Colors
Colors, more commonly called shades in the world of In Stars and Time and START AGAIN: a prologue, are the perception of light at specific wavelengths.
History
An extremely ancient event made all people unable to perceive colors.[1] Since then, people have only been able to see in shades of black and white and ended up forgetting the existence of colors, despite them still existing.[2]
The rediscovery of colors is recent (as shown by Isabeau not knowing about it)[3] and most of the research on the subject is done in the House of Corbeaux.[4] Many theories have been suggested to explain the disappearance of colors from human perception, such as a Craft experiment gone horribly wrong or the side effect of an ancient Craft war,[5] but the global scale of the event and its improbability suggest that the event is related to Wish Craft.[6] The reason for such a specific wish is unknown.
Description
People not being able to perceive colors has led them to give different names to common shades of black and white: black is called lightless and white is called darkless, while light grey is called light and dark grey is called dark.[7]
Some circumstances can cause someone to be able to perceive the color red. According to the book found in the observatory, it usually happens moments before something 'breaks':[8] this could either mean right before the end of the world (with the world 'righting itself' before it’s destroyed),[9] as is seen when Siffrin almost destroys the world during his mental breakdown in ACT 5, or right before someone tries to go against a Wish spell, as is seen with Siffrin being able to see red when they and the King try to say the name of their forgotten country.[10][11]
Red is described by people who have seen it as 'scary', 'dangerous' and 'visceral'.[12]
Trivia
- Siffrin loves white, while Isabeau and Bonnie love black (the former because it’s fashionable, the latter because it’s edgy). Mirabelle prefers light grey, whereas Odile prefers darker shades.[13]
- insertdisc5 does not know why someone would wish for colors to disappear, because she wanted some questions to be left unanswered and up to people’s imagination.[14][15]
- The developer’s old notes mention specific shades being used for hair dyes, such as 'midnight dark', 'tomato grey' and 'snow light', but they are never mentioned in-game due to the event in question never being added to the final game.[7]
References
- ↑
"Bonnie: "Something big must've happened, right? For everyone not be able to see [colors] anymore!"
Mirabelle: "And it was a very long time ago, so there’s probably no records of why…" — Bonnie and Mirabelle talking about what could have made colors disappear, In Stars and Time - ↑ "I think the world around us still are those ‘colors’, but we just, um, forgot how to see them?" — Mirabelle talking about colors, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "This is a relatively new discovery, so I'm not surprised you haven’t heard, Isabeau… But a very long time ago, we could apparently see shades called 'colors'." — Odile, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "I think the House over in Corbeaux was researching it." — Mirabelle talking about the rediscovery of colors, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "There seems to be a lot of theories… A Craft experiment gone horribly wrong, the side effect of a Craft war… Whatever happened then, all colors disappeared from this world." — Odile reading the book about colors in the observatory, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "I do wonder what could've made that happen, yes. [...] Ah yes… If Wish Craft can really make the impossible come true, maybe that is what happened. — Odile theorizing about what could have made colors disappear, In Stars and Time
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "White=darkless, Black=lightless. Light and Dark is like light grey/dark grey. Oh my god I’m checking my notes and I wrote a small event I never used about hair dye colors like ‘midnight dark’, ‘tomato grey’, ‘snow light’ past me that’s so fucking funny" | https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1677310/view/6714370676642380498?l=english
- ↑ "Funny you should mention it… People have been known to see a 'weird shade' during… Um, 'Times of immense trouble'? [...] Sorry, it’s a little tough to translate… Moments before something 'breaks', maybe?" — Odile reading the book in the observatory, In Stars and Time
- ↑
Isabeau: "Like, during the end of something? Or something gets destroyed? Like the end of the world?"
Mirabelle: "If colors were an integral part of the world… Then the world rights itself right before the end…" — Isabeau and Mirabelle talking about the book in the observatory, In Stars and Time - ↑ "What you saw, when you talked to the King… Was that a 'color'?" — Siffrin, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "(Colors appear when something 'breaks', huh… When the King tried so hard to say your country's name… Did something 'break' then?)" — Siffrin thinking about the strange shade he saw when the King tried to say his country's name, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "They described this shade as… 'scary'? 'Dangerous'? 'Visceral', maybe?" — Odile reading the book in the observatory, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Anyway, Siffrin loves darkless, Mirabelle is more of a light shade lover, Isabeau loves that lightless (BECAUSE IT’S FASHIONABLE OK), Odile likes darker shades, and Bonnie also loves lightless (BECAUSE IT’S AS DARK AS MY SOUL OK)" | https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1677310/view/6714370676642380498?l=english
- ↑
Ask: "So you said that That Country and colors were both erased with wish magic. I get the country, I could think of a million ways that could happen. Who in God's name, had such massive BEEF with fuckinj COLORS, that they wished hard enough to completely alter the appearance of all of reality? Who does that? To what end?"
Answer: "I dunno" | https://insertdisc5.tumblr.com/post/745401514387013632 - ↑
Ask: "But so what happened to the Country? What was its name? What about the wishes? What about the colors? What did Siffrin say as an openphrase to open the door to the King’s room? What about–"
Answer: "I will not answer those. It’s your turn" | https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1677310/view/6714370676642380498?l=english