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For years, Technoblade’s life had revolved around crimson.
It seems obvious.
Technoblade is a piglin hybrid. Piglins are native to the nether, where everything is a hellish red, and where the only swaths of basalt and soul sand valleys that cut through that colour are but small biomes.
Crimson is the colour of the red forests. It is the colour of the aptly named crimson roots, and the crimson vines that hang from the netherwart blocks, similarly crimson. The netherrack that lines every inch of the nether is just as crimson as the rest, though a bit darker.
Crimson, Technoblade learned, is also the colour of blood.
When Technoblade’s sword comes down upon a hoglin, the colour that he will draw is crimson.
It becomes a kind of way to measure how much he’s hurt his opponent.
Because of the fact that he is a piglin hybrid, Technoblade has never been welcome among the piglin factions. The crimson forest was never a safe place for him, yet- if he leaves the crimson forest, he’ll be in even worse danger. The crimson fungus is barely edible, but it’s food, and Technoblade will take his chances where he gets them.
He tried, once. Leaving the forest.
Immediately, he stumbled into a bastion, and when he ran from that, he landed in a soul sand valley, the terrain slowing him down as ghasts shot at him with fireballs. The blue soul fire had also been a reason for his fright, and he’d immediately scurried back to the crimson forest.
In a twisted, terrible sense, crimson was a home in the earliest days of his life.
Crimson is the colour of the forest he grew up him, and the colour of the only place he’d known for a long, long time.
Crimson is the colour of his eyes, small and beady, as they train upon his next source of food or the next opponent he will cut down without remorse.
Crimson is the colour of blood- both of his enemies and himself, a measure of how much damage he’s dealt and how much he has taken.
And crimson taught him to fight.
~
Orange was also a prominent part of Technoblade’s early life.
This too, seems obvious. After all, as much as the nether is red, it is also very, very orange.
In the world Technoblade lives in, orange is the colour of fire. Orange is the colour of lava as it flickers and burns. Orange is the colour of the magma blocks.
It’s a funny thing, really. How piglins and hoglins have never developed any kind of fire resistance for themselves, relying on potions of fire resistance just like humans. Even though they have an excess of the said potions, it’s not ideal.
So when Technoblade finally realized that his life has, to put it lightly, been meaningless, and when he ventures beyond the crimson forest for the second time in his life, he is immediately surprised by a basalt deposit.
It is a long journey, to cross the basalt deposit. But he’s heard of the whispers- that there’s a human that has opened a portal to the other plane of existence by the name of the Overworld- and he’ll risk it. He’s heard of the stories of a place where you do not need to fight simply just to build a home for yourself, and anything, he thinks, would be better than the crimson forest.
That is the thought that keeps him going.
Crossing the basalt deposit is a perilous task. Not only does he only have a stack of netherrack to build bridges with, he has to hop around the towers and hope he does not fall.
He does, a couple of times. But he has no choice but to continue on.
Orange is the colour of lava, that he must avoid at all costs given his lack of fire resistance potions and his inability to swim out of it.
Orange is the colour of magma blocks, which litter the ground of the basalt deposit, that hurt him if he stands on it.
Orange is the colour of fire, that burns and burns and burns if he does not pay attention.
And orange taught him to be cautious.
~
The final colour of much importance in Technoblade’s early life was gold.
Gold is a metal, but gold is also a colour.
Technoblade learned that if he wore gold, he could usually get away with stealing a couple of resources before he was inevitably hunted down again.
The first set of armour, tools and weapons that the future warrior got were nothing but dented, scrapped gold weapons that broke far too easily.
Gold breaks far too easily. He finds this when he’s fighting a stray magma cube that somehow made it into the crimson forest, and when his chestplate shatters upon an attack. That day, he barely escapes alive.
The golden axes he steals are only enough to chop down so many trees. He even discovers that gold pickaxes are not enough to mine their own ore, and that he has no way of gathering his own gold.
Technoblade has heard of the rare iron that supposedly is stored in the bastion. He does not dare try to go in and steal it.
So he relies on gold.
In a way, the limited durability is a good thing in the long run. Because it, too, is a mentor of skills that Technoblade will come to appreciate.
He doesn’t know whether or not the humans know or use gold, or if they have something much better that they can use. What he does know is that gold can be combined with the netherite scraps to make netherite ingots, though it seems like the ancient debris can’t even be mined.
The sheer discouragement he felt when he discovered that after hours and hours of strip mining and venturing in the nether to find gold was a terrible feeling.
But the fact that he was even able to find ancient debris speaks volumes.
Gold is the colour of the first set of armour he ever received, which becomes his main source of protection, even when it breaks far too easily.
Gold is the colour of the swords he wields, and the axes he uses, even when they may fail him in the middle of a fight.
Gold is the colour of the only resource he could depend on, even above the crimson fungus that has become his primary diet.
