Why Did the Story Stop Referencing the Colors of Magic?
Lore forum
Posted on Nov. 8, 2024, 9:30 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
The early stories directly referenced the colors of magic, but later stories stopped doing that, to the point that re-reading the early stories and seeing references to the colors now feels weird, so I wonder why WotC made that decision; did it feel too much like breaking the fourth wall? Were they attempting to maintain separation of the gameplay and story, akin to how the various mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons are never discussed in the story of that game? What does everyone else say, about this subject? I certainly am interested to hear your thoughts, about it.
Noire_Samhain says... #3
Referencing the colors directly in a story can come across as very video/tabletop game-y and corny and I think writers have realized this. The magic each color represents is a wide enough diversity that it makes more sense to specify what kind of magic they use instead of an umbrella term.
November 9, 2024 1:48 p.m.
I figure most of the population of, like, Ravnica knows about mana colors. They incorporate the colors into their uniforms, and while Average Golgari Citizen probably doesn't know the details, I'm pretty sure the Simic and Izzet have dedicated research labs that can determine the spectral wavelength of mana.
On Innistrad or something, mana is just "what makes magical stuff happen". It's not well researched--stitchers and ghoulraisers can probably identify black mana, and pyromancers know red mana, but they wouldn't categorize it by color. It's "the type of mana that does dead people magic" or "the type of mana that does fire magic."
Basically, the more stable and cosmopolitan a plane or region is, the more I would expect it to specifically reference the colors of mana. Kaladesh is stable and cosmopolitan, Lorwyn is stable but not cosmopolitan, New Capenna is cosmopolitan but not stable, and Zendikar is neither stable nor cosmopolitan.
That's all my headcanon, so there's probably something out there that contradicts it, but it makes sense to me.
November 9, 2024 4:28 p.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #5
The closest I could think of to a modern, explicit, in-lore reference to color is on Tarkir, the Jeskai speak of “soulfire,” “bloodfire,” “mistfire,” the forbidden “vitalfire” and “deathfire,” and the elusive “ghostfire.” Those seem pretty obviously like the color pie plus colorless.
Icbrgr says... #2
Things change over time? I only own/read one Magic Paperback book and it was basically just a collection of short stories. (Distant planes Anthology) With characters I never heard of... dont even think there were planswalkers in it at all (and if there were I just didn't recognize them).... and I really dont remember any reference to mana or colors of magic at all but I could be wrong and it could be an outlier.
It reminds me of how I felt reading Star wars novels expecting to follow Mainstream Characters and long story arches like following a continuing adventure of Luke Skywalker or something but as I read was just immersed in a world full of characters I never heard of but within a star wars universe I guess.
Nevertheless I enjoyed both despite not exactly getting what I thought I was signing up for.
November 9, 2024 11:19 a.m.