# COEXISTENCE DOESN’T MEAN SELF-ERASURE

In some stories, ecological themes are handled quite superficially: humanity is depicted as a parasite, technology as a source of corruption, and ancient lifestyles become romanticized and stereotyped, often without a solid historical or anthropological base. Although they provide fertile ground for Villains, such simplistic perspectives represent a form of cowardly nihilism.

What natural fantasy proposes is, instead, to make a humble and brave choice: our heroes must stop seeing themselves as masters or tormentors of nature, and remember they are merely one of its many expressions, embracing the responsibilities that arise from their ability to invent, create, and transform.

In short, we can coexist with the planet we live in precisely because we are humans, rather than in spite of it.

## CULTURAL INFLUENCES AND COLONIALISM

When we imagine a story centered around sharing and coexistence, we are often influenced by existing cultures that consider those principles as the foundation of their civilization, tradition, and philosophy. Historically, however, those same cultures have been targeted by violent and repressive colonialist politics, their voices silenced even in present day. Their characteristic cultural elements are often trivialized and reduced to mere appearances, robbed of their significance and made to conform to consumer logic, a surface representation that removes all introspective or revolutionary charge.

If you want to take inspiration from these cultures when you create new stories and characters, please strive not to repeat that harmful rhetoric:

- Look for detailed and not instrumentalized sources which present information with integrity and respect, without trivializing cultural complexities or reducing them to stereotypes.
- If your setting includes tribal cultures, or cultures inspired by real-world native populations, do not consign them to the role of enigmatic strangers, keepers of riches, threats or victims in need of help: make them full-fledged protagonists, avoiding recurring stereotypes like the mystic, the raider or the scout.
- Finally, make sure not to associate the search for harmony and spirituality with a forcibly ascetic, passive or impractical lifestyle; on the same count, do not associate it with a lack of interest in science and technology.