A Ladder is just that; a Ladder. You start climbing at the bottom and work your way to the top. And just as with a real ladder, Ladders in Legends and Fairytales also have Rungs. Each Rung is a plateau, showing the progression and development of an Aspect.

Each and every Aspect has a unique Ladder, with each Rung of every Ladder being defined by a different word. Have no fear, though, you need not memorize every word... as there are a whole lot of them. Thirteen Aspects, each with fifteen Rungs. That is close to two-hundred words, and we’re only looked at the Ladders pertaining to the Aspects. There are further Ladders for Learned and Inherent Faculties, Magic, Complexity, Material Composition and even the Lethality of weapons. All of these Ladders are also unique.

Again, it is not necessary to commit every Ladder to memory, though you will eventually remember most of them if you play long enough. Either way, what is important is that a Ladder is also made up of five Colour Spectra. This means that even if you’re not sure where in the Yellow Spectrum STUBBORN sits, you know it is in the Yellow Spectrum. Thus, if you’re dealing with something in the Green Spectrum, you automatically know that there is a one Spectrum difference without having to check the individual Ladders, as Green is one Spectrum higher than Yellow. The fulfillment of the Hard Factors is based on this very principle.

The Colour coded scale used in Legends and Fairytales follows this progression, starting with RED at the bottom and going upwards from there to YELLOW, GREEN and then BLUE, with PURPLE being on the very top. Each Colour Spectrum has a meaning of sorts. It is essentially a scale, with the Yellow Spectrum defined as being the most typically human. Since a variety of things are purposely left somewhat open to interpretation in Legends and Fairytales, almost everything in the game is compared to an average human being, who falls somewhere into the Yellow Spectrum. This allows for an easy comparisons with other Spectra which are above or below the Yellow Spectrum. This also removes the need of placing an exact numerical value on every aspect of the game.

If an Aspect stands on high up in the Yellow Spectrum of a Ladder, you will automatically know that it has an advantage over something lower in the Yellow. This can be seen by looking at the relative strength of the two words, such as; DISTRACTED and WATCHFUL. These two words are part of the Aspect of Awareness, with one being at the top of the Yellow Spectrum with the other being near the bottom. Who has the Advantage in a situation can also be seen by just comparing the relevant Spectra (as seen by only the colours), such as comparing the GREEN and RED Spectra.