Colours and Symbolism

[Mysterysword]

Because I need a quick, handy guide on worldbuilding, let's discuss colours as they are used across Eorzea.

What are some examples of different colours being used to represent certain concepts in-game?

Additionally, does anyone have any info on different NPCs wearing certain colours? For example, I heard somewhere that the conjurers of Gridania wear different-coloured robes based on their rank or seniority, how does that work out? What colour represents a junior conjurer, and what represents a senior?

[LineageRazor]

Probably the most dramatic use of color in this game are the colors used to indicate elements. Red for fire, Yellow for earth, Blue for water, Purple for lightning, Green for wind, Light Blue for Ice. It's pretty much always the case that when a creature has an elemental attack, it will be shaded with one of these colors, even if little or nothing else would indicate what element that attack is supposed to be.

It's actually kind of a strange thing, given that elements are, more or less, meaningless in this game from a mechanical standpoint.

[Kyran-Varlsen]

For the players, if they don't just want to dye themselves whatever, I would imagine colors are an issue first and foremost when identifying with one's Grand Company. To my understanding, they are as follows:

Twin Adder: The Twin Adder's primary soldier color is yellow, but their members are also seen wearing green, brown and occasionally black trimming. White is also a good Twin Adder Color because of their affiliation with Conjurers and White Mages.

Maelstrom: The Maelstrom's primary soldier colors are red & black, but they also seem to use gold/silver trimming and white trimming.

Immortal Flames: The primary soldier color of the Flames is blue, but they also lean heavily on black (and say this is their color for some reason), gold trimming, the odd dash of purple or even red.

After the Grand Companies are player classes which might influence a player's tastes. The mages are self-explanatory:

White Mage
Black Mage
Red Mage

Dragoon - blue because you are the Azure Dragoon along with everyone else or something. Not major but I see a lot of Dragoon players get into it.

So it can be kinda hard if you want to make a Red Mage that rocks the class color while staying true to a GC that doesn't use red very much.

Otherwise there are no set patterns on the use of colors that I can discern outside of a lore book.

What always confused me was the Immortal Flames color mix-up, they go on about how their baby chocobo has veins thick with the patriotic black blood of the immortal flames or some such but in pvp the Flame Players are blue and the Flame Soldiers usually wear blue. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say something was lost in translation in the transition from Japanese to English formats of the game, or Square just can't keep things straight. Looking at you "Camps."

[RobinMalvin]

Red for fire, Yellow for earth, Blue for water, Purple for lightning, Green for wind, Light Blue for Ice.

Adding to this, non-elemental spells have white for their color. Green is also used for healing spells casted by Conjurer/White Mage and Arcanist/Scholar. Astrologian has white aura for every spell, likely because they draw power from the stars.

What always confused me was the Immortal Flames color mix-up, they go on about how their baby chocobo has veins thick with the patriotic black blood of the immortal flames or some such but in pvp the Flame Players are blue and the Flame Soldiers usually wear blue.

The Flames' foot soldiers uniform is a bit darker blue, and the glamor options they give as you reach highest rank is mostly black so fast black color maybe given only to those of high ranks. This is also a truth in real life, as natural fast black dye was hard to produce and expensive to get during middle age.

[Aosha]

snip

Other notes on city-state (etc.) related colouring:
Ishgard seems to put a lot of emphasis on lighter blues and greys, but some of their soldiers do also wear brown and I think I've seen some green too. That may also be because each of the four houses have their own colour scheme.
Ala Mhigo's colours are purple and gold, I think.
Garlemald's colours are black, white and red.
And at least the people guarding the gates to the Thavnairian consulate are wearing black and grey, but we can't really draw any conclusions from that.

[Jonnycbad]

Healing spells are green auras because they're wind based. At spells have a white aura similar to PLD and SCH spells because they are not aspected. Broil, Holy Spirit, Malefic are nonelemental as compared to Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, which have colored auras when cast

[Theodric]

There's a pretty interesting passage in the lore book in regards to Garlean symbolism, namely in regards to the Garlean flag:

'The emblem upon the Garlean flag is a chain in abstract design. It symbolises the value the native sons and daughters of Garlemald hold dear: tight unity amongst their small number. In like fashion, the crimson of the central link represents all those who have perished in the name of the Garlean people.'

It can be found word for word on page 176.

[Mysterysword]

Revisiting this thread to ask: What info do we have on the colours that Eorzeans use for occasions such as weddings and funerals?

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Revisiting this thread to ask: What info do we have on the colours that Eorzeans use for occasions such as weddings and funerals?

Eternal Bonds utilize the western "white wedding" imagery and colours, though I'm not sure how applicable the ceremony is to Eorzea as a whole. Meanwhile, I'm not sure we've ever seen an actual funeral ceremony in-game, or even garb of mourning (although isn't the Thaumaturge's Guild related to that stuff?).

[Elladie]

Just redone the short quest series at the church in eastern Thanalan which has some information about death and grave rites. The church belongs to the order of Thal (so, yeah, some tie-in with the thaumaturges) and they all wear cream coloured robes (not black like the Nald'thal folks wear). Not much on ceremonies; there's a lot of dead given the number of refugees in the area, and most people just seem to be abandoned where they drop(especially if they have no family). I found myself hauling at least 4 different corpses around. But the folks at the church are very kindly; they had me gathering Nymeia lilies in the hope the sweet scent would bring the lonely dead some peace. What mourners there were dressed in every day clothes, but they were all poor folks. Wealthy Ul'dahn merchants probably have elaborate funerals; can't recall if we saw Nielesfresne's ( or whatever his name was ) in 1.0