High Elf White Robes

[Polaria]

Armybook High Elves p.76 says "All High Elves wear white robes, decorated with second color."

Is there some sort of fluff reason for the white robes and what is the significance of the second color?

[Bad monkey]

White is the colour of death. I'd imagine it's got summit to do with that

The second colour is more than likely for the kingdom they belong to

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[ftayl5]

White is the colour of death? Is that purely an elven thing? What?
White to me means purity and goodness or righteousness. Something that the folk of Ulthuan represent. And just to impress everyone else by managing to keep their robes a pristine white even during long campaigns.

Secondary colour represents their kingdom or the regiment they belong to our their bloodline. Purple = noble. Grey and black = grief (ie. shadowlands and tiranoc).

[Ultimate Life Form]

White is the colour of death? Is that purely an elven thing? What?

Nope. Actually white is the color of death in a big part of the world.

[Bad monkey]

They refer to it in malekith, elves any all the happy clappy type many would have us believe.


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[Craze_b0i]

Its the way High Elves were depicted in LOTR. Helps identify them as the good guys.

[Lars Porsenna]

High Elves wearing white dates back to the 4th Edition army book, predating LotR by a fair margin. In there it is specifically mentioned white is the Elven color of death.

Damon.

[Athelassan]

I suspect it's at least partially inspired by Roman sumptuary laws, in which the colour of your toga (or the trim on it) was an at-a-glance indicator of your social position.

[reth]

So, if white is the color of death, the dark elves should use it a lot, and they do not :s

[TheDungen]

Its the colour of death as in funeral attire, more mourning than death it represent those who died fighting the demons. The dark elves dont view death that way thus they dont wear white. its said already when bel-shanaar is chosen that the dark elves dress in rich purples and blacks to prove their might and glory rather than the mourning colours of their brethren from other kingdoms.
Also there are many kinds of whites. I always prefered to view it as a whitish colour rather than white itself (since white is boring and hard to paint). Diffrent grays and light browns (or khaki) is close enough if you ask me.

[BlackPawl]

LotR is a little bit older than the 4th edition - it's not only the movie but there was a book before ...

(and some very good paintings too)

[Lars Porsenna]

I re-read the Lord of the Rings almost annually for the last 20 years, so I'm probably aware it pre-dated the movies. That being said, I don't recall any extensive descriptions of elves garbed exclusively in white.

Damon.

[Craze_b0i]

High Elves wearing white dates back to the 4th Edition army book, predating LotR by a fair margin.

Actually LOTR, and Silmarillion, predate warhammer by several decades.

[ftayl5]

Nope. Actually white is the color of death in a big part of the world.

Wow. The more you know!

[Kallstrom]

I re-read the Lord of the Rings almost annually for the last 20 years [...]

Impressive, I can't get past the "About Hobbits" chapter myself so I just skipped ahead to the last pages in the third book to get some goodies out of the series. But being a 90's kid I belong to the TV-generation. So the movies are where it's at.


OnTopic:
And to the ones that claim that white is the color of death for many cultures (or similar establishments) around the world.. could you provide a source for this? Certain symbols like skulls can mean life in one part of the world and death in another, so I know that some things can mean a completely different thing depending on where you are at. However, does the color white really mean "death" or could it be "rebirth", "passing", "cleansing" or anything of the sort? Because outside of some ceremonial aspects I can't think of some cultures or countries that have a equality sign between the color "white" and "death". So please, do enlighten me.

[Solonor]

I had a general idea that in some Asian Cultures White was related to death and mourning so i did a quick research on wiki and got this bits that i resume:

"While White often represents purity or innocence in Western Civilization, particularly as white clothing or objects are easy to stain, so its easy to see any impurity in them, in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian tradition, white is the color of mourning and death (or rebirth). In Japanese weddings, white his also used in the brides wedding dress to symbolize the "death" of their former family and their introduction into their new family.
Regarding religion, in some Asian and Slavic cultures, white is considered to be a color that represents death. White also represented death in ancient Egypt, representing the lifeless desert that covered much of the country; black was held to be the color of life, representing the mud-covered fertile lands created by the flooding of the Nile and giving the country its name (Kemet, or "black land").

[Athelassan]

The significance of different colours in different cultures is quite interesting. For instance, anyone who read Horrible Histories or the like as a child will know that when his first (Spanish) wife died, Henry VIII wore a yellow doublet to the wake. Seems a bit insensitive and is generally portrayed as such. Except, as I discovered many years later, at the time (and possibly still), yellow was the accepted mourning colour in Spain.

[TheDungen]

That white is a color of death irl is unrelated to the topic. what is the elven view on death i remember reading somewhere that they believed they'd be reborn as a phoenix from the flames when they died? but the sundering speaks of the gates of mirai (or something like that) which seems to suggest there is an underworld rather than a heaven. Even the good characters seem to believe they go to the gates of mirai (is it mirai or am I remembering it wrong) rather than being reborn in the glory of Asuryan which i seem to remember being the old fluff.

The white seems to fit the rebirth idea better, each elven god is based on a lore asuryan being the lore of light (he is represented by fire but he is the god of light) which seems to fit the white as rebirth in the glory of Asuryan idea.

Its Asuryan - Light
Koronus- Beasts
Isha - Life
Lileath - Heavens
Vaul - Metal
Morai heg - Death
Loec - Shadows
Khaine - Fire (Or possibly Asuryan the only relation between khaine and fire is that he's described as having burning blood)

[Craze_b0i]

I re-read the Lord of the Rings almost annually for the last 20 years, so I'm probably aware it pre-dated the movies. That being said, I don't recall any extensive descriptions of elves garbed exclusively in white.

Damon.

In LOTR itself there probably isn't much. Except perhaps the description of Galadriel (who is a High Elf even though she lives with Wood Elves). However in nearly all the licenced artwork the artists chose to depict high elves in white-grey. Not sure whether this was the artists own interpretation or whether it was based on more detailed sources such as the Silmarillion (been a long time since I read the latter).

[Athelassan]

That white is a color of death irl is unrelated to the topic. what is the elven view on death i remember reading somewhere that they believed they'd be reborn as a phoenix from the flames when they died? but the sundering speaks of the gates of mirai (or something like that) which seems to suggest there is an underworld rather than a heaven. Even the good characters seem to believe they go to the gates of mirai (is it mirai or am I remembering it wrong) rather than being reborn in the glory of Asuryan which i seem to remember being the old fluff.

The white seems to fit the rebirth idea better, each elven god is based on a lore asuryan being the lore of light (he is represented by fire but he is the god of light) which seems to fit the white as rebirth in the glory of Asuryan idea.

Its Asuryan - Light
Koronus- Beasts
Isha - Life
Lileath - Heavens
Vaul - Metal
Morai heg - Death
Loec - Shadows
Khaine - Fire (Or possibly Asuryan the only relation between khaine and fire is that he's described as having burning blood)

I'd be inclined to make a couple of adjustments:

Lileath - Light
Vaul - Metal
Isha - Life
Hoeth - Heavens
Loec - Shadows
Morai-Heg - Death
Asuryan - Fire
Kurnous - Beasts
Khaine - Dhar

Ideally I would like to have Asuryan as High Magic but then there's no-one to fill the Fire slot. I think the background is missing a couple of elven gods, though (in particular, I want to know the elven equivalents for Ulric and Sotek, if any).