Exchange of Realities

One day last week, I had two different people discussing elemental-based magic systems with me. Clearly, it was a sign. So I began writing the following day, and I found myself inspired, so—we’re going to be doing elemental magic systems for a good portion of this week.

So, elements. It’s hard to not know the basic premise; several (usually four to eight) different elements or magic types that come together to create the basis of the world and/or the world’s magic. Whether they’re the classical Greek set, the Chinese assortment, some odd combination of the above, or a set of major forces that seem to thematically connect, they all tend to end up working in about the same way, with most powers connected to one or another of the forces involved.

One of my conversational partners was particularly disinterested in elemental mutual exclusivity, and I found myself in full agreement. In systems like these, most magic seems to end up being one or another energy type/element and one alone. There are two problems that can emerge from this, both of which stem from the fact that there exist magic types that do not easily pigeonhole into one category. What happens here is one of two reactions: either the type in question gets shoved into one element whether it fits or not, or it gets put into any element that will even remotely hold still long enough. Consider healing in a four-element system: half of the time it gets pigeonholed into water, which may be the closest approximation but doesn’t fully fit, and the other half of the time it spreads to every element that will hold still long enough. (Consider Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: It managed to get healing effects into three or four of the classical elements, pair the fourth up with healing by the imagery on one of the staffs—and this was in a system where standard healing spells are an energy type unto themselves!)

The fact that many elementalists are specialists only encourages this, and there seems to be little more than lip service played to mixing and matching. I can understand this in a console RPG, where there has to be a set number of elemental weaknesses and resistances. Similarly, I can see it in a situation where the plot depends on specialization except under certain circumstances: Nickelodeon’s Avatar series comes to mind. But for those of us who are world-writing or playing, it just seems like an extra limiting factor, particularly when we’re dealing with a set of classical elements rather than energy sources. Isn’t the whole point of elements that everything is created out of mixtures between them?

Allowing with making an excellent route for academic study, mixing and matching element types allows you to play more with magic that doesn’t easily fit into one category or another. Take illusion. Most of the times I’ve seen it used, it’s been under the purview of air, mainly because the first thing people think of is projecting images. Or it’s just “too ethereal” for the system and gets ignored, but we won’t go into that. But try looking at it as a combination of types. I’d call it a mixture of fire and water, or fire and metal if the world uses that sort of element set—smoke and mirrors, anyone—and a bit of air for a staging area. That is, if it’s visual. Auditory illusion would most likely be a balance of earth, air and water, since all three conduct sound; varying the proportions might change up range, timbre and volume. Olfactory illusion would most likely be air and fire, though if wood is available I’d give it a dominant role. Tactile—at that point it’s not near so much an illusion, but I could see earth and water, wood if applicable.

This will also allow more opportunity for you or whoever you’re working with to come up with clever new uses for their magic; there’s a lot that people might come up with that doesn’t fit with just one element.

So think about it—is there any reason to keep your elements so differentiated?