Back to Main Back to Aether Torrent	Elementalism is rather important to the world of Ahret and to Aether Torrent. I myself drew all the little diagrams. Other images were brazenly stolen via Google unless otherwise noted.

Elementalism
1. Vessels  --  2. Conduits  --  3. Knowledge  --  x. Classification
In a religious perspective, elementalism is a gift bestowed by gods or goddesses, allowing the faithful to commune directly with elemental forces of creation. In a non-religious perspective, elementalism is the method by which sapient beings can summon varying amounts of Water, Air, Fire, and Earth magic from the Aether into physical reality and manipulate the respective manifestations thereof. To summon Water magic is to control the motion and pressure of water or water-bearing fluid. Summoning Air magic grants control over the motion and pressure of air. Fire magic governs combustion and the addition of heat. Earth magic controls the density of minerals and mineral-rich soil while granting limited mobility to both. With adequate knowledge of particular Basic Elements not in opposition to each other, an elementalist may summon and use a Combined Element, also called combinatorial by scholars.
	Water and Air yield Ice, Fire and Air yield Lightning, Fire and Earth yield Atomic, and Water and Earth yield Flora. Ice magic controls ice and the subtraction of heat. Lightning magic controls electricity and thereby magnetism. Atomic magic controls chemical bonds and the physical states of matter. Flora magic controls the growth and decay of organic matter. Being part-Earth, neither Atomic nor Flora magic can be summoned through the air. To summon any element of magic, three things are needed: a vessel, a conduit, and proper knowledge.

1. Vessels
A vessel material is a substance which is naturally linked to a particular element. The higher-grade the vessel, the more magic may be summoned through it. Water magic requires carapite, the typically dark blue exoskeleton of a species of land crab called rüstung. Farming carapite is a very involved and lengthy process, given the generally bad temperament of adult rüstung and the time it takes for them to molt high-quality samples. Air magic requires the metal aluminum. It is lightweight, durable, and very difficult to chemically extract. However, some technologically-advanced nations have begun to produce it in industrial quantities. Their efforts have made aluminum the most common of all vessel materials. Fire magic requires orichalcum, a shiny red-orange alloy of copper, gold, trace amounts of silica, and a powder made of surpassingly rare, naturally-occurring zinc oxide crystals. Elementalists and scientists alike are baffled as to why only natural zinc oxide can make orichalcum. Earth magic requires mythril, a pale green metal known as the most mysterious of all vessels. It boasts lightness, strength, malleability, a high melting point, and the ability to magnetize, yet it exists only in native deposits in geologically diverse regions. Chemists have long tried to synthesize mythril, make it react to other substances, or at least break it down into smaller components, but all attempts have failed. Ice magic requires adamant, a dazzling ultra-hard gemstone made of pure carbon and occasionally trace elements to give it color. "Shell adamant," which grows on the shells of certain turtles, is far more common than, yet generally inferior to, "rock adamant" formed by millions of years of tremendous geologic pressure. Adamant formed artificially by Earth magic or other quick means is, for some reason, useless as a vessel. Lightning magic requires kahroba, a particular kind of golden fossilized tree resin. Kahroba is similar to ordinary amber in that it can build a static electricity charge, but unlike amber, it cannot burn. Science offers no explanation as to why. The only way to identify a piece of kahroba in a pile of amber is to burn the pile and pick out what remains yellow. Atomic magic requires obsidian, black volcanic glass capable of taking a fantastically sharp edge. While it is the second most common vessel after aluminum, its elemental quality is dependent on its age. For example, obsidian under one hundred years old is elementally useless. An active trade in obsidian of great vintage exists even among non-elementalists. Flora magic requires lithodendros, petrified wood found in only a handful of locations worldwide. Curiously, its potential colors neither inhibit or enhance its elemental potential. Despite lithodendros being mostly silicates such as quartz, silicates alone cannot be used to summon Flora magic.			Fresh orichalcum.
			Jeweler-cut rock adamant.
			Lithodendros slab.

