# Elemental Magic 2.0



## mbartelsm (Sep 6, 2012)

This is the resumed idea for the magic workings of my world, any suggestions or opinions?

*Basics:*

Magic is known as Animism
Magical particles are known as Anima
Magic is present in the Animus plane along with souls
Any living being smart enough can use magic
Magic is controlled trough the will of the soul


*Elements:
*
*Natural Elements*
_The natural elements are the elements that can be controlled trough animism, each of these elements has a God governing it and needs a virtue to be controlled)
_
-Thunder, _generosity_
-Wind, _liberality_
-Fire, _valour_
-Metal, _diligence_
-Earth, _patience_
-Wood, _kindness_
-Water, _humility_

*Special Elements:
*_Special elements are the elements that can neither be controlled by Animism nor have a God governing them

_-Blood _(Blood can "store" anima, but it does not retains it's properties)_
-Crystal _(Crystal cannot store anima, but it can change it's properties)_
-Ether _(Ether is anima that has "jumped" to the physical plane (ghosts, magic balls))
_*

Practice:

Animism: *Animism is the standard practice of magic, it uses the Will of the Soul to move the Anima around the user and affect the physical world, this practice is limited to the seven Natural Elements.

*Enchanting: *Enchanting, also known as the "craft of blood and crystal" is a ceremonial magic in which blood and crystals are infused on artifacts to grant them magical properties.

*Alchemy: *Alchemy is the practice of mixing naturally occurring enchanted or magical items to create potions and poisons with complex and varied effects.

PD: I was thinking of adding more schools of practice as times goes on, such as necromancy and things like that, I want it to cover as much ground as possible while abiding to the rules I determined


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## Jabrosky (Sep 6, 2012)

If you're using the term "animism", does that make your setting tribal or something along those lines? Most of time I see "animism" associated with so-called primitive cultures,


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## Griffin (Sep 6, 2012)

The basics remind me a lot Final Fantasy for whatever reason. The rest looks like a mixture of Avatar's bending and basic RPG mechanics. None of which are bad things. Just how writing works.

I don't really understand the virtue part. Does the animistic(?) need to hold that virtue themselves or just the ruling God? Also, intelligence is a prerequisite. Is that it? Where does the anima come from? I am not implying that you haven't explored these questions nor your animism is flawed. I'm just curious.  

Over all, I like it. You're combining quite a few magic systems.


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## shangrila (Sep 7, 2012)

There's a few things that came up for me.

I like the way your mages can't create but rather control the elements. I've always found the typical "elementals" to be boringly overpowered. The idea of virtues is a good one as well. I think it's got some potential for character development, such as a character having to force himself to be patient, for example, in order to better harness his powers. In regards to that, it might be worth either having a few being sins (like wrath or greed) or even each element having a virtue and a sin both. That war between good and evil would be interesting.

I'm assuming by thunder you mean lightning? And I didn't understand why water is associated with humility. It seems to me it would be something more along the lines of patience, as in the way the sea will wear against a shoreline. Earth then would be something more like being stoic or having resolve. Just an idea, though .

Aside from that, I thought it was good. It's not crazily unique or anything like that, but it seems well thought out.

As far as adding more "schools", I'd be careful with that. I had a similar magic system and tried adding different types, like necromancy and druidism, and it ended up reading like the back pages of an RPG rulebook. That's just my experience though.


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## mbartelsm (Sep 7, 2012)

Griffin said:


> The basics remind me a lot Final Fantasy for whatever reason. The rest looks like a mixture of Avatar's bending and basic RPG mechanics. None of which are bad things. Just how writing works.
> 
> I don't really understand the virtue part. Does the animistic(?) need to hold that virtue themselves or just the ruling God? Also, intelligence is a prerequisite. Is that it? Where does the anima come from? I am not implying that you haven't explored these questions nor your animism is flawed. I'm just curious.
> 
> Over all, I like it. You're combining quite a few magic systems.



You need to pursue a certain virtue if you want to understand the associated element, since it is very hard to force yourself to have a certain virtue without it being shallow and meaningless, people are often not able to learn more than three or four elements.

Intelligence means just being capable of understanding the element, most, if not all, sapient beings are able to do this, however, beings like mice, dogs, birds, etc. are not capable of performing magic.

