Elemental magic is a powerful and accessible path for those seeking to deepen their connection with nature, the universe, and their inner selves. Makoto Misumi uses five magical elements: Water, Darkness, Fire, Earth, and Thunder, while Richter Belmont’s magic allows him to generate and manipulate fire, lightning, and ice. These elements are believed to represent different aspects of nature and the universe.
The main set of elements in elemental magic is Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Thunder. These elements can be combined into five categories: Energy, Nature, Shadow, Divine, and Arcane. Energy provides all the elements, while the most common magical elements are wind, fire, water, earth, darkness, light, lightning, time, etc.
The 13 Arcane Elements of Magic, or 13 Arcane Elements, are the building blocks of the Cosmos, organized in four circles with three elements each. Each element harbors its unique energy, resonating with specific vibrations and qualities that can be used in magical spells. Elemental magic manipulates the basic, often classical, components of nature, such as air, earth, fire, water, and sometimes wood.
📹 On Writing: Elemental Magic Systems!
POSTAL ADDRESS (if you’re kind enough to send me a letter or something!) Tim Hickson PO Box 69062 Lincoln, 7608 …
📹 ELEMENTAL MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS
Hello Peculiars! Here’s the full blog post if you’d like to read this information: …
Concept: Fire mages that are precise cold and calculating because hot headed fire mages tend to blow themselves up. The most advanced techniques with the sharpest focus produce plasma. Edit: Between the book recs and the support and back and forth I’ve gotten on this comic it’s official. Hello Future Me has best comment section.
The four seasons as “four elements” (rather than just winter as a force of evil, death and decay against the forces of good, life and rebirth being obviously the “spring that comes after winter”) is something I’ve seen surprisingly little of, and when I did see it’s always interesting to see the different associations different cultures around the world have with the different seasons For example, in some cultures winter and spring/summer are protraied as I mentioned above – winter is cold and ruthless, summer is warm and loving – while in other societies summer is the evil one, bringing droughts and what not while winter is the “good season” bringing rain and thus restoring life, and in other societies there are no “good” or “bad” season at all since they find them all equally necessary or equally sh*tty.
When he said “maybe they can only lift their body weight” when he was talking about limitations to power, my first thought was like someone who has telekinesis but can only lift his body weight and so he just doesn’t bother with hygiene, health, and body weight so that he can lift larger things as he gains weight. That idea was both amusing, and interesting.
The way a small part of me died when he said that Irma controlled earth in W.I.T.C.H. when that’s Cornelia’s element. 😔 Honestly, though, I like what W.I.T.C.H. did with the elements and matching them to the personalities of the characters who use them. Taranee, the fire guardian, is actually very even-tempered, intelligent, shy, and sweet, and it’s explicitly said that she was given her fire powers because they’re very difficult to use and therefore needed to be entrusted to someone who wouldn’t fly off the handle at every given opportunity. However, when she does get mad, she’s very, very scary, so she still fits the archetype to an extant, just not stereotypically, if that makes sense.
A thought on winter magic is using it’s association with Christmas. Christmas is never depicted as cold in a cruel sense. No Ice Queens or death and decay as the flowers die. It’s depicted as a time for family, warmth and the home. And I don’t mean to imply associating winter with Christmas because… southern hemisphere, but associate it with hot chocolates and blankets 😊
A favorite idea of mine is to have characters that display their ‘element’ but… corrupted. Blood-bending is a good example of this in Avatar. The typically healing water bending can be used to devastating effect. Another is a character from one of my stories. Powerful in healing magic, but as a child she experienced severe trauma as she watched her village get massacred. She uses a child’s view of ‘healing’ on everyone, but instead uses necromancy. And healing in reverse is harming, draining life instead of giving it.
In my story, the magic is adaptable, thereby taking different forms based on the timeline, conflicts, culture, and individuals. It’s like its own character, mirroring the people around it and turning into the elements best suited for them. When it’s forgotten, it’s a shadow. When approached, it’s human. When there’s a massacre, it’s fire. And yayyy, I love The Dragon Prince!
There is this series of books, “the secrets of nicholas flamel” where magic is like tipical magic where if you can imagine it, you can somehow do it. But the basis of all that is elemental magics, so most persons focus on one type in specific, and I like it, because, it’s not that their personality are defined by their element, their elements are defined by their magic, and I like that
For my magic system, each element is associated with a few concepts that attach themselves to people. Fire might attach to someone who’s angry and hot-headed, sure, but it could just as easily appear in someone who is dangerously self-destructive and likely to burn themselves out. In general, the associations are: Light: Truth, Justice Shadow: Fear, Protection Fire: Destruction, Creativity Water: Knowledge, Intuition Earth: Law, Order Wind: Freedom, Chaos Electricity: Life, Passion Poison: Death, Inevitability
I’m working on an element based magic system, it’s kind of a mix of bleach’s zanpaktos and the metal vessels in Magi and Sinbad. They’re going to be called relics. Each relic contains a “memory” of the God or Goddess that created them. So a person would have to clear a dungeon and defeat a boss to obtain the relic. Once they have the relic to use it they’ll have to enter their “inner world” were they’d be confronted by the relics “memory.” If they can earn the “memory’s” respect and cooperation they’ll have access to some of it’s power. If they have a relic that belongs to let’s say the sun god the powers they have access to will only be fire based. There’s usually 5 sort of levels to the relics power. There’s probably going to be like 100 relics. Some people will probably have multiple relics. However, under most circumstances, only one relic can be used at a time because your body transforms more and more as the relics level your accessing increases, at level 5 your body becomes an avatar of the relic’s “memory.” The Sun God’s relic is going to be particularly strong. Level 1 and 2 will just be basic offensive fire magic. Level 3 is were it really starts showing it’s strength, here the person will get a fire shield like Gaara’s sand. Level 4 the shield gets offensive capabilities. Level 5 though, Walking Nova, will kill the user of they keep it active for more than 30 seconds. This is because your body becomes flames. You can’t take damage from enemies as long as it’s active.
