I've noticed that most magical worlds that divide their magics along elemental lines usually fall into a number of habits, but differ in a few ways. I figured I'd talk about those, largely because I like to hearing the sound of my own voice.
First off, the most common one. Every single elemental divide has Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. They all do. For some reason, Fire is almost always evil (despite its nurturing qualities), and Water gets some kind of healing or empathy power. That said, we'll skip over those three and move on to more complex divisions, that have more that just four elements. It's not uncommon to see Ice or Wood included as a fourth element. Metal is also included sometimes, though most times it falls under the control of Earth (or, as a created element, none of them). Oriental element circles often have a fifth element being void, while sometimes you see pure magic filling up the space in the middle. When characters can control more than one element at a time, things can get very messy.
For example, lets say we have an Earth/Water user. Combining the two of them would create Mud, an odd but workable element, if not very useful. Earth/Fire would create Lava, a much more deadly combo. Presumably, opposites can't combine, though if you did mix Earth and Air, you'd probably get Dust. Fire/Air would most likely make Steam, while a theoretical Fire/Water mix would make...Boiling Water? I dunno. Air/Water might be... Mist? Ice? Not sure. Still, it's interesting to think about, at any rate.
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