Opinions wanted: hair color genetics in Southeast Asia
I recently had one of the pals I made through Pitch Wars (@VlosAri, another writer of adult fantasy) reading Gods and Fathers. She had things to say about something I'd never thought too much about before--Serevic's hair color.
The Five Provinces, the world this is set in, is mostly peopled by folks we would consider to be Indian or Southeast Asian in appearance. (In fact, the cryptohistory of this world is that it was settled by Southeast Asian space colonists). Serevic is the exception, being blond-haired and blue-eyed. There's a reason for this--his mother was a Venimari, which are the horse nomad native people of the Five Provinces, who much more commonly look like that. It was sort of intended as a subversion of the "and then Aryans swept down and conquered the Dravidians!" over-simplication-to-the-point-of-inaccuracy view of Indian pre-history.
But @VlosAri pointed out to me that a) blond hair is a recessive trait, so it's unlikely he'd be blond unless both his parents were (they weren't), b) there's something kind of ugly about setting up your main character--who is a prince, and god-bothered, to boot--to be the one white-looking dude among brown-skinned folks.
He is supposed to stand out, but it is possible he stands out in too much of a racially-coded way.
Thing is, Serevic's hair is such a feature of his character at this point in time that I'm not sure I could change it if I wanted to. But let's consider some options, shall we?
@VlosAri suggested substituting silver hair, which is a rare genetic variation. My first reaction is that silver hair makes me think of Mary Sues, but she's right about the origin of that--it's sometimes found in Native Americans. (I think of the character of Juan Bautista in Mendoza in Hollywood, who is Chumash).
(And actually now I'm looking for information about silver hair in humans, and can't find a single thing on the interwebs about natural silver hair that isn't caused by age or albinism. Did we like... totally make this up?)
So, um. I'm asking you for alternatives. What would be a rare-ish genetic variation you might find in Southeast Asians (or Central Asians, possibly?) that would make someone stand out? (And still be basically functional. Or at least as functional as you can be with a god in your head). Bonus point if it involves hair, but I could make eyes or skin or other physical features work, too.
The Five Provinces, the world this is set in, is mostly peopled by folks we would consider to be Indian or Southeast Asian in appearance. (In fact, the cryptohistory of this world is that it was settled by Southeast Asian space colonists). Serevic is the exception, being blond-haired and blue-eyed. There's a reason for this--his mother was a Venimari, which are the horse nomad native people of the Five Provinces, who much more commonly look like that. It was sort of intended as a subversion of the "and then Aryans swept down and conquered the Dravidians!" over-simplication-to-the-point-of-inaccuracy view of Indian pre-history.
But @VlosAri pointed out to me that a) blond hair is a recessive trait, so it's unlikely he'd be blond unless both his parents were (they weren't), b) there's something kind of ugly about setting up your main character--who is a prince, and god-bothered, to boot--to be the one white-looking dude among brown-skinned folks.
He is supposed to stand out, but it is possible he stands out in too much of a racially-coded way.
Thing is, Serevic's hair is such a feature of his character at this point in time that I'm not sure I could change it if I wanted to. But let's consider some options, shall we?
@VlosAri suggested substituting silver hair, which is a rare genetic variation. My first reaction is that silver hair makes me think of Mary Sues, but she's right about the origin of that--it's sometimes found in Native Americans. (I think of the character of Juan Bautista in Mendoza in Hollywood, who is Chumash).
(And actually now I'm looking for information about silver hair in humans, and can't find a single thing on the interwebs about natural silver hair that isn't caused by age or albinism. Did we like... totally make this up?)
So, um. I'm asking you for alternatives. What would be a rare-ish genetic variation you might find in Southeast Asians (or Central Asians, possibly?) that would make someone stand out? (And still be basically functional. Or at least as functional as you can be with a god in your head). Bonus point if it involves hair, but I could make eyes or skin or other physical features work, too.