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[[File:RainbowCouncil.jpg|frame|[http://10wonderfulthings.blogspot.com/2008/08/rainbow-council-needs-your-help.html The Rainbow Council] needs your help!]]
{{quote|"''...For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!' I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colors, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered. 'I liked white better,' I said.''"
There is an idea (codified by [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]) that wizards are identified as X the Color. Sometimes, it indicates rank, sometimes, jurisdiction, and every now and then, the ''type'' of magic being used. [[White Magic]] and [[Black Magic]], of course, are the most common examples. Another is [[Elemental Powers]].
As the title suggests, this is a subtrope of [[
{{examples}}
▲== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* Although not much is made of it, ''[[Slayers]]'' gives its wizards colors as well (Rezo the Red Priest, for example). The reason it doesn't enter into it much (especially outside the novels) is that Lina's is "The Pink", which has a reputation in Japanese Culture.
== [[Card Games]] ==▼
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is centered entirely around a system of five colors of magic: white (focusing on purity and light), green (focusing on nature and life), red (fire and strength), black (death and decay), and blue (mind, time, and the manipulation of magic itself).▼
** They sometimes dress in those colors, too, but thankfully don't always...▼
*** Part of the reason for dressing 'in-color' is that most ([http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/96 but not all!]) card art has a palette that matches the card's color.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' has (at the beginning of the book) Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, and Radagast the Brown. Tolkien's notes also make reference to Alatar and Pallando, who are both blue.
* [[Discworld]] parodies Radagast with Ridicully the Brown (probably with the intention of making you think of... certain body functions), who, rather than a nature lover, is more of an [[Egomaniac Hunter]]. One book also references this by having the wizards' washerwomen mock the cleanliness of those who use "The White" as a title. Finally, a straight example is Ipslore the Red in ''[[
** Mrs Whitlow's line in ''[[
** Most recently parodied in ''[[
* ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' by [[Neal Stephenson]] engages in some [[Magical Realism]] by having Enoch Root, who also appears in ''[[Cryptonomicon]]'', which is set several centuries later - it's implied that he's a sort of "Wandering Jew" type. His last name is similar to the Dutch or German word for red and, at one point, he's referred to as Enoch the Red and linked to wizardry.
* And in the ''[[Tortall Universe|Tortall]]'' books by [[Tamora Pierce]], the color of a mage's robe signifies his level of expertise - eg, Numair Salmalin in the Immortals quartet is said to be one of only seven Black Robe mages in the world. (...Because almost everyone else who tried to reach that level is dead.)
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* ''[[The Saga of Recluce]]'' color codes its [[Order Versus Chaos|order and chaos mages]], though, surprisingly, the chaos mages are white and the order mages are black; mages that can do both are still predictably grey.
* [[Trudi Canavan]]'s ''[[The Black Magician Trilogy]]''. There's color coding for the three different disciplines of magic (Warriors wear red robes, Alchemists wear purple robes, and Healers wear green robes) as well as for rank (the heads of each discipline wears a black sash, the King's Advisors wear gold sashes, the Administrators wear blue robes, and the High Lord wears black robes.)
** Also, at the end of ''The High Lord'', {{spoiler|Lord Balkan becomes the new high lord and changes the robe color to white, and the black robes are now worn by the [[Black Magic
* [[Andre Norton]] describes a similar system in ''The Jargoon Pard'' but with more colors; brown, orange, purple, violet...
* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' does this explicitly with the Aes Sedai, sorting them into one of seven colored Ajahs based on interest: Red, dedicated to preventing another [[The End of the World as We Know It|Breaking]], which mostly means severing male channelers; Blue, active with personal causes; Green, aimed at preparation for Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle; Grey, mediators and diplomacy; Yellow, the healers; Brown, who dedicate themselves to study and knowledge; and White, the philosophers. {{spoiler|And Black, the evil ones}}.
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* In ''[[Septimus Heap]]'', Wizardry is color-coded: Purple is used by the ExtraOrdinary Wizards and their Apprentices, while bright green is associated with other Magyk.
