Instant Closure! Going Out With A Bang (and then some)!

I'm not sold on this idea yet. I'm not sold on anything, that's why it's up for discussion, but this one in particular.

Have you ever been annoyed when a character seems to come back from the dead to save the day? I know I have. Especially if they were just playing 'possum or something. Usually there's some explanation for the occurrence, like they took some poison that mimics the state of death, but I still feel like it's a pretty cheap trick.

It's a little better if they were in an extremely perilous situation when we last saw them; we never saw them bleeding on the ground or had any real reason to presume they were dead. I can handle that. But when the author intentionally implies they're a corpse, but omg jk not really!, I feel like I've been nut-punted.

Rest well, sweet Concord. I'm sure he didn't forget.

So I'm thinking of taking that option away from myself. I'm playing with an idea I think I got from South Park, of all places. In the Walmart episode, Cartman posits that people always crap themselves when they die. Sure enough, everyone that dies in this episode (quite violently) craps themselves upon death.

Though the above execution is obviously crass, I think the technique is sound. I'm playing with the idea of 'to live is to use magic' I've cited a couple of times in the elemental profiles; the body is made up of all the different elements, thereby, our spirit (or our individual life element) is constantly wielding magic by keeping these elements together.

If we think of it that way, what might happen if we're killed, or perhaps even wounded? Say a warrior is sliced by a sword, what if the shock to the 'spell' that maintains our bodies causes a spray of sand (flesh to earth) and water (blood to water) instead of blood? And perhaps when a person dies, we see a more tangible passing; sparks of electricity might flicker from the eyes, vapor may rise from the flesh, air evacuates from the lungs and gut; there are many possibilities to showcase their 'soul's' loss of control over the body's elements, and these symptoms could help the reader be certain the character had died.

While I'm not writing specifically to (older) kids, I doubt I want to exclude them, so might this be a way to get around gore, too? I mean, we can't have a corpse immediately turn into sand and water; people eat meat in this world, which would be impossible if beasts disintegrated into mud immediately upon death. People will still bleed from wounds (only the initial cut involves a small amount of water and sand, because MAGIC!), a person will still leave a skeleton if they're left to rot. I just wonder if this might be a less-cheap (but still cheap, perhaps) way of using blades without having my Foot clan become robots. I mean, books have already gotten away with more violence anyway, so maybe I don't even need to worry about this factor.

All the same, what do we think? This is a gimmick, to be sure, but do we like it? Does it serve enough of a function (you'll know someone just died, so unless it was a look-alike, then Kenny just ate it) to warrant its inclusion? What famous 'dead-but-not-really!' moments caused you to ache in your nethers? If ya like the idea, how might the eight different elements (light, electricity, water, life, darkness, earth, air, and heat) flare up during somebody's death-throe? 

Feed for Fire, Starve for Cold: the Heat Element

We've finally come full circle to the final element, and a candidate for the most popular. Technically, it's heat energy, but most people will probably refer to it as fire magic, because that's the most obvious (and fun) application.

************

Color: Red
Sin: Gluttony
Virtue: Passion

  Heat is an energy element, one that represents perseverance. The universe is mostly a cold place, and the natural order seems to suggest a cold future. Still, despite the odds, heat persists and strives to spread its warmth to its maximum potential.

  Heat constantly seeks and consumes fuel in order to maintain its crusade. It has an agenda, and in order to achieve its agenda, it ruthlessly amasses all the resources it possibly can. Something so obsessed with survival never hesitates to abandon morality the moment it becomes a burden, so fire and its wielders have developed a reputation for hatred, rage, and cruelty.

  The truth is different, of course. Like all the elements, heat possesses a full range of emotions. While each has its preferences, there is always a balance, and for all the hate and anger, there is an equal amount of warmth and charity. The flame's true nature is one of passion.

  The practical applications of heat are fairly obvious. Igniting a substance is a matter of appealing to the ambient heat in any environment, asking it to collect itself in the desired object. Likewise, cooling or even freezing a substance can be achieved by asking the heat to abandon it. They're invaluable for mundane tasks like food preparation or storage, but also potent in combat. Entire armies can be countered by a sudden wildfire or unexpected sub-zero temperatures on a summer night.

