Goku to Shadow the Hedgehog and now Orcs, any character can be Mexican as long as Mexicans say so and absolutely no one else.

Are there any Mexican-inspired Orc characters you’re excited to play as? Let us know in the comments below.