Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-24019512-20140730215917

This is an odd conection that I stumbled upon when I was researching alchemy (it was for a project). I'll keep it brief, but alchemy is a philosophical tradition that basically led to modern chemistry, but also includes various magical/spiritual beliefs, depending on the practitioner. Its roots date back to 3500 BC.

In alchemy, the Magnum Opus (literally: "Great Work") is essentially the recipe for creating the philosopher's stone, which grants immortality. There were a lot of different versions of this, but originally there were four main stages, each associated with a color:

Nigredo: Blackening, decomposition

Albedo: Whitening, purification

Citrinitas: Yellowing, transmutation

Rubedo: Reddening, success (also associated with gold; citrinitas and rubedo were sometimes combined)

I don't think it's a coincidence that the four colors associated with creating the philosopher's stone are represented in the main characters of RWBY. I don't want to read too far into this - seeing as all of the characters are references to other things - but I thought it was an interesting coincidence nonetheless, and wanted to share.

More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnum_opus_%28alchemy%29 