Inspired by Nature: Skin Colour

You decide to add some humanoid species to your fantasy world. Maybe they're a variant on humans, elves, goblins or something like that. Maybe they're not. What colour should they be?

Here are two ways to choose a colour that make ecologists cry:

• You make them the same colour as you. This might work, but only if you're paying attention to their environment. Most fantasy authors don't... that's why you get pale elves living in the desert.
• You choose your favourite colour. Again, this could work. But it takes a little thought about why they're that colour.

So how do you stop ecologists crying? You choose a colour based on the environment and lifestyle of your species. Not a colour that will leave people wondering why your elves haven't died from sun exposure yet.



Human Skin Tones

A species based closely on humans will probably share their skin colours. For humans, it's all about environmental adaptation. Dark skin protects against the sun. Light skin saves energy (as you're not using energy to make skin pigments), which is handy in less sunny areas, underground or for nocturnal species.

Recent migrants may not have the best skin for the area, but they'll soon adapt. Every generation will be a bit darker/lighter*.

All of this should be obvious, but it's clear some people need to be hit around the head with it like a wet trout. Don't say your pale-skinned elves have lived in the desert for aeons, without a very good reason for why they remained pale.

Tear-Worthy Examples: Drow have black skin, despite living underground and having no need for black skin. It's a cave. It's dark. It's not like anyone's going to see their skin. Nor are they going to get sunburn.



Camouflage

Just because humans don't have stripes, it doesn't mean it's impossible. I like stripey people.

Of course, we can't all be stripey. Different environments need different camouflage. A good rule of thumb is to make land animals brownish and sea animals silver/greyish. Spots and stripes are more common in forest areas - plainer patterns are more common in open areas**.

Part of the art of camouflage isn't about the environment though. It's about why you're hiding. Consider what eats your species or what your species hunts. How well can it see colour and movement? How good does the camouflage really need to be? Let's suppose you're hiding from something with poor colour vision. Suddenly it might be okay to be an orange cat in a green jungle.

Tear-Worthy Examples: Goblins are usually green, while living in caves or rocky places outside. The same goblins stalk human adventurers. Humans have good colour vision and carry lights, so being bright green against the rocks is not a good idea.



Bright Colours

Lots of animals are very bright colours, and not because they live in Neon-Dayglow Land where everything is fluorescent. Bright colours are often like wearing a badge saying "Eat Me, I'm Stupid" (the examples where they're not are discussed in the next section).

In many birds, it's the males who are bright. They use the colours to attract the female. Bright colours are part of a display showing a male is healthy (and quite good at not getting eaten). It's worth noting that where sexes vary, the camouflaged bird is the one who does the lions (eagles?) share of the egg and chick care. The bright one is the one competing for an egg/chick raiser. This won't be the female in every species.

Other reasons can include general communication and species/family recognition. In those cases, you'd expect both sexes to share the colours.

Of course, there's a way to have the best of both worlds. Cuttlefish are a neutral colour most of the time, but are able to change colour rapidly in order to communicate***.

Tear-Worthy Examples?: Honestly, there aren't many brightly-coloured fantasy races. Let alone ones which have mucked up which members of the society get the colours. So the example here is the lack of example. I want to see colour-changing elves.



Warning Colours

There is a time when bright colours aren't a death sentence, but a sign warning others that you're a tough cookie. Wasps are striped to warn of their sting, snakes have numerous patterns to warn of their bite and ladybirds are spotted to warn that they taste foul.

Warning patterns are usually bright colours contrasted with dark colours, such as stripes, diamonds or spots. Much like camouflage, consider who is receiving the warning. The warnees must have reasonable eyesight. There's no point in having warning colours if you're trying to warn a giant carnivorous snail - they don't see well enough.

Tear-Worthy Examples?: Humanoid races with toxic stings or bites aren't very common. Ones that taste bad enough to spit out are even more uncommon. Odd really, considering all the giant predators in fantasy books. You'd think those squishy humanoids might evolve something like this.



Mimics

This isn't a set colour-scheme, but a strategy that might make things interesting. Imagine a predator who doesn't try to camouflage. Instead, it looks just like a male with his mating colours.

Or a highly non-toxic elf, who is striped like the bad-to-eat toxic goblins living next door. The next time the dragon goes looking for snacks, it'll eat the local humans instead.



Taste the Rainbow

These categories obviously overlap. Light camouflage colours will need to be on a layer over the skin (such as fur colour) in a sunny area, but could be the skin colour in less sunny areas. Mating colours still need to offer adequate sun protection, so pastels won't do in the sun.

A good process is to choose your environment first. Then add in any colour differences based on lifestyle.

Go forth... make fantasy a bit more colourful.



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* This means the speed of adaptation will be slower for long-lived species who have children later in life (looking at you elves). Will this species be able to survive long enough to adapt, or will their spread be limited by their slow adaptation? You can go with either, but it's handy to think about it.

** If you're thinking 'aha, zebra!', know that they're a slightly different example. There are various theories, some of which aren't about camouflage at all. One of the most entertaining (from the story point of view) is that zebra are camouflaged against other zebra. As long as your species lives in huge, tightly packed, groups... this one could be for you.

*** I upset a cuttlefish once. It turned angry dark brown and glared at me. All I did was point at it. Never point at a cuttlefish.