I think this is handled pretty interestingly in Genshin Impact, where getting ur elemental powers is litterally just a god throwing a marble at you and saying go play. I actually assumed Childe was a cryo(ice) user because of his bloodthirsty and ambiguous nature, which was something I’d never seen in a water magic character, and even then he still does have typical water character traits but used differently, like his love for his family etc. zhongli as well in that he was an earth character purposefully trying to change rather than being forced to adapt to change
I love elemental magic. It’s primarily anime and article games I see it in. Whether it’s something simple like Pokémon or some other battle anime, it’s just cool to see characters fight with fire ice lightning and other elements. The one that I wish I saw more of is something like plant. Pokémon has the grass type but not a lot of systems deal with specifically plants and nature. Usually just a part of earth magic
The most important tip I could give on this subject is: Don’t color code your world. Verisimilitude is everything, and if you have a fire mage/user/elementalist/whatever around that just happens to have the personality tropes typically associated with of fire, naturally red hair, name along the lines of “blaze” or “pyra” repeated to every character with their respective elements, your world doesn’t have much life in it.
I feel that elemental magic has a sort of ‘power trip’ feel associated with it — the audience will immediately understand and project a sense of power when they see somebody breathing fire. It’s so… picturable. There’s value in that, in being ready for the imagination to play with. When I think elemental magic, I immediately think of Magic the Gathering’s system — which is a clever work around it. It’s not the element that grants power, it’s the land, the type of terrain. All mountains give red mana, but some of it is translated into rock magic, or fire magic, or lightning magic, or salt magic. So while red mana carries some personality, the situation shapes it into one or another direction. Good stuff! When you mentioned the Ice and Fire magic in Game of Thrones (which was a great reference btw), I thought it was interesting how I never associated the series with elemental magic. Yes, it is magic. Yes it is elemental. It’s just that there’s no people throwing lightning around, so my brain didn’t make the association. Congrats on the audiobook! I’m a huge audiobook enthusiast, will get it for sure 🙂
Physical exhaustion is so common a cost for magic, elemental or otherwise, either that or some explicit secondary energy source (basically mana) that when it’s depleted just so happens to manifest similarly to physical exertion. I can understand to an extent where this problem comes from, a lot of people struggle to relate to more abstract costs, Fullmetal Alchemist’s equivalent exchange is one good way to do it, it still feels tangible, but I’ve that I feel is most often overlooked, and when it is used, the magic system is treated like its on the far end of the soft side of the hardness scale, is frontloaded effort, or learning, and given just how modern society functions with our education system, I don’t understand why this one is so difficult to understand for some people. I can respect the principle that magic has to be costly, I like my soft magic systems perhaps a bit more than is popular these days, but I can respect the desire for cost and consequence, but the effort that goes into learning cannot be understated, learning to do something difficult is a cost, however distant from its use it may be. And let’s be honest, if you have an actual functioning society composed primarily or exclusively of people who can use magic, then what better way to do it? Mana or exertion are fine, but if you want to be creative… If you need to justify it to the audience, maybe you could argue there’s some psychic resonance between the effort put into learning a spell and the magic field of the world or something, which could actually lead to an interesting situation, if your ability with magic is directly linked with the effort you put into learning it in general, or on the basis of every spell, that would actually put prodigies at a disadvantage, sure they might technically be able to cast the spell, but because it was so easy for them to learn it mechanically, they’re ludicrously weak when they actually try to do anything.
The thing is, my magic system has the four elements to an extent (instead of earth bending, it’s just plants like flowers and that), plus different kinds of magic altogether since I just like making cool things happen. That being said, I think I have my own twist on characters. For example, Morgan Clover is a fire mage, but he’s not hot-tempered. He’s a friendly and passionate guy who likes to party. Vesta, on the other hand, is a plant mage with a temper to the point you’d think she’s a fire mage. Of course, there’s a lot more to all of this, but this article did get me thinking more about my world and that.
With Elemental magic it’s very easy to make one element good and one bad. (Fire destroys vs. Water heals) A more creative way to use the elements is to look at both their positive and negative aspects. For example: in the elements of emotion, Fear is usually thought to be a “bad emotion”. However, Fear can have positive traits like caution and self preservation. Characters who have no fear are often reckless and can hurt others. Remember Courage is acting despite of fear, not the lack of it.
Loved that you metioned W.I.T.C.H.! It’s such an underrated show and I absolutely love the worldbuilding in it especially in season two when they introduce the concept of mystic hearts and permission magic. Though I have to point out that it’s Cornelia who controls earth, Irma is the water guardian. 🙂
I hate it when there’s a magical power for water and a magical power for ice. They’re the same thing just in different states. Why is there no steam element if water and ice exist? This is what I like about Avatar, it actually knows what each four elements can actually extend to: Water (Ice, Water Vapor, and Steam) Earth (Metal and Magma/Lava) Fire (Lightning) Air (Uh… Aang can partially control clouds, I guess, which are just water)
I really need to look up the Dragon Prince. I’m genuinely interested in a elemental system that actually looks at nature (sky, day, night, plant, etc.) instead of the admittedly well trodden earth, wind, and fire. I have heard that the “dark” magic in the series is more of a shortcut than something objectively evil, bypassing the requirement of understanding the other magics in favor of more expedient magical learning.
Ha, I literally just started reading Furies of Calderon. I love the Elemental Spirits bestowing abilities to give minor buffs like allowing Bows to bend farther or keeping Blades from breaking! *From what I heard, it came from someone betting Jim Butcher to write something on the Lost Region of Rome & Pokemon? Lol
Tim!! Irma isn’t the Guardian of Earth, that would be Cornelia! Irma is the Guardian of Water and works as the comedic, compassionate member of the group. Her passion, temper, stubborness, and impulsiveness demonstrates the volatility of water. Cornelia is the grounded, sensible, and just as stubborn member of the group. It’s why she and Irma clash a lot. But she’s also kind, nourishing, even as she’s strong and enduring, like Earth. Ps. Thank you so much for talking about Elemental Magic systems! I love them to bits, and I 100% believe they aren’t done enough. I love the flexibility and wonder of manipulating an element more than I like hard magic systems, though I love reading those too. This will definitely help me with my writing. Thank you!
Many of the points brought up in this are why I think some of the best Elemental Magic Systems come from stories where the Elements are just one piece of the Magic Systems. In a story you can have a family overwhelmingly known for their Fire based magic but each member of the family has their own Magical Prowess where fire just happens to be the most natural element for them to use with the elemental based magic. Another thing that can be done to help keep systems from being to tropish is adding in other factors that change how the system works for each character, such as a star-sign or region based adaptation that could change if a a character is more physical based in the system for it’s expression where another might be more typical.
Actually the light sound kinetic shadow system makes some sense! They’re types of energy, and the lack thereof (just expand shadow to include silence, cold, stillness). Your friend would have to justify why they’re breaking energy down into these categories, and why they’re excluding certain types, but there’s a version of this that is really cool!
