So I talked about
elements before; if it be a sort of five elements thought experiment,
elementally-challenged undead, or magic items often relating to the
elements. I like elemental systems, in video games or tabletop
settings. You can infer a lot about a fantasy world based on its
elemental systems, if these elements be purely for a combat triangle
just for game mechanics, or if they're actually a part of the world
itself as the building blocks of everything.
Now most
elemental systems fall either into the sort of “magical combat
flavors” thing, at least in video games, or a sort of world and
magical context thing. In a lot of games, elemental damage is pretty
much exclusive to magic spells, which is the primary way that magical
people or beings tend to fight. Other magic tends to be “typeless”
or be like death damage or whatever, but elemental is usually its own
set thing. In these types, elemental damage is usually just tied into
specific skills, powers, or effects. In some every single elemental
attack is almost identical, you start with a basic fire spell that is
the same as the basic ice spell and they just deal different kinds of
damage, or your weapons just deal different elemental types as bonus
damage. This makes sense and adds granularity to a game's system, but
it's kind of boring.
Then you have
magic system which encompass all kinds of magic, trying to combine
elemental basics into a wide-reaching magic system. Something like
the game Magicka is a bit like this, or you can go for the obvious
other example with the Avatar anime. In these examples, magic
relating to the elements is more holistic, air magic can be used to
fly or knock away projectiles, it doesn't just shoot lightning bolts
or whatever. These systems can also include things like mixing two or
more elements together to create sub-elements, which could
theoretically do practically any magic effect you can think of. I
tend to like these elemental systems, but moreso when they have that
kind of magical realism or mythological feel; the magic of elemental
fire isn't JUST fire, but also heat, light, maybe passion and rage
somehow tied up in there a bit too. Ars Magica is a nice example of
this, as is the Dominions game series; though both of these are not
strictly all elemental magic systems.
Elemental
Triangles/Quadrangles/Pentagnles
Fire, Frost, Lightning
So in a lot of
games, Elder Scrolls and Path of Exile come to mind here, you have
the three basic elemental types of Fire, Frost, and Lightning. I like
this, it's simple and there is plenty of interplay. The issue here is
they don't really have counters. Of course, they don't NEED to
counter each other in a combat triangle, but a lot of media does this
already and it works well for establishing a sort of basic, easy to
understand system.
So for starters,
you could say that Fire melts Ice, but Ice doesn't really “counter”
lighting, unless it's in water form. Water as a magical element is
more common in fantasy media like books and shows I feel, since in
video game form it's harder to justify why splashing someone with
water kills them. For this reason, I think ice is used as a stand in,
though many settings put both under the same umbrella (or annoyingly,
they are two separate categories.) Even if we say that Fire melts
Ice, Ice absorbs Lightning, we're a bit stuck because Lightning
doesn't beat Fire really. Unless you want to get really abstract and
say that because Lightning creates fire, it's the master or creator
of Fire. I could only see that working in something very hands off,
more metaphysical then anything, not a spell or element based magic
system- it just doesn't make enough gut-sense to work.
Then
we could do it the opposite. Ice extinguishes Fire, but Fire doesn't
really beat Lightning on its own, though the Ice/Water element makes
sense to get beat by electricity. I think Pokemon starters may also
be a good way to establish it; changing out lightning or electric for
grass/plant/nature here could work really well. Fire burns grass,
Grass drinks/absorbs Water, Water puts out Fire. Easy. The only
problem here is you don't get evocative ice magic (unless once again,
Water/Ice are the same element) and you lose out on lightning. Grass
or Nature doesn't “feel” like blasty elemental magic in the same
way as the other ones do.
Fire, Water, Earth, Air
The classic Greek
elements. I like these. They're very common and everybody knows them,
they shit inspiration. Characters can easily be tied to the elements,
you can imagine a lot of useful utility spells and magical blasts
based on these, the “bending” of these elements makes for great
combat magic or just general flavor. These tend to fit under the
second type of “system” that I described above; a sort of
holistic magic system where all kinds of effects are made by these
elements or by mixing them- pure Air or Water magic (just the
element) tends not to lend itself to combat as well, and “Earth”
magic as a combat school or class doesn't feel as satisfying since it
tends to be “physical” damage and feels like the odd one out. Of
course if this is the only way for mages to deal physical damage then
it could be cool, but typically a magical wizard or elemental blaster
guy should be doing some kind of specific elemental blasts against
enemies that they are weak to.
