White

“The
strength of law is unwavering. It is an iron bar in a world of
water.”

“When
one of us prospers, the pride prospers.”
—Jazal
Goldmane

“Wrath
is no vice when inflicted upon the deserving.”

“We
are a single entity. Dissenters must be sutured into the Orthodoxy.”
—Elesh
Norn, Grand Cenobite

"The
Boros fight for justice. The Azorius fight for law. I hold the line
between, and make sure the people are given both."

White
is the first color on the color wheel. In the mechanics of Magic: the
Gathering, it is most closely associated with the Plains land type,
and its mana symbol is indicated by a sun. White desires and embodies
many concepts and ideas, but chief among them is harmony.

White
wants a world where everyone gets along. It enjoys community and
desires what is best for the whole, rather than for the individual.
White looks out for everyone, from the lowest rung on the totem pole
to the highest position in society. White would be happiest in a
utopian society where everyone shares and gets along with one
another.

Allow
me a bit of clarification before I proceed: this is not to say that
white is a “good” color. White, as well as every other color,
will do things that can be considered either good or evil. For
example, the concept of preservation of life (that is,
self-sacrifice) is very white, and is seen as a good thing; however,
the concept of fascism is also white, and is seen as an evil thing.

This
leads into an earlier point; while white will look out for the low
man on the totem pole, it only does so because it would be unfair not
to. Though white does feel that the underdog deserves as much of a
fair share as anyone else, it also does not care much at all with
regards to what the underdog has to say.

White
also values uniformity and does not believe in individuality; it sees
all members of society as parts of a well-oiled machine, and any part
of that machine that malfunctions or otherwise does not do its job is
summarily removed. White believes that individuality leads to acting
out, acting out leads to rebellion, rebellion leads to civil unrest,
and civil unrest leads to the collapse of society. A bit dramatic,
perhaps, but this is what white would most hate seeing come to
fruition.

In
order to combat this, white takes up the task of creating strict laws
and rules to keep everyone in line. White believes that morality is
cut-and-dry, that there is right and there is wrong. However, white
also believes that individuals are morally
obligated to stop any and all wrongdoing. This leads white to being
associated with religion, and as such, organized religion is a very
white concept.

White
also creates civil laws to ensure that the individual does not upset
the greater good of the group. It believes the rights of the
individual are far less important than the good of society, and the
laws it creates ensure the protection of that society. This leads to
the concepts of politics and the judicial system being very much
white-aligned.

White
on the whole represents balance (on the color pie, it is squarely
between green, which represents nature, and blue, which represents
nurture.) It understands both the importance of valuing the past and
of planning for the future. White also tends to use symbolism
extensively (owing to the existence of organized religion as a white
concept) and it is also the color of civilization.

White
lives by its strict laws and rules, and as such, cannot stand to see
them broken by others. It has a very severe view on such
disobedience, and an equally severe viewpoint on how it deals with
rule-breakers. White, as previously stated, is of the mind that it
must actively prevent evildoers (or at least what it considers
evildoers) and sees this kind of attack as proactive. If it does not
stop them now, they will return later to further harm its way of
life.

White
has its own viewpoints on the other four colors, both positive and
negative; though these are discussed in the chapters pertaining to
color pairs, it is useful to touch upon them briefly. White sees
blue, for example, as a color that respects the importance of
restraint. Both colors value planning and discipline, and blue
appreciates the need for rules. Blue also has the patience to think
in the long-term, something white values deeply.

White's
viewpoint of green is likewise positive, as blue and green are
white's two allied colors (owing to their placement on either side of
white on the color pie.) In green it sees a color that understands
the concept of community, and that the good of the whole is far more
important than the good of the individual. Also, white likes the idea
of an agrarian society that blends civilization with nature.

White
sees the other two colors in a fairly negative light. White believes red
and black to be enemies that resist civil and moral laws,
respectively. Red does whatever it wants, whenever it wants, which
incites chaos, whereas black selfishly promotes the idea that the
individual matters more than the group, which white sees as nothing
short of extremely dangerous. White feels these two colors must be
quashed and that their efforts stifled at all costs if civilization
is to proceed.

