Bruises: A Discussion

So, it's time for me to again put a question with some small thoughts around the subject up for discussion. In hopes to actually create some food for thought for others.
This time I've taken up something that you might come across quite often when roleplaying yet I don't think I've ever really seen much thought around.

That's right, Bruises. More specifically how they interact with spieces not human.

I came across it when I was randomly thinking yesterday, and realised that at times when on my orc I've felt a bit stuck on how to propperly describe a good bruise. So, I thought a bit deeper into it and realised that other races might have the same problem. Since the colour of the bruise would differ depending on the varying factor of different races.
Orcs in WoW have been desribed as having black blood, and they do have green skin. So, their bruises would they just became black marks, or would they be in warying shades of darker green, maybe with some brown thrown into the mix depending on severity and age?
I think three alliance races are pretty clear, since they all have red blood, and the majority of them pale skin. Worgen, when in wolf form, I doubt you'd see a bruise in with all the furr and hide.
But in the question of Kal'dorei it becomes really intresting. For the first part, do we know the colour of their blood, or assume it's red due to the hemaglobin that make's human blood red (if this is true for the WoWverse)? How would that play along with the blue/purple skin that most have when they get a bruise?
What colour of blood do Trolls have, and how would it play out with different skin colours?
Tauren I'd say are in the same boat as Worgen, while Blood Elves are with humans. (Reddish lips, so, red blood).

So, share thoughts and random musings. No matter if you seem stupid, I -seem- stupid mostly every day.

PS: I blame all spelling mistakes on not having a program that can detect them for me since I formated my PC, would have downloaded open office to write this. But busy updating my WoW.

Draenei blood is blue, and therefore bruises will show to be deeper blue than the surrounding skin- Darker skinned draenei may not have visible bruises at all. It's the only race mentioned to have differently coloured blood anywhere (Other than Orcs, and Old Gods), so it's safe to assume the others are red.

Humans, Gnomes and Dwarves, as stated, most likely bruise like real life humans. As do, I would suspect, Blood Elves. Night Elves, depending on skin tone, would likely have blacker bruises.

I'd go for Blood Elves, with red blood. The logic might be a bit flimsy, but why else would "Blood" Elves suddenly use the color red so much?

well first consider this, human bruises on a light complexion, range from red after being hit. to "Blue/black" to "green" to "Yellow" to "golden brown"

which has to do with different chemicals into which hemoglobine is converted to and eventually the removed from your system.

Humans do not have "red" blood in the classical sense either...

Oxygen Rich blood, shows as red, Oxygen Poor blood shows as Blue/purple/black.

when a human is bruised the colour of the blue/black phase depends on the depth of the bloodletting. the deeper it is the blacker it gets.

additionally on darker skinned humans, bruises are less visible mostly due to a darker-skin absorbing more light

considering the fact that Orc-blood is black. a bruise will show as black. or it is not visible. simply because no light is being reflected on a black, and it will slowly become the skin colour again.
So imo 1 day or 2 days after the bruise it should simply be black, and then fade out into green again. but since we have no fucking clue about the composition of black blood or how it is fixed xD I guess use your imagination on what kind of colours would happen during the fade out though the colours should be a mix of green + something I guess...

same with dreanei, the first few days it should still be black, like in humans... and then fade out with a mix of purple blueish hue's or heck some pink/ reddish factors. just like human bruises eventually turn green yellowish.

Amaryl, oxygen poor blood is still red. It has a blueish/black/purple tone, but it is still very much red. I've drawn enough bloodsamples to know that for sure.
Nor can you tell much of a difference wether the blood under the skin is oxygenated or not.

The reason a bruise is red in the beginning is because the area swells. The injury causes an inflammation which causes the capillaries to open up and flood the area with blood (EDIT for clarification: it stays in the cappillaries, they just expand and flood the area that way) to ensure that immunecells are brought to the site, that the temperature increases and that nothing can spread from the site. It's a standard response to combat infection. Happens with any injury.

Once the swelling goes down it is the coagulated blood we see as a dark spot. It is a callous, just under the skin. Just like coagulated blood is a dark shad of brown so is the bruise (dark that is, it looks very much blue-black under the skin).
Then later it can indeed turn into shades of greens and yellows as the body replaces the cells that died by the hit/were ordered to commit apoptosis and the remains of the coagulated blood being removed.
I think I recall yellow means there's a lot macrophages in the area. But I'm not sure about that.

Anyways. As for bruises on the other species:
All beige skinned, red blooded races will have red swelling and blue-black bruises.
Orcs will have black swelling and black-dark green or black-brown bruises (if Maghar).
Dreanei will have blue swelling (another shade than the skin) and black-dark blue bruises.
Night elves will have purple or red swelling and black-purple (darker than skin) bruises.
Trolls have purple or red swelling I think and black-"darker shade of skin colour" bruises.
Worgen will have swelling and bruises the same colour as humans (or more correctly, canines) but it can be difficult to spot under dark fur. Same applies to Tauren, though theirs are obscured by their darker skin tone as well.

All of them will probably be able to sport the green and yellow shades.

Gahalla wrote:Amaryl, oxygen poor blood is still red. It has a blueish/black/purple tone, but it is still very much red. I've drawn enough bloodsamples to know that for sure.

hmm, I double checked and I stand corrected, thanks for that, it seems that oxygen rich blood, is simply a lot brighter red...
and the light scattering through the skin and the blueish tone has made me post a hasteful conclusion, thanks for that.

I think looking too deeply into this issue is going slightly over the top with specifics. The way I see it, all races produce darker than usual skin tones as bruises, that would be rather sufficient as no race's skin is so wildly weird that darker tones wouldn't show. Bar undead, they'd just.. decay faster?

Anaei/Marilissia/Vezullia wrote:I think looking too deeply into this issue is going slightly over the top with specifics. The way I see it, all races produce darker than usual skin tones as bruises, that would be rather sufficient as no race's skin is so wildly weird that darker tones wouldn't show. Bar undead, they'd just.. decay faster?

Undead likely wouldn't get bruises at all due to having no circulation.

Drustai wrote:

Anaei/Marilissia/Vezullia wrote:I think looking too deeply into this issue is going slightly over the top with specifics. The way I see it, all races produce darker than usual skin tones as bruises, that would be rather sufficient as no race's skin is so wildly weird that darker tones wouldn't show. Bar undead, they'd just.. decay faster?

Undead likely wouldn't get bruises at all due to having no circulation.

Aye.

Alternatively, they'd get bruises that would never fade because of no regeneration.

Forsaken "bleed" green when they're hit, but I suppose that's meant to represent leaking embalming fluid (we all know that embalming fluid is green, right? :>).

Incidentally, embalmed corpses can develop what appears to be bruises over time if the embalming wasn't performed well enough, or with a subpar technique.

Saali wrote:Forsaken "bleed" green when they're hit, but I suppose that's meant to represent leaking embalming fluid (we all know that embalming fluid is green, right? :>).

Incidentally, embalmed corpses can develop what appears to be bruises over time if the embalming wasn't performed well enough, or with a subpar technique.

Correct.