Long-term readers may be familiar with my interest in the notion of mythical beings associated with points of the compass.
While doing some idle wikipedia research for a probably-never-to-be-realised attempt at doing a Herodotus campaign setting, I learned that what we call the Black Sea was actually also known as being "black" in Herodotus' time (despite being called by the Greeks the "Euxine Sea" or "Hospitable Sea"). This was not because of its colour, but because in those days, the colour black was associated with the north. This is also why the Red Sea is known as being red (red being the colour of the south). White was thought to be the colour of the west, and blue the east. (It occurs to me that this may well be the reason why Tolkien's blue wizards went to the east.)
It is striking that the Chinese system was more or less exactly the same, with the Black Tortoise in the north, the White Tiger in the west, the Red Bird in the south, and the Blue Dragon in the east. This may well have beene due to ancient trading routes that existed even before Herodotus's time - it can't be a coincidence - but I also wonder if there is some sort of Jungian collective-unconscious thing going on there too.
Whatever: there are so many ideas that pop into my head at the thought of colours (let alone mythical beasts) associated with points of the compass that it almost gives me a migraine. I expect you are the same. Have at it in the comments.
It definitely falls nicely into line with some world building I've been working on recently. So thanks for the clarifying serendipity.
ReplyDeleteSemi-related, neat how those colors are four fifths of the classic D&D chromatic dragon lineup.
The fifth color that chromatic dragons have is green. This collection of colors also coincidentally matches with the five Magic the Gathering colors. White, Black, Red, Blue and Green seem like colors that have a very "archetypal" or "Jungian" flare to them in how they are represented in fiction. Thought in some cultures Blue and Green are one and the same.
DeleteGreen could be the world as bounded by those four points of the compass...
Delete@ Gorinich Serpant: Yeah, you could probably use green or blue dragons interchangeably if you're working from some cultures. (I guess whether you want forests or deserts to the East.) I don't remember if it was on this blog or another where there was a recent discussion about blue & green being the same to some cultures.
DeleteAlso, if I recall my Chinese cultural ephemera the color for the center was yellow, which was the Emporer's exclusive color.
Which still works if you include Gold dragons in the mix. (And leads to even more interesting interactions considering the one classically lawful dragon (before the introduction of other metallic dragons and later neutral gem dragons) is in the center where civilization would be while all the directionally colored dragons representing chaos are on the distant frontiers.)
A kingdom where your clothes must orient to the compass. The poor wear clothes of the region they are in, relative to the royal city (keeps them in the region they come from, very useful) , while the very very rich wear clothing enchanted to shift color. In between the upwardly optimistic middle classes wear clothes like rotating tents that stay steady as they turn, or just refuse to rotate themselves.
ReplyDeleteThat puts me in the mind of L. Frank Baum's different provinces of Oz, which I think used the classic directional colors too.
DeleteLooking it up online, I'm seeing N = Black (Gillikins), E = Yellow (Winkies), S = Red (Quadlings), and W = Blue (Munchkins), with the Emerald City in Green smack dab in the middle. I think he was working off of some Native American concepts when he was building his world.
Correction: The Gillikin land to the N is Purple. The maps I dug up on google looked black to me. <:)
DeleteBizarre.
ReplyDeleteAnd this stuff is strongly related to feng shui/geomancy if I'm not mistaken. I think of a geomancer as the city equivalent of a druid.
ReplyDeleteBut wait! There's more!
ReplyDeleteAztecs:
• Direction: East (Tlapallan)
Deity: Tonatiuh; Colour: Red
Signs: Alligator-Snake-Water-Reed-Movement
• Direction: North (Mictlampa)
Deity: Tezcatlipoca; Colour: Black
Signs: Wind-Death-Dog-Jaguar-Flint Knife
• Direction: West (Cihuatlampa)
Deity: Quetzalcoatl; Colour: White
Signs: House-Deer-Monkey-Eagle-Rain
• Direction: South (Huitzlampa)
Deity: Huitzilopochtli; Colour: Blue
Signs: Rabbit-Lizard-Vulture-Grass-Flower
Navajo:
The Holy People put four sacred mountains in four different directions, Mt. Blanca to the east, Mt. Taylor to the south, San Francisco Peak to the west and Mt Hesperus to the north near Durango, Colorado, thus creating Navajoland. The four directions are represented by four colors: White Shell represents the east, Turquoise the south, Yellow Abalone the west, and Jet Black the north.
Works for North and South in Hinduism too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_directions#/media/File:Surya_Majapahit_Diagram.svg
ReplyDelete