So, question; why is it that the little icons next to our user names are different colors? What do the colors mean, and how do you achieve some sort of color other than blue?

Yep, what said and:

Red = Artists/Assistant Admin/User Admin/Administrator

Black = Site owner,

Purple = Forum mods? Not sure on that one...

Purple = Minimods. (:

And Green = NPCs! See the Channel 5 News forum for an example :D