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[GuanXing-Shu]

Always wondered, is there is a reason why certain factions were given certain colors? Any historical reasoning why Shu is green, Wei is blue, etc?

[Nick]

Always wondered, is there is a reason why certain factions were given certain colors? Any historical reasoning why Shu is green, Wei is blue, etc?

Those are not the historical colors, but historically they did each have a color associated with them.  Shu was red (fire), which followed the colors of the Han.  Cao Cao also used red,but once Cao Pi changed it officially to "Wei" they then became yellow (earth).  This was the same color as the turbans, and for the same reason. 

Wu I don't recall exactly, but I believe that they are a blue-green color (representing wood, which would mean the father of Fire/Red). I do recall someone saying they were actually black (representing water, which would destroy Fire/Red or could be indicative of the waters found in the region) but I have never seen this anywhere else.  I'm sure Rafe would have the answer Southern Generals in the section about Sun Quan declaring himself ruler if you want to know for sure.

As for why they are blue, red, and green in Dynasty Warriors, I don't know.  KOEI followed the actual historical colors more in Kessen, so they are aware of them...

[GuanXing-Shu]

Hm, interesting. Thank you very much Nick.

[scholar]

What are some lesser known families of the era that where still pretty important? I'm pretty sure that not all where spoke of in the book, and are rarely mentioned in the games, if at all. I know the Lu family, but their kinda easy if you study Wu's rise in Jiang Dong.

It depends, do you consider the Huang family of Yizhou to be lesser known? The Kong family is famous for Confucius [Kong Fuzi] and Kong Rong, and the family was well known and very well employed throughout the era. The Cai family of Jingzhou, the Kuai family was very well respected and well employed within the region as well both before and after the Liu family surrendered there. The Yuan family was one of four families to be particularly prominent in Wu both before and after the Sun family gained prominence there. There are probably a hundred or so noble families that are less well known but extraordinarily influential in the Later Han to the Jin, and thousands that had some level of influence in specific regions of china that were well connected by relations to families in other kingdoms.

[GuanXing-Shu]

In your guys opinion, how was Liu Biao as a leader?

Most people know him as the man who missed his chance to take China, and his sort of jealous view of Liu Bei.

How would you guys rate him? Do you think he has an accurate view? Or he is sacrificed to make the other figures of the three kingdoms look better?

[Ma Su]

Pretty much the exact opposite of what people think. He wasn't kind, indecisive, a Han loyalist. He didn't use his military or tactical officers well enough but he knew how to use vassal warlords like Zhang Xiu. He was very ambitious and he did very well on encouraging scholarship. As a warlord he was competent, did very well to seize Jing and expand his grip but I think his position became increasingly difficult as he found himself surrounded by enemies. Which may explain why he didn't strike out against Cao Cao at Guan Du despite the urgings of his advisers.

[Nick]

His jealousy of Liu Bie is, iirc, mostly from the novel.  He almost declared himself Emperor, and went as far as to make up a seal and throne, but after seeing what happened to Yuan Shu, he never quite made it that far.  I believe that he had lofty designs when he was younger, and his use of Zhang Xiu and Huang Zu shows that he was willing to take pains to make strides.  However, once he began to get sick, I feel that his ambitions curved and he began trying to secure things at home and with his children, rather than make more gains.

I agree that he missed some opportunism, but he seemed to grow content with his position after a while.

[Yue Fei]

Those are not the historical colors, but historically they did each have a color associated with them.  Shu was red (fire), which followed the colors of the Han.  Cao Cao also used red,but once Cao Pi changed it officially to "Wei" they then became yellow (earth).  This was the same color as the turbans, and for the same reason.  

Wu I don't recall exactly, but I believe that they are a blue-green color (representing wood, which would mean the father of Fire/Red). I do recall someone saying they were actually black (representing water, which would destroy Fire/Red or could be indicative of the waters found in the region) but I have never seen this anywhere else.  I'm sure Rafe would have the answer Southern Generals in the section about Sun Quan declaring himself ruler if you want to know for sure.

As for why they are blue, red, and green in Dynasty Warriors, I don't know.  KOEI followed the actual historical colors more in Kessen, so they are aware of them...

Wei used black once it became a dynasty, based on the concept of Wu Xing.

Wood is blue-green.
Fire is red.
Earth is yellow.
Water is black.
Metal is white.


Wood parts Earth.
Earth absorbs Water.
Water quenches Fire.
Fire melts Metal.
Metal chops Wood.

The yellow turbans chose yellow, because they weren't overcoming the Han, but were intending to be generated from it. In regards to generating, it goes:

Wood feeds Fire.
Fire creates Earth (ash).
Earth bears Metal.
Metal carries Water.
Water nourishes Wood.

(Minor correction to what I said).

Prior to Wang Mang's rebellion in the middle of the Han, this was the cycle that was used.

Earth->Wood->Metal->Fire->Water->Earth

Qin used black, and therefore Han (Liu Bang) was yellow.

After Wang Mang, who changed the cycle to the Generation order, where the previous dynasty creates the coming one., it got appended by later Han emperors and so the cycle went:

Earth->Metal->Water->Wood->Fire->Earth

In this cycle, Wang Mang considered Qin to be a usurper, which meant that Xin was Yellow, as he counted the Han as the 3rd dynasty instead of the 4th.

This generation order was kept, and so Han remained "red".