What, Exactly, Are the Five Great Elements?

In the learnings afforded by the different schools of thought across different Magecraft schools in the world, elements play an important role in understanding the fundamental structure of the world as a whole.

According to their teachings, elements form and comprise the world we know today, and these five are considered to be the five great elements, the five most abundant in the universe. While these elements exist for their own, some individuals are able to harness its powers to be their source of power, to affect the world around them through the manifestation of magic that are largely derived from the existence of these elements.

While these five elements are distinctly recognized as the most abundant, they are, in no way, the only ones to exist. Through various study and manipulation of these elements, new ones are born, harnessed, and returned to the cycle of constant restructuring that never ends.

THE FIVE GREAT ELEMENTS

Manipulation of a specific element does not necessitate that it takes only the raw form of the element, as flames are to fire. More often that not, control of a specific element is diversified by how it utilizes the various aspects related to the element itself.

Fire | Spells from this element deal with energies that are volatile and destructive in nature, those that govern the laws of entropy. They typically involve consumption, heat, fuel, energy transfer, and thermodynamics, among others.

Water | Spells from this element deal with the ebb and flow of formless substances in our world. They affect not only the direction and movement of the fluid elements, but also cycle of change.

Earth | Spells from this element deal with grounding… resistance, calling forth on the very foundations of the land as their pride. While its most common calls on the power of the large, sturdy portions of the earth, spells with an earthly affinity also promote cultivation, nurturance… life.

Wind | Spells from this element deal with versatile power in its many forms. Harnessing its power typically involves dominion over the freedom of movement, direction, suppression and expansion of various energies and forces affected by its power. While in itself is not a highly physical element, wind bears the potential to control other elements.

Ether | Spells from this element are considered to be amorphous, intangible, yet bear the purest energies that cannot ever be contained by the other elements. Its powers are encompassing, unlimited by the same laws that govern the other elements. Ether’s power tampers on the very foundation of existence, to which unexplained phenomenon in the world are attributed to. 

Several magecraft schools of thought consider ether as the highest element, attributing world-changing events as effects of its quintessential power: composition, dissolution, modification, separation, unification, divination, even the creation of constructs tangible or intangible to the average spirit.

ELEMENTAL AFFINITY

While there are multiple elements to be harnessed, a magus often finds himself capable of controlling only one among them. This element is the defining attribute of what kind of magic a magus is going to have, and one that usually meshes well with the individual. Having two or more elemental affinities are not common, but do exist, sometimes as separate elements, or compound elements (like steam, by having fire and water; or mud, by having earth and water). It is also possible to acquire an elemental affinity that is not among the five great elements, such as lightning.

In extremely rare cases, one may have the capability to harness the powers of the five great elements, and are are thusly bestowed the title of “Average One” by the Mage’s Association. These average ones are considered to be highly treasured individuals of the Mage’s Association.

It is possible to change one’s elemental affinity through methods that are painful and precarious, usually by tampering with the mage’s magic circuit.