Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Vermilion?


Fenom.9457

Recommended Posts

Is anybody else wondering about that new tail feather torch skin? I know, I know, it's BLTC and you should never look too deep into that stuff. But the lore for the vast majority of gemstore items is "The Black Lion Trading Company made this", with the possible exception of mounts? Unless they have stables somewhere and are allowed to experiment on living beings to create monstrosities like an 8-bit raptor or a horse-griffon. So, the "Vermilion Tail Feather" torch skin is probably the same - made by the BLTC from a Vermilion's tail feather. Enchanted to burn forever for your convenience, and only slightly more expensive for it! Right, but... what is a Vermilion? Where did they get these tail feathers? Does anyone else see what I'm getting at? Most of the gemstore products are made by the BLTC, but they've never named them such a thing as to imply they crafted these products from nonexistent creatures. By all rights besides the name, that torch is a phoenix feather. So why call it Vermilion? I looked it up and there's no such creature in GW1 or 2. And just googling the word in general told me what I already know, it's a color, a vivid red-orange. Okay, it doesn't previously exist in Guild Wars, and the most common definition is not any manner of mythical creature or urban legend that could be a reference. I guess maybe it's a reference to something more obscure? Here's most of Wikipedia's list on what else the word "vermilion" is used for:

~ The Shaolin temple, where the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma is reputed to have established the new sect of Chan Buddhism (Zen Buddhism), is colored a bright tone of vermilion. This temple was featured in the West by the 1972–1975 TV series Kung Fu.

~ In the Bible, vermilion is listed as a pigment that was in use for painting buildings during the reign of Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah and is named in the book of the prophet Ezekiel as a pigment used in art that portrayed Chaldean men. (Jeremiah 22:11–14, Ezekiel 23:14–17)

~ The Vermilion rose is a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[citation needed]

~ In Han China's Five Elements cosmology (cf. Chinese mythology), one of the four symbols of the four directions is a bird called Vermilion Bird, which represents the direction of south. The color red (particularly as exemplified by cinnabar/vermilion) was also symbolically associated with summer, fire, a certain note on the musical scale, a certain day of the calendar, and so on.

~ Vermilion Sands is a collection of science fiction short stories by J. G. Ballard published in 1971 about an imaginary future resort that pleases its guests by using various kinds of futuristic technology.

~ The color orange red has a special significance in hacker culture. The documentation for Digital Equipment Corporation's VMS version 4 came in memorable, distinctively colored orangish-reddish ring binders, and "China red" was Digital's official name for this color. Mark Crispin seems to claim Digital's name for the color was Terracotta, at least in the context of PDP-10 machines running TOPS-20.

~ Vermilion City is one of the locations used in the English translated versions of the Pokémon video games and anime. It is a port town in the Kanto area and the name is derived from the original Japanese name クチバシティ (Kuchiba City). Kuchiba is an orange-red color associated with sunsets and autumnal leaves and "Vermilion" was used as an approximate translation.

With all this in mind, I think if it were a reference to anything, it would be the Five Elements cosmology, since that's a mystical, mythological tale with four symbols and directions. It's also the only thing to reference a Vermilion Bird, and this is a tail feather skin we're talking about. Lastly, of course there's the fact it represents the direction of south - we know we're headed to Cantha, which is the southernmost continent of the world (not the part we got in GW1 but the continent as a whole). I'm not saying this is a hint or tease that a new type of creature in Cantha will be Vermilion, but I could see that happening regardless of this. And even if nothing more ever references "Vermilion", it could simply be where they got the inspiration for the skin, and they never intended to do more - despite the confusion, especially considering there are already references to the phoenix in game yet they chose this instead. I wouldn't expect anything else to tie into this skin, but now that I've learned more I do think it would be fitting and very cool to see Vermilion birds in Cantha. it's also associated with fire and a note of music, so it could have something to do with a Bard specialization or a fire-oriented Elementalist spec. Anyway, is there anything there? I know I'm crazy and looking into this too much, but if it's not at least inspired by the Five Elements, then that's a pretty wild and cool coincidence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe they are going to add Phoenixes to the Canthan Expansion? This is very interesting indeed! The name Vermilion could be Anet being creative with the name of the Weapon but the actual feather could be them changing the phoenix from the original Gw1 standard green variant and the Eye of the North Phoenix to a more elemental one. Oh and here is the other Variant. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rainbow_Phoenix

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fenom.9457 said:

@"Divine Monk.2401" said:Well actually in gw1 there was a pet called Phoenix with if i recall 2 variants.
) This link should take you to the gw1 wiki.But that's more evidence to my point that the phoenix already exists, why did they instead reference a red bird that DOESN'T exist in GW?

While phoenixes do exist in Tyria, it should be noted that it's the Asian mythological variant of the phoenix, not the European fire bird variant. Though there are skills referencing the fire bird (as this weapon seems to be doing so as well), those aren't related to Cantha nor is there an actual fire bird yet - like mermaids and angels being mentioned in Sea of Sorrows novel, it seems both are more mythological creatures than actual species.

It should also be noted that neither variant of the Phoenix from GW1 were red or orange in color - the one from Cantha is green, while the one from the Hall of Monuments was white with rainbow-colored plumes.

IMO, it is not very likely for there to be a creature called "Vermillion". More likely they used that term to reference the color of the tail feather and was just enchanted with fire magic - if one were to apply lore to it. There is seldom any deep lore behind gemstore and blc weapon skins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think u overthinked this my friend,

Vermelho(vermillion) is just "red" in more latim influenced languages("Vermelho" in Portuguese), so inst really a 'creature', but a color.Its derived from latin "vermillus", because the reddish pigment was produced from a vermin since ancient times( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal ) ,

by the way, its really a beaultiful word so i understand anyone that overlook at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...