Psionic Elements
Obviously the five basic elements are strongly represented in the magical realm. Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Life. Beyond those however are plenty of others that sometimes are a little difficult for lower-end tech-level people to understand. For the most part, those who use Elemental Psionics (not necessarily elemental spells) are going to be either immune to or strongly resistant to damage taken from their specialized element. They have an ‘understanding’ of it, and generally would be known ‘for’ it.
Earth Magic – this magic can sense, affect and create dirt, rock, stone, gems, metal ores, sand, dust, and to an extent magma. However it can also be used to detect fissures, imperfections, fault lines, movement, and such; a strong Earth mage can often tell whether there are rabbits ruining the crops by how the dirt feels below the surface, or whether there is a large pocket of air/gas/liquid in solid stone for drilling purposes. They can’t necessarily know what that substance is, but get a feel for the shape of the rock and that’s generally enough. Rather like an ultrasound, they can feel around through solids.
An Earth mage may specialize if they’re strong enough, in dirt for farming, as soil is quite different than rock obviously. Others may work with mining, ore extraction or gem cutting. Even sand is affected, so some Earth mages are known to be expert glass makers. Many Earth mages make a good living shaping caverns and homes, objects and the like out of plain old stones. Depending on how strong their ability is, and how practiced they are at it, any given Earth mage can take a hunk of stone the size of a bowling ball, and make it into, say, a small table with sturdy legs and a flat top, within about a day of work. No carving necessary, they can move the stone as though it were clay.
Earth mages may also be good in a combat situation, not just because they might have metal-shaping to affect the sword or armor of their opponent, but they might also rumble the ground below them, cause a mire under their feet, or even throw up a quick inch-thick sheet of dirt to distract them.
Metal mages are a specialized group of Earth elementalists, which can affect only the ores and metals found within stone and dirt. They may require help to move the ores out of the stone, but once it’s in their hands, it’s like putty. The same stands for gem-cutters, who often are the ones making the Jewel Witches’ diadems. Crystals and any other hard, solid substances are usually the realm of the Metal mage.
Air Magic – everything that can move through the air, is their domain. While it does not impart any ability to fly, they can learn to use wind and air currents to do so. An Air mage can purify the quality of air around them, cause small breezes on up to gale force winds, and such.
Storm mages are a subgroup of Air magic that use a mixture of water and air magic. They are often powerful, storms can range from the area above a farm to an entire mountainside. While Air mages can cause winds, only Storm mages can add rain to the mix.
Air mages can also remove air from an area, bring scents on the wind or change the smells of things, or cause extremely painful blows – telekinesis is a very focused form of air magic. They can cause a vacuum, useful for creating electric light bulbs or euthanizing small animals… or people…
A strong subset of Air magic is sound manipulation, often used in conjunction with a light-producing magic or even empathy to produce illusions. Sound mages can produce or amplify, or alternately nullify or make quiet any sound they can perceive. It is known that one of the most gifted composers of the early Barony colonization was a sound mage, though it is also known he didn’t actually know he was.
Fire Magic – even at low levels of power, fire magic is useful. It can help keep the user alive in the deep cold, light a spark to start a fire, and provide steady light. At high levels of ability however, fire magic is certainly the most dangerous of Elemental types. Being able to light tinder is one thing. Being able to set a pool of water on fire is another.
Sheets of pure heat, plasma and brilliant light can be made – in fact Fire magic is the only magic that produces a ‘substance’ at its weakest level of ability. Essentially the reverse of typical Elemental magic is true with fire: sensing through it is extremely difficult, if at all possible.
A wide variety of sub-forms are available to Fire mages. Light, heat, organic and inorganic temperature regulation (keeping yourself and others warm, removing the heat from a forge’s walls), fireworks and the like can all provide a profession. When a Fire mage is adept enough, they can actually create shapes using fire, everything from lettering in the air as an SOS on the side of a mountain, to cage shapes for keeping prisoners in.
A specific form of fire magic would be molecular acceleration, with which a mage could propel things similar to an Air mage. This would require a very strong amount of refinement on the part of the mage, to perform with this element. However, an easier one would be ‘microwave emission’, cooking things without actually having them ‘burn’.
Water Magic – on a world which is dominated by the deep oceans, this is certainly a useful magic to have. Even so, it is a reasonably rare talent, at least for stronger abilities. It’s somewhat more common to see a mage with other elements have Water magic as a weaker component. Those who do master it are in high demand all around the world for a wide variety of reasons.
Water mages can sense where water is, and that is of primary concern to anyone living inland. While there are no true dune deserts on Dragondeep, there are wastelands and scrub deserts which have precious little of the substance anywhere near it. Purifying that water which is stale or poisoned is valuable – and particularly to those in the Grape Barony who require perfectly pure liquids.
Many water mages can shape the water more easily as ice, though true cold-shaping powers are something else entirely. Strong Water mages can produce currents within a body of water, or even simply around the submerged sections of a ship, to propel it quickly or make highly intricate turns among dangerous reef beds. In fact most port cities have a few local Water mages on hand to guide larger ships into port when they have none of their own.
The strongest Water mages can call water from nothing – unlike creating fire which is essentially kinetic energy alighting the very air, or throwing around dirt (because … well, dirt is everywhere) . A Water mage in an area without water is often followed by everyone near, as they provide the very lifeblood of a dry zone.
