What are all of the Elements?

[GlassRose]

(First thread I've made, AHH!)

Ok, so Elements are common, almost a staple, in fantasy magic. I'm sure most people have heard of the 'classical elements', earth, water, fire, air, (and aether) for the West, and wood, fire, water, earth, and metal for the East. But those aren't the only elements people use in stories either, so my question is;

If you were trying to make an elemental magic system that was as broad as possible without getting hyper-specific, what would the elements be?

And then for funsies, which of those elements do you resonate the most with? Would you have affinity with, if you were a mage? And why. You can pick multiple.

 

[georgelee5786]

Fire, water, earth, and air cover the bases just fine. In my own story, I just use those four. If I wanted to screw around with ideas, I would do fire, earth, water, air, spiritual, shadow, light, and life.

 

[HelloHound]

fire, water, wind, light, dark, and earth
as for which I'd like to have if I was put into the rules of my story then I'd probably choose to have water elemental power as that's a jack of all trades, useful in many situations and relatively low key

 

[Paul_Tromba]

 

[georgelee5786]

View attachment 24148

I expected you to say 'booze'

 

[Deeprotsorcerer]

(First thread I've made, AHH!)

Ok, so Elements are common, almost a staple, in fantasy magic. I'm sure most people have heard of the 'classical elements', earth, water, fire, air, (and aether) for the West, and wood, fire, water, earth, and metal for the East. But those aren't the only elements people use in stories either, so my question is;

If you were trying to make an elemental magic system that was as broad as possible without getting hyper-specific, what would the elements be?

And then for funsies, which of those elements do you resonate the most with? Would you have affinity with, if you were a mage? And why. You can pick multiple.

This is a fun idea. Want to be super broad and undefined. Go with two opposing base energies that can both be manipulated or combined in certain ratios to make anything with varying degrees of stability/potency.

Lets go Kingdom Hearts. Light and Darkness. Magic fueled by one source or the other can manifest in any way but carry different 'tinges' due to their nature. Light = generally positive emotions. Joy, serenity, hope. Dark = the opposite. Despair, anger, envy.

Your basic fireball cast by both schools may differ in aesthetic, but also in how they can be defended against. A counterspell that snuffs out happiness will make a misery fueled spell stronger before it hits you.

Make both have a psychological effect on casters wielding them that can go horribly wrong. Light mage blinded by the concept of justice or righteousness doesn't consider leniency for someone that did wrong or something like that.

 

[Sleds]

I use fire, water, wind, earth, ice (I know it's weird since it's water), wood, metal, thunder, darkness, light, time, space and chaos (which are outside of the universe in my story). If I had to choose an element, it would be space since it's useful in many way.

This is a fun idea. Want to be super broad and undefined. Go with two opposing base energies that can both be manipulated or combined in certain ratios to make anything with varying degrees of stability/potency.

Lets go Kingdom Hearts. Light and Darkness. Magic fueled by one source or the other can manifest in any way but carry different 'tinges' due to their nature. Light = generally positive emotions. Joy, serenity, hope. Dark = the opposite. Despair, anger, envy.

Your basic fireball cast by both schools may differ in aesthetic, but also in how they can be defended against. A counterspell that snuffs out happiness will make a misery fueled spell stronger before it hits you.

Make both have a psychological effect on casters wielding them that can go horribly wrong. Light mage blinded by the concept of justice or righteousness doesn't consider leniency for someone that did wrong or something like that.

That more or less how element are used with ying and yang in chinese cultivation novels.

 

[Sola-sama]

This is my 'element' system that I shamelessly adapt from my favorite novel, Reverend Insanity.
In my works, everything is split into four group of 'paths': Race, Element, Weapon, and Concept.

A race 'path' would be specific abilities developed by the entire race or a specific member of said race that was inherited by their descendant.
An example of this is dragon-path. Due to the racial traits of being apex predator, dragon races produces 'dragon particles' that are extremely corrosive to non-dragon. Dragon-path methods include Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw, Dragon Presence. etc etc.

'Element' path would refer to the nine elemental paths of fire, water, earth, wind, metal, wood, lightning, light and dark. Each are self-explanatory so I won't elaborate.

