Elementalism?

Elementalism, the drawing power from or manipulation of the elements is a very old idea. There are many several different element schemes across the world,classical Greek,Indian,Chinese,Japaneses etc. In fiction elementalism is one of the most common systems of magic,because  of it's historic weight and simplicity. There is no need for ten page explanation for what it means when a person has power over flame or earth. Elementalism also was the very first magic system that I ever devised,though I was much to young to realize that was what I had done. When I made up worlds with Legos,k'nex or whatever. the powers that I'd assigned them were element in nature.  I find myself revisiting to the idea of elemental magic and If I implement it the cosmotheology would have to be slightly changed and Aethercraft would have to be replaced entirely.

The cosmos was created by the Outergods common called the Titans, they were the children of the Archgods Order and Chaos. The Titans were six in number and they were named Aether,Fire,Air,Water,Wood and Earth. With their combined might they crafted existence from the substance of the abyss and at the heart of their creation the Titans placed the Source. A perpetual engine that sustain reality for all time. Mortals have come to call that place at the true center of the cosmos the Sea of Souls.

It is from the Sea of Souls that the first souls emerged and they carried with them a faint echo of the Titans power. Mortal beings who through training or birth could tap this Prime-energy, that was latent within their souls could wield the power of the Titans.

In elder time before the Sundering they were known as the Miraculous-Ones and treated with an almost worshipful level of deference, called Adepts or Elementalist in the modern cosmos the treatment that they receive is far more humble. While the mortal soul was born of the combined essences of the six Titans rare is the Adept that can adequately manifest all six elements, most can only manifest two. With Adept possessing a primary and secondary element. Rarer than possessing a command of all six elements are those who can command only one. These individuals possesses a Hyper-affinity for their element, it is so strong that interferes with Adepts ability to command other elements. Those with Hyper-affinity are instruments that can produce but a single note however they do so with greater with far grater strength and clarity than those that lack their overpowering affinity.


The Six Elements each have a lower Exoteric form and a higher Esoteric form, accessing the Esoteric form of an element requires a high affinity for that element.

Esoteric Aether: manipulates the mind and soul.

Esoteric Fire: infuses things with energy. a destructive infusion rips thing apart a positive one increases  their potential energy.

Esoteric Air: manipulates inertia and kinetic energy.

Esoteric Water: manipulates entropy and increases metaphysical malleability.

Esoteric Wood: manipulates life force and through it living systems. Growth,consumption,assimilation,parasitism. are all with in this domain.

Esoteric Earth: manipulates the forces that produce mass and weight as well as generate virtual mass. It also reinforces metaphysical integrity.

Alchemy: Is a very specialized discipline within the the art of elementalism. By its very nature elementalism alters the behavior of the element being controlled however those changes are temporary and  touch the elements nature. Alchemy however can create permanent change in form and nature. Three Elements in their Esoteric forms are required to perform transmutations Water to dissolve Aether as a medium Earth to coagulate. With alchemy's complexity simply being able to perform the act transmutation is not enough. One has to know the proper formula and have the skill to execute it in order to transmute something


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Technology in The Silver Sky.

Of all the things in my world the mundane technology remains the most nebulous. I even have the magic and magic tech better defined,see Arcana of the Silver Sky I-II-III. Perhaps I'm pulling from to many different sources, everything inspires me and I want include of it into my own worlds. Simply picking between one of the pre or early twentieth century punk genres, steam or diesel and loading the magic and cosmotheology that I've worked out would be the easiest thing to do.


However it's not what I'm going to do.  There several things that I want for this world, projectile weapons being dominate,some manor of gravity manipulation exist,light-based computing and telecommunication,a crystalline power source, travel between worlds inspired by the age of sail with trips between system taking months if one takes the long way, some form of cybernetics and direct mind machine controls,video games despite most other computer technology being around the level
of early twentieth century earth.  Some manor of three dimensional medium of data storage. There are also some technologies that I don't, A.I, widespread use of directed energy weapons, trasnhumanist technologies beyond the cybernetics, information technology developed to a point comparable with or exceeding that which is available in the real world, atomic weapons.


A logical explanation for how and why the worlds in the cosmos went down these paths of technical development is something that eludes me and I'm more than open to ideas.

What would civilization look like in the modern cosmos? A lot like the world seen in Final Fantasy VII;which brings us back to Dieselpunk. Electrogravitic hovercraft are ubiquities ranging in sizes from one person conveyances to gargantuan fortress-ships. People go to Kinemas and watch motiles, they listen to music on portable media players encoded on data-cylinders,higher end models can display video as well. The more developed worlds can travel to their neighbors or even to other systems by cutting through sub-space also called the near-void.

A single crystal substance fuels the mundane aspects of civilization Thunderstone(unless I can come up with a cooler name), the most potent and efficient fuel source that naturally exist. It comes from the Empyrean generated by their processes. These crystals drift across the comos until they fall onto a world. People mine the veins of the Thunderstone that were formed when the crystal was trapped inside a planet as it formed;And occasionally the sites where it falls to their planets. It's power which at the highest grades is comparable to antimatter is not the only reason why Thunderstone is the Ideal fuel. It's stability is the other Thunderstone is only detonated by four things resonance,percussion,electricity and Thunderstone emissions. If heated past a certain point Thunderstone will evaporate. Higher grades of Thunderstone can be synthesized through a complex process of sublimation and condensation,with each successive cycle  compounding the potency of the product. This process carries considerable risk because the synthesis process can release the energy of Thunderstone. Synthetic stones are often unstable and must store with care. Natural or Synthetic high grade Thunderstone is the mundane WMD of choice in the Silver Sky; Stone the site from orbit it's the only way to be sure.

