Colours of Magic for 5e

It recently came to my attention that the Colours of Magic series that I use to inform my world building was revised for 5e. The colors underwent a number of changes, in some cases being completely redefined. Details below the break.

The colors of magic come in six opposing, or complementary, pairs.

• Black is the color of spaces and binding. White is the color of fate and awareness.
• Blue is the color of patterns and symbols. Orange is the color of change and destruction.
• Brown is the color of artifice and earth. Green is the color of weather and wildlife.
• Chrome is the color of illusions and light. Grey is the color of truth (not applicable to spells).
• Indigo is the color of minds and emotions. Red is the color of dynamism and heat.
• Purple is the color of mortality and void. Yellow is the color of life and healing.

Within my campaign setting these serve as background magical fields similar to the "champs magiques" in Nephilim or the "winds of magic" in Warhammer. They serve the same role as fundamental forces due in reality, as part of my attempt at breaking out of scientific magic systems.


Addendum 11/6/2018: Here is a brief comparison of the 3e and 5e iterations of the chromatic magic.

Chromatic Alignments Summary
Duality	Colour	Aspect (3e)	Aspect (5e)		Colour	Aspect (3e)	Aspect (5e)
Psychology	Red	energy	energy	Vs	Indigo	thought	thought
Ethics	Blue	pattern	pattern	Vs	Orange	disorder	disorder
Metaphysics	White	divine	divine	Vs	Black	mundane	profane
Morality	Yellow	life	life	Vs	Purple	death	death
Epistemology	Green	nature	nature	Vs	Brown	artifice	artifice
Aesthetics	Grey	form	actual	Vs	Chrome	function	apparent

For the most part, the white/black and grey/chrome complements underwent the most changes whereas the others remained largely the same. This was forced due to the reorganization of spells in 5e compared to 3e, as the author aimed to divide the existing spells roughly equally between the colors.