2. Conduits
Excellent conduit for basic Water magic.		A conduit is a weapon or tool vital for magic. A vessel material draws an element of magic from the Aether; a conduit which either contains or is made of a vessel will manifest and control that element. Water magic requires a curved blade. The exact shape of the ideal curve is a matter of some controversy, but any blade which the naked eye can see as curved will suffice. If the whole weapon is curved, the blade must be on the outside edge. Air magic requires a long, straight pole. Practically any length will do, from a flagpole to a pen. Fire magic requires a short spike. The spike may be curved or straight, but only the tip may be sharp. Sufficient shortness is less than three times as long as the width of the base. Earth magic requires a flat surface. Unlike the three other Basic elements, summoning Earth can only be done if the conduit is in direct contact with an object. Ice magic, being a combination of Water and Air, requires a curved pole -- which means a highly flexible weapon such as a whip or chain. Lightning magic, being a combination of Air and Fire, requires a long spike. "Long" means more than three times as long as the width of the base. Pikes and javelins suffice if they are not bladed. War hammers with long picks are common for the added intimidation factor. Atomic magic, being a combination of Fire and Earth, requires a blunt spike in direct contact with an object. If a spike can't break the skin by direct pressure, it's blunt. Flora magic, being a combination of Fire and Earth, requires a straight blade in direct contact with an object. Ideally, the blade would have no tip, but any straight blade will do.
Common Fire spikes.
Sufficient Lightning spike.

3. Knowledge
Knowledge of elemental correlations is highly important to summoning them. Water douses Fire and Air weathers Earth while Fire melts Ice and Earth grounds Lightning. Ice halts Atomic and Lightning strikes Flora while Atomic boils Water and Flora absorbs Air. In table form, with the "attacking" element on the vertical axis and the "defending" element on the horizontal, the correlation is as seen to the right. What this means to the average elementalist is that in some surroundings, certain elements may be easy or difficult to summon.
Surroundings are important to factor because elemental magic exists in predictable places in nature. A cave would be steeped in more Earth magic than Air magic, for instance. The depths of a forest would impede Air magic, given the natural saturation of Flora. Fire magic would be easier to summon in a desert than at a beach. Ice is easy to summon on a glacier but not a volcano. And so on. Elemental correlations are also vital when dealing with monsters. Monsters are described in the next page, "Zoology."

x. Classification
		Classification of elementalists in terms of strength is often difficult. Unlike in martial arts, whose masters possess near-matchless ability in all ranks of skill, master elementalists can sometimes be outclassed by an opponent who knows only the basics. The reason is that ranks of elemental “mastery” are only concerned with elemental Detail -- the dexterity with which one can manipulate an element. Elementalism may be divided into four aspects, each of which dramatically affects one’s skill. They are commonly called the “Four Ds”: Depth, Distance, Detail and Desire. Depth is a measure of how much aether one can channel into a summoned element before physical exhaustion. Distance is a measure of one’s effective summoning range. Detail, ranked below, is a measure of just what one can do with an element. The fourth aspect, Desire, is a somewhat esoteric scale of one’s subconscious aspiration to summon elements at all. It is best thought of as a maximum level of elemental ability based on overall personality. Someone with low Desire has a low maximum, whereas someone with very high Desire has a very high maximum.
Elementalists who reach the limits of their Desire -- who “hit their ceiling,” as some call it -- are at their absolute peak of ability. Desire can increase or decrease over time, but it is not as simple as wanting more or less power. Only existential impacts can affect it, i.e. sudden trauma or deep, personal philosophical examination. Any truly accurate classification of elementalists’ respective power must therefore take into account the Four Ds and how each opponent in a hypothetical battle uses them. However, the standard ranking is still useful, since elemental masters often have excellent Depth, Distance, and Desire parallel with their Detail. Each column describes, for each element, what each rank of skill is able to control.

Next, "Geography"

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