The Color of Magic

[kaynide]

This has probably been put out there, but especially with the latest trailer showing Solution 9 vehicles, it goe me wondering:

We see very specific coloration in certain “magic powered” and “magic charged” things.

Like, in the “neon highlights”, we see:
Allagan tech is typically cyan (as is Ironworks; not sure if it’s identical in color)
Garlean has red
S9 is purple
The “Ark” on the mountain top near Rhalgar’s Reach is green
Azys Lla has a variety of coloration

Crystals also have some color:
The yellows from bahamut
The big red in Corthas
The blue Crystal tower


This has me wondering, what if anything the colors mean.

The obvious would say purple means lightning based, but blue in Allagan/Crystal tower doesn’t necessarily mean ice or water.

And I believe the yellow in Thanalan is described as corruption.

Do we know? Or is it just aesthetic choice?

[diamondedge83]

The Color of Magic? GNU Terry Pratchett


The color most likely has to do with what element the energy source aligns with. Ceruleum being blue could mean it's water/ice aligned, though it is flammable and volotile. That being said, in the Eighth Umbral Calamity, Black Rose rendered Ceruleum inert, and Black Rose, despite it's name is Light aligned (because it causes instant stagnation of Aether). It could be that Ceruleum is Darkness aligned though that's always been like a dark purple. Perhaps black rose just stagnates all aether. Or like you said, it could just be personal preference because it looks cool? From what we're shown it looks like all the purple tech in Dawntrail is lightning aligned.

[Cleretic]

So far it seems like the purple in Solution Nine is from lightning, but it might not be that every color choice has a deep lore reason for it. Allag's stuff might be largely blue because blue looks nice and their main initial setpiece to build around was the Crystal Tower.

[kaynide]

Yeah, I couldn’t help the Prachett reference

Color seems kinda wild, because if we go by the crafting crystals and/or elemental sprites, we get:

Red=fire
Yellow=earth
Blue=water
Green=wind
Purple=lightning, but it’s a bright neon purple
Cyan=ice
White=light
Black=dark, but dark purples are also used

This color scheme carries over from FFXI.

I thought about Japan’s culture a little, and I am inclined to think the blue of the Crystal tower, the aetherytes and even Hydalaen aren’t necessarily water, but rather pure (maybe balanced?) aether. If we look at classic FFs, that light blue seems to be the default “Crystal” color.

Why? Well…
This is of note, perhaps… in English, blue is quite a “big” word, and light blue or navy blue or whatnot are considered to be a “blue”. In Japanese, light blue (mizuiro, which oddly means “water color”) is considered its own color, independent from blue (think like pink and red).

So, I’m inclined to believe:

Blue (as in royal blue) = water (like found in the pixie dungeon)
Cyan = ice
Light Blue = pure aether?

This makes me think that the Allagan machines used “pure-ish” or as pure as we can get, rather than, say, ice aether.

…but like Cleretic said it could just be aesthetics.

[MikkoAkure]

This makes me think that the Allagan machines used “pure-ish” or as pure as we can get, rather than, say, ice aether.

…but like Cleretic said it could just be aesthetics.

It’s probably just aesthetics. Allagans mostly used blue but some locations in Azys Lla and Seal rock use red or yellow and some individual machines can come with red, yellow, or green tron lines.

[Cleretic]

In all honesty, I think you're just observing a general tendency of the developers to use color as a major element of distinguishing between similar aesthetics. There's a lot of passingly similar elements to Allag and Garlemald, so a big way you depict them differently is through color; Garlemald's surfaces are much darker, and its lights mostly lean towards red circles and conventional lights, while Allag is brighter and is typically lit through lines that are usually in yellows and blues, and occasionally greens; usually by the time reds enter the color palette, it's pretty deep into an Allagan thing to the point where there won't be confusion. This is especially noticeable with the high-tech civilizations thanks to that coloration usually affecting the lighting, but you can see it in other places, too.

Solution Nine is probably very purple because that is a primary way to differentiate it from Allag; if the City of Gold were actually predominantly gold it would be too easily mistaken for some Allagan areas. (And probably also parts of Ronka.) It's not the only instance of purple tech in the game, but it's visibly extremely different from the other main instance: Mhach.

[SannaR]

Some of the Solution 9 stuff is purple with an earthy tan overlay that looks gold in hue. I think the ark in the peaks also has some of the same brownish hues.

[diamondedge83]

It's definitely all aesthetic and if/when there is lore for the colors, it comes later as a means to fill in the cracks so to speak. There's no reason Rogue Squadron's X-Wing has to have red lasers while the Galactic Empire's TIE-Fighter has green lasers, other than George Lucas wanted people to know who's good and bad at a distance.

[kaynide]

It's definitely all aesthetic and if/when there is lore for the colors, it comes later as a means to fill in the cracks so to speak. There's no reason Rogue Squadron's X-Wing has to have red lasers while the Galactic Empire's TIE-Fighter has green lasers, other than George Lucas wanted people to know who's good and bad at a distance.

This is probably all there is to it, yeah. It might become a thing retroactively but yes. The purple of S9 does reinforce the lightning nature of how we understand their society to be, but it also makes it clear to us that they aren't necessarily just Allagans. If they were that blue color no one would really doubt it I feel.