White
has many strengths, perhaps the greatest of which is its ability to
create and enforce laws. It is adept at defeating its opponents
under these laws, especially when others cannot. If others try to
impose their own laws and systems on white, or even if white's own
rules work against it, it's very capable of dealing with those
situations.

Unfortunately,
white is inflexible. It is very set in its ways and unwilling to
compromise. It has difficulty adapting to new situations, and may
adapt a xenophobic stance as a means of keeping society under its
jurisdiction and free of outside influence. White also tends to lose
sight of the individual in its focus on the community as a whole.
Though it can promote its ideals and goal to a large group and
succeed in gaining new followers, it suffers in doing the same to a
single person.

Perhaps
the simplest way to provide examples of white characters is to
provide a few examples from fiction. Though these characters can be
said to have a mix of colors in their personality, it is the white
part of their being that shall be examined and analyzed.

Perhaps
the easiest character to classify as white is Superman. He has a very
strong moral center, and he always plays by the rules. He takes it
upon himself to protect others, even the entirety of the Earth if
need be. In the same vein, King Arthur had a very strong moral code
that guided his actions. His main concern was helping and protecting
his subjects, and he made use of structure to maintain this
protection. Marge Simpson is also a very white character. She is the
moral center of the family, and takes it upon herself to provide
structure for the other members of her family. She is also fiercely
protective, to the point of self-sacrifice.

(The
next paragraph contains SPOILERS for Watchmen,
so if you would rather not have the graphic novel and/or movie ruined
for you, please skip to the next paragraph.)

For an
example of a white villain, one need not look further than the
antagonist of Watchmen.
Ozymandias firmly believes his motives are pure, and that he is
taking actions that will help the world at large. He is more than
willing to sacrifice others for the good of the whole. Ozymandias is
the perfect example of a white villain, as he believes he truly
believes that he is doing good (black villains, for what it's worth,
are absolutely aware that they are doing evil.)

Another
example of a white villain comes from the plane of Theros, a realm
heavily influenced by Greek mythology. Theros' god of the sun, Heliod
(an analogue to the god of the sun from Greek mythology, Helios) acts
in direct opposition to the human planeswalker Elspeth Tirel. Though
Heliod represents many white concepts (law, justice, self-sacrifice,
an emphasis on community and getting along, etc.) he comes into
conflict with Elspeth many times over the course of the story.

The
first is when Elspeth arrives on Theros and attempts to understand
its gods by praying to the sun. Heliod attempts to immolate her and
take her sword, a weapon crafted from a bout between Heliod and the
god of the forge, Purphoros (analogous to Hephaestus, the god of the
forge in Greek mythology.) He is prevented from burning Elspeth alive
by her own power, and he chooses to make her his champion instead. He
turns her sword into the fearsome Godsend, a spear with the
capability to kill a god.

Xenagos,
a satyr planeswalker from Theros, is able to turn himself into a god
via apotheosis, and becomes the god of revelry (similar to Dionysus
from Greek mythology.) Heliod takes this as an opportunity to blame
Elspeth, and he tries (and fails) to kill her again. His hatred and
jealousy of Elspeth increases, and he comes to understand what
exactly a planeswalker is. He begins to fear that Elspeth, like
Xenagos, could ascend to godhood and threaten his position.

Eventually
Elspeth is able to engage Xenagos directly, and with Godsend's power
is able to overwhelm and kill Xenagos. Heliod, who had been watching
the battle and waiting for the right moment to strike, takes Godsend
from the exhausted Elspeth and runs her through with it. He taunts
her a final time, before handing her corpse over to the leonin
(humanoid cat) planeswalker Ajani Goldmane and fleeing.

Heliod
truly believed his actions worked for the good of society. He saw
firsthand what happens to a person who gets the idea in their head to
rebel against society (or in this case, ascend to godhood and throw
an entire plane into turmoil.) He thought that killing Elspeth would
prevent history from repeating itself and would be beneficial in the
long run for the inhabitants of Theros, both deity and non-deity
alike. To this end, he was more than willing to sacrifice one human
planeswalker for the good of all.