Tales Of Ravenwood; Planning Pages 🪶

What are Elements?

Like most stories, elements are powers/abilities based off of forms of nature- you may know these as your classic four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air. The reason those were considered "elements" was because that's how people believed the world was made up, at least before we had any of our modern-day technology.

(🤓 <-- me asf)

So that's why most stories use those four as elements when sharing stories tied to magic. Unfortunately though, this story doesn't follow that pattern, because what does an overthinker do best? They overthink.

So what makes my story any different? For one, all elements are tied to one 'Main' element- Reality. Now obviously no person can posess that element since it's so powerful that having it is basically a death-sentence, since it can overpower not just your body BUT your mind as well. Fortunately most characters have no reason to really know about this element, and in this story elements such as those are only ever speculated, and usually different characters will have their own theories on what the most 'powerful' element is.

Most elements used by the ACTUAL CHARACTERS THEMSELVES can all be tied into four "core" categories "Pyro, Hydro, Geo, and Bio", named after Earth's various spheres (aka the Pyrosphere, Hydrosphere, Geosphere, and Biosphere). This is information the characters will learn about in their classes, since the school they attend is centered around the use of elemental abilities.

Now here's where it gets complicated, because each "core element" has it's own variation. For example, most characters instead of being a "Pyro Element" will be known as things such as a "Heat Element", "Fire Element", "Lava Element", or small things relates to heat. And instead of someone being called a "Geo Element", they'll often be referred to as a "Sand Element", "Metal Element", or anything that can be tied down to anything regarding rocks and minerals. Essentially most element users are born with only the ability to manage a small portion of a core element (such as only being able to control snow and not water, even though 'snow' would be categorized under the "Hydro" element).

To simplify that, here's a comparison to help you better understand. Think of it like a skill that you're born with- some people are gonna have strengths in singing, but they can't play an instrument. Sure both are still considered "Music", but just because someone can sing doesn't mean that they can learn the piano in less than a day (if that comparison makes sense).

Now, ANY element can learn their element and be able to build their way up to their core element, however that would take years. I mean- imagine if you became an expert at every single form of martial arts. While not TECHNICALLY impossible, it's difficult and will take years of training your body and mind to perform various techniques and styles. That's kinda like how it is for Elemental Use, you need to spend years training your body to not only control different kinds of elements related to your core element, but you also need to make sure your body doesn't struggle to handle the strength of that element.

That's also why humans have adapted weaker forms of their core elements, because if you were born into this world as a "Pyro" element your body wouldn't be able to handle that much power at once- so you'd end up dying as soon as your element developed (which usually comes in when you're around 5, however there are typically signs when a child has a powerful element). Not just that, but using your element requires a lot of focus and attention- afterall what good is being a "Plant Element" if you can't figure out how to get your flowers to do what you want?

So with all those reasons, you can see why almost every single form of government have chosen to illegalize the use of elemental abilities... Wait, you didn't know that? Hm, perhaps this next page explain!