The CHALLENGE continues!

[TheWombatOfDoom]

If essays about pipe cleaning count, then that definitely does too

Also yeah, we haven't found ways to count editing reliably, so no luck there. But I feel your pain. Editing weeks always require a lot of "light" submissions like photos or poems for me.

In that case:

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1. Rules


*All elemental powers should in the end all be balanced with each other.

*Elemental power is progressivly affected as they age.

*Intent of action is a main factor in effecting an element. How it relates to the other factors and what those other factors are are currently undetermined.

*Fire = Plasma and Heat, Earth = Solid and Still, Water = Liquid and Cool, and Wind = Gas and Motion.

When applying Coolness to something, it causes it to become more Still.
When applying Warmth to something, it causes it to have more Motion.
When applying Stillness to something, it becomes Cooler.
When applying Motion to something, it becomes Warmer.

*Elves are granted their elemental abilities by the elements themselves, and so can lose their power if the element so chooses.


*Elves cannot create the elements, only manipulate them. However, elements can be drawn to an elf, which might appear similiar to creation.

*Elves can choose which element they attune to, however there is generally a certain herditary tendancy.

*Making an element behave in a way it does not usually behave is applying negative fate to it.

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Options up for Debate:

1. Elemental Attunement
Option A: An elf can only attune to one element. To manipulate something with more than one element involved, one would have to work together with an elf of a different attunement.

Option B: An elf can choose to only attune to one element (like Option A), but also has the option to attune to another as well, but no more than two. An elf in this option could choose to have a balance between the two elements, or have one a stronger and more dominant element. The first element chosen is then the stonger of the two. Things to consider in this option is that some elements might not be able to be mutually attuned. Opposite elements, for instance, would not be possible.

Option C: Both! But with a twist! This would fluctuate based on when Fate was the force in power. When Fate is in power - Option B, when not, Option A.

2. Sensing an Element
Option A: An elf has a hieghted awareness to their attuned element based on the 5 senses. This would limit your abilities to what you can directly sense. This circumstance might explain why elves might have better hearing, sight, so on. In sight, a Wind attuned might actually be able to SEE air, unlike other beings, or perhaps Thermal Vision for the Fire attuned. The finite details can be discussed, but this gives a general idea.

Option B: Elves have a 6th sense where they know intutively where their attuned element is in location to themselves. This sensation would be granted upon attunement, and then refined over time.

Option C: Both! How? You tell me!

Option D: A recently attuned elf can only sense the presence of their element when in contact with something (which, considering how pervasive the elements are, they'd all be detecting something all the time) and they could easily detect any manipulation being done by another elementalist. However, they wouldn't understand how its being manipulated, and so wouldn't know what the hell is happening (wind elf wouldn't be able to tell the difference between someone creating a light breeze by setting some air in motion versus creating a localized vaccuum by moving a vast amount of air away quickly). However, as they gain more knowledge and become more powerful, they could see the influence of their element everywhere within the sphere of influence and could detect when someone is manipulating it within that same sphere. Additionally, so long as they had an understanding of how such a thing is possible, they'd know what the manipulation is.


3. Interaction with an Element
Option A: Elves must physically touch the element they wish to manipulate. Over time they can affect larger things, or more areas of an element, so long as they are uninterupted. This would be the "Trace-a-Path" option DracoDei has been mentioning, or as I've called it "Connection" based. Energy used in this case would go out through the part of the body connected to the element.

Option B: Elves can manipulate the elements without contact so long as they can sense it. Over time, they can effect things at farther and farther distances, or to put it another way, by "Area of Effect". This is the "Telepathic" option SamBurke has mentioned. Energy used in this case would be expended by the action, but would not need a direct link to the result as with Option B. Projectiles that go outside an elf's area of effect can no longer be manipulated by the elf, similar to an arrow being shot from a bow.

Option C: Both! When elves are recently attuned, they only can interact with the element physically, and rely on connection to the area they are affecting through the element. Over time, as they become better attuned, they no longer need the physical connection, and are able to manipulate the element within a certain area. Even after the powers get to this point, an elf can still manipulate the object through physical touch.

4. Elemental Power Progression
Option A: As the elves get older, more knowledged and have more experience with the element they've attuned to, they gain more power over the element. This would occur in larger areas of effect, and in hieghtened capacity, and in the ability to create more complex manipulations.

Option B: Each element has a variant in how they progress: Power over Water is progressively gained as an elf ages, whereas power over Fire progressively lost, like a fire that burns out. Wind and Earth...I'm not certain.

Option C: Some other way I haven't considered...

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That should bring me up to half for the week.

The best part is, this system has to do with light, rain, and heat, in the form of fire and water elements. Yey theme!

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Write up on my world and my current goals:

For over half my life (13+ years), I have been working on this setting in some way shape or form. It all started as an idea for a novel (which has evolved into a series), and after a year or so of writing and constant writers blocks, I realized my biggest issue I didn't know my world enough, and so was having a hard time talking about it. So, I decided I'd take a year off from writing plot to actively develop my world.

So I did that...and the more I developed the more I needed to develop, until one year became...well, I'm still working on my world. The difference now is I'm kind of writing both now. In that time I went through high school and college, and used most of what I learned in my studies to assist me in writing this setting. In fact, pretty much anytime I learn something new, my first thought is: How can I fit this into my world? Basically, this world is a very theraputic way for me to retain information, as well as translate things into my own way of thinking, and then put that information into my own project to make it richer. To say that I'm dedicated to this project would be an understatement. I've used this world for D & D, short stories, my novel, and writing poetry.

After having written centuries of history, languages, star charts, geographic patterns and maps, evolutional patterns, cultural intracasies, racial features, and various other portions of the world - I found these forums. And I saw the opportunity to find like minded creative types that might be able to help me in figuring out some of the larger details of the setting that I was missing. Most importantly, Magic. I had my ideas for what I wanted, but I wanted to set it up into a system that made sense, and fit well. And so I joined the forums, and with the help of a few people, I not only "finished" my magic system, but also came to the realization of two other systems that would be attached to to it - Fate and Luck.

And like other portions of world development, when I fully realize one of these aspects, they are large enough that they ripple back in small and large ways into my world development. Magic I'd pretty much thought the most about when developing the setting, so it didn't have as big of a ripple, but Fate has taken a much larger effect. Mostly because instead of just an elemental system, its also identifying things in the scientific realm (which in my schooling I'd not learned as much about, having mostly studied astronomy and geology).

My goal at the moment: To finish the three forces that make up the world - Fate, Luck, and Magic. These three things affect everything in such a way that if I know them and how they work, I will be in essence, done the largest portion of work that needed to be completed. With Fate that means figuring out Physical Science into my setting, and with Luck it will be based on Biology and Evolution - living things. Once these are finished, I can begin writing. Especially since these forces are effecting plot, and some of my developed information. My secondary goal once finished is to begin making these three systems into a D20 system, but I want the concept to be done before I conclude that.