Just for fun, I decided to make magic have a side-effect of changing people's hair color. After someone has used enough magic, their hair changes to another color. It could be any color, and it's basically a different color for everyone. It stays that color, but if they stop using magic it will eventually return to its original natural color. I have a scene where my characters are discussing this phenomenon, as someone's hair just turned into its magical color. And I'd like to see them mention some of the theories on why this happens, why its different for everyone, why some people have their hair change faster than others, etc. From a writing perspective, if I only present one theory, then the reader is going to be left with the impression that "this is the real reason" rather than thinking that it is just one person's theory. So I need a couple different ideas that people might have so they can share these in this scene. Any fun ideas?
The colour is a result of the practitioner's aura?? The colour depends on the sort of magic performed - darker colours for darker magic? The colour is a result of the intensity of spells - light pastels for simple cures for warts or impotence, neon for physical transformations and thunderous black for necromancy? The colour is a simple feature of inheritance, the same as eye colour or the shape of your nose? The colour reflects the mood of the practitioner at the time of transormation? The colour reflects diet? @Hammer - who has obviously been practising magic for too long and his hair seems to be transitioning to grey...
Depending on other details of your magic system, the color could reflect the type of magic the person uses. Red for fire magic, blue for water, green for nature. The color could deepen based on skill or experience. This could be used by those looking for a mage as a rating system for their skill, and allow the caster to price their services accordingly.
Hair color change could just be a minor effect of spell mishaps, a minor corruption- the sorcerer fumbled a spell or it got out of their control, and they got burned. In this case they got lucky and a change of hair color was all they got. Those less lucky might grow an extra face behind their heads, start hearing voices, one or more limbs might develop autonomous minds, or they get sucked bodily into a vortex never to be seen again.
No, I forgot to specify: No one knows the "real" reason. If it were tied in to casting specific types of magic, that would make it pretty clear. I guess it's not "unreasonable" that a person might think that even though it would be objectively wrong, but it would be hard for me to use it in the story as something that the reader might accept. Also, most of the characters in my story are in the military and all use basically the same kind of magic as everyone else. Nice; I might use that. I'm not using that in this story but I think I should write it down; that would be GREAT to use in some other story!
For any who might be curious, here is my scene in its current form: So as you can see, if I leave it just like that, the reader is going to pick up on "hair color represents their true character." Hence, I need a couple reasonable alternatives so the readers don't take that as absolute truth. A possibility, sure, but I don't want them to try to decode personalities from hair color (because I'm not writing personalities around their hair color.)
Just to add, because I'm bored. If there is no actual rhyme or reason to the hair color change, but you want some theories people would come up with. Theory that Hair color is tied to inner morality of a person - I think this is the most realistic and could be the most interesting. Theory of if you are good and pure of heart your hair would turn X color and if you are evil it turns Y color. The obvious lighter means good and darker means evil is a way to go but I would just pick at random, blonde is evil, Red is good, Dark is neutral or something like that. On a similar vain Theory that Hair color is tied to... um... sexuality - By this I don't mean if they are gay or straight (although that could be a part of it) if they are a virgin (or otherwise viewed as sexually pure) or have they had "a lot" of sexual partners. Could be tied to sexual ability and yes true sexual orientation. I think this could be fascinating because IRL we have tons of theories that judge peoples 'sexuality' based on what they wear, how they walk or dance, to size of feet and hands and so much more. Every culture in history has some kind of 'thing' that pure women are have that proves they are pure. Theory that Hair color is tied to illness or potential to become ill (or immunity from illness) - Doctors look at a lot of different factors to determine who is more likely to get an illness (and when science wasn't as advance their theories were way more bonkers). Maybe having certain color hair is viewed as someone who carries X disease and eventually (people think) they will show the symptoms. Conversely maybe having Y color hair is viewed as someone who could walk a field of X disease and never develop the sickness. Theory that Hair color is tied to certain deities or the supernatural - The hair color is believed to be the sign of a connection to a specific deity or other religious, spiritual or supernatural being. It means the caster has their favor (or has been deemed unworthy). I'll stop there for now. If I think of more I might come back, again out of boredom (not like I should be working on my own story). But these are just a handful of theories I could see not being true, but people assuming they were.
Soooo ... necromancers get white hair, then? (Bones are white!) Also, what if you're performing a magic ritual at your employer's behest ... and your employer is one of those d-bags who thinks that you can "magically" change a person from gay to straight, etc. (like those horrendous hormone therapy things from the 50s)? Does that mean you'll get rainbow-coloured hair? Those are some of the less nasty things that could happen. You want something truly nasty? Try something out of Tomb of Horrors. The original. From 1978. The horror ... (For those who don't know what I'm talking about -- it's a Dungeons and Dragons adventure (aka "module" in D&D), well-known in D&D circles for being lethal, full of unexpected traps and very few saving throws. In other words, your character can die easily and often, with no chance to save him/herself. Its lethality is infamous. Pit traps with poisoned stakes and collapsing ceilings are just the start).
It was made even more famous in READY PLAYER ONE, the book not the movie. I also have to wonder if it wasn't part of the inspiration for the Paranoia RPG. For those not familiar with the game, players create their character and five clones of the character due to how often characters die. Back on topic, to Rath's point about a magic used to turn gays straight getting rainbow hair. I disagree, the side effect would be on a deeper level so the color would be what ever was assigned to mind control magics. Would a necromancer's hair be white or would it be a reflection of the darkness in the master's soul? That is something for the author to decide.
There a new-ish RPG called Dungeon Crawl Classics that leans heavily into the weird and lethal elements of old D&D. The introductory modules are called "funnels" where each player creates 4-5 characters who are basically peasants thrown into some horrifying situation. If any of them survive that becomes your character for the campaign and the skills they used determine their class. The magic system is full of all kinds of wonderful and horrible corruptions. How to spot an advanced wizard:
I remember in one of two Sinbad movies from the late 60's or early 70's had a witch who grew more and more deformed as she used her magic. Likely where D&D got their ideas from.
I think that's Zenobia in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. But Gygax et al were drawing on older tropes found in Howard's Conan stories and other sword & sorcery literature with a horror bent, where magic usually involved contact and pacts with terrible powers, the mere knowledge of which was enough to drive most people mad.
I believe the earlier The Golden Voyage of Sinbad featured Tom Baker ageing through magic too. As to the OP's question, I'd suggest a theory that people have two substances in their hair, each with different colours (much like natural hair). Without magic, we see a mixture of the two, giving one colour. But magic draws out one of the substances, leaving the other colour, until it can be replenished.
That sounds vaguely like Conan, but a lot more like Lovecraft. (Mind you, I know more about the latter than the former). Didn't Conan's villains often worship strange gods that made them into insane, cackling, drooling maniacs? IIRC, there was some kind of weird frog-like god. Having said that, that whole sentence ("strange gods" etc.) reminds me a lot of the xenophobia of earlier ages (which, sadly, still seems to exist in some parts). "Oooh they worship strange gods! They must be heretics/infidels/whatever! Quick, chuck 'em on the fire!" Spare us. Having said that, that kind of attitude is great for writing literary oddballs who seem to like the sound of certain words. "Stay away from there, I warn 'ee! That way leads to the worship of strange gods with spooooky powers that will drive you mad, d'ye hear me? Mad! Maaad!!!"