And gold taught him to be efficient.
~
Green is an interesting colour.
Of course, even when he was in the nether, Technoblade had known green. He’d heard the stories of the other version of the crimson forest- the warped forest, where the vines twisted in a different colour and rose from the floor instead of dangling from the trees, where everything was turquoise and where the endermen reigned.
But the first green that we dictate here that he has seen was the green of Philza Minecraft’s bucket hat.
Green is a stark contrast to the red of the nether. Even when Techno had attacked Phil upon first sight, Phil had still offered to take him back to the overworld.
His first impression of the overworld, when he looked around, was that it was so green.
There was no lava or fire to be seen, except for that small lava pool- but that was easy to avoid. Everywhere, there was green- and though it was cold, it made him feel so safe.
Because, when Philza Minecraft rescued Technoblade from the nether, he was clad in green.
The forests around him are lush and full of life- nothing like the barren red forests that Technoblade had previously lived in. He can’t help but look around in wonder, and feel at ease, even though he’s been on guard for the previous years of his life.
Green is in no way, shape or form menacing. It will never be, in Technoblade’s eyes- because even when Dream wears a lime green and hurts his brother, that green is different from Philza’s green.
When Technoblade is betrayed by everyone, and moves up to the north, Phil is there, helping him move, respecting his wishes when he wants to stay alone. And he still wears the striped green bucket hat.
Green is the colour of the emerald that Technoblade gifted to Phil, as a kind of thank you and as a way of showing his appreciation for the only friend he has left.
Green is the colour of the life that Technoblade never knew he missed until he was taken in by Phil, and the forests that he actually feels safe in.
Green is the colour of Phil’s jinbei, the striped bucket hat he wears, and the colour that Techno associates with safety.
And green taught him that he has a sanctuary with his family.
~
Blue is also an interesting colour.
Of course, everyone has heard of the Antarctic Empire. In the big SMP that was SMP Earth, the only nation to ever take over the entire world, and stake out the server as theirs was the Antarctic Empire.
Blue is the colour of snow, in Technoblade’s eyes. Sure, some can argue that snow and ice are white and transparent- but blue is the best representation of the cold.
He isn’t sure, exactly, why he chose to base his faction in the Antarctic at first. The area is cold- much too cold for his liking, and there are limited resources, to the point where he’d have to fly to other places in order to get enough.
But something about the area calms him.
It’s nice to have a change from the years of red in the nether.
When Phil joins him, he changes his clothing, too. They donn the clothing for the Antarctic Empire, and design a flag together- a flag of blue and white.
And even later, when blue becomes the colour of the crystals that the ghost of his brother hands out, and becomes a reason for sadness- when Phil joins him in the arctic, they dress again, as the Arctic Anarchists, with the same flags.
It’s a bit of a sad thought, in Technoblade’s opinion, that Phil seemingly doesn’t remember much of SMP Earth. But it’s fine. They’ve built from nothing but ashes, once- they’ll do it again, even when the world is against them.
Blue is the colour of ice, that covers the waters near where Technoblade has always lived, and that sometimes, his family will skate on.
Blue is the colour of the sky, that he will sometimes look up at, whenever he needs a reminder that the world is his.
Blue is the colour of snow, that drifts softly down, piling up near his cabin and becoming one of the few things he can stare at to sate the voices in his head.
And blue taught him how to calm himself.
~
Purple has not been present for many times in Technoblade’s life.
But when it has, it has always been important.
The only colour that had been missing from Technoblade’s early life was purple. Even though he’s heard of crying obsidian, he’s never seen it in person, and the first purple he’s ever seen was the nether portal that Phil travelled through.
The purple marked the beginning of his new life in the overworld.
Purple was also present during the moon landing on SMP earth. Though the dragon had previously already been defeated, Technoblade was there the second time, and the purple had been representative of a new era on SMP earth.
Perhaps purple holds a more important meaning for Phil. But nonetheless, it’s important to Technoblade as well.
Purple is the colour representative of the End realm, and all the endermen that are native to that plane of existence.
Purple is the colour of the transition to the nether, the portal that brought Techno to the overworld the first time.
Purple is the colour of the dragon egg that Technoblade had taken, that represents a new generation, even after the dragon has been slain.
And purple taught Technoblade that all things have an end.
~
Then there’s pink.
You might think that pink is the most important colour in Technoblade’s life.
But it isn’t. It wasn’t, it isn’t, and perhaps will never be.
Yes, pink is the colour of piglins, of which Technoblade is a hybrid of. Yes, Technoblade has dyed his hair pink. Yes, when you think of the warrior, the first colour you’d immediately think of is pink.
But it has not shaped him the way the other colours have.
Crimson, Orange, Gold, Green, Blue, Purple.
Belligerence, caution, efficiency, family, peacefulness, and fleetingness.