Elemental theory

The scriptures tell us there was once an otherworldy Kingdom for each element. Many writings describe those mythical realms, but it’s hard to know what was there concretely, as dazzling metaphors and ornate verses paint suggestive but vague pictures of infinite seas, ever-burning cities, cloud landscapes, and endless caves.

But these realms, as all the otherworldy kingdoms, crumbled and fell onto the world. What was left of those wonders were shards of twisted elements: no more pure fire but ash, radiance, magma, smoke.

These elements each warp the mana field differently and have their “quirks”, but they can be classified into three families: positive, negative, and complex.

The mana thread in the field has some life force with it, an energetic quality, an intensity if you will, like the brightness of a color, or the loudness of a note. “Intense” mana is easier to materialize but harder to control, “delicate” mana is the opposite, easy to manipulate but difficult to realize into a spell. Wizards have to modulate their life force, muffling it to create the mana knot needed for spells, and releasing it to “make real” the virtual effect of the knot.

The mana field near positive elements is full of energy but hard to control. It feels like thick paint of bright colors, an elastic metal rod, a loud but incomprehensible chord, and an overwhelming smell of burnt wood.

The mana field near negative elements is subdued and malleable, able to be twisted and bent precisely. It feels like watery ink, a leaf of gold, a whispering symphony, the accents of fine wine.

Complex elements are distinctly idiosyncratic, each “liking” some manipulation but “disliking” others. Recent developments in mana theory have uncovered why their capricious behavior: they act as positive elements to specific mana colors and as negative toward others. So, while apparently “neutral”, they have a hidden complexity (hence the name).

Elements can be manipulated beyond what normal matter can since they are “pure”: elements identical in each of their parts (for example, a scoop of elemental mud will be identical to another piece taken in another place and time from the same source). This makes them predictable and makes it easy to discern external contaminants and unwanted additions.

From the magic-user point of view, there are no elements easier to manipulate than others, but each will need specific approaches, the right amount of patience and finesse, alternating with swift actions and brute determination.

As they appear in the shards, elements have subtle effects on the surroundings but that can nonetheless build up together or skew the chance of improbabilities happening.

Positive elements promote life: near them, people heal faster and plants grow stronger. For the regular person, this effect is not much, it’s like being in a salubrious climate, a place with good air where you quickly bounce off from a cold or an intoxication. Plants and Animals thrive near this element even if the rest of the environment is hostile because of its climate or soil.

Negative Elements promote unlife: the mana imprint of a living being can be preserved so perfectly that the body, or the soul, almost doesn’t realize it’s dead. It’s hard to describe what being near these elements feels like. One term used is “lingering presence”, like things left an ethereal trail made of their memories. Some people use “nostalgia of the present” as everything feels enveloped in a mist of longing and melancholy. Others just feel a sense of impending doom. While negative elements don’t directly drain life force, people not used to this sensation may feel tired and lacking motivation.

Humanoids, occasionally animals (and sometimes even plants) that die near one of the negative elements may leave an undead behind. This can, theoretically, happen everywhere, but elsewhere it happens one time in a million, while in areas rich in negative elements it may happen once in a hundred (and simple magic can make it a certainty). Ghosts and other ethereal entities are the most common undead “born” by the elements, but in theoretical “perfect” conditions a dead person would generate both a soulless zombie and a bodiless ghost.

Living near Complex Elements doesn’t have any effect on the normal person, besides the fact dreams are much more vivid and all with a common element in them: until you get used to the environment you can dream every night of deserts, or dancing bears, or triangles. Wizard needs some time to get used to the “mana climate”, nothing too challenging but a nuisance nonetheless: it’s often compared to being on a boat and having to develop “sea legs”.

______ Positive Elements

Lightning

(positive air)

Location: Glass Horn, Zujaj Sheikdom, Gnomes’ Sheikdoms

Electrotherapy: healing through controlled exposure

Lighting weapons: Lighting can be harvested and contained in Elemental Glass, used as ammunition for cannons and as blades for swords.

Creatures: There are species of Antelopes that eat the lighting erupting from the ground as if it were vegetation. They are known for their speed.

Radiance

(positive fire)

Location: Radiant Forest, Eylalet Orman, Elvish Sultanate

Healing: through direct exposure (in dedicated sanatoriums ) or through the working product of exposed trees (heling saps, syrups, fruits)

Creatures: Winger Beaver created wood structures that channel the radiance on which they feed (alongside sap-infused wood). Their “light lodges” were the inspiration for the Aurora Sanatoriums.

Steam

(positive air)

Location: The Steam Oases (each under a different Aga, referring directly to the Sultan), Elvish Sultanate

Life-breath Pipelines: a big part of the Oases are covered in greenhouses that can be productive even in almost polar climates thanks to the controlled infusion of Elemental Steam (it also offers heating for plants, animals, and people).

Creatures: [TBA]

Mineral

(Positive Earth)

Location: The mineral mountains are divided between four different nobles, in the Southern Orc Kingdom.

Infinite Metals: The Mountains offers all possible metals, pure and “pre-alloyed” (you can find ores of steel and bronze)

Edible minerals: Some stones can be eaten, inhaled, or drunk in solution and have beneficial effects, like “mineral remedies”. Some gems can be ingested to gain sustenance (but they are only partially digested).

