Image Designer Archive
Thread: Rant: New Trandoshan skin colors
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Slaskia
Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:47 am
#1
Some time ago I posted in here asking if IDs were able to make a Trando's skin white (for RP reasons). It wasn't such a big deal, since I had an RP reason for not 'appearing' white in game. However I still wanted to make Asri a white Trando should the chance arrise.
Now that the IDs have had a revamp of sorts I was hoping my dream of being a white Trandoshan would come true (yes a bit belated...I've gone through a spell of no desire to play this game). Not only was I disappointed...but I'm down right disgusted by some of the optional color hues we have now. Pink!? Blue!? No respectable Trandoshan would have pink or blue skin! A member of a race reknowned for their hunting and fighting abilities...pink!? We would be laughed at! Black, white and shades of gray would be far more acceptable then pink!
Whoever decided that it would be funny to allow Trando's to be pink or blue needs to be skinned alive...
Electro
Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:45 am
#2
Actually, as a hunting race you'd ideally want to blend in to your surroundings. Black, gray and white might be the worst possible colors for your planet of original. Who knows, maybe pink foliage is common there? (everything aside however, the color choices for many races were greatly disappointing.)
Slaskia
Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:06 am
#3
Trandosha is supposedly an arid planet, possibly even volcanic. Thus this would likely mean (IMO) skin colors would be more of a 'earthen' tone: browns, tans, greys, ochres and some red and orange depending on the region (and I do vision a limited 'green belt' on the planet to explain the green skin tones). White I can see if there are large 'zones' on the planet that are very pale in color (like an emense salt flat): white coloration however I view as more of a mutation (think white alligator) then a common skin tone and culturally viewed as a mark of an outcast RP wise. Pure black would be the same I believe in this case.
I would like to see an option for patterns as well...but that's dreaming 
TechnoCan
Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:08 am
#4
Yes, I agree. Trandoshans could really use some scale-patterns and maybe more colors as well. I will not forget to mention it
Vorpaks
Mon Oct 11, 2004 11:10 pm
#6
Rrowann wrote:
...
I just had an image of a Trandoshan laying prone on Dantooine, colored that sort of fuschia, with patterned scales to better match the flora.
I need to make more with the sleep, I think.
You beat me to it! Dantooine camo!
Actually I was wondering the opposite - why don't trandos get more lurid color and pattern options like some reptiles in nature do. Sorta a Danger! Poisonous! Kind of color. But I guess if they have always been at the top of the food chain they wouldn't need this? At some point in sentient evolution personal/social preference must start to overtake survival evolution. After oposable thumbs, things like color seem to loose importance in the evolutinary scheme of things.
So I would say anything goes!
Rrowann
Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:05 am
#7
...
I just had an image of a Trandoshan laying prone on Dantooine, colored that sort of fuschia, with patterned scales to better match the flora.
I need to make more with the sleep, I think.
I just had an image of a Trandoshan laying prone on Dantooine, colored that sort of fuschia, with patterned scales to better match the flora.
I need to make more with the sleep, I think.
Plagvreugd
Tue Oct 12, 2004 1:05 am
#8
Vorpaks wrote:
You beat me to it! Dantooine camo!
Actually I was wondering the opposite - why don't trandos get more lurid color and pattern options like some reptiles in nature do. Sorta a Danger! Poisonous! Kind of color. But I guess if they have always been at the top of the food chain they wouldn't need this? At some point in sentient evolution personal/social preference must start to overtake survival evolution. After oposable thumbs, things like color seem to loose importance in the evolutinary scheme of things.
So I would say anything goes!
Of course a predator at the top of the food chain needs decent camo. If on our own Earth a lion was bright pink with flashing yellow lights then all the gazelles would run off at the first sight of a flashing pink and yellow light and the lion would starve to death. Evolution is a slow process and, on Earth again, personal/social preference has little influence on it, or rather, our personal preferences are for a large part determined by our evolutionary drives.
Why do we in generalfind muscular men more attractive than small, skinny ones? Because they're more likely to be good hunters. Ok, for the heterosexual men and lesbian women out there: why do you in general find women with large breasts and round hips attractive? Because large breasts are a sign of fertility and of being well fed and women with round hips are more likely to be good at giving birth to their children. Good hunters and good mothers will produce more offspring (or more offspring with a decent chance of survival) so through natural selection, in the end everyone will be attracted to broad shouldered men and large breasted women. Ok, this is oversimplified a little, but the general principle still stands. (If you're living in Kansas or thereabouts, don't believe a word of this: God created us all and this is all atheistic nonsense)
Now, on the Trandoshan world, the same principle would apply. Good hunters are bound to produce more offspring (because they can provide for their families better than poor hunters) and therefore good hunters are more attractive mates. Camouflage colours would make a predator more effective and thus would make the Trandoshan male more attractive to potential mates.
