Underground races skin tones

[Conquistador]

Based on using "dwarf flesh" tones in http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=70731.0 for dark skinned races gave me pause.  Should not underground races/species have lighter to pallid flesh tones?  Do most skin tones for dwarf/gnome/goblin/etc. underground living races have darker or lighter flesh tones?

No use for green (those are plants) or blue skin tones (O2 shortage?) personally...

Gracias,

Glenn

[area23]

Of course biologically speaking they should all be pale white, bluish, or even translucent albino. But in fantasy and fairy tales underground dwellers have an earthly skincolour. I don't think any of the degenerate monsters from 1920's and 1930's pulp and fantasy were pale white.

[robh]

In theory they can be any colour you want them to be, it's a fantasy game after all.  I don't need to know why my Drow have Dark Grey skin and white hair.....they just do.

[dadlamassu]

In the "Time Machine" the Morlocks were pale
1962 version


2002 version


As already has been said - paint them any way that you think suits.

[Elbows]

Since it's a fantasy realm...albeit perhaps with humans, you can go nuts for whatever reason you'd like.  Perhaps different elements impact pigment, perhaps the sun is different, perhaps UV rays are completely different etc. 

None of the physical, scientific limitations of Earth need be applied to your setting.

[area23]

I find the appearance and figuration of mythological and fantasy underground creatures extremely fascinating.
At least Morlocks, Picts, Orcs, Ghouls, cannibal cavemen, horrendous halfbreed hybrids etc. tap from the same 19th century ideas like physiognomy or even social darwinism, with ugly inbred savages that threaten civilization.

After D&D and Warhammer most became standard monsters but the descriptions in the original literature usually was very vague.

[abdul666lw]

Lovecraft's Martense ('The lurking fear') are 'whitish gorilla things'.
The 'gorilla' aspect (fur included) was dropped in the movie of the same title - as well as the David Bowie-like heterochromia.

[Garanhir]

Tad Williams' Norns, or "White Foxes" as they were known, are nice examples of dark elves that are dark in spirit only.

Alan Garner's depiction of the Svart-Alfar had them as mostly fish-belly white, with some black members and at least one who was piebald.

So I say go for it; I like pale and interesting.

[thebinmann]

No underground but if you Google blobfish that live 600-1200 metres underwater, where it's pretty dark too, and that might give you spme ideas or nightmares!

[Silent Invader]

Check out the 'crawlers' from the two Descent movies.

Interesting wiki article with photos (go to the 'creature design' sub-section)


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent

[psychomo]

When I painted my goblins from The Hobbit game, I went for a light grey base coat and then washed them in a dark green.

This gave the impression that they may once have been green but living underground so long had made them pale.

At the end of it I was quite happy with the result, though the green was a tiny but too subtle (though you could get round that with multiple washes).