Why is the new Darius story classified as a "color story"?
Is it just a definition i don't understand as a non-english speaker? Why is it called a "color story" when it's pure text? How is it different from any of the other stories?
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It's a figure of speech. It gives "color" to the character in question and showcases the champion in his or her natural environment.
The thing to remember with English is that it’s a language that thrives on ignoring its own rules and definitions. And jargon can get substituted for accuracy very easily. Moreso, I’m told, than most other languages.
In this case, you are right that color means visual hues and light reflection and all that.
But because English speakers like to mix metaphor with definition. The term often gets thrown around as a means to express any variance and quirk at all. For example “local color” is used to indicate how a certain locations customs and speech patterns differentiate itself from the norm.
Does this really make sense? No. But we’ve taken the concept of color and used it figuratively to mean variation. Like the different colors in the light spectrum.
It’s the same here. Where the idea is that these stories add “color” to the character. Not literally. More, as an exploration of what makes them interesting.
Every champion should have a biography and a color story, but there are other stories that are not color stories. "Art is Life" may be about Vladimir, but it's not a color story. Yasuo appears in many stories, but has no color story. They are different on Riots side: Usually shorter than others, and every champ can have only one. Basically, a "color story" is a Splash Art but in lore.
Color stories are short stories focusing on a single champion that give a deeper view of their character.
Short stories are stories involving several main characters like the one with Ledros.
It's to differentiate them from the bio stories, and other short stories.
Bios exist to give you a rundown of the whole champ up to 'today' - but it can be biased by their perspective. I've heard them described as "What the champion might tell someone to put in their Wikipedia article". They need to be pretty short so that they can be quickly read by folks who want a quick introduction.
Color stories are also specific to a champion (like a bio) but are more of a singular example from their life. They can be from anyone's perspective. The use of the word "color" in this case, is more like "flavor" or "vividness" - it should give you a strong taste of what the champion is about.
Short Stories are just what the other stories are called (at least, so far - we've said we're releasing a novella in the future). They can be from anyone's perspective, feature several, or no, champions, and don't have the same word count limits that bios and color stories do.
I think it was Bioluminescence who once gave a definition. I cannot explain it as well as she did, but I can try...
Basically, a color story is all about giving you a "taste" of a champion.
Think about your champion, their main themes, ideals, abilities. The point of a color story is to represent that (or at least some aspects of that because there is only so much you can tell in a few words).
The term 'color' isn't literal, it's figurative... It's all about illustrating a champion and what they are about!