Creatures: There is an ecosystem of insects feeding on edible minerals and vermin predators eating them.

_________ Negative Elements

Void

(negative air)

Location: The Void Pits in the Northern Orc Kingdom

The Void does not have any practical application but is central to the religion and magical practices of the orcs. Their knowledge of the void is the key to their spatial magic.

Like all Negative Elements, Void has some “mana insulating” proprieties, but they are hard to quantify and exploit.

Creatures: Dead dropped in the pits imprint some memories in it. People who died in the void, if they were pushed there against their will, can (rarely) come back as undead Spectre: angry and vengeful ghosts made of darkness.

Ash

(negative fire)

Location: The Ash Steppes (central-west axam)

Grey Stone: Elemental Ash can be used to create a concrete-like stony material. Grey Stone is “mana insulant”, things in a Grey Stone container don’t influence the mana field outside.

Memory Powder: Treated Ash can be used to evoke past manipulation of the mana field, helping to recall past thought magic.

Creatures: Ash promotes the creation of ghosts, fully incorporeal undead. Animals often became ghosts as well, and these are the prey of the Glyph Tiger, able to extract residual life force from mana entanglements (Similar to the manavore rodents like the manticorat, the capibara-angels, and the winged beavers).

Salt

(negative water)

Location: Salt Desert, covering almost all of West Uxali, under the control of the Dwarven Desert Queen.

Crystalline Mana-circuits: Elemental Salt bends mana in predictable ways, so precise patterns of salt crystals can pre-knot mana efficiently, and they can also be moved to create different configurations. This makes them ideal for building constructs, mechanizing a good chunk of the “mana entangling” and so unloading the artificer of part of the burden. If the “circuit” is made with other materials, salt can be used as a “mana insulator” to avoid external interference (for example magic scrolls put between two thin slabs of salt).

Creatures: The Salt Desert tends to generate corporeal undead, dried ghouls wandering the flat arid landscape looking for life force to drain.

Dust

(negative earth)

Location: From the Glassh Horn to center-east Uxali

Elemental Glass: dust is probably the most used element. It can be added to almost any material to change how to behave around magic. The most common use is to make “mana-insulating” glass, that can contain spells and elemental lighting. Mirage powders that can give substance to illusions are also quite common.

Creatures: The Dust Wraiths are ghosts that have a semblance of corporeality since they approximate a body made of dust. These “undead mirages” can be unaware of their nature, trapped in repeating loops of their last moments.

____________ Complex Elements

Ice

(air + water)

Location: The Eternal Iceberg, Cocytus, Holy Infernal Empire.

Elemental Ice will melt only when removed from the main iceberg, faster and faster the further it’s taken. The sacred nature of the ice (it’s the tomb of Saint Levistus) makes it taboo to use it for mundane purposes (like refrigerating food).

It amplifies cyan, blue, and magenta mana: Exploiting its affinity, Elemental Ice is used to create temporary divination tools, like mirrors, orbs, and lenses (they all will eventually melt once away from the iceberg).

It dampens red, yellow, and green mana: Objects and creatures can be encased in ice and be in a sort of “timeless state” (not literally timeless but degeneration and decay are incredibly slowed down).

Mud

(water + earth)

Location: The Mud Hills, Maladomini, Holy Infernal Empire.

The mud is mainly used to make excellent and super-hard, but ultimately mundane, ceramics.

It amplifies green, yellow, and magenta mana: Elemental mud can be used to make healing baths, it can also be (relatively) easily shaped with thoughts. Used often in terracotta cauldrons for alchemists.

It dampens red, cyan, and blue mana: Special ceramics can be made to be impervious to magically generate forces [magic missle and fireball-proof, to give you the idea], this ceramics are also “un-teleporatable” and “un-cursable”.

Smoke

(air + fire)

Location: The recurring Smoke Monsoon that passes over northwest Uxali.

The Smoke Monsoon causes a black rain, whose residue powder can be turned into gunpowder.

It amplifies red, yellow, and blue mana: Ink derived from the smoke powder is excellent for creating scrolls, especially from the Evocation school (fireball and such).

It dampens green, cyan, and magenta mana: Smoke bombs infused with elemental smoke are excellent for shutting down any magic acting from a distance, from telepathy to scrying, to remote-controlled constructs.

Magma

(fire + earth)

Location: The Magma archipelago, Eylalet Atash, Elviish Sultanate

Elemental magma can be used as an “omnipotent material” since it’s possible to control the proprieties of the stones that will result once the lava cools down. Transparent quartz and other transparent stones [something like uxelite] are among the most produced, as they are the prime material for the Oases’ greenhouses.

It amplifies red, green, and cyan mana: These affinities make Magma perfect to animate matter from a distance. Elvish Elementalists create “crystal seeds” that can help to animate any kind of matter into elemental creatures.

It dampens yellow, magenta, and blue mana: Elvish weapon masters have developed blades of elemental obsidian that can “cut through magic”. They are especially effective in dissipating curses and forms of mind control.