'Weapon' path is the culmination of certain weapon, such as sword-path, spear-path, bow-path, hammer-path, etc.

And the last, 'concept' path refer to everything else that is not considered the three above. This include:
- blood-path (the usage of blood)
- wisdom-path (revolve around thoughts, will, and emotion)
- rule-path (the operation of the laws of heavens)
- sound-path (vibration, music, and waves)
- soul-path (soul, death, and undeath)
- dream-path (dreams and illusions)
- strength-path (raw, unadulterated violence)
- transformation-path (transformation and evolution of biological self)
- refinement-path (refining base materials to more useful objects or artifacts)
- time-path, space-path, etc etc. Do note that these are the things I want to reveal, there are others that would spoil my stories if I reveal them.

And then for funsies, which of those elements do you resonate the most with? Would you have affinity with, if you were a mage? And why. You can pick multiple.

The 'element' that resonate with me the most is sound-path. To be perfectly honest, I have trouble hearing due to my idiot younger self being stabbed with a chopstick into my earhole (it's not lethal, but left a permanent hearing damage). Sound has been an important portion in my life because my shitty music taste is the only thing that kept me from breaking down, so I have a complex regarding hearing, sound, and waves throughout my whole life.

Also, I love sound-path because Feng Jiu Ge (Reverend Insanity) is a fucking chad. If there's a chance of being impregnated by a fictional character, I would have Feng Jiu Ge's child.

 

[Sleds]

This is my 'element' system that I shamelessly adapt from my favorite novel, Reverend Insanity.
In my works, everything is split into four group of 'paths': Race, Element, Weapon, and Concept.

A race 'path' would be specific abilities developed by the entire race or a specific member of said race that was inherited by their descendant.
An example of this is dragon-path. Due to the racial traits of being apex predator, dragon races produces 'dragon particles' that are extremely corrosive to non-dragon. Dragon-path methods include Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw, Dragon Presence. etc etc.

'Element' path would refer to the nine elemental paths of fire, water, earth, wind, metal, wood, lightning, light and dark. Each are self-explanatory so I won't elaborate.

'Weapon' path is the culmination of certain weapon, such as sword-path, spear-path, bow-path, hammer-path, etc.

And the last, 'concept' path refer to everything else that is not considered the three above. This include:
- blood-path (the usage of blood)
- wisdom-path (revolve around thoughts, will, and emotion)
- rule-path (the operation of the laws of heavens)
- sound-path (vibration, music, and waves)
- soul-path (soul, death, and undeath)
- dream-path (dreams and illusions)
- strength-path (raw, unadulterated violence)
- transformation-path (transformation and evolution of biological self)
- refinement-path (refining base materials to more useful objects or artifacts)
- time-path, space-path, etc etc. Do note that these are the things I want to reveal, there are others that would spoil my stories if I reveal them.


The 'element' that resonate with me the most is sound-path. To be perfectly honest, I have trouble hearing due to my idiot younger self being stabbed with a chopstick into my earhole (it's not lethal, but left a permanent hearing damage). Sound has been an important portion in my life because my shitty music taste is the only thing that kept me from breaking down, so I have a complex regarding hearing, sound, and waves throughout my whole life.

Also, I love sound-path because Feng Jiu Ge (Reverend Insanity) is a fucking chad. If there's a chance of being impregnated by a fictional character, I would have Feng Jiu Ge's child.

Isn't sound and dream path be an element part since they can be linked to water, wind, wood and light and dark elements?

 

[Iamnotabot]

After the basic 5 like earth, fire, water, air, and wood. And then: light, dark, void. After that we have a higger tier element: earth to metal, fire to magma, water to ice, etc etc,..... and there's a whole mess i made about mixing up, earth mix with fire could create magma, i'm still trying make a new one but turns out i just make naruto replaced hand seals with magic circle

 

[CarburetorThompson]

View attachment 24148

In a scrapped fantasy story I had a magic system based around the periodic elements. Instead of earth elementals and stuff, there was iron elementals. And combining an iron elemental with a carbon elemental would create an iron golem and stuff like that.