Anima is like matter, just that in another plane or dimension, it cannot be created or destroyed (except by the action of the gods), just transformed. Since the souls (bonded to our blood) reside in this plane as well, we are able to perform magic trough them.

@Jabrosky: Not really, animism is just the name I gave it because magic is performed trough the soul (soul = anima in latin), besides, I'm trying to pull of a world as complete as possible, while there are tribes (mostly alfar or elves), there are also big metropolises (mostly duergan or dwarves).


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

Animism is the belief that everything — including non-living things — has a soul.

The fictional equivalent connected to magic tends to center around the manipulation of physical objects through the chain reaction of manipulating their souls. An example: an animist creates a flow of the souls in the air which in turn causes the air to eventually follow, and you get wind.

This is a new take on it I suppose were anima isn't the soul, but rather something separate.

I like that there are seven main elements, and nine in total. But I feel that the elements are somewhat of a clichÃ©. Take Warhammer's elements:


Light
Metal
Life
Heavens
Shadow
Death
Fire
Beasts
or the elements of the Legacy of Kain series:


Death
Conflict
States
Energy
Time
Dimension
Nature
Mind
Balance
each of which system contains elements that fulfills every role of those realities, and consequently makes the setting a more interesting than air, earth, fire, and water with some additional elements.


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## mbartelsm (Sep 7, 2012)

shangrila said:


> There's a few things that came up for me.
> 
> I like the way your mages can't create but rather control the elements. I've always found the typical "elementals" to be boringly overpowered. The idea of virtues is a good one as well. I think it's got some potential for character development, such as a character having to force himself to be patient, for example, in order to better harness his powers. In regards to that, it might be worth either having a few being sins (like wrath or greed) or even each element having a virtue and a sin both. That war between good and evil would be interesting.
> 
> ...


The virtues aren't really thought trough that much, they still need refining.
Schools, at least necromancy are something needed, if there are gonna be spirits on the world (and there will) they have to be made of an element, and there has to be a way to control it, directly (natural element) or indirectly (special element). That's why I wanted to add it, but under the name of Animation


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## shangrila (Sep 7, 2012)

mbartelsm said:


> The virtues aren't really thought trough that much, they still need refining.
> Schools, at least necromancy are something needed, if there are gonna be spirits on the world (and there will) they have to be made of an element, and there has to be a way to control it, directly (natural element) or indirectly (special element). That's why I wanted to add it, but under the name of Animation


Personally, I don't think they _have_ to be an element. Even with a heavily rules based magic system, having something mysterious like spiritualism isn't a bad thing.


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## mbartelsm (Sep 7, 2012)

Astner said:


> Animism is the belief that everything – including non-living things – has a soul.
> 
> The fictional equivalent connected to magic tends to center around the manipulation of physical objects through the chain reaction of manipulating their souls. An example: an animist creates a flow of the souls in the air which in turn causes the air to eventually follow, and you get wind.
> 
> ...


Wait... where is the first paragraph from? I knew animism was some kind of religion but I had no idea it was so similar to this, that is basically the way this works, just that anima is present in a parallel dimension and it can be present in different states that affect different elements.

But the elements are a mix of chinese and classical elements, I used seven because that way they have no opposite and can be linked to the seven sins


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

mbartelsm said:


> Wait... where is the first paragraph from? I knew animism was some kind of religion but I had no idea it was so similar to this, that is basically the way this works, just that anima is present in a parallel dimension and it can be present in different states that affect different elements.


That's how we got it explained back in high school, you can find the same explanation online. Source.



mbartelsm said:


> But the elements are a mix of chinese and classical elements,


Yes, and that's why it feels very clichÃ©. It would be more interesting to see a system of elements that no one have thought of before, but with a detailed explanation for why they've been chosen.



mbartelsm said:


> I used seven because that way they have no opposite and can be linked to the seven sins


Both seven and nine are considered "magic numbers" and are sort of a relatable trope, but as you said. Working with an odd number of elements is interesting because it implies that they're independent of each-other.


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## mbartelsm (Sep 7, 2012)

Well, animism isn't really a defined religion, plus, it is also too late to start over, so I guess I'll just leave it like that, besides, it is a valid inspiration source even though I had no idea.
I will try to rethink the elements (once again...) to try to unclichÃ© them


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