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Fate-Dynamics?

Fate is an ineffable and all pervasive force in the cosmos, nearly everything is pulled along by it's threads. From the smallest mote of matter to the Empyrean. There are several relationships that one can have to fate. Those who are simply carried along by the flow have what is seen as normal luck, Those who are in tune with flow instinctively moving with it's currents and eddies have good luck, Those who are out of tune with the flow are tossed around and smashed against the metaphoric rock they have bad luck. Then you have the Fate-Dynamics. They alone are not passively carried along by the flow of fate, more than being immovable,which alone would be an amazing metaphysical  state, they can pervasive the flow,the weft and weave of fate and can alter it. A Fate-Dynamics ability to read fate takes the form of an intuitive grasp of the possible outcomes of any situation that they find themselves in. Their fate alteration works in conjunction with fate-reading. Fat-Dynamics can divert the flow if they are fast enough however the more likely the outcome to be diverted and the more unlikely the outcome that the flow is being diverted towards the more difficult and demanding that the diversion will be.

The Power to change change fate is not one that comes cheaply, in addition to being mentally and physically demanding Fate-Dynamics incur a karmic charge/debt with every twisting of fate that they perform. When the charge exceeds a Fate-Dynamics ability to contain it will painful explode from their being. Contaminating themselves and everything around them with chaotic(mostly bad) luck. While the errant luck will eventually dissipate it causes untold levels of havoc for the persons,places and things contaminated. The fates born of this luck cannot be twisted away by the Fate-dynamic that released it.

Fate-Dynamism is an incredibly rare trait to possess rarer still are those that manifest the power and attain conscious control over the ability;they are literally one out of tens of millions. So rare is the ability that most people are not even aware that Fate-Dynamism exist,beyond the stories of usually lucky and the myths of Heroes that could cheat fate. The most recent of such myths is the canon of the Laughing-Rouge who claimed the Supernal Throne at the end of Machine-Gods war,becoming the new High-God.  Some theoretical metaphysicist  hypothesize that Fate-Dynamic individuals exist and it is they who coined the term.


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Arcana Of The Silver Sky Part-III

In the First Two magic of the Silver Sky  we dealt with the forms of magic that were present in the cosmos and what they can do. In the third we will discussing how the peoples of  the cosmos view the magic and those who wield it.


                                                                       The Inner Path.

Of the three forms of magic it enjoys the most positive reception and wide spread use. It is accessible by all people, as long you are willing to put in the effort. The abilities that it grants are already present,the Inner Path merely severs as the key to unlock them. True devotes of the Inner Path are rare, these examples of physical and mental perfection are treated with awe,but awe of a different than practitioners Spritism and Aethercraft receive.  Spirtist are granted their power through a relationship with Spiritual entities. Aethercrafters while their power comes from an internal source the nature of that power is Cosmic. Both Spritist and and Aethercrafters are operating on another"plane" beyond the experiences of the common people. Pathians achieve incredible things without leaving the common plane,their feats are far more"tangible" in the minds of the people.  As stated before Devote's of the Inner Path are rare, however it's lesser  practitioners are ubiquitous. And they effect every facet of life, from preternaturally dexterous surgeons to therapists that can read a patients emotions and state of mind,countless others.


                                                                          Spiritism.

Spiritism was the second most common form of magic in the Before Time and in the modern cosmos it is the rarest. Like the Inner Path it was accessible by anyone under the right set of circumstances. the Spritborn possessed their abilities naturally as a part of their mixed heritage. Others were blessed by a Spirit with a supernatural endowment. The Shaman were either naturally attuned to the power of a Spirit or actively cultivated a connection through meditation and training. Priests were much like the shaman with exception that they accessed the power of the Spirits through the medium of their Gods's numina and as agents of the gods possessed incredible luck;which was most pronounced when the Priest was actively working in line with their Gods's will. The impact of Spiritist on their communities were great and their roles within them varied greatly. Being intercessor for the often fickle Spirits was one of their most important jobs. Aside from that the role played by a Spritist was determined by the nature of their powers. Which were rooted in the abstraction,symbolism and dream-logic, even those that produced immediately tangible effects such as weather workers and healers. Spirtist were also capable of binding their power into objects creating "charms".  As a result of their civic roles Spritist were normally held in high esteem,even higher than the more overtly powerful Aethercrafters.


                                                                          Aethercraft.

Aethercraft was the rarest form of magic in the Before Time however in the modern cosmos it is the most common next to the Inner path. Aethercraft while in theory accessible by anyone who was willing to put in the effort, in practice has always been in the hands of an elite few. Those without the genetic predisposition for harnessing Aether could only access the power by perusing a most arduous training regimen. Even if one of the "ungifted"succeed they would never wield the power with the fluidity of a natural Aetheral. However nothing stopped an "ungifted" from possessing more technical proficiency than a "Gifted" did in the Craft.  Society dealt with inherent elitism of Aethercraft by metaphorically exiling them. Cultures that literally exiled its Aethercrafters never lasted long as they were inevitably overwhelmed by cultures that retained theirs. A social barrier between the heart of society and Aethercrafter always developed  and  was especially pronounced in those societies where the Gifted were the effective or actual rulers. Aethercrafters were treated with deference,viewed with awe, but never acceptance. The roles played by Aethercrafters were determined by their skills. However one role that they all inevitably filled regardless of personal aptitude was advisor. Aether is the energy of life with more access to it than the average person Aethercrafters enjoy a lifespan at least one and half times that of mundane members of their clade. By virtue of their life experience people seek out elder Aethercrafters for their counsel.


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