  While the methodology is often the same, the effects can vary wildly. For instance, if a wizard is given time with an organism, they can raise the temperature of appropriate organs or tissue to incite a variety of emotion. Intensifying focus, altering pain thresholds, exciting blood flow; heat sorcerers are known for their ability to seduce the opposite sex or enhance a warrior with a berserker rage.

************

I've been pretty vague, I suppose, but as always, things depend on the environment. Plus, when we think magic, fire's probably one of the first things we think about. I'm not going to try too hard to reinvent this wheel, just perhaps explain its methodology a bit differently.

While the ubiquitous fireball spell will be harder in this series - you'd need a credible fuel to keep that flame burning, which means bringing resources or being a hybrid mage - there are plenty of other applications. Since heat is everywhere (ice is still 'hot' in Kelvin's terms), there is no such thing as an environment where a heat user would be neutered. He just may want to opt for ice in an arctic environment and fire in a tropical one. The obvious power and versatility is hopefully curbed by the cost. For instance, if you're concentrating the ambient heat to make a fire, you need to be mindful of damage you might do to the objects you're siphoning that heat from.

Once the wood is burning, it's true, you're generating more heat. If you're trying to survive a cold night, though, draining all the heat to ignite the log might mean you freeze to death before the fire can start paying your body dividends on that down payment. Or maybe you just neuter yourself; you might freeze a little bit of the Amazon into an ice blade or something like that, but you'd be using too much concentration to keep it solid to really wield it very well.

On a side note, two words: party favors. This guy must be a hybrid, prolly has a special bladder for storing propane.

So what we thinkin'? Does the allocation mechanic make sense? How could you see it being used in the field, in terms of combat, survival, or just plain vocation? Feel free to incorporate any hybrid requirements you want, as well. Also, for you chemists out there, what are some of the funner chemical reactions that occur at specific temperatures, or which materials have a particularly spectacular phase change (solid to liquid or whatevs)?

Transient Ingrate: the Air Element.

Aside from darkness, the physical elements have been harder to reimagine. I feel like I did some different things with water, but I'm not positive they were well-received, so we may end up rolling back to traditional on that. Anyhoo. Air!

************

Color: Orange
Sin: Envy
Virtue: Persistence

  Air is a physical element, composed of all the gas-phased substances in the liquid water temperature range. It is a remarkably mobile element, always believing  it would be better off somewhere else than where it currently is.

  As air is everywhere, there's never a shortage of resources for an air mage, but novices sometimes feel discouraged over the perception that its uses are limited. Gases are invisible, so to the inexperienced, air seems to be a single, uniform substance, and therefore, progression in the school seems limited to how hard you can make the stuff blow.

  Once they learn how to differentiate between the many ingredients in the atmosphere, however, they begin to understand just how versatile their school can be. They can collect and sell the gases that compose any desired aroma, can control how much oxygen exists in a certain space, and can concentrate the ingredients that burn well or intoxicate breathers.

  Combined with the ability to summon hurricanes or tornadoes (with enough time to prepare them), air users have no shortage of applications. Hybrid wizards are even more unpredictable: an electrician might construct a windmill or manipulate the clouds in order to generate electricity, heat sorcerers can create fireballs or a freezing rain of liquefied gases, and those who can use both air and water can make wondrous new substances with different combinations of liquids and gases.

************

Those of you familiar with Caesar Clown from One Piece will be familiar with the control of the different gases in our atmosphere. Aside from how much you can accomplish with the obvious 'control the flow' dynamic, the properties of the different air elements (nitrogen, hydrogen, etc etc) should give us plenty of options to play with. Like with water, manipulation of pressure could be pretty potent, too.

If all else fails, an air wizard could always start one of those indoor skydiving places.