 

[Sola-sama]

Isn't sound and dream path be an element part since they can be linked to water, wind, wood and light and dark elements?

It's not incorrect, but if we go down to this logic, then everything would be part of element since the nine elements is the fundamental building blocks of our universe. Literally everything can be explained with the nine elements, and that wouldn't be fun to me.

In chinese, path also meant dao, and dao also meant path, so in this context, everything is interconnected, with nothing is better than the other. The only difference is one fits the situation more than the other. So dream-path meant the dao of dreams, etc etc, and since all path converge into a single path (which is the 'dao'), then yes, your assumption can be considered correct as well.

 

[Sleds]

It's not incorrect, but if we go down to this logic, then everything would be part of element since the nine elements is the fundamental building blocks of our universe. Literally everything can be explained with the nine elements, and that wouldn't be fun to me.

In chinese, path also meant dao, and dao also meant path, so in this context, everything is interconnected, with nothing is better than the other. The only difference is one fits the situation more than the other. So dream-path meant the dao of dreams, etc etc, and since all path converge into a single path (which is the 'dao'), then yes, your assumption can be considered correct as well.

It was just a thought, since compared to the concept of wisdom/blood/transformation or even soul, they can be integrated in the element path easily and be used by some users of the said element with some training or by other mean like dual element or an attack using two people without a need for a concept path to them.

 

[Sola-sama]

It was just a thought, since compared to the concept of wisdom/blood/transformation or even soul, they can be integrated in the element path easily and be used by some users of the said element with some training or by other mean like dual element or an attack using two people without a need for a concept path to them.

Yup, and that's what happen with my works.
To be perfectly honest, most of my classification is redundant because, for example, a high-rank earth-path cultivator can imitate the effect of lightning-path (Remember that an object of certain mass will generate a gravity field and gravity is called 'terrestrial magnetism' in my story so it is achievable for most high-rank cultivators to mimic or reproduce the effect of other paths). Another example is any object who suffered from enough pressure will produce heat, and if earth was put under immense pressure, they could produce magma. Thus, the imitation or reproduction the effect of fire-path through earth-path.

However, these redundant classification is fun because there's so many variations and permutations from combining element and concepts, you just need to be creative in creating the world so you can connect the dots. In fact, in my stories, most people have at least 1 concept path and 1 element path (One of my MC is sound-path and soul-path. He combined music with undeath, his 'aura' is a death metal bgm).

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

(First thread I've made, AHH!)

Ok, so Elements are common, almost a staple, in fantasy magic. I'm sure most people have heard of the 'classical elements', earth, water, fire, air, (and aether) for the West, and wood, fire, water, earth, and metal for the East. But those aren't the only elements people use in stories either, so my question is;

If you were trying to make an elemental magic system that was as broad as possible without getting hyper-specific, what would the elements be?

And then for funsies, which of those elements do you resonate the most with? Would you have affinity with, if you were a mage? And why. You can pick multiple.

water / air. It's over powered. Water is used in blood and water mastery can make human blood instantly combust. Air mastery can be used to remove air, or raise the air concentration a lot and instant kill you

 

[Kalliel]

This, and the element of surprise.

 

[Anon2024]

I'd have an afinity with the 'clean shave' element.

 

[P.R.S]

Air, water, fire, earth, nature, eletric (or energy), metal, light, darkness and limit
Those being the principal
From then derivating every other sub-element (like plasma, gravity, etc), i think darkness is good for me

 

[Deleted member 54065]

I'm disappointed you guys forgot this element...

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

There are as many elements as I want there to be! Usually I like to have eight or so. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind/Air, Light, and Dark; is about as low as I'm willing to go. Usually have more. In fact, I used those six, plus Holy and Nether, as just the base elements in one story. Then there are secondary and tertiary elements, secondary elements being any natural element other than the base ones, and tertiary elements are any distinctly unnatural element, like fire that burns cold. Then there are compound elements, which, mostly overlap with secondary elements. But specifically are an element with multiple elements in its active composition. So like Storm element is at minimum, wind, water, and lighting.