Also I feel like
mentioning here is most appropriate; I really like the concept of an
“elementalist” conjuring or using all elements of nature. The
term “elemental” here referring not to the vague, somewhat modern
interpretations of the elements as abstract forces but rather as “the
elements” as in the natural world, being outside, all that stuff.
Ties in with nature magicky stuff a bit but this is one of my pet
favorite interpretations that I see only extremely rarely. Stuff like
making the sun beat down on the enemies or conjuring up mists to
obscure vision not because you have power over abstract fire and
abstract wind, but because those are the elements of nature that you
can command. Also allows for more abstract elements that don't FEEL
like cherrypicking as much as other elemental systems do; it feels
less special-snowflake to have a magnetism wizard if they are
channeling the magnetism as an “element” of the world, then if it
was a side ability of a generic “metal elementalist”. This is an
incredibly specific thing, I'm not giving any examples or explaining
it well, but this is Vagueposting so you'll just have to deal with it
lol
Fire, Frost, Lightning, Acid
This
is a bit of a combination of a traditional four element systems,
except with Earth replaced with Acidic or corrosion. Now pretty often
you'll see this done but with Earth being “Poison” instead, a bit
like Legend of Grimrock, but I have a few problems with it. First I
think it works well in a video gamey sort of way, but it doesn't work
on everything- you couldn't be much of a venom mage against things
immune to venom like zombies, golems, and lots of other stuff that is
common in fantasy. Secondly, being immune to venom is a lot more
common then fire/ice/lighting at least in terms of average animals.
Like there's no normal animal that is immune to fire, it would be
something kind of rare like a demon or dragon, but most fantasy
settings would have all snakes just conveniently immune to poison, or
even entire races like snake/lizard people immune to it. Path of
Exile sidesteps this by making their poison element “Chaos” which
I kind of like, but it's a little vague in theme. As such, I think
acid or corrosion works a little better. Also note I'm using poison
and venom interchangeable, I know there's a difference, it's just the
name the element is most commonly given.
However,
one problem with Fire/Water/Air/Acid systems is that there's no easy
or obvious triangle or what beats what. I do like using the more
video game adaption for this, hence Fire, Frost, Lightning, and Acid
all as damage types. I think this fits well since, as stated
previously, “water” doesn't feel as aggressive as Frost and Earth
is more physical damage then something like Acid would be, Acid or
Corrosion or whatever you want to call it is pretty unique for that
reason. However- what bets Acid? And what does Acid beat? One kind of
minor interpretation is that Acid beats Fire and loses to Lightning.
I personally like this because it implies that Acid could be in a
liquid or smoke/dust form, which smothers the fire, but it's not a
good fit. Even though there is no real reason this should be how it
is, I have a sort of weird fascination with Lightning being the
counter to Acid. Maybe in a fantasy world electricity or thunder just
somehow gets rid of Acidic stuff. It fits the best in my mind;
imagine dipping copper cables into a vat of acid and charging them
up, the electrical shock causes the acidic stuff to change color,
fizzle, suddenly losing its alkaline properties or even 'shocking'
the acid back into pure water?
I could see Lightning being the best
element to kill slimes at least, which are commonly associated with
corrosion. The electricity causes the slime to jiggle, sizzle,
shrinking and size and hardened into useless left over minerals as
the moisture was just boiled out of the poor thing. Why would that
work better then an equally hot fire? Like I said, it's not a perfect
fit but it is one I like.
The Fifth (Or Sixth) Element
This is a sub
category of the above elemental system. The classic Fire, Water,
Earth, and Air BUT with the fifth element. Typically, this element is
Aether, Void, Prime, or some other ur-element, typically typecasted
as “Arcane” damage or perhaps the divine alternative to the other
elements. This usually has the rules of the fifth element being able
to beat all the other elements, or does shit that none of the others
can do, like messing with time, fate, magic iteslf, or the nature of
souls. Under this category, we could also include the final element
as being “Light”, sometimes with a “Darkness” counter.