In this one story idea I had, the elemental magic (along with any other magic stuff that I would’ve put into the story) feeds off of the storage of ether within the user’s body, which they recharge by drawing ether from the envronment. Higher level magic costs more ether to use, and there’s actually a level system integrated into the story that determines how much ether someone can hold within their bodies without it becoming detrimental. So the main drawbacks of exhaustion, injury, and possible death are more prominent in lower level magic users trying to pull off higher level magic, or trying to spam too much. On the other hand, it also has a take on summoning magic where you can use a little bit of your own ether and a lot of that which is in the environment to summon an elemental creature. However, since elemental summoning draws from the ether in the environment, and to such a degree, using it drastically weakens both your own abilities and those of your enemies and allies, since ya’ll are unable to recharge your reserves and are forced to be more efficient with your use of it so as to not be left defenseless.
One other thing to note is that even if you don’t really have much novelty, you can still create a cool setting by thinking through and fleshing out things that often tend to just be handwaved. One of my favorite webnovels, Mother of Learning, has an aggressively generic magic system that feels like it was stolen from an MMO, but it asks a lot of questions that rarely get asked and occasionally has interesting answers (for example, dungeons exist because mana is an energy source which creates ecosystems dependent on it just like sunlight, and this in turn creates a tradeoff where cities can have ready access to industrially useful magic by building near them but that comes at the cost of needing to devote resources to keeping monsters at bay), and because of that thoughtful worldbuilding the magic definitely feels lively and original despite the fact that almost all of the particulars are things we’ve seen a thousand times.
my favorited example of the same old four (five because they also have lighting) being used to great effect is in a story called Marked for Death. For example the group leader has earth aspect but does not actually use it offensively, mostly setting traps, moving underground, and building instant defences. but most importantly he is an idealist in a ruthless world, always using his wall-building abilities to protect the villages they move through from the monsters of the wild and encouraging everybody from his teammates, his to the world leaders (a very bad idea) to use their powers for the good of the common folk. the heart is a caring, very selflessness fire aspect girl, she is passionate and always looks after her teammates, to the point of confronting one of the most powerful people on the world for the sake of her teacher in what was effectively a pointless suicide mission just because she believed it needed to be done and no one else was willing to do it. What I like is that they are such great characters that their elemental magic complements their personalities, not vice versa. seriously, go read it. the community is very active, the writers are amazing and the world building is terrific
In my mind, the four classical elements also have an active and passive states. Fire/active is angry and greedy (like a forest fire), while fire/passive is inviting and pleasing (like a hearth). Basically, imagine how each element reacts in a controlled vs natural disaster-level situation. Each element also needs two others to operate: fire needs earth and air for fuel, water needs earth and air to cycle, air needs water and fire to move, and earth needs water and fire to renew. There is so much depth to just four elements without including new ones.
I’m currently working on a science-based magic system for the story I’m developing, with lineages of magic based on controlling aspects of the four fundamental forces of physics — gravity (spacetime magic), electromagnetism (energy magic), the strong nuclear force (atomic bonds, order/creation magic) and the weak nuclear force (radioactive decay, chaos/destruction magic) this article was super helpful, and gave me a lot to think about in terms of how I approach characterization and worldbuilding through the different lineages! thank you so much for making it! ✨
A few fun things: Tolkien associated Gandalf with fire, the warm, comforting and illuminating fire in contrast to the consuming and destructive fire of Sauron. That’s also why he is grey, the ashes conceiling the flame. A more subtle association. Secondly, the association of elemental Earth and Lust is quite old and precedented, it is very prominent in Goethe’s “Faust” in interesting ways.
Concept: it takes place in a world where every person has a different elemental power(the basic ones, Air, Fire, Water, Earth). but, in addition to that, theres also cross elements (like air and fire=electric or stronger fire, fire+earth=lava, etc.), although this is forbidden. the world is divided into 4 places, 1 for each element, as well as a place in the center, for anyone, and a place in between, a scary forest which is extremely dangerous (creatively named, The In-Between). anyone who is found to have other power than the basic ones is banished to The In-Between, joining The Forbidden. the main character has electric powers, and is banished once found out, joining The Forbidden, along with some others with different powers.
I’d love to see further explorations of “unconventional”/”subverted” elemental systems, like the “playful winter/ice”, “lust/desires of earth” and “resurrective fire” you mentioned. (I saw a comment mention “shadow” being a servant/aspect of “fire/light” in ASOIAF; and Percy Jackson reminded me of “navigation” being an aspect of “ocean”.) For me, I’ve always wanted to see “shadow” be portrayed beyond “grim/sacrificial/power-hungry/destructive” but instead be portrayed as an unironic positive. After all, it’s shadow that keeps us cool during a hot summer’s day, and it’s darkness that keeps us safe when we have to hide, and it’s night that reveals the hidden beauties of the sky.
Another great one Tim! Ya know what’s funny…one of the reasons why I dug the anime “Fire Force” (aside from fire fighter exorcists fighting fire demons with fire), is the fact that pretty much everybody has the same power element in fire but the way it’s expanded upon is fascinating. Like one character uses fire to slow down time (I assume using thermodynamics or something) which I’ve never seen used before. It’s a pretty dope show in that regard when it comes to “how many different powers can you create with just one element?”
The only question you need to ask, and it is by far the most important! Which element should gain the advantage? Fire? Or Ice? Should fire melt ice? Or should ice cool fire? This is the question every rpg dev and player asks and no one can ever truly give definitive answer. A true tragedy. On a more serious note I’ve been obsessed with tarot and all things esoteric lately. If you want a cool take on the classical four elements, why not read up on tarot? There is nothing new under the sun, everything that can be said has already be said, but tarot seems rare enough that you could get some originality points if you do this right. In tarot, there are 5 suites, the major arcanas and the 4 minor arcana suites. Each one has their own meaning and symbols and such. The suit of cups represents water, the element of emotion. All the cards in that suite deal with something emotionally. The suit of wands represents fire, the element of spiritualism. The suit of pentacles or coins in some versions represents earth. The element of physicality. And swords, the suite of the wind represents mentality and/or conflict. The rabbit hole goes deep, you can never go wrong with tarot honestly. So many inspiring things you can use, like here’s some ideas: A character whose arc mirrors that of the suite he was based off, like a water magic user, with a cup, is all about managing emotions and finding love. Or an earth guy who has to let go of earthly attachments? There are four elements, and they can be controlled if you possess the right focus, swords for wind, cups for water, etc.
