Bestiary or setting is describing an "evil race"

>Bestiary or setting is describing an "evil race".
>They unhygienic.

Literally. Every. Time.
Why the hell is every single Orc, Goblin, Hill Giant, Gnoll, or what have you some sort of literal unwashed heathen?
I want this meme to fucking die.

>literal unwashed heathen
That's exactly why.

Semiotics, man, learn them.

cleanliness is next to godliness

>I want this meme to fucking die.
No. Clean up your room.

Yeah, after all vikings washed more then so called civilized people - once a week, and greeks bathed in bath houses where floor had a lair of fat, dirt, hair and who else knows what....

Also dirty dwarfs and elfs would be a welcome change

They live in huts or caves, you try being clean.

Yes, bestial races will not be very hygienic. On the flipside Dark Elves are generally incredibly vain and it can be assumed they clean themselves regularly for instance.

Drows? Vampires? not all evil races are filthy pigs

>Yes, bestial races will not be very hygienic.

Why though?

Actual beasts are usually pretty hygienic.. I mean, comparatively speaking.

Because "evil" is whatever is bad.
uncleanliness=disease=evil
Foreigner=not my tribe=will take our resources=evil
snake=threat to children= evil

>Actual beasts are usually pretty hygienic..
Compared to what? When I think Orc, I think of someone on the level of a hunter-gatherer human in terms of development. I imagine most of them at least shit in the corner rather than sleep in it.

Native Americans thought the English and Spanish were smelly freaks. They couldn't understand why these people only bathed once a week. They were especially confused by the European practice of blowing loogies into a handkerchief sticking it in your fucking pocket.

I might use this for my setting's orges, most are dumb brutes obsessed with gold and also cleanliness

It's because modern Western society, especially American, identifies purity with virtue.

Ironically everyone loses their shit over doing it with specific kinds of purity due to historical failures of this paradigm, but they still retain the paradigm itself.

Y'all motherfuckers need Dr. Bronner

Because they're stand-ins for specific kinds of humans. Make of that what you will.

Also Drow wash, I think.

So close to fpbp, yet so far

People don't use Dr. Bronner's?

Bunch of savages in this town.

When Cortez arrived in mexico and was still on decent terms with the Aztecs, the groups accompanying them would burn incense because the Spanish smelled so bad.

Bitches don't know about my purse castile soap

Wasn't this AFTER the west had gotten over the Church going "fuck all your bathing, shit's unhealthy" thing too?

Fear of outsiders equating to fear of disease has been a cornerstone of societies since caveman days.

They had all been on a boat for months. I expect anyone would be a bit ripe at that point

And given that they were a horde of assholes that murdered everyone in sight, I'd say that seeing them as an 'unhygienic evil race' isn't too far off the mark.

Because the unwashed hordes bring new diseases with them your imune system never encountered and will devastate your population generations after they're gone.

All I can think of when I see pic is a tiny viking struggling to operate a makeshift toy castle he calls home

It's time cube in a soap bar!