Black Hair, Black Eyes *Spoilers all RotE Books*

[Farseer]

Just pinching a thread to note down all characters with the colouring combination of black hair and eyes. I've mentioned it before (think it was the Others Island thread?) but I'm of the opinion that there are far too many characters with this colouring for it to be a mere coincidence, and I feel the Skill is possibly a link between them all.

Before I begin, I just need to warn that I will also be including characters from related short stories. Feel free to add things, or fix errors, as you please!

FitzChivalry Farseer
Woman with dragon, depicted in Kelsingra map tower
Nettle Farseer
Verity Farseer
Dutiful Farseer
Elliania Blackwater/Bloodblade (and also most of the Narcheska's family line?)
Henja
Kestrel (before she greyed)
Ephron Vestrit
Althea Vestrit
Wintrow Vestrit
Etta

Have more to add. Am fairly sure on these so far. Burrich is said to have brown eyes and black hair so, though dark, I haven't put him in the list.

['thul]

that would more likely be related to simple genetics... blond hair is a mutation... perhaps that mutation barely broke through in the realm of the elderlings... remember that the average elderling has scales and no hair... A specific hair type would not be logical there...

[Mervi]

Burrich is described by Fitz to have something fairer than the usual Buck appearance mixed in his lines, something that makes his face redden easily in cold. Later on, we find out that Burrich was actually born in Chalced, though probably not from entirely Chalcedean parents, as his family were slaves. I'm not sure if we ever found out where exactly his parents were originally from.

The Mountain folk are more or less all described as blond, aren't they?

[redchild]

Brunette is the majority hair color in the human population (dark/brown eyes are also quite common) so I wouldn't say this something that is anomalous. Actually I would be suspicious if more people had coloring like the Fool.. like the Pale Woman or the Black Man.

The only time we ever see how Skill plays a major role in physical appearances are the Elderlings, who by then have no hair and their eyes are distinctly inhuman. Neither does the Wit seem to alter physical appearances (unless you count how you look after living like an animal for a long periods of time!,) despite all the myths and gossip about it.

[Nuytsia]

Yep Farseer, I think this could be due to black eyes and hair being the predominant colouring in the Outislands and the fact that the Skill ability was said to come from there - technically I think it's said that where Outislander blood mixes with that of the 6 Duchies people you often get the Skill ...... (so I'm guessing maybe the black eyes and hair thing is the dominant genes)

[Farseer]

Okay, here's pretty much the reason for my thinking that this all has some significance...

The Skill is predominate in those people who have blood from both the land and the sea (eg shares Six Duchies and Out Islands bloodlines), and these people seem to often share the physical features of black hair and black eyes. The Skill is also connected to having had "the stuff of dragons" in one's family line eg an Elderling connection/Elderling blood.

In Fool's Fate, Prilkop talks to Fitz within his cabin on Aslevjal (just before Fitz goes in search of Fool). He says,"I failed. With the old ones, I came here. We were the last ones and we knew it. The other cities had gone empty and still. But I had seen there was still a chance, that all might go back to what had been. When the dragon came, at first he gave me hope..."

Now we know that Prilkop failed in his role of White Prophet but who were the "old ones" that he is speaking of here? Hmm...I believe he is possibly talking about the last of the Elderlings, who he escaped to Aslevjal with during the cataclysm or whatever finally befell the realm...no doubt via the Skill-pillars. The other cities that he mentions had gone empty and still, must be the Elderling cities we now know of as Kelsingra, Frengong and Cassarick, if not also others we may not yet know about.

From there, once Prilkop and the last of the Elderlings established their home at Aslevjal, the Elderling line possibly dispersed throughout the Out Islander population and, as time wore on, the original Elderlings, though long-lived, eventually would have died out while Icefyre (interestingly, a black dragon ) and the Black Man, as a much longer-living White Prophet, continued to live on there.

Later on down in history, these Out Islanders/Elderling descendants took to raiding the southern lands and among these was Taker. What if dark-haired and dark-eyed Taker himself was a descendant of these Elderlings on Aslevjal and therefore also possessed the Skill magic? He heads to the region of the Six Duchies and then settles at Buckkeep. As we all know, he then becomes the first in the line of Farseers, the first King of Buck....and it is from his features that the dark Farseer look is inherited and from him that this Skill magic comes (as well as, of course, other Out Island/Six Duchies family lines).

Still thinking...

---

Ah, just to clarify, my thoughts in the very first post of this thread were more about trying to link all of the different people in the whole realm who had these dark features and a proven/possible Skill-ability. This is because there is already a solid connection between black hair and black eyes with the Skill, at least with people from the Six Duchies and Out Islands (and hence why I thought it may also link other people in the realm eg the Vestrists). This clear connection is evidenced by Fitz at the beginning of the second chapter of AA:

"...And so the blood of the Outislanders still ran strong in the royal lines and the noble houses, producing children with black hair and dark eyes and stocky limbs. And with those attributes went a predilection for the Skill, and all the dangers and weaknesses inherent in such blood. I had my share of that heritage, too."

['thul]

The connection between black hair and Icefyre being a black dragon, now that could be likely. That would support the concept of the hair being linked to the skill.

[Nuytsia]

I'd also imagine that Prillkop is referring to Elderlings when he says 'old ones' - similar meanings.
I guess he didn't literally mean 'old ones' or they probably wouldn't have been spreading their genes around the Outislands then!
This relates back to ages ago when we were discussing in some other thread how the Elderlings met their demise! It sounds like Prillop's story means Elderlings and dragons parted ways quite some time before the ultimate 'end' (although as you indicate it wasn't really an 'end' to the Elderlings)......

[Farseer]

It sounds like Prillop's story means Elderlings and dragons parted ways quite some time before the ultimate 'end'

Yes, that line of thought definitely requires some further investigation (though my earlier post/take on things may prove inaccurate!). That the arrival of Icefyre gave them hope makes it seem as though Prilkop and the Elderlings possibly believed that all dragons had perished, or something?

[Rendezvous]

I hate to be a spoil sport, but I honestly believe that the black hair/black eyes combination is quite simply the difference in appearance of one race to another. As this happens in a non magical world I don't see any reason for there being an underlying meaning or significance.