Whatcha guys think? What else can you do with the atmosphere? Are there any other uses, besides the chemical and 'force of flow' application? Can we make some acoustic application, maybe? If not, what are some of the more interesting gases out there? Which ones are super heavy, super light, which will get me super high, and which are reactive enough to make some kind of super boom? And by all means, bring up farting, it's not like I could make it through an entire post about air without doing so...

Insolent Dirt: the Earth Element

We move from a contender for the title of 'most exotic' to, perhaps, the most familiar (and maybe even boring?) of the elements. Still, somebody's gotta be the straight man, right? I mean, could the Aqua Teens work without Frylock?

************

Color: Yellow
Sin: Pride
Virtue: Integrity

  Nature and Applications: Earth holds dominion over most of the terrestrial solids. If it's not wood, bone, stalk, or flesh, then it is likely one of the minerals or metals of the earth element. These substances are often known for their rigidity, a trait that reflects the earth's strong sense of identity. It craves respect, which is why it so often shapes itself into the mountains humans associate with reverence.

  Where other wizards seem to command their elements, earth mages must make humble suggestions, ask for favors, or beg for help in order to achieve the results they desire. Boulders can crumble into dust to clear paths, desert dunes might shift and harden to become shelter, and iron can volunteer to forge the proper bonds and shape itself to become a warrior's steel.

  Earth sorcery is fundamentally about shape, at least when it's used exclusively. Novices can make fields plow themselves in a day, intermediates can open sinkholes or bridge a canyon, and masters can have a mountain carve itself into a palace.

  There is much a clever specialist can accomplish on their own, and there are obvious synergies to be had with the other elements. Earth can be shaped to help water reach places it would struggle to on its own, and metal is essential for the generation and transmission of electricity. Should sufficient heat be achieved, magma allows for even more versatility in an earth magician's arsenal. Like water and air, control of the earth is not lost once a substance changes state.

************
Pretty straightforward so far, and I don't feel a ton of need to reinvent the wheel on this one. I would like to expand on the kinds of things we've seen rocks and dirt do in previous fantasy, but it can retain that earthy flavor. If ya don't like it, nobody forced ya to put it in your mouth...

Plus, I mean, I could tap into that ginormous Edward Elric fangirl demographic on the weapon possibilities alone. I mean, that's what they see in him, right?

What do you mean by that "You don't understand what women want!" comment? Isn't this gif his entire appeal?

Jokes aside, there's still a lot of room for innovation here. I mean, a whole lot of that Periodic Table of Elements is made up of stuff that falls into the 'earth' category. Are there any fun reactions (of the naturally-occurring elements, preferably) you'd like to see used? Maybe some of them metals that make those special fire extinguishers necessary? Further, I feel like I haven't given as much thought to inter-element activity on this one, how might we combine earth with some of the other elements? I've got a cool idea for a sword that also takes on the properties of electricity, and when ya swing it, it can strike like lightning, simultaneously slicing and shocking. A pretty high-level artifact, though, and one that needs to be charged...

The Ultimate Layabout: the Dark Element

A return to the eight-week formula. I wanted to give ya'll a longer break, but I'm shaking up my work schedule, and with how temperamental I am about these things, I suppose it's a miracle I even stayed on task.

Darkness is (obviously) on the opposite end of the spectrum from the light element. Like light, it will often be misunderstood as being a literal manifestation of morality (light is good and dark is evil), but both will actually be morally neutral. However, my current impressions are that this won't be super-relevant anyway, because darkness is a hard club to get in to, largely because my dark element is supposed to encompass some of the things we don't understand about real-world physics.

************

Color: Black
Sin: Sloth
Virtue: Patience

  Nature and Applications: Darkness is such an obscure element that many scholars are unaware it even exists. A majority of magic communities don't acknowledge it in their records, either because of its dangerous nature or because they're simply oblivious to its existence.

  It has, by far, the smallest representation of earthbound elements, but as darkness is the purest of the physical magics, it is also the most prevalent throughout the universe. The fact that the world exists in a minority of the universe - where darkness isn't dominant - has led many to believe it is an enemy to life. This is a misunderstanding, however; life makes use of the dark element as it does any other, though the doses are so much smaller that they are essentially imperceptible.

