Lore Question: Significance of Spirit Colors

Preyfar · July 2016

What is the significance of the colors of spirits and ghosts in game? Some are blue, some are gold, even red. Spirits/ghosts seem to come in a large variety of colors, but I realized that I have no idea what the colors are meant to represent. Do the followers of a Daedric prince get as certain color when they die? If not, what determines which spirits get certain colors and what do they represent? Also, was this covered in a Lore Book?

UltimaJoe777 · July 2016

I'd say the gold ones are powerful spirits, semi-deity if you will, or at least have some spiritual significance. Blue ones are more or less wandering spirits of your average person that died, or an astral projection of someone with significance such as Varen, Abnur, and Mannimarco. Red ones... I don't actually recall any red ones but it's pretty obvious they are malevolent spirits lol

BlackSparrow · July 2016

As a TES lore... well, not a buff, but I've definitely put in time at the TES Lore Forums... I don't think color-coded spirits are canon.

As far as I remember, most spirits in TES games are a standard transparent white, with maybe some changes if there's an effect on them or something, and a few oddball exceptions (for example, the ghost at the beginning of Arena is blue, but that might be the sky background). I don't recall anything in the books or lore about color being significant to spirits.

Chalk this one up as a matter of artistic license on the devs' parts.

Ffastyl · July 2016

The varying colors of spirits is new to TES as a whole, but seems to be meant as intuitive identification as spirit power and/or disposition. At the most specific, the colors can imply their deific affiliation. Gold is likely the Eight Divines and blue/white no affiliation or Molag Bal, but other colors may be affiliated with other Princes or necromancers.

ArchMikem · July 2016

The color of Magicka is blue. Magicka originates from Aetherius. Souls are implied to be Magical in essence as well, and most souls pass on to dwell in Aetherius. Most souls appear as blue spirits, disregarding the Gold ones who usually represent more powerful spirits such as Deities and Princes, however the majority of Spirits are blue.

So I would say, Spirits are blue because they are Souls manifesting as pure Magicka.

theroyalestpythonnub18_ESO · July 2016

I'd be interested to know if there was intent behind this. From what I've seen in eso humanoid spirits tend to be purple, light blue, and gold. Purple seems to be most common, and gold most rare.

In Skyrim ghosts were usually light blue. In Oblivion and Morrowind I believe they were a transparent greenish/greyish? It's been a while.

I'd tentatively say that gold spirits are bound to a place/aritfact, like Rilis XII, and the Forgotten Seneschal. Purple are possibly spirits that have been subjected to some kind of curse or tampering?

WhiteCoatSyndrome · July 2016

I'm inclined to think artistic license as well. The Warrior is red, the Mage is blue and the Thief is purple even though they're all in the same class as far as power and faction go. And Meridia is gold so that's not a color restricted to the Divines and their aligned spirits.

I will drag up this since it's relevant to the discussion.

1. No white or yellow glow crystals to be brought into the facility.
This isn't because we like the place gloomy, fools. It's because the Prisoners can pervert certain spectra of light into working on their behalf. Stick to blue glow crystals for illumination, or even better, open flame.