Sanderson’s 3 laws really hit the nail on the head of why I love the BNHA: Vigilantes manga so much and Koichi’s character as a whole. Some people complain that he “keeps getting new powers” but the reality is that this own understanding of his own Quirk and his abilities keep growing and deepening and it’s great.
Another great thing about how Rick Riordan uses his elemental system is that within each defining “element” of the characters (and by this I mean what their immortal parent is the god of), there are sort of sub elements that the abilities of each child of a specific god can be centred around, however they aren’t exclusively attuned to just one sub element. For example, Percy’s main ability is undoubtedly the control and manipulation of all things water, but after being kissed by Annabeth and in an extreme state of giddiness, he unleashes a ridiculously overpowered earthquake, nearly killing himself in the process, because of his inexperience with controlling earthquakes. If you compare this to Frank, it’s obvious that one’s main element/ ability is relatively predetermined, as waterbending (for want of a better term) comes extremely naturally to Percy, even at 12 years old, whereas Frank has shown no signs of that ability upon age 15, and only ever shapeshifts. Similarly, we have Hazel, who specialises in riches, while her brother Nico specialises in death, but in an intense emotional moment, they both sense Leo’s death. However, because Hazel has little experience to compare it to, only Nico is able to note that it seemed different to most deaths he’s encountered. Then we have the extremely overpowered campers, such as Jason, Leo and Annabeth, who specialise in many of their godly parents’ elements. (With Jason being the winds and lightning, Leo being mechanics and fire and Annabeth being military strategics and knowledge retaining.
Oh my, I remember how happy I was when I saw how the Avatar dealed with elements. Because I always was very annoyed by earth mages controlling plants (Witch for example) instead of actually rocks. And you. Know. Because plants aren’t rocks!! And then avatar came, and water benders were able to bend plants. I was like HELL YEAS!!! PLANTS ARE MOSTLY WATER VERY GOOD!! and oh well I guess I just love Avatar like everyone xD Because I normally was very tired with elemental magic because I often found them nonsensical, and Avatar was finally something that explored actually things you could do with elemental magic <3
I like how in Magic The Gathering they explore associations with their elemental system in every new set. Magical power is drawn from the landscape around magic-users, and so the creatures, spells, and magical items which draw power from different elements are all things associated with the fantasy landscape – there are goblins in the mountains, tree-men in the forests, zombie crocodiles in the swamps. Farmers come from plains, as well as the knights who protect them and the angels who protect all of them. It gives you a lot to dig into
I personally didn’t like the whole “and now Zaheer can fly” thing. Cause I wasn’t like “Wow, what a cool new ability for airbenders.” Instead I was like “When was that a thing? You’re telling me that NO Airbender for thousands of years figured out how to fly without a glider, but this billy who’s been an airbender for five minutes solved the problem‽”
Hey big fan. However you said irma was the earth guardian? Irma was the water guardian and Cornelia was the earth guardian. As a stan of W.I.T.C.H I must now cancel you. Its what Cornelia would want. Xo a W.I.T.C.H Stan Ps fully kidding love your work. I’m also from NZ I’m in Wellington not that you asked lol.
Love that you mentioned W. I. T.C.H, it gets forgotten about a lot so that was really cool to see. The timing of this article is so funny, because just yesterday the teaser trailer dropped for shadow and bone, a show based on books that include a prominent elemental magic system. There’s Corporalki, who can manipulate the body, Etherealki, who can control either fire, water or air, (and in rare cases light and dark) and Materialki, who can manipulate chemicals, metals and glass.
The most unique take on (an) element I’ve read was in the Alvin Maker series but Orson Scott Card. It’s not an elemental system of magic per se but not only is water not the healing element in that series, but it is the most destructive/evil element: a force of erosion, drowning, and seeking to cover everything into one vast ocean.
Great article, as always! Small point: Irma in W.I.T.C.H controls water, it is Cornelia who controls earth. Irma would definitely be the big guy, but I’d put Cornelia in the lancer category. Tarenee, meanwhile, is the smart one whereas she controls fire. W.I.T.C.H plays around with those tropes in quite interesting ways. Such a shame they stopped making the animated series…
Can’t wait to see the entire article later. Currently I am writing a book with elements being controlled by only a few people, and they are more symbolic than in the original. I also attempted at 13 to “write” a “book” with 4 different people that could control an element each, but it also never reached the light of day.
So I have a seven element (there’s an eighth but it doesn’t play a big role yet) dragon rider Book series, I’m working on Book one but already have a good amount of plans for the others. There’s a collection of a few fantasy races, some original and eight elemental breeds/races of dragons. It starts out with five different protagonists with their separate arcs unified into one book, they all have their own plots but it leads them to the same place at the end of the first book. In the second book the five man band becomes a seven person crew when two kids join in. All 7 characters are supposed to be viewpoint characters, each addressing flaws or struggles those that would relate to them may have. The eight elements are: life/nature (haven’t really decided what to call it), lighting, air, earth, fire, ice, water and light or soul (none of the main characters have it, it only shows up with the leaders of dragon kind). A young energetic girl has life. A young boy who loves his pranks has water. A blind man who is barren of hope has ice. A miner and mineral nerd has earth. An inventive and competitive young man has lightning. A young man who seems to always say the wrong thing at the wrong time and is easily enraged against himself has fire. A woman who is easily controlled by the emotional storm within has air. While the main characters/7 protagonists have their own elemental powers, they will have dragon partners of their Element stronger than they are. The dragons act as semi main characters helping progress the plot with not their power but their personalities as while there is action and a few combative Climaxes, the Plot is mainly character driven with most tension being derived from the decisions made then physical events.
I bought your book and read it from cover to cover a while ago. It’s a valuable resource book in my library. And this article is great for me. I’m coming out with a webcomic that has elemental magic systems featured in it but my characters’ elemental “magic” is paired with the power of a mystical beast.
I legit just found this website, through this article, and because of that I just found out about your book. I love writing and I mostly write short stories, because I am finding it difficult to world build and make a longer story. But I dream of writing a book full of lore and world-building. SO, I have now bought your book! I really think it will help me get out of my funk and finally write the book I have been dreaming of ^^
My favorite fire mage I’ve ever written was an exiled aristrocrat who was a terrible drunkard. Got to do fun stuff with him being off balance and kind of moving like a fire weaves back and forth. Also they used alcohol for a lot of their magic because it was less taxing to make a small spark and light the alcohol on fire than it was to go chucking fireballs.
