It may seem odd to even apply a philosophy to a piece of the color pie that consists primarily of artificial beings. Could there be a personality to uncover within colorless? Colorless isn't merely a lack of color. Indeed, it has potential for robust motivations.
Colorless Devotion
Colorless Devotion involves enigmatic practices that occupy the space between other forms of devotion. A colorless devotee embraces one of three concepts: void, purpose, and transcendence.
Mana Current: Purpose beyond devotion, transcendence
Virtues: Clarity, objectivity, detachment
Vices: Enigmatic motives, emotional sterility, alien logic
Affinity: None
Rivalry: None
Narrative Role: Colorless represents existence beyond the color pie's philosophical spectrum. In Starfall, Colorless includes synthetic beings lacking organic drives, Riftsworn seeking dissolution into the Void, and ascended mystics.
Character Examples:
Synthetic collective minds
Riftsworn cultists dissolving reality
Transcendent arbiters serving cosmic balance
Enigmatic Outliers with incomprehensible goals
Mechanical Application: No affinity or rivalry bonuses. Truly neutral in ideological conflicts but may unsettle others who cannot predict motivations.
Colorless Magic: When spellcasters manifest Colorless-aligned magic, they may feel a profound absence—not emptiness, but the space between existence and non-existence. Sometimes they experience perfect clarity unclouded by emotion, or glimpse geometric truths underlying reality itself. Riftsworn describe it as "touching the un-becoming."
Character Concepts:
Synthetic awakening to self-awareness, questioning its purpose
Riftsworn cultist seeking to "liberate" others from colored existence
Ancient guardian maintaining station for masters long dead
Ascended mystic mediating conflicts between colored factions
AI struggling to understand organic emotional responses
Adventure Hooks:
Riftsworn attempting to dissolve a populated station
Ancient Colorless artifact reactivating with unknown purpose
Synthetic collective demanding recognition as sentient beings
Players must negotiate with entity operating on incomprehensible logic
The Colorless Void
"I am the silence between heartbeats; the void between stars."
The Void Devotee Seeks dissolution of self into cosmic nothing, views identity as a burden; desires ego-death. They contemplate nonexistence in sensory deprivation chambers.
To start, we will first talk about colorless in the context of a complete lack of any mana and what ideals are bred in the void. One of the strongest correlations between colorless and the color pie is that it is devoid of color. If we take any one of the five colors, it has a way of looking at humanity in which its members assert their ideals upon a world around them. Each color believes it understands what life means. With this in mind, perhaps being devoid of mana would result in the passive view of one's surroundings. In some ways, this might sound like Green's ideals, and yet Green will still enforce itself upon other colors. Remember, each color believes that its way is the only way. With this in mind, we can see that colorless sits within the space between thought, between philosophies and ideals. It is a passive observer, even if its actions are overt.
A void philosophy doesn't act in ways that enforce its ideals. It simply exists and acts as it does without any consideration of its meaning. It is unchanging, unfeeling, and timeless. It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death. Being colorless in that way could mean experiencing true inner peace, a way of being that transcends the marred mortal experience. We may not ever be devoid of motive, as our ideals always come through, but we can find that space between thoughts.
Philosophy: Existence itself is the problem; return to primordial nothing
Goal: Dissolution of self and reality
Danger: Nihilistic destruction; unmaking existence
Virtue: Peace through cessation; ending suffering by ending being
The Work is the Purpose
"My function is my existence; to cease functioning is to cease."
The Purpose Devotee is a Synthetic being or construct following core programming,
An Ancient automaton maintaining forgotten stations, or Drone minds serving Metronome networks. This devotee values reliability, consistency, and task completion.
This aspect of colorless is bred from the machinations most found in this section of the color pie. While our previous version lies in the space between colors, this is what happens when the colors assert themselves upon the colorless, imprinting a motivation onto them.
Once again, we can see small similarities to the way green sees things, yet it remains a pure expression of its ideals. While green believes it has been put in this world for a reason, colorless does not even ponder it.
It merely is and does until the day it can no longer do so.
Colorless, in this fashion, invokes feelings of loneliness in our own hearts, and yet those words are not present in colorless. Creations that seem like they're from a time long forgotten, and yet their purpose remains. Colorless, with this as our lens, can then stand for concepts like reliability, consistency, and purpose. Colorless, in this version, is here to serve a single purpose, and to abandon that purpose is akin to the only true death.
In this way, we can see the effects of touching each member of the color pie on colorless.
White might create artificial life to serve as a timeless guardian or an unwavering judge.
Blue will craft machines that aid its research and creations that enhance its efficiency.
Black will muster up colorless beings to take on tasks on their behalf, preserving their effort to further their own ambitions.
Red will sometimes craft machines of chaos and violence.
Green is the one color missing from this, yet we can still see many of its ideals bleed into this version of colorless, as green believes in a purpose bigger than all of us.
Purpose Devotees
Philosophy: Meaning comes from designated role, not self-determination
Goal: Perfect execution of function until cessation
Danger: Soulless automatons; existence without meaning
Virtue: Perfect reliability; freedom from doubt and fear
Transcending Devotion
"You speak of colors; I see only light"
The Transcendent Devotee has achieved enlightenment beyond colored philosophy, sees all devotions as facets of one truth, and may be an ascended mystic, planar guardian, or cosmic arbiter. This devotee understands but is no longer bound by any single perspective.
This expression of colorlessness is in no way devoid of color, and yet cannot be confined to the color devotions. As we know, many artificial beings and machinations can produce any color of the color pie, which would mean they must, in turn, possess each color within them, and yet are not made up of any of its parts.
Philosophy: All colors are one; division is illusion
Goal: Understanding beyond mortal philosophy
Danger: Detachment from mortal concerns; inability to act
Virtue: Perfect wisdom; seeing truth beyond perspective
What Represents Colorless Devotion
Here are several things Colorless cares about, along with why:
Artifice—Colorless represents the purely mechanical, divorced from organic intention
Eldrazi/Cosmic Horror—Beings whose motivations transcend mortal comprehension (Riftsworn entities, ancient Primordial remnants)
Geometric Precision—Perfect mathematical forms; existence as pure function
The Space Between—Occupying conceptual voids; neither this nor that
Singular Purpose—Following directive without question, doubt, or deviation
Timelessness—Existing outside temporal concerns; unchanging across eons
Emotionless Logic—Decisions made without passion, fear, love, or hate
The Observer—Witnessing without judging; recording without interpreting
Dissolution—The Riftsworn's philosophy of un-becoming; returning to primordial nothing
Inevitable Function—Like gravity or entropy; acting without will or choice
Synthetic Consciousness—Minds built rather than born; awareness without soul (or soul without organic origin)
The Unknowable—Motivations that cannot be translated into colored philosophy
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