Alternately of course they can dry things off, keep things from rotting due to wetness, even sense where the good fishing spots will be by detecting motion within it.
Life Magic – a catchall that includes many different forms of control and sensing, from plants up to anything with a heartbeat. Many specialize in plant magic, or ‘nature magic’ which allows sensing and to an extent manipulation of living things around the mage.
For a plant mage, most numerous in the Viridian Country, wood and any other plants including moss, fungus and algae will respond to their will. Some plant mages specialize in only one breed of plant – flowering plants, grasses, mold, hardwood trees, ivy. Similarly to the Earth mages’ ability to make objects from stone, a plant mage can shape either living or dead wood (sometimes only one or the other) into what they need, in a matter of hours. Those who use exclusively living woods may cause a plant to flower out of season or a seedling to sprout, or even create new types of fruits mixing different plants together magically.
Animal Mages are known around the world as hunters, trappers and the like, primarily because their sensing and slight abilities to summon or entrance animals keep them alive through dangerous situations. They can often befriend creatures which are otherwise not friendly, or diffuse a tense standoff between rival animals. Many strong animal mages can summon multiple creatures or those at a distance, but they also often have a stronger mental and emotional connection with the animals around them – some being quite unwilling to kill an animal nearby because they will feel its pain and fear. Generally animal mages make excellent trainers for domesticated animals, guard dogs and talking birds, carriage horses and the like.
Blood mages are those who deal only with people, or sentient creatures when they don’t look like people. Healers, poisoners, interrogators and bodyguards may have this ability, and when it is quite strong, the mage is generally – and unconsciously – feared by those around them. After all, someone who can call forth a seizure from a healthy man, or cause a heart to stop beating, should be feared. Almost every royal family has a blood mage on hand, and they keep them well-paid. A blood mage healer may often work either in conjunction with or have their own powers of herbal magic, able to apply conventional healing abilities on top of their magical ones. Mending bones, healing cuts and burns, even purifying diseases are all things blood mages do well.
Personal-use specializations of blood magic includes methods of adapting to the environment, such as growing thicker skin for harsher weather or changing the configuration of feet to walk over difficult surfaces. But also to heal themselves automatically, sometimes to a degree that the Necromancers would be jealous, and enhance their own senses without affecting anything outside themselves. Also this would allow – and be even more specific – shapeshifting to a degree.
Mind Mages, if not typically considered pure Psionicists, can be called an even further specialization of Life magic. They can rule another’s mind, communicate telepathically, catch empathic senses of the mood around them, and manipulate those emotions. This is a rare gift outside the Jewel Witches and the Silent Empire, because quite frequently when these powers manifest, it can be tremendously disorienting or even deadly to those who are unaware they have the gifts. Many Lumin royals would be considered Mind mages, and it’s extremely likely that both the Starcourt and Ravenhill elves are gifted with this power. They don’t, however, use it so broadly that it would be well known.
The Lumin Kings are all connected Psionically as well as technologically with their people, and those connections go both ways: if someone among their large network suddenly cries out in terror, everyone nearby, and eventually on through the Kings themselves, will know it. This creates not only a measure of trust among them, but a careful web of self-restraint. In order to get his point across more firmly, when his treasonous brothers were finally exposed and he returned from the exile they’d imposed upon him, Vaelan used the open network of minds to show the damage they had done directly to his people. In that moment, literally ten thousand people felt the same pain and despair that he had, and there was no denying his right to rule. But like any strong ability, the responsibility to use it wisely may be elusive to others.
Empaths and telepaths, it is said, should be feared more than they are, if for no other reason than they can pry into the private thoughts of those around them. Some have a difficult time not doing so. Most are polite enough not to use this against anyone. But some… from cheating at cards to manipulating emperors, telepaths have always run the whole range of beatific through maniacal.
More eclectic elements may include time manipulation, the ability to ‘pause’ the immediate surroundings (not the whole world) and move through it quicker than others could detect, or even put themselves into a state of hibernation. Pressure and gravity magic is rare but present in highly technological areas, both seemingly subsets of Air magic to outside observation. However, gravity magic is far more easily used to fly with, than air magic!
Some elemental mages near the Clockwork areas have shown ability with machinery and computers, innately understanding and even communicating with computers, and causing movement or being able to understand a problem with a machine. The Clockworks value this tremendously, as it is far easier to send a tech mage into their broken machines and have them tell them exactly what’s gone wrong, so they can then fix it.
Numerous types of Elemental power seem to overlap, or are used in clever ways by people who cannot be said to have strength in the ‘primary’ version of that power. Perhaps as a subset of Air mixed with Life magic, electric energy such as lightning, static and even the small electrochemical impulses in bodies can be manipulated and sensed by certain elemental mages. One such mage was a well-known warrior among the Stone Elves, electrifying his blade and causing almost instant death with its touch.
Psionic abilities such as ‘finding’, psychometry, and innate abilities to detect or predict, all are very rare indeed, but of tremendous use when they do show up. A Finder would be hired by a money-lender, to literally track their gold down if stolen. A Psychometrist, one who can lay their hands on an item and sense its history or see through it, could get a good job in a court making sure which murder weapon actually was used by whom. Predictive mages usually work on the sly at gambling houses, but equally among war councils and even hospitals. Most of these powers have occurred only among the Lumin and Jewel Witch population, but that’s not to say a Griff or other Elf might develop it too.