I am actually currently using elemental magic for worldbuilding inherently. It is a DnD-esque game, so I can’t really use it for character arcs, but it surprisingly works well having the Elements mixed in every culture, but leading to different societal roles within said culture. Rock mages for example are often architects that build houses and walls out of stone, while wave mages are often found at sea controlling the currents around ships and so on.
I recently saw your avatar breakdown of why it was a bad movie and I agree with a ton of things that I buried and completely forgot about. Now that I’ve caught up with the magic elements of story writing, I decided to check this one out and you mentioned the audio book is available so I had to get it. Gonna be listening to this while I work on some things. You’ve been a great resource to bring together some ideas I’ve been having.
Didn’t expect the mention of ROTG Jack Frost, but it made me happy that he was included. Jack’s magic is elemental, after all, but it’s not the focus of his character, rather just part of who he is, a tool he uses. This causes it to act more like a part of the setting and theme. One of my favorite parts about Jack’s magic is how when he shows off a powerful attack against Pitch. He is drained and has to be caught in midair and when Tooth asks how he did it, he responds he doesn’t know. But the rest of the movie doesn’t go onto focus on that movie but rather what it represented, which was that Jack has begun to care about Sandy and the others. The move was in response to Pitch shooting an arrow at Sandy and the main clips right after that are how the Guardians’ responses to Sandy being out of action. The move wasn’t about how powerful Jack was but rather why the action occurred. That focus on characterization really makes his magic shine.
One thing I’ve toyed with but never fully fleshed out is a world where mot people can use 2 elements, one major, one minor. Which pair of elements and which is their primary gives a lot of flexibility to the character presentation and diversifies the skills available whilst still being easily recognisable within the elemental framework.
I’m more of a hobby writer, I don’t fully intend to ever publish… but… I’ve been working on a story with elemental magic. I’m kind of proud of it, so if you’d let me gush for a few minutes… 1: Alyns (based on the Arthurian legend of the Fisher King) which are lineages of families who establish the season surrounding them. They rule their kingdoms by ensuring constant and predictable weather, enhancing farming and forcing trade. Autumn provides wheat, spring provides luxuries, winter provides ice, summer provides salt (this is a very surface level example, hunting and industry and crop harvesting seasons and transporting saplings to grow in different climates and towns setting up on borders for good weather and what happens when there isn’t someone controlling the weather is all explored… its complicated) 2: Individual elements are controller by different sounds, as energy is passed through the ether. This makes it so that anyone can control any element with enough knowledge and skill. Learning this control is extremely difficult, and reaching the skill where it can be used in combat, or even full scale war, is an impractical idea. This has in any case led to a divide, as some believe the knowledge of these powers should be kept secret for fear that some savant decides to bring a city down with a song. Other people view it as a harmless method of expression, an art form. …so anyway, what are these building-sized, ancient, bronze bowls that make everything really loud?
I think part of the reason normal elements are so common is also that it makes the system inherently more understandable, since the more esoteric you go the more you have to devote time to explaining how this system works and what powers belong to what, to avoid it feeling like a soft magic ass pull system. Basically anybody can get a general idea of what basic elements should do, once you define how your world’s magic works, ask somebody what a moon, sun, and stars system is and you have to explain it to them.
In the D&D setting my friend made, there’s a magic system called the “essences of reality”. It’s made from your typical big four elements all arranged into a venn diagram, with each defined by guiding philosophies. Where two or more essences overlap, new ones are created out of a fusion of their symbolic meanings. Breath (air) represents the immaterial, like time and gravity. Flame is a force for change, be it in benign alchemy or chaos and destruction. Breath and Flame combine to create Light, which represents the clearing away of darkness by uncovering secrets, and is the source of divination magic. In total there are 12 essences, with the 13th in the center being reality itself. Very nice and I like it, though it may be a bit much if he ever wanted to squeeze it into a written narrative. Though considering it’s for a roleplaying game and we all break Sanderson’s three laws in the name of rule of cool, I doubt that’s ever happening.
Love this! Was really into WITCH as a kid and have been developing my own elemental narrative. It is more original, i believe. The elementals are leaders that each run their kingdoms differently. Different asthetics based on different time periods. One has castles, another is ancient natural based, future sci-fi, and another is more modern. I use the shadow element as a major part, fire is more about rebirth (like a phoenix). Water likes gadgets but that can be a recipe for disaster. Which references how he desires what he can’t have (not through choice, just a tragic habit), like one sided affection for fire (who is also Aromantic). Trauma is also a running theme, such as different coping mechanisms for each elemental and if they use too much at once they can traumatize themselves.
I think an amazing example of an original elemental power system is Katekyo Hitman Reborn. The main elements are Sky, Storm, Rain, Clouds, Lightning, Mist, and Sun. Each character of the main group ‘control’ one element and each element actually has its own ‘personality’, pros and cons, and effects. They also work well with the characters – the storm is pretty much the fire with its personality traits, but it’s also a compound of many of the other elements, and so is the user. Mist users almost always work with illusions and trickery and even betrayal, and that fits with the main mist user who is keeping their body alive by constantly conjuring their missing organs and etc. What’s also great about the show is that every element and every user fights differently. The main character and one of the earlier main villains both use the sky, but while the mc uses a pair of gloves and mainly brawls with his abilities, as well as some neutralizing techniques, the villain uses a pair of guns and utilizes the skys ability to petrify objects much more. There is a ton of nuance to the abilities while adhering to a clear structure.
A few things to consider based on our own existing magical systems (This info was pulled from the following religions/ occultist systems: wicca, golden dawn cabal, chaos magic system): All four elements have their own geographic direction: west- air- wand, north- fire- knife, east- water- cup and finally south-earth- pentacle (with the middle point positioned up) based on wicca, only difference being that the airs and fires instruments are reversed in golden dawn system. By following these directions(air to earth) you cast a circle (basically a magical clean room) and by reversing them (starting from earth to air) opens the circle releasing the energy to manifest the objective. Also, if more then one person is involved the magic is naturally stronger since more energy is put into a circle. Regarding opposites earth and water go together and are opposed to fire and air… The spirits that you call on are called elementals, being basically the medium for the flow of energy ( and the 4 major spirits) from the caster of the ritual to the target/ effect. There is also something called a law of equivalency, meaning that the amount of energy that you put into a spell is equal to the energy needed to achieve a result (Same as in the laws of physics). If you go under the amount needed something in your life is lost in exchange to achieve the goal you are currently focusing on. For example, i want 10000$ with no job- Someone breaks into your car and then the insurance pays you the money you wanted with the sacrifice being the braking of your existing property (Something like this is easy to happen if not properly using the keys of Soloman for example).