== [[Live
* The rangers in ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]/[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'' fit this trope well. They are even called "Magician of the *color*" in ''Magiranger''.
== [[Radio]] ==
* ''Hordes of the things'' [BBC radio parody of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''!]; Radox the Green, Badedas the blue, Fenjal the Pink...(all names of bubble bath products).
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
▲=== [[Card Games]] ===
* The Colleges of Magic in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' are each dedicated to a different "wind" of magic, which the human mind perceives as being of different colors. These colors, and their corresponding aspects, are Red (Fire), Gold (Metal and logic), Green (Life and fertility), Blue (Air and the heavens), Purple (Death and fighting the undead), Brown (Animals), White (Light, knowledge, and fighting daemons), and Grey (Shadows, illusions, and trickery).▼
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is centered entirely around a system of five colors of magic: white (focusing on purity and light), green (focusing on nature and life), red (fire and strength), black (death and decay), and blue (mind, time, and the manipulation of magic itself).
▲** They sometimes dress in those colors, too, but thankfully don't always...
▲*** Part of the reason for dressing 'in-color' is that most ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130706122134/http://www.wizards.com/
=== Tabletop RPG ===
* In the [[Ironclaw]] RPG, the colors of a practitioner's robe details their abilities. [[Telepathy|Cognoscente]] adepts wear either green or purple, [[Elemental Powers|Elementalists]] wear the color of their chosen school (yellow for air, brown for earth, red for fire, and blue for water), clerics wear white, and thaumaturges wear grey.
* [[The Dark Eye]] has the three guilds of mages, white(law abiding and usually following strict ethics and codes when using magic), black(free thinkers who believe that every type of magic deserves to be researched) and grey(somewhere in between). All other practitioners of magic don't fall into this scheme though.
=== War Games ===
▲* The Colleges of Magic in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' are each dedicated to a different "wind" of magic, which the human mind perceives as being of different colors. These colors, and their corresponding aspects, are Red (Fire), Gold (Metal and logic), Green (Life and fertility), Blue (Air and the heavens), Purple (Death and fighting the undead), Brown (Animals), White (Light, knowledge, and fighting daemons), and Grey (Shadows, illusions, and trickery).
== Toys ==
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* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] [[The Elder Scrolls Four|IV: Oblivion]]'' follows this trope implicitly, in that every school of magic has an associated sigil and color and the type of mage in random and most non-random encounters can be identified by the color of their robes.
* In [[Guild Wars]], most spells and other skills have the color of their casting animation determined by the class and attribute the skill belongs to.
* Each class in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a color associated with it, so a character's class can be discerned at a glance, e.g. on a listing of raid members. Warrior = Brown, Paladin = Pink, Death Knight = Red, Shaman = Blue,<ref>Originally pink, when Shamans and Paladins were each single-faction, but changed when both sides got access to both classes in The Burning Crusade.</ref>
* Practitioners of magic in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' universe are often aligned with colors, although it color-codes according to type of magic rather than specific mages:
** White Mages actually wear white.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' naturally has this, being a parody of ''[[Final Fantasy I]]''. Played with when White Mage temporarily becomes grey during her [[Face Heel Turn]].
* The magicians of ''[[Zebra Girl]]'' earn a The X after their first ascension. The color tends to be something they wore before their near death experience, though. J-jack became Jack The Plaid, for example, with a major boost in power, a tendency to have some rather nice plaid-oriented spells, and a shapeshifting robe that's a pocket into a [[Unmoving
* In [[Trigger Star]], Breadbun explains to Avocado that Mages are colour coded depending on what their spell specialty is. Breadbun herself is a Panda Mage, which means she uses both [[White Magic|holy]] and [[Black Magic|dark]] magic.
{{quote|'''Breadbun:''' ...And then there are rainbow mages.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Amazing Technicolor Index]]
[[Category:Color-Coded for Your Convenience]]
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