  Darkness got its name from the absence of light, but the element itself is rarely the reason for an actual lack of light. Darkness is so-called because its status as the purest physical magic causes it to be hyper-absorbent. None of the energy elements can escape its gravity; light, heat, electricity, and even life will be permanently captured by any darkness these elements are exposed to. If that energy is ever released, it will only be because the darkness permitted it.

  This makes the darkness very difficult to study. Since all light is absorbed, it cannot be seen, and since physical contact with any perceptible amount can be lethal, it is difficult to determine whether it is solid, liquid, gas, or some new, unknown state of matter. The best way to study it is by studying its effect on its surroundings, which has made progress understandably slow.

  What is known is that it retains all the energy it constantly absorbs and its capacity seems massively disproportionate to its concentration; it can retain exponentially more than a piece of earth of the same size. The few who claim to be able to communicate with the darkness say it has little interest in absorbing all the energy it does; that the energy actually seeks the darkness like a shelter. Whatever the case, it can make use of this energy to alter its position in space. If the universe were drawings on a page, then darkness is able to fold the page enough to make the face touch itself, travelling to a new spot on the paper by folding the universe so that its starting point is touching its destination.

  As darkness is a lazy element, it is reluctant to even communicate. If a sorcerer can manage it, however, they can harness its insane density to strengthen other materials or enhance their conductivity. Intermediate users can make use of its space-"folding" properties to travel vast distances in an instant - though if they expend too much energy from the darkness in themselves, it will consume too much of their heat, electricity, light, or life to survive the trip.

  Masters can temporarily fold larger quantities into the world from the void beyond. Collections the size of a fist will exert more gravity on their surroundings than the entire planet, causing unsecured people and objects to "fall" towards the darkness. Further, if they touch the substance, their energies will be siphoned and whichever body part touched the darkness will be mangled by the force of its gravity.

************

So if ya hadn't guessed, darkness is a cheap and liberal interpretation of dark matter - so-called because we don't really know what it is, we just know there must be some type of matter out there we haven't been able to classify. The known elements don't exist in enough quantities to be exerting enough gravity for the universe to be doin' what it's doin', so dark matter is the 'x' they use to make the unified theory of physics work until they figure out exactly what it is. At least, that's how it was explained to me.

Because it's fiction and fantasy and magic, I felt like I have the privilege of assigning properties to it, and some of the common perceptions regarding black holes and warp drive and wormholes and whatnot seemed like natural properties to assign. Plus, since it's the least-understood element, we can introduce new applications as we go. Fun!

How have other writers handled darkness in fiction? Most of the time, it seems so abstract; it's always tied to demons and evil and corruption. It's hard to imagine how darkness could really harm a person in combat. Like, shadowbolts in Warcraft obviously cause damage, but what kind of pain do you feel when it hits you? I won't lie, the way I'm using it has been influenced by things like the Dark Dark fruit in One Piece, but writing has always been a derivative thing. Drawing influence from other people is fine, so who else has used darkness in a way that makes some degree of sense? What properties was it assigned, how did sorcerers use it other than to make good people do bad things, from whence was it sourced (if we don't include the underworld or Hell)? Most importantly, how would you interpret it as an element; what properties would you assign, in my position?

On Beginnings

We takin' a break from the elements today. They're startin' to go all prima donna on me.

On the topic of writing, the most common question is probably "where do we start?" In my explorations, I've come to the conclusion that the answer isn't often "at the beginning." The first page of a novel has become an industry; seriously, there are services devoted wholly to critiquing only the first page.

We all know the internet feeds our collective attention deficit disorder. There's a whole lot of free entertainment out there, so if you want people to see your stuff (and especially if you want them to pay for the privilege), you need to have something exceptional from the beginning. They have plenty other places to turn, so you've gotta give them a good reason not to.