I have a lot of different Magic’s (using magic is pretty much outlawed) but for the sake of explaining my interpretation of the typical 4 elements it’s Earth – pushes things away and defensive, Air – distant and quiet, Water – Rage and Destruction, Fire – Panic and Fears The way these 4’s arcs work is that Earth user needs to accept help and not guard as much, Air needs to get over her fear of the ground and deal with the feeling of neglect she has from not being noticed, Water needs to calm down so that their power doesn’t show, Fire needs to get braver to control his power. As a bonus I have an ice user who is very logical but also very reckless and the most paranoid person on the planet.
I’ve recently been rereading some of my favorite brandon sanderson books and I realized that there’s one that I practically never see talked about: The Rithmatist. I think it could be interesting to do a deep dive into exploring the magic system in it, and it could also help bring attention to the book. It’s one of the best fantasy mysteries I’ve ever read, being beaten only by terry pratchett’s books and I think it’s given far less attention than it deserves.
A great example of unique takes on elements is the webcomic Aurora (written by one of Tim’s friends, Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions!) In it, the author uses a six-element system, one of them being Life. But the thing about Life magic is that although it has healing connotations, sure, it is seen as an extremely volatile magic because its more prevalent connotation is with mutation. A major plot point (which is introduced early on, don’t worry) is called the “chimeric plague,” which results in the carrier letting out an explosion of life magic which irreversibly damages the environment and people around them, mutating them into distorted fractions of what they once were and essentially leaving the area an irradiated, dense forest.
I personally also enjoy it when there is different “schools” of magic (or magic systems) in a world, rather than just one. Furthermore, those, while different, do not have to be mutually exclusive: many different ways can lead to practically the same result: e.g. moving metal can be because you are some kind of “metal-wizard”, or because you are a “lightning-wizard” who uses electromagnetism to move that object. In this particular case they achieve the same thing, but in different ways.
In the anime (light novel) series, Re:Zero, the six elements don’t always get expressed through an eruption of that element. Water magic doesn’t control water like a water-bender, but it allows the user to assist natural healing. Ice magic is actually just fire magic controlling temperature. Earth magic is good for defense (and skilled users can use defense as an attack). Wind can control air pressure, suppressing sound, creating sound from nothing, and even making thin, high pressure razors of wind. Then there’s Yin and Yang. Yin for “debuff” magic that can incapacitate someone (ie. a smokescreen to impede vision), yang for “buff” magic to assist with tasks (ie. increased focus, controlling gravity around an object so it can be lifted easier). And for users of magic, you have actual magic users who summon mana from their inner od (gate) and spirit users who can gather mana from the surrounding spirits that are present everywhere. Spirit users can’t use more complex magic, but they can make contracts with spirits for simple tasks, like trailing someone or “sending” a spell to someone else for their use. Re:Zero is so good at world-building. The anime, unfortunately, cut a lot of it out. The world is flat. Water falls off the edges eternally (“The great waterfall”). Many people are born with “blessings”, non-elemental abilities that range from intuitive cooking skill to speaking to animals to being able to ressurect yourself once. Some abilities are inconvenient and involuntary.
I would argue that BIONICLE does a very good job of exploring different takes on elemental personality. To focus on the three main fire-aligned leader characters: – Tahu very much exemplifies the traditional ‘fire as determination/destruction’ archetype, being a very literal hot-head in his early years, especially after his elemental might is enhanced (though this doesn’t stop him from being clever, such as using heat to create an updraft that slows the fall of one of his allies enough to catch). He later becomes more focussed and considered, allowing him to fully grow into the role of his team’s leader. – Vakama’s personality takes a lot of Tahu’s and deconstructs it, with a big focus on fire’s self-destructive tendencies; plagued by visions from BIONICLE’s god (adding a nice pinch of ‘fire as prophetic medium’ and ‘fire as the divine spark’ to the mix), he is continuously crippled by self-doubt (which he then overcompensates for with relentless arrogance) and only after leading his team into a trap and betraying them does he manage to shake it off. Oh, and he’s a blacksmith too! That’s cool. – Jaller is actively noted as trying to break from the former archetypes, being profoundly supportive to the team that he leads and actively seeking their advice in decision-making; between that and being a Captain of the Guard for his village before gaining his powers, he becomes an interesting union of ‘fire as discipline’ and ‘fire as warmth’ that allows him to overcome a lot of the former two’s weaknesses.
There’s something that I did when making a fire sorcerer in a D&D game that I was in a while ago; I associated fire not just with what it does in a real world sense, but what it represents historically. Fire is ultimately a creative element, but it’s also a very hungry one. By extension, the character can seem chaotic and unpredictable at times – oftentimes just abandoning something that had held his interest just the week prior – but also is something a magical craftsman. He’ll often just make something just for the novelty of creation in and of itself rather than for any real purpose and will adventure just to seek out new materials to work with or to find new ways to use his spells. On the other side of the coin, he has a near insatiable hunger for knowledge and exploration and, when contained, he’ll become lethargic. There was one scenario where our DM put us in one of our worst fears and his was simple: there was nothing new to see. As a result, he found a place and just gave up. He had no energy to resist or do much of anything beyond simply exist. It wasn’t until a party member found something truly unique and showed it to him that my character came out of his slump and pushed to find a way out of this trap.
Another book series that had a great elemental system was the Sovereign Stone trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Each of the main races got an element affinity. Humans were (generally) western European in flavor and had Earth, associated with healing – but also the ones providing the villain (and some antagonists). Orks had water and were basically pirates. Dwarves had fire and were horse-riding nomads. Elves had air and were very Oriental in flavor. The heroes are from other races that are also Earth aligned, one of whom is from a tribal culture.
Oh, oh man. Ive been working on my own elemental magic system, and this article is exactly what I needed haha. I’ve been trying to balance all my elements/characters. My system involves 7 elemental gods, who (kind of) share the same name as the elements they represent. Currently theres Sun, Moon, Shadow, Stone, Ocean, Sky, and Tree (I know the names are kind of weird. The Sun god is always called Sun, but the sun element could just as easily be called the heat or fire element. Same with the stone element being called earth magic, etc etc). Each element has a certain kind of magic/set of abilities, depending on whos using the magic and in what way. For example, a sun magician can create fire, and an ocean magician can manipulate water (hydrokinesis?), etc. But additionally, a skilled magician can combine elements to do more complicated things (like combining sun magic and sky magic to create lightning). Each element can do different things. Sun magic is associated with heat/energy. Moon magic with ice/snow, as well as divination and wisdom. Shadow magic involves things like telepathy and empaths. Stone magic is earth magic (geokinesis?), of course. Ocean magic is water magic (hydrokinesis). Sky magicians can manipulate air. And finally Tree magic encompasses healing and nature-related magic, Im sorry, I’ve just been needing to rant about this ahaha.
