#I was not going to go through the Abyss Asset Vessels to check the colors

[illmoraineakoi]

Also, I noticed this when I was messing around with sprites earlier:

Broken Vessel's shell is a grey while Ghost and Hollow's are bright pure white. Grey shells seem to be the default state of dead Vessels.

Which brings up something I always found interesting: Bretta's first Dream Nail Dialog:

"...Shining figure...So bright..."

Shining figure? So bright?

Bretta, you are speaking with a eldritch abomination filled with Literal Shadow Goop. Vessels and Darkness are as synonymous with each other as Fire and Hot. You cannot get a darker dark than the VOID!

Except, Vessels aren't all Void.

Their mask-shells are clearly different. The only part of them (outside their 'cloaks') that isn't black. And a part of them that is very hard and immobile, like bone. They crack, they splinters, they can break. It is the most vital part of a Vessel to staying 'alive'; the Vessel's shells are the only thing keeping their shades contained, keeping their physical forms stable. They are the "harness upon the Void" that the White Palace workshop lore tablet talks about.

And they might be, potentially, the only thing left mostly untouched by the Void when they became Vessels.

Because why else would their shells glow?

Why would Bretta think that Ghost was shining and bright if they weren't? Why would the color dull to grey when they die if they weren't loosing some sort of brightness? For what other reason would an aura of faint light follow Ghost in-game?

Vessel's mask-shells glow faintly with Pale light.

That's why alive Vessels use #ffffff; the exact same reason why it's used for PK: to show brightness. And just like PK, that brightness goes away when they die. They stop glowing.

Except for the Greenpath Vessel.

For some reason.

GP's shell is white even though they are very clearly dead. It never changes, not even when they've fallen onto the ground. My best guess is that GP was an early-ish replacement asset that TC didn't really put much thought into.

Hornet's arena used to be where Broken Vessel's fight was supposed to be. BV was originally supposed to give the Mothwing Cloak upon defeat. But BV was moved and Hornet was added. So now there was nothing to drop/give the Mothwing Cloak, bc let's face it, Hornet dropping a whole article of clothing upon a non-death defeat would be really weird for multiple reasons. So, TC needed a replacement way for the player to get Dash. So why not another dead Vessel? Now with bonus Foreshadowing Points! That's what I think happened, at least.

Depending on how early this was done, the entire concept of the Vessels might not have even been a thing yet. Hence the inconsistency.

It doesn't change the fact that now when I look at them it feels like they're still just barely alive.