Sometimes one of them beats all the basic elements, but loses to the
other weird element, which in turn loses to all the normal elements.
The counter to the counter, if you will.
Eight Elements
Then, some people
extrapolate the Four elements into 8, the combinations of each of the
basic four into sub elements. Water + Earth = Mud element, Fire +
Water could be steam or acid, you get the idea. I don't like this one
as much as the other ones, mostly because there are to many elements
and it feels a little too mathematical. I'm the type of guy who loves
the idea of a “Mud” specialist wizard and would totally give them
like magical healing sediments in holy mud they slather on people or
summon mud golems and stuff, but sometimes the element is just the
element, it's bending but a little less cool, playing a “Steam”
wizard would just be lame unless you tied in technology and magitech
into it to otherwise bulk up their boring moveset. (Pretty good idea
for a GLOG Wizard class though.) Some people instead put in totally different elements into the Octagonal system- Lords of Magic with Order/Chaos and Life/Death along with the four elements is a good example.
Two Elements
This
one is a bit of a wildcard. It's less common, most games aren't going
to have two elements for something like a combat system, but a game
setting or fantasy world might. This harkens back to stuff like the
yin and yang, light and dark sides of the force, the light and dark
worlds in Metroid or Zelda. It creates a duality. Once again, it's
less for something you'd use in a game purely by itself, but in terms
of a magic system that encompasses everything it works and is pretty
inspired, though it can make a fantasy world feel a bit
claustrophobic in a sense. I'm also intentionally avoiding very vague
uses of this; you could argue that “man vs nature” or “technology
vs magic” or “law vs chaos” could also count as two “elements”
for our usage, but I'm keeping this to stuff that is usually conjured
by magic or has a sort of chemical/physical/mathemagical properties
in the world, less so vague elemental allegiances.
The Three Elements Idea (Background)
This
is a concept of a three elemental system. My primary inspiration is
coming from The Secret World- my favorite MMO. In that game, the
basic materials you used to craft stuff were Metal, Fire, Water, and
Dust- there were also glyphs and runes, but these enchanted items
with specific effects and go beyond the scope of this essay. Metal
was mostly just used for weapons and barrier potions though, the
materials you used to craft your charms (equipped gear- since your
clothes were all cosmetic in that game to fit with the modern theme),
were the three elements of Fire, Water, and Dust. I'm going to
extrapolate these into something greater then it was in the game.
Sidebar:
I also just want to say I really liked that system for materials
because it felt mystical and magical and occult in a way; perfect for
that game an atmosphere. I love the high fantasy aesthetic with weird
power crystals and I also love the mythological aesthetic of
elemental energies being locked in objects that represent them, like
still warm embers being infused with fire magic and the like. In TSW
though, the materials went up in grades; Base, Imperfect, Normal,
Sacred, and Pure. You had to combine 5 of a lower tier to get one of
the next tier up. Most shitty enemies dropped Base and Imperfects of
course, so it took a bit of grinding since each weapon or item took
between 8 and 12 to fill an item in a slot, but it made sense since
there wasn't a specific high end material you needed to craft these;
you could just use any of the base materials anywhere.
I
really like this crafting system and kind of wanted to use it in a
game. Mostly because of how mystic it feels; for example you just
have generic “Water” but with enough of it of a certain quality
you can make magic charms that make people harder to kill. The “Fire”
in your inventory never goes out, so is it like an ever burning cool
flame or is it like an ember? Is it sealed away in an Orochi-Group
container that somehow keeps it in perfect stasis until the time is
right to use it? You obviously just can't pick up a handful of dust
off the ground and use it for magical purposes; perhaps “base”
dust means exactly that, the “base” element is just the stuff
you'd find in the real world to some extent, and finding it on enemy
drops and not having an unlimited amount of it is just a gaming
abstraction.