I like the idea of water being seen as darker. We normally see it as life bringing and it is, but it also ends life. The idea of a salty dark expanse slamming into your lungs is just terrifying. The idea of water being the one thing you need but that stubborn cloud perusal you suffer, withholding it’s gifts.
This was a really neat and insightful article! 😀 It was really interesting hearing the point about how choice or use of elements can so heavily reflect the tone of the world, and was reminded of the indie game “OFF”. It’s a turn-based RPG with a really surreal world and sharp, saturated colours, but one of the ways it conveys the toxic and unnatural world it sets up is that the four elements making up the world (and altering the gameplay) are all eerie or artificial: “Smoke, Metal, Plastic, and Meat”. It really helps – along with lots of other elements of the story and aesthetic – to capture how strange, broken, and artificial the world it portrays is.
Hi Tim, Tim here. As a world-building guru, I was wondering if you are familiar with the light novel series: Ascendance of a Bookworm written by Miya Kazuki? I would personally like to recommend it as it does a wonderful job with the scope of the story due to the MC’s ill health it starts out limited to her neighbourhood in the lower city, but as she learns more about the world and society she is in the scale of the encounters and challenges broadens. And since the author doesn’t rush straight to the swords and sorcery you get to spend more time just being in the world.
My favorite elemental magic system is in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. In that world, people can use either all four elements, some unique ability, or sometimes learn something else like necromancy (more shadow magic than raising the dead). The elemental abilities were very interesting because the elements were not equal at all. Wind was the most versatile, allowing you to slow a fall, force push, or do a lot of other useful things. Fire was the second most useful, but was mostly just flashy. Water was extremely challenging to learn and not versatile without extreme training, but walking on water was possible. Finally, earth was the most taboo, since the only example in the books was the ability to self-petrify for an indefinite amount of time, it was a last resort ability and was barely ever used in the series.
My sister and I are developing a story/D&D like game with elemental magic with 5 elements. The standard 4 have nothing to do with the characters’ personality but can only be activated with certain emotions: Air=Calm, Water=Righteous Fury, Rock=Protective, Fire=Will. And the 5 is used by the bag guy (5 elemental deities, 4 gave their power to their creations, 1 didn’t and that the bad guy) Mind&Body. The air deity is the sky and the air people can also do Sound and Lightning, the water deity is the ocean and the water people are strong and tough, the rock deity is the ground and LIfe&Death and certain blessed rock people have a “life aura” that can be mistaken for a green thumb, the fire deity is the sun and the fire people can also do Light, the mind&body deity is the moon and can influence peoples’ minds and bodies. I think we’ve done a pretty good job at making something a little original while still being immediately recognizable, but I’d love peoples’ thoughts on the concept!
Something I started working on recently was a multi-elemental system originally focused on different kinds of “elemental angels” (Seraph of Fire, Siren of Water, Gargoyle of Earth, and Cupid of Air), which gradually bloated into various “opposing elements” – Light vs Shadow, Aether (read: Magic+Space) vs Void, Flora vs Fauna, Death (Reaper) vs Undeath (Lich), and Frigidity vs Humidity. Also Realm vs Ruin, which weren’t “elements” but still treated as such from a mechanical perspective. Bloated, to say the least. Currently working on a rework wherein there’s fewer overall elements, but more specializations of those elements. “Fire, the ravenous destroyer” vs “Fire, the refining forge” vs “Fire, the radiant light” and so forth in the vein. Probably going to focus it more around character archetypes instead of specifically being elemental – have a petrifying Gorgon, a crafting Golem, and a gardener Elf without specifically bringing up “yep, all Earth magic” and such.
In the novel Skullduggery Pleasant they have elemental wizards that have generic fire water and air powers. What I found really unique was that earth magic was considered a dangerous power. Because once you use it you turn to stone. You’re completely invincible, but stuck as a statue and you don’t know when it will wear off.
This is what I kinda love about Tolkien’s Valar system (I know they aren’t all physical elements, cos a lot of them represent abstract concepts, but still), cos their element and the associations therein with personality and powers are super unique. Earth (Aulë) is about creativity and science, Air (Manwë) is about all sorts of stuff from spirituality to poetry and language. Water (Ulmo) is often linked with music and visions. Fire magic also manifests itself in different ways; the typical fires of destruction, and the poetically beautiful fire that kindles courage. Kingdom Hearts’ Organisation XIII elemental powers are also really cool.
A relatively recent D&D supplement (Tasha’s cauldron) introduced a rather uncommon association with darkness: protection. The Twilight domain clerics are magical tanks focused on protecting the party, turning the night from an all-consuming void into a protecting shroud. As Kayn from LoL can tell you “Light offers no sanctuary.” This association, in turn, casts a new light (please laugh) on the Light domain, which is usually grouped up with deities of beauty, art, truth, and all kinds of good jazz (think Apollo, Ra, and Baldr), but which practically exists to nuke the enemy into oblivion with harsh, unforgiving light. Suddenly, the Light domain no longer belongs to the side of good exclusively, but can have an evil side. A similar thing happened with an earlier supplement which introduced the Grave domain, being the domain of deities that protect the cycle of mortality (as opposed to the the Death domain, which is the domain of blight and undeath). It plays into the real mythological precedent of a benevolent or morally neutral death god (like Anubis, Hades, and Freya), rather than the Association of death with destruction and apocalypse (which more befits beings such as Apep, Typhon, Hel, and the fourth horseman of the apocalypse).
So I tried to switch things up and based my elemental magic system on the four spheres of geography: atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. To spare you a google search if you’d need one: that’s air, ground, water and life. When I showed character designs to my brother he mistook the ground one for fire and the life one for earth and was like “this is just the four elements right”. Hi ho, hi ho, back to the drawing table I go.
