On Wednesday, June 19, 2002, at 05:42 AM,donald_at_grove.demon.co.uk (Donald R. Oddy) wrote:
> There is no reason for red to be such a poor colour for ambushes
> when you consider that only modern dyes produce the brilliant reds we
> are used to.
Deja Vu.
I believe I've commented on this before, when someone else made the same assertion.
I can assure you it's not true. Natural dystuffs can get some extraordinarily bright colors, from sun yellow to fuschia pink and yes, even bright red. My wife has a ball of yarn made up of about 50 different samples of naturally dyed string, with almost the whole range of modern colors in it. You can get a bright yellow from onion skins!
In fact, one of the hardest things to get is a true black. Reds are easy in comparison. (That's why black velvet was often restricted from the lower classes in medieval sumptuary laws -- wearing it suggested you were high class, and that's why so many 16-17th cent. knights and ladies portraits show them in black velvet.)
And of course, in Glorantha there's got to be dyer's magic. Not to mention all sorts of weird ingredients unavailable to medieval and ancient dyers. Remember the Pavic "Blood Vats" from Codex 1?
Mike
Mike Dawson mdawson_at_mac.com http://herowars.onestop.net "Granted it was mildly amusing. But I gotta tell you my 3rd eye didn't open." -- Nelson (Keanu Reeves,) Sweet November
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