We all love Tolkien, but the Hobbit never would have been published in this age. It fails every 'first page test' ever devised. How can that be, when he's the flagbearer for the entire fantasy genre? Well, as impressed as we all are with the inventor of the wheel, it's hard to claim he perfected the thing.

Progress is a pain. A day in the life of a halfling was plenty-entertaining when there weren't any alternatives, but as that saying in Stephen King's Gunslinger goes, "The world has moved on." We can't really ease into the climax anymore, can't start anywhere near mundane. We've come to the point where we can assume the audience knows how to swim, and therefore, they prefer to enter the pool at the deep end. Things need to be different, dangerous, and intriguing right from the start.

This is why I say you don't start at the beginning, and this is where I need your help! I need the stories to read nothing like my blog, all the technical details need to stay out. We want to break any new ground we can, but we can do that while taking cues from successful people.

Game of Thrones began with a ranging and a White Walker. We didn't know anything about the Wall or the Black Brothers or Winter, but from the way the rangers interacted and cues in their conversation, we knew they were a practiced, capable military force that didn't spook easily. Yet they were spooked. George didn't take long to show us they had a damn good reason to be scared.

The survivor of that encounter was executed for desertion by Ned Stark, Ned Stark takes his boys back to Winterfell, and only then are we introduced to the normalcy of life in Westeros. Martin began with the sort of scene you might expect to find closer to the climax, with danger and intrigue and horror, then eased us into the mundane rituals of a day in Winterfell. Learning the relatively boring details of life in Winterfell and the goings-on of the kingdom and the petty family drama were all much more interesting when we know it's all in danger at the hands of them white prune-zombies. After all, the head of the house just executed the guy who saw them up close and personal, so the threat can't be far away.

Because the Song of Ice and Fire started in the deep end of the pool with the White Walker prologue, the shallow end stays interesting long enough to see us through to Bran's fateful climb up Cersei's tower window, and after that, no amount of tedium is going to keep us from watching Westeros slowly spiral into war.

Game of Thrones isn't even the best example of how to hook people right away, probably not by a long shot. It's just a clean demonstration of how to start anywhere but at the beginning.

Watchmen began with the Comedian getting brutally murdered. We had no real idea who this clown was, but that didn't make it any less interesting. Indeed, if your story contains any element of mystery or intrigue, it probably oughta start with the crime-in-progress or somebody stumbling upon the body. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy begins by destroying the Earth. Mass Effect begins in a troop transport en route to a battlefield, the only exposition to a rather robust universe being given in the mission briefing. Star Wars started with laser fire between a space cruiser and a Star Destroyer. Pulp Fiction begins with philosophical mobsters on their way up to whack some skimmers. Ya hit hard before ya deliver the softer punches.

We can probably get away with more than what we initially believe when it comes to the first scene. It may seem natural to start out peaceful and mundane to help the reader understand, and even as a way to ease into your own story before you know the plot details of what will happen later, but it turns out you probably want to know where you're going before you start. You need enough of an idea of what will happen later in order to open with a desperate situation, one that's relevant to the larger conflict you'll get to later.

Saxton Hale does a wonderful job of explaining why exposition sucks and why you should resort to Explosition! instead. Take a look:

Stick around long enough for Saxton Hale to "fix reading" (it was clearly broken).

So lead me by example, friends. Which franchises grabbed you right from the start? Which stories made you wonder "how'd they come up with this stuff?!" by throwing you into the grinder then sorting it out afterward? Books, comics, TV shows, games, movies... they all start with writers, so they're all relevant. Who employs the best technique when it comes to keeping the audience in their seats until the story ends?

Git Ya One: the Life Element

So we've finally come to one of the more exotic and unfamiliar of the elements. Sure, we've got the 'nature' school of magic, like what shamans and druids in Warcraft use, but that's probably the closest analog. The biggest setback to living in any fantasy universe would probably be their lack of medical science. Since magic is science in the world of Arbiter, we can't just leave the void of pharmaceuticals unfilled. That's where the life element comes in!