But
anyway this sidebar was just here to talk about how much I loved
those tier names. It really gets a vibe going for me; even if you
found PURE Water you'd hardly even know what it was, it would just
look beautiful and entrancing, somehow cleaner then any other water
you've seen, despite it just being water. Despite it just being a
literal bit of dirt, the magical “Dust” you have is actually
enchanted or infused with some kind of power somehow, and “Pure”
Dust is extremely potent indeed. All of this is just very cool mental
imagery.
I
also like to imagine how the characters are actually purifying these;
smashing them together with some sort of magical ability that
destroys most of the matter to keep only the best stuff? Are they
picking apart the best pieces or sifting through the elemental bits
with greater and greater filters or magical methods to keep only the
most pure pieces; slowly ascending in overall purity? Or is it some
kind of magical combining ritual, where the parts are simply melded
together and it reaches the next platonic ideal of its elemental
type? Super cool.
The Three Elements
There
are three elements that make up the cosmos. They were the first
things; it was the three storms. The mighty typhon, the terrifying
inferno, and the relentless dust-storm. Once these were calmed by the
powers above, their distribute element was scattered and made into
the world we know.
Fire
burns Dust away, but
is extinguished by Water.
Water
chokes out Fire, but
is lost to the Dust.
Dust
absorbs and drains away the Water, but is burnt by Fire.
Fire
represents all fire, celestial fire and worldly fire. It can be held
in the form of a candle flame, a hot stove, a raging bonfire, and so
on. It can also appear in gaseous forms like fumes or hot steam. It's
pretty standard here, but is highly tied to things like aggression,
offense, damage, and weaponry.
Water
is water, obviously, both stagnant and flowing. The more pure water
is, the more powerful it is in regards to elemental magic. Water can
appear as mist, streams, or blasts as well as be magically potent
just in its liquid form.
Dust
is where things get interesting. It appears as a cloud, pile, or
strewn about as a light covering. It tends to be very neutrally
colored and easy to miss, but has magical powers all the same. When a
Dust-user conjures Dust, it creates a cloud of swirling particles
that may crackle and spark with electricity between them, or it could
be blown outwards as a corrosive or blinding mist.
Dust
is a quasi-element, a combination of Earth and Air in our normal four
piece elemental system. Why? Because I think it fits better in our
three element system, and here's why. For one, Fire needs to be
beaten by Water in any elemental system, that's a given. It's easy
enough to argue why Earth or Grass or Lightning beats water, as
discussed above, but finding something that gets beat by fire that
isn't a living thing is tough. Fire just likes to kill wood,
basically, not much unliving fears the flames. However dust can kind
of sort of be a mix of life elements; but with some more obvious
offensive powers that don't dip into things like poisons or generic
“physical” damage, though physical could also be used in the form
of dust ball, dust wind, dust storm, throwing rocks around or getting
hit with a tornado, etc.
Also
the other reason I think Fire is a good fit for beating Dust here is
things that are often considered dusty, like dusty furry creatures in
the desert highlands or an ancient mummy, seem pretty flammable, even
if that dustiness is just a side effect and not really the root cause
of their counter.
Where
is Air/Earth?
In
this case, Dust IS Air, or rather a combination of Air and Earth. I
really like this concept because, to me at least, I can see it in a
video game or whatever. I can see the particle effects in my head; a
swirling cloud of dust with electricity zapping between particles,
just daring you to go inside. In my mind, I think a cloud of
particles being able to be electrified makes sense enough, PLUS it
makes enough sense that Fire burns it away. Of course realistically,
dust or dirt isn't exactly super flammable, but it kind of fits in
with that preteaching part of a human mind that knows that fire
consumes things faster the smaller and more surface area they have.
You could think of elemental dust a bit like a cloud of generic
video-gamey dust particles, maybe made of saw dust or finely ground
flour, which ignite or even explode very easily. Also; if you're on
the fence about dust being tied in with electiricty, I've noticed a
trend in games about having the desert level also be electrical
themed for some odd reason. Maybe that's just my Breath of the Wild
experience talking, but there's some kind of cultural spillover
there.
You
could also imagine the three elemental system as the “base”
elements, with air being equivalent to the aether/void element in
other games or worlds. Air is the element where all other elements
came from, hence why I references it in the start of this blog post.
