Introduction

In order to even begin explaining color and color identity, it is
useful to start with an explanation of the game from which these
concepts originate. The game, entitled Magic: the Gathering, is the
brainchild of Dr. Richard Garfield. Its concept is simple: players
take on the role of wizards called planeswalkers who use lands as
resources to cast spells and enchantments and summon creatures and
artifacts (and even fellow planeswalkers!) to do their bidding.

Victory is achieved through a variety of means. The most common of
these is reducing a player's life total to zero, but there exist
alternatives; for example, there is a card that allows its controller
to win if they control twenty or more creatures, or a card that
allows its controller to win if their deck has two hundred or more
cards. Another win condition involves poison counters, as a player
loses if they accrue ten or more poison counters over the course of a
game.

But the focus of this book is not to talk about the mechanics of the
game and how to play it; as much as I would love to wax poetic on the
subject, that is not the point of the novel you are currently
reading. Rather, my intent is to talk at length about the five colors
of magic and how they relate to one's personality.

So, what exactly are the five colors of magic? Luckily, they can be
arranged in a simple pie-shaped formation (also called the color pie)
like so:

It
is this same color pie is displayed on the back of each Magic: the
Gathering card. As you can see, the five colors of magic are White,
Blue,
Black,
Red,
and Green
(or WUBRG
for short.) As demonstrated in the above graphic, each color has its
own attributes, strengths, and shortcomings, as well as its own
allied and enemy colors—more on the latter two later.

The following chapters will attempt to explain the psychology of
these colors in better detail, but before diving straight into these
explanations, let us take a look at a brief overview of the main
qualities of each of the five colors. These traits, though flexible
enough to be found in at least a small quantity in each color, are
more representative of a specific color, and thus are more commonly
found as a characteristic of a person identifying as a specific color
or combination of colors.

In the order described above—that is, WUBRG—these traits
are: organization, intelligence, self-concern, emotion, and instinct.
This is not to say that a person who shows any one of these traits is
automatically aligned with the color it represents; for example, an
organized person is not automatically white, but a character that
values organization may be,
though it is worth noting that this too is not always the case.

Influence from others must also be
considered; for example, a non-black-aligned person who associates
with other black-aligned individuals may exhibit selfish behavior, or
other behavior that otherwise identifies them as black. This does not
mean they identify as black, however, as they could have been
suffering from peer pressure, or they may have been losing sight of
their morality, or any number of other outside factors.

For now, this shall serve as a
decent primer for an introduction to the five colors of magic, but
keep the factors described in the previous paragraph in mind as
future chapters examine the actions of motivations of certain
characters and color identities.