************

Color: Green
Sin: None. Well, more like 'all.'
Virtue: Ditto

Nature and applications: Unlike the other elements, life doesn't have a narrow personality. Different forms of life have different demeanors, and even different individuals in a particular species can have wildly variant personalities. However, one thing is certain: users of the life element are known to be domineering. The ability to dominate is essential for any life mage.

  Life is a transformative energy. If earth is exposed to life magic, it becomes flesh or wood or something of the like. Water becomes blood or sap or honey, and air becomes breath. Life is the missing variable between the basic elements and the crops, beasts, and people of the world. If any substance is outside the control of a sorcerer of the physical schools, it's probably because life transformed it into something new.

  Though many healers only wield the light element, the best menders use life. Light only fuels and accelerates a patient's ability to heal itself, while life can correct the problems the body can't correct on its own. For instance, a blind man might see if a life mage uses their own eyes and brain as a template to teach their patient's body to rewire itself into a seeing configuration. Life leaves no scars, won't let a broken bone mend crookedly, doesn't create rogue cells that consume its host body. Increased efficacy requires increased resources, however; unlike light, life requires more materials than just the patient's body. As no sorcerer is able to conjure something from nothing, they require some sort of meat or fiber if they hope to mend someone's flesh and tissue.After all, life is an energy, not a material.

  A novice might correct a scrape, an intermediate might save a dying soldier, but there's no telling what a master can accomplish. Life mages can take a human and make them into something more. Bull horns, eagle wings, cat eyes, chitin, bark, fins; some cultures worship life mages as gods, and others shun them as abominations, but there's no denying their potency. These wizards can incorporate the ecosystem into their own being, absorbing the material of any flora and fauna they've dominated into their own bodies. As long as they have a subservient life-form available, there are few limits to the ways they can alter their bodies.

  As evidenced by their propensity to heal, this control isn't limited to their own bodies. Life users can cause individual blades of grass to combine and grow into vines to constrict an enemy, command a herd of buffalo like a personal army, or even create a new species of bird from an existing egg. The only limit is the ability to dominate the life of whatever they wish to manipulate.As such, there are no known records of a person being manipulated against their will.

************

So hopefully this gives you an idea of what life is, why it's an energy magic and not a physical one, and why it's the only element that doesn't have a personality. It's supposed to really play into the idea that 'to live is to be a magician,' because life is a magical element and to live is to wield oneself. Just like the other elements are conscious and can be appealed to, we too are an element that can be appealed to. While electricity is closely tied to intelligence and thought, life is tied to individuality and soul. The life element in Arbiter is sort of the proof of a soul, something we don't necessarily have in the real world. Still, the soul is a resource, just like the water, earth, and air are resources the soul uses to create and maintain its body.

So basically, life users steal souls. The Shang Tsungs of wizards!

And just like Shang Tsung, I doubt we'll have anybody be able to harvest another person's soul unless they're basically dead anyway.

Life opens up the possibility for shapeshifters, for variations on humans like giants, orcs, goblins, minotaurs, or werewolves (we can do better than that, though: weregerbils, for instance!), and a much greater variety of wildlife (dragons, wyverns, griffins).

And, again, it fills the void left by a lack of genetic and medical research. This provides an alternative for the sorts of things you might find in sci-fi: splicing, bionic limbs, augmentation. Maybe you can even prevent or reverse aging with it. Probably couldn't cure my baldness, though, because that (and ONLY that) is too good to be believable!

This element could get really fun with hybrids, too. Modify the body in a way that generates charge that can be stored in some kind of electric gland (maybe by harvesting electric eels), make yourself an extra bladder in your tummy so you can shoot water bullets (learn from the archer fish), integrate metal into your skeleton and maybe even your skin; at this point, I'd wager I've made life seem super strong, but maybe the social consequences help make up for any disparity in power?

So. How would you like to see life used? To phrase it another way, how would you augment yourself or your minions with a power like this? Anybody wanna comment on some more technical applications, like how we might explain any of these transformations to someone with a background in biology? I apologize if this one seems more robust than some of the others, but again, this one seems new and exotic compared to the more classical ones. Make your voices heard, m'friends!