Why
is 'Dust' so vague?
This
is partially to cover up for the inadequacies of other elemental
systems I have been writing about and, secondly, because it's kind of
cool. Gives it a mystical edge. Water is already hyper varied and
probably one of the most attractive choices for elemental magic
stuff, Fire is strong but a bit straightforward. I will admit I am
imagining this elemental system more in a video game context then a
tabletop one, you can just imagine in a tabletop game “oh you
conjure fire, ok whatever you want to do with it go ahead”. But in
a video game things are more set and can be designed, discussed
further down below. Another reason is to give it a wide angle to
compete with both Fire and Water, which both have a lot of uses if a
bit straightforward ones off the top of your head.
Second,
I wanted Dust to be a combination because of how limited air magic
tends to be. That may sound a bit crazy, but honestly it's true. The
main powers of Air in most games or media is creating wind or air
blasts, blocking arrows/air shields obviously, flight, and possibly
controlling the weather; this is the capabilities of pure air with
some thinking. Compared to fire which can cook food, work with
metals, heat up cold people and many more air seems lackluster. Air
is often tied in with lightning or storm, and while this is a good
addition you'll notice that lightning is almost just as sparse.
Beyond shooting enemies with it, lightning can only really be useful
in a modern fantasy setting can make use of it, or often the
lightning power has teleportation and/or telekinesis (magnetism
usually) hooked into it somehow. Earth is a bit TOO all purpose since
it's literally everywhere, but in this case we're limiting the
earth-power of Dust to just dust, sand, that sort of thing.
How
would you present the Elemental Attacks/Spells/Combat Moves(Video
Games)?
You
could imagine a bunch of different ranges, area of effects, damage
upfront vs damage over time, and forms or appearances for Fire magic.
Low level red and orange flames, shooting out in arcs or orbs. Higher
level blue or white flames that are thrown as big fireballs or can
raise walls and shields made of fire. The super endgame fire would be
like bright yellow to gold or something- a type of hyper hot and
powerful energy.
Water
is a little trickier. As mentioned before, Water just splashes people
and isn't really dangerous, and any magician or entity that can
conjure a huge amount of water at once, enough to hurt or kill
someone, could probably sweep away small buildings or flood big
areas, making it very dangerous for lots of people or causing huge
damage. Water's power doesn't really “scale down” well in an
elemental system; Fire, Lightning, and Ice all can be imagined to be
dangerous on an individual level, but Water? Not as much. Of course
this is only counting the combat potential of these magic systems;
water could be the worst in combat because it offers protection,
healing, movement, or other various buffs or useful travel powers for
people who master it.
Dust
is the one I kind of made up for this article, though I will admit
some inspirations of course. Wind and lightning attacks are of course
closely related, as are generic “dust attacks” from things like
Dwarf Fortress forgotten beasts, but usually these have to carry
poison or something to make any kind of sense. It doesn't really have
to make sense obviously, a video game boss could just flap a wing and
deal damage if you're anywhere close to it and it makes enough sense
and people accept it, it just isn't super satisfying or obvious the
way the other elements are. I think a combination of the above works
best; a character does an attack animation and lifts their arms,
creating a cloud of smoke that flies at the player character. Maybe
it deals damage or stun on a hit, or maybe it just passes through
your harmlessly, but electrical energy will start to zap you if you
move through it once its set up, or the magician swirls up a bunch of
dust around them dramatically before unleashing a powerful chain
lightning bolt, which leaves little particles in the air along its
trail. It's pretty much the same as lightning as in every other game,
but with some added utility.
Conclusion
This
idea was mostly based on TSW and my desires to reinvent the wheel. Of
course, I do think it's an interesting take on the subject, but I
sort of would rather use this as a background for my fantasy setting
instead of hard and fast rules. Instead of an elemental system, you
are just told about the three ur-elements. But what do you know, a
player steals some Sacred dust and is looking for more to find some
pure; magical and spiritually cleansed dust they will no doubt use
for some holy ritual... or perhaps for an unholy magical ceremony.
