I am looking at introducing a custom creature to the barn, a Wendigo, but I want to be respectful to the people the folklore belongs to. I understand if the conclusion is to not make it at all but I would like to get input on the topic either way. I have read what I've found available on the topic by native people but as this game is a 'create your own character' and very far from what I've been able to find info for it's hard to determine if this is something that would be ok. I don't plan on having the Wendigo be killable so there will be no white people/Christians 'cleansing' it which i would definitely not want but the story does not include any Algonquian characters that we know of (though this may be the farmer themselves or a character mod/headcannon but can not be confirmed). I want to make sure I'm going about this in a respectful way so any help would be very appreciated! I won't bother explaining a Windego since that's obviously not mine to explain here, I'll just go into the mod choices and why I picked them: As for the mod, I was thinking that in order to keep with what I understand are the core beliefs behind the Wendigo I would have it drop gold (or another 'valuable' item) that represents greed and then at a higher heart level it would begin dropping meat (or a strange bun if i can not manage to make the meat work but I have my fingers crossed) for the Wendigo's attempts to draw the farmer into cannibalism / make them into a Wendigo. I have no intention of portraying it as a good or neutral monster, this is an evil creature so I want to show that with the unsettling drops as well as I can for the restrictions given the type of game this is, that said feel free to offer alternative drop ideas (please understand adding entirely new drop items may be un-doable with my current knowledge). Of course, thank you to anyone who offers their time to answer this. I will be sure to thank any person for their input with a shout out and link on the mod page (if it is created)!
Also I would like to be clear that I am not looking for general opinions from anyone who is not Algonquian unless it is linking to someone who is. A few comments on the other thread seemed to be confused about "I don't plan on having the Wendigo be killable so there will be no white people/Christians 'cleansing' it which i would definitely not want" that somehow twisted this to it not being killable BECAUSE of white people/christians or that being white/christian was somehow a relevant factor to seeing it as evil? Those are both not the intent here, rather I am making this clear as I have read in a couple of posts from First Nations people that specifically they did not like seeing the Wendigo or other native folk lore creatures being killed by whites/christians in stories and that this was an issue they had faced. I am not sure which stories they encountered with these themes but I believe them that this is an issue and I want to be clear that this is not the intent. As for addressing why an evil creature would be kept is that I am working on a 'monster' barn and would like to include cryptids from around the world. It's a dark path for the farmer to take so the creatures will generally be very different from the normal barn.
First thing...there is not a concret question you are asking. Someone with a specific ethnical background should help you with what? Maybe you could specify that. And another...you are talking about respect. First you say you don't want any opinions from people without your prefered ethnical background. And then you say you want to treat this theme respectfully by using legendary monsters from different cultures as livestock that tries to convince you to become evil in a political correct way (I mean...usually Wendigos don't give you offerings to become one of them, it is a lot darker ). I don't see how this is any more respectful. Btw linking games where Wendigos get killed to an ethnical cleansing by white people is...a daring thesis .
I would think the first course of action is create any custom animal and introduce it to the barn. Have you done that? How'd that work out? If you haven't put a custom animal in the barn, I would think that any talk of Wendigo's is a bit premature. An added benefit of working first with some other made up, fantasy creature, would be that you could flesh out the actual modding requirements without sounding so bigoted toward people who have never taken part in, or had any intention of 'cleansing' real life, fantasy creatures.
Uhh, you know that wendigos eat people, right? There is no way a wendigo would just let the farmer harvest anything from it - they would much rather kill and eat you. Plus, in some traditions, people who are in contact with them for too long turn into wendigos themselves. While the wendigo as a concept might be what you want to portray, I suggest finding a different way to portray it.
Hey, I know this post is pretty old, but have you checked out a site like this one? I'm not sure you'll be able to find anybody just here on the forums that can provide accurate input on this idea. I would reach out to that blog and see if they can connect you with someone who can help! I thank you for the way you approached this idea though, unfortunately there's not much respect for appropriated Native folklore and it's very refreshing to see!
