[Glorantha] Orange hair signifies....?

In message <20070626121058.38408.qmail@web27201.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Jane Williams writes:

>Just been reading some ancient notes on what colour
>goes with what element, and I gather that Orange is
>(or was) the colour associated with Air.

I think this originates in the time just after the erruption of the volcano which inspired the stories of Atlantis. Some investigators have concluded that for several generations the air was so full of dust that it was orange.

Certainly the modern association is pale blue for air.

>And then I
>though about Vingan "red" hair. After all, what we
>call red hair isn't red at all - not in the Red Moon
>sense. It's orange. Ginger. The colour of Air... And
>dyeing it might well be saying "yes, I'm the daughter
>of Air, I am!" I really should have caught on to this
>a very long time ago, I know... or have I got some
>vital aspect of it wrong, anyway?

This is dependant on a mythical association in Glorantha between air and orange.

Something else to confuse the issue is that the names of colours have changed over time. Someone found an original material swatch from the Brighton Pavilion which had been preserved away from light. It is described as scarlet but in modern terms it is a reddish orange.

There's also the matter of available dyes. I'm of the view that the dark red of the Moon is only achievable with rare dyes. There's probably a Lunar monopoly of them within the empire. Maybe a crucial ingredient comes from the Moon itself. Which in turn means that a lot of Lunar troops will use a more orangey shade because someone's saving money.

Given that there are limits to what hair dyes can do to change a shade unless the hair is bleached first I think there's an awful lot of variation in "Vingan red". At one extreme you'll have women with natural ginger hair and natural blonds who a bit of henna will give a bright orangey red. At the other you'll have naturally dark brown or black hair which will merely get a reddish tint. In between you'll get a majority who's brown hair is shaded brighter. The goddess herself is depicted with bright orangey-red hair but I don't see many of her followers bothering to match it.

Of course that's Sartarite Vingans. I wonder what the Vingans of Holay do. Maybe they follow a crimson haired Vinga.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/