Whether Trandoshans can be pink... On our own Earth there are brightly coloured birds and lizards and amphibians and what not, usually it's the males who wear fancy dresses, let's take the peacock for example. Brightly coloured tail feathers that serve no apparent function apart from impressing the ladies. A malepeacock with beautiful feathers makes an easier target for predators, because it's easier to spot, so where does this evolutionary quirk come from? Theory goes that bright colours are a sign of good health. Everyone knows that if you're feeling a bit under the weather you don't look too shining. Same goes for birds and such. An underfed, diseased peacock's tail doesn't look quite so good. A female peacock will therefore choose not to mate with thesick bird and go for its healthy neighbour with the shiny feathers. Bright colours in nature can function as a way of determining health and nutrition. Well, of course the female peacock can't make that decision, she doesn't think "Gee, his tail feathers are looking good, he must be really well fed and healthy. I'm sure he'll make an excellent father for my children." She just gets horny when she sees a male peacock with a gorgeous bunch of feathers. Females don't go for bright colours, as they make easy targets for predators when they're sitting on that nest of eggs those long weeks.
Trandoshans are at the top of the food chain, so they don't need to worry about predators stalking them, so they could be bright pink to impress the girls, were it not that they themselves would make poor predators. The brightly coloured birds of Earth can only survive being so brightly coloured, because berries and nuts and leaves and whatever the hell else they eat can't run away as fast as that gazelle I mentioned earlier can. So, for a large predator (and everyone would concede that a Trandoshan is a pretty large predator) to be brightly pink makes no sense, unless the Trandoshan world has pink foliage. Evolution being an impossibly slow process, it seems highly unlikely that brightly pink Trandoshans have evolved from the Trandoshans who have landed on Dantooine, or we should be willing to accept that Trandoshans have been space faring creatures for several million years.
Sorry for the lengthy post, I'm bored at work.
Thewt
Vorpaks
Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:21 pm
#9
I loved your post! But I would say that some colorations can make good camo, AND stand out as exotic in a different setting. Sadly this is why so many beautiful big cats have been killed for their skins. A cheetah in its natural element would be well camo'd - a cheetah in Theed would look exotic. The same argument could be made for patterns and colors on trandos.
Also the bird health thing is a good analogy. A peacock with a ratty tail is like a big neon sign to predators - this one is unhealthy! Easy prey! The sick ones of the herd get picked off and the strong reproduce. A shiny, brightly colored male would show females and predators that he is a survivor not to be messed with - and will pass down that kick-assness to all his progeny. /flutter
Humans did this too actually. If you read Jean Auel (sp?) books like Clan of the Cave Bear she goes into why beads were used a currency. Beads were difficult to make. They took a lot of time and if you were making beads you weren't hunting or gathering food. The only clans/tribes who had enough time to make beads were the really rich ones who didn't have to hunt. Therefore the richer you were > the more leisure time you had > the more beads you could make. If you saw clans decorated with a lot of beads you could immediately tell how rich they were. Beads weren't the wealth - they were the reflection of wealth and therefore status. The more bightly decorated you were, the more resources you had stocked, the better you were at surviving and the more women wanted to marry into your family. Just like peacocks. Beads became currency because everyone wants to buy status even if they can't actually earn it for themselves. Sadly. I'm sure there are several modern equivalents. Rolex... big cars... big gold chains... eh.
Slaskia
Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:50 pm
#10
This thread is turning into a biology class lol! Not that's a bad thing .
. I remember a thing about lions where they were trying to figure out just why male lions have such big fluffy dark manes. That thing tends to kill your camo ability. They did a experiment with two near life size toy lions. They put a light colored mane on one and a dark mane on the other. The lionesses loved the dark maned toy and ignored the light maned one. So the biologists theorized that the darker the mane of a male lion, the healther, stronger,and more successful he was.
Unfortunately in regards to Trandos there's very little 'official' information on them (I should know...I did everything but write to Lucas himself trying to find information on my fav space lizards), so we have to guess a lot of things in reguards to their biology. In the movies Bossk looked to be a yellow-green color with dark greenish brown forearms. Hmm...that's interesting now that I think about it. If he had darker 'boots' on his arms...why not on his legs as well? Eh...that's a mystery to ponder later, but it shows the potental for Trandoshans to be countershaded in some shape or form.
Here's another suggestion: scars. Trandos are a war like race after all...and the more scars you have the more respect you'd get IMO, as it meant you survived many fights. In my fanfiction and board RP I have a Trando character that has a particually nasty scar across her chest, she's hasn't worn a shirt since she got it (hey, females don't have anything to hide up there so why not? 
) as she sees it as a source of great pride (the wound that gave her that scar nearly killed her).
) as she sees it as a source of great pride (the wound that gave her that scar nearly killed her).
Plagvreugd
Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:35 am
#11
But if you're really good at fighting, you wouldn't have any scars, would you?
Thewt
Slaskia
Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:53 am
#12
Every fighter has scars no matter how good they are. After all, they weren't good fighters from the moment they were born (or in this case, hatched)
Plagvreugd
Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:06 am
#13
Ah I was just joking. But wait a minute, wait a minute... an army of cloned Trandoshans, bred for killing and terribly good at it (genetic enhanced of course), they wouldn't necessarily have scars would they?
Or perhaps their skins regenerate much faster and more efficient than human skin. Or they really dislike scars and they use make up to cover it up.
Thewt
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