Ya I’m actually writing a story now that uses the classical four. But my system is where everyone who learn an element gets an ability that relates to said element. One of my main characters uses earth magic. So he can touch anything “of the earth” and take on the properties of it. So he carries a bandolier of different types of earth. Another character of fire can actually make ice because she can remove the heat from an area or thing
Elemental system I’m coming up with: the YGO system with the addition of Metal, Lightning, Ice, and Wood, formed from combining the cardinal Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind elements (combining Fire and Earth makes Metal, Earth and Water makes Wood, Water and Wind makes Ice, Wind and Fire makes Lightning, Fire and Water make Light, and Wind and Earth make Darkness). The elements don’t have a weakness/strength system inherently. Instead, that’s dependent on the characters. For example: Characters afraid of heights would have a Wind weakness (except one who has an Earth weakness because he’s not afraid of falling – he’s afraid of the sudden stop). Characters with severe pollen or peanut allergies would have a Wood weakness. They can also have more mundane weaknesses to certain enemy types (like those who are allergic to shellfish or particularly allergic to bee stings would have hornet and shellfish monster type weaknesses), kinda like how Pokemon works.
I’m working on an elemental magic system for my worldbuilding system that is used by these mountain-dwelling deer people that gain their powers from a daemon of winter. As such, they have an association with the mountains and winter. Ice, Stone, Storm, and Life/Death. And I’ve tried very hard to make sure they retain a thematic similarity, while still being unique.
I’d like to see a flipped trope of the elements relating to emotions. A cold setting could flip the fire bending trope completely. Instead of them being hot headed and “firey” they are warm and consistent, essential to life. It can be more about heat than the fire itself. Another setting could be on several storm wracked islands and the wind and water benders are the “bad guys” as the tsunamis and monsoons are the real dangers in these islands while the earth benders are more of “life benders” helping to grow plants and the fire mages are using the warmth to help them grow. Just a few random thoughts on how it could be turned on it’s head.
I love your world-building and writing articles, I personally suck at just writing but I try to apply this to my creative outlet, Gamemastering my long-term pathfinder campaign! I’ve watched your articles and tried to apply realism to the world I build (which took soooooooo much longer than it should have and I’m not even close to done) and to blend the players with the world. I have two characters that are very different, an oracle and a barbarian, that are both going through paralleled conflicts, one in a deathmatch between two barbarians, and one between a powerful caster and his own internal problems of trying to gain power while not pushing away those around him. However, I’m dumb and have no idea how to write and play out that internal conflict (turns out two barbarians hitting each other with sticks in a predetermined area is pretty straightforward, and deep internal dialogue and trippy dream sequences aren’t). So I looked for one teaching me how from my favorite world-building, book-writing, LOTR-loving YouTuber and couldn’t find one, could this be a future article? Once again I love your articles and cannot wait to see more!
In my story, the characters powers are split up into 3 different types of abilities Kinesis-Manipulating a certain element Genesis- Producing a certain element Mimicry-Becoming a certain element Would this come off as trying to be unique? I haven’t heard of any stories that have done this and I wanted to try something new.
I’m in the process of writing a novel where people’s elemental magic is less of what they use and more of how they can use it in addition to their normal skills. For example, my lead character is a skilled hunter but is tentative about his magic and as a result, his magic is weak, or only happens in bursts, which is completely opposite of what his element is, which is fire. It’s only after he realizes his potential and gains the needed confidence that his magic manifests in a powerful way.
I think an interesting way to look at the elements leaning into people’s personalities can be seen in My Hero Academia. While it’s not an elemental magic system many people in the show have personalities that match their quirks, the most obvious one being Bakugo’s explosive temper. It also matches with many character’s character arcs, like how Todoroki is cold and distant throughout the first season and a half, but in the middle of season 2 he starts warming up to others (most notably Midoriya) at around the same time he learns that the fire half of his quirk is his and not his father’s and therefore starts learning to use it more. I also feel like you can make an elemental magic system interesting by making it secondary to another fighting style. For example, while Axl Low can use fire magic in Guilty Gear he more commonly uses his long chained sickles to attack from a distance, and fire magic is sometimes used for stronger attacks. Likewise, Zetterburn in Rivals of Aether has very few fire attacks despite his fiery mane and tail, and as a result his use of fire is secondary to his use of his claws.
When he was talking about developing powers, first show I thought of was a certain scientific railgun(and the other stories in that universe), the story has its own issues but when it comes to developing powers and a power system, I thought this show did a really good job developing the abilities and were really clever
Thanks for this, i am struggling hard with a story im writing as the big problem of my story is the very sudden shift in the world from a low level elemental magic system with hard rules to a more cosmic high magic, we dont know the rules yet type of system. If i can pull it off, it will be an amazing book.
There’s a story I’m writing in which two of my characters noth use fire but are two TOTALLY DIFFERENT characters and instead of using the elements of their magic to define them I use the color of their fire. One of the characters (the main character in fact), uses red flames but the other one uses blue flames. And both of their flames have a cartain trait associated with them but not the trait you’d think. Instead of the red flames meaning anger, they mean courage. And instead the blue meaning health, it means power.
For my magic system I pretty much used references on previous material and gave it a twist. The biggest base is the dragon prince. Pretty much, magic is given by having an “Arcanum” which is a spiritual connection to alternate dimensions made out of magic that are known as Nexus. Said connection is represented by a tattoo imbued on the body of the magic user. Each Nexus has elements and some unique magics associated with them. Sun: light, fire Moon: Darkness/shadows, Ice Ocean: Water, Ice, life Land: Earth, nature, life Sky: Electricity, wind, ice As you’ve noticed, some elements repeat themselves on a different Nexus. That is beacuase those elements exist in each Nexus in a way that makes sense for it, for example: Ice is in the moon, ocean and becuase Ice is a state of water, but we can also associate the moon and the night with cold, as well as relating the sky to the changes in temperature and hails. Same for life being associated both with the ocean and land, as both are places where all sorts of life exists. There’s also the non-elemental magic, which can be used by anyone, independent of their arcanum.
I know I commented this into a previous article, but would love for your next magic system article – if appropriate – to bring up ‘The Warded Man’ series or ‘The Black Prism’ series which, I believe, blow everything Sanderson has written (that I’ve gotten to, to be fair) out of the water in world building and magic system integration. Alloymancy is beautifully unique, but ultimately ‘eh’ in world integration. Elantris is amazing, but the magic system is pretty soft comparatively. ‘Shadow of the Conquerer’ (is wonderful, and) had a better and more unique magic system and world-building integration. Any of these 3 series would have been great to hear your opinions when referencing “try something different or unique” as said in two different parts of the article. Love the articles, love the book! Forgot to write a review, so I’ll get to that. 6/5 by the way! Phenomenal!