Waaay too specific to the local environment, and honestly just too neat and logical. Almost certainly, some ginger dude really “got around” in the minor tribe that later became a local genocidal empire. Possibly all before written history began.

Humans basically just stepped out of Africa in evolutionary terms. Even Europe isn’t a neat selection story like that - the white skin comes from steppe nomad invasions, while the blue eyes were from the original inhabitants, who had black skin.