Do branded crystals go black over time?

I'm not sure anyone will have an answer to this, but if you do, or a theory of your own, I'd love to hear about it.

Whilst doing the skyscale collections I've been spending a lot of time in and around the Dragonbrand and, especially when I was doing the Skyscale of Fear collection which requires you to visit branded areas in Ascalon and in Vabbi, I noticed the two 'ends' of the brand look quite different. In Ascalon the major colour is black, and there's even a fair bit of grey with most of the purple on plants and creatures. Even the branded crystals are mostly black with a few bits of purple showing through. Whereas down in Vabbi the predominant colour is purple, with huge glossy crystals everywhere and purple instead of black sand.

Now I can think of some real-life explanations for the difference of course. The obvious one is that those maps were released about 5 years apart and (even without an engine upgrade) the games graphics and what the artists can do with them will have improved, so maybe lots of glossy crystals were more of an option in Path of Fire. Or maybe it's different artists with different ideas of what looks alien and corrupted.

But then I started looking into it in a bit more detail. I went to the brand in the north of Desert Highlands - the very end of the 'old brand' from when Kralkatorrik flew down to fight Glint and Destiny's Edge and that looked more like Ascalon, more black than purple with less crystal and more rock, whereas just to the south in Prophet's Fall (where I think Kralk spent the intervening 5 years) it's all huge crystals. Then I went to Jahai Bluffs (branded about a year after Vabbi I think) and it was the opposite - huge purple crystals everywhere, bright purple sand and smaller crystals interspaced with unbranded ground, and relatively little black.

So now I'm wondering if this was done deliberately. Do branded crystals fade over time, eventually becoming black rock or sand? Is the Dragon Brand decaying? (Seems unlikely since the Sentinels say it's spreading.) Or is it something else?

Here's some screenshots I took, in order from North to South

Iron Marches:

Desert Highlands:

Vabbi:

Jahai Bluffs:

Bonus close-up of a crystal in the north of Desert Highlands, looking a lot duller than the new ones:

Interesting theory. I'd probably say parts of it is advancement in technology, as the brand in Elona (especially Vabbi and Jahai) behaves much more like how the Brand in Ascalon is described, filled with powerful, tough creatures and ravaged by horrible brandstorms, sometimes with bits of the brand itself coming alive to fight an intruder.

IIRC, the true danger of the brand was in the storms and branded, not the ground itself but it could be a sign of Kralk's increased power maybe? He was a lot more powerful when he branded Vabbi, and then Jahai then when he branded Ascalon.

The Fear Magic is Purple and Zhaitan used Fear Magic... Kralkatorrik is implementing the Fear Magic into his Crystals which are already Purple with Air Magic... Furthermore Balthazar has Purple in his Fire Magic as a leftover from using Lyssa's Chaos Magic which also gets absorbed by Kralkatorrik.

Kralkatorrik has Purple Air Magic, Purple Fear Magic and Purple Chaos Magic all at once! Of course his Magic would become especially purple as a result!

There's also the consideration of what was branded. Ascalon is mostly dirt and grass, while the Crystal Desert and Vabbi is mostly sand, and Jahai is largely savannah. There's still quite a lot of blackness in Vabbi and Jahai, even in Thunderhead Peaks. Not all of Kralkatorrik's branding turns things to crystal; some is turned to stone as well, specifically basalt stone.

@"Mickey Frogeater.1470" said:The Fear Magic is Purple and Zhaitan used Fear Magic... Kralkatorrik is implementing the Fear Magic into his Crystals which are already Purple with Air Magic... Furthermore Balthazar has Purple in his Fire Magic as a leftover from using Lyssa's Chaos Magic which also gets absorbed by Kralkatorrik.

Kralkatorrik has Purple Air Magic, Purple Fear Magic and Purple Chaos Magic all at once! Of course his Magic would become especially purple as a result!

http://i.imgur.com//sMxHUmF.gif

Also, at the end of All or Nothing, the tunnel we climb through is full of black crystals as well as purple, and that was freshly made.