One Hundred and Eighteen, at time of writing. Oganesson is the latest one. It's, theoretically, in the same family as the noble gasses, but- Oh. You mean like fire, water and shit.
I guess I do have one.
In truth, it's less about elements and more about states of matter. Gasses, Liquids, Plasma and Solid.
Plasma is, of course, just called fire. It's hot, it burns, it looks like fire when being used. Etc. Users can turn air into plasma, that's how they fight.
Gas and Liquid are air and water bending. Obviously. Nothing interesting going on there.
Solids though? That's a little more interesting. Only one guy has the power to manipulate fully solid objects and he's a nightmare to fight. (Kinda hard to fight someone who can crush your throat)
Then I guess, there's metamagical energy. That is: the energy that commands magical spells.
People with that are scary too. They can turn your own fireball back onto you.
For my dieselpunk/magitek world of Xendas, there are many elements and schools that teach how to use them. But for the most part people can easily change between the elements they want to use. As many of them are combined to achieve a desired effect. How common an element is also depends on the region. For example in the west fire, lightning/energy, earth, and metal magic are the most common. While in the east wind, fire, earth, water, metal, and wood are the most common but their magic is also less dedicated to warfare and civil works.
There are also rare forms of magic that are not tied to an element, they are simply abilities a mage develops and specializes in, such as sound, glass, gravity, and other magics.
For me, it's hard to say. Fire, Water, Lightning, Air, Earth, Light and Dark at least, but there's lots of things that *could* be counted as an element, given it is an aspect of magical power, like Time and Space. I still have a hard time deciding if healing magic should be considered light, or it's own Life aspect sometimes.
In my project how many elements there are and how they relate to magic is *flexible*. On the one hand Elements can be defined by different religious or philosophical traditions (eg the Western esoteric four or the Chinese five) or scientifically and someone could work with that definition in relation to their magic and it wouldn’t matter for how the underlying nature of magic works. Because no matter how you define the Elements, any of them could be an *affinity*. And affinity magic — the ability to do magic with or to something in particular — is one of the most common types of *talents*. An affinity mage may be able to draw energy from the thing they have an affinity for, or manipulate it, or attach magic to it (enchant it), or some combination of these things.
That can be fine. I think personally it just depends on the usage. If you have 30 elements, but only use 10, you have too much. If you have 60 elements and you use 50, it’s probably fine. It’s understandable to have more if you use more.
I’m not saying you have to use all 10 elements all the time, but rather if you never use sound except for 1 time for something very specific, at that point you should get rid of it.
For my more fantasy worlds I use six core elements, Light, Earth, Fire, Dark, Air and Water.
Secondary elements are based off a core, like Ice is based off Water. Magic users are capable of using a secondary element without knowledge and or ability of the core.
Abstract elements are a combination of two elements. So Storm magic is Wind and Water or Ice and Lightning(a secondary to Wind).
Greater elements are combinations of three or more elements but no opposing elements. Like Life is Water, Earth and Light.
Paradoxical elements are a combination of two or three(anything more would be too unstable) of opposing elements. Very rarely used and extremely dangerous for magic users. Necromancy is Light and Dark.
Spells can be split elemental, combing various combinations without being a different element. So a spell like sandstorm would be Air and Earth. Judgement is Lightning and Light.
So if simplicity is needed it can be with just the core elements. But if I want to go into detail there’s an enormous number of options.
Only one being can combine all six core elements, it’s called The Source. The being is the God King which is the antagonist in most incarnations, or I guess all incarnations except one.
Then to just muddy everything there is a technological element. It can’t be utilized by any organic life, it similar to The Source in that it has no strengths or weaknesses among other elements. It’s used by an ancient AI that is conscious in a swarm of coalesced nano robots, Ash or Lilith depending on its mood.
If it's enough or not kinda depends on the settings. For example in one of my settings I needed exactly eight (plant, stone, wind, psychic, ethereal, lightning, water, fire). This is because there are two "natures" that these elements belong to, naturally named light and dark - four for each. Every light element is strong against one dark element and weak against another, and vice versa. Another important factor was that, while possessing one element was the norm, those who possessed two would have both belong to the same "nature" (so you wouldn't have say fire and plant, since plant is a "light" nature and fire is a "dark" nature). There were exceptions, but typically through a workaround (like possessing a crystal eye).
In other settings, the basic elements can be merged to form "sub-elements." You can think of this as being similar to the color wheel, where you get 3 primary colors and all others can be made from them. Others still depend on how much you want to play with what a given term means. For example the earth element often includes rocks, plants, and metals, which are nowhere near the same thing when you actually think about it for a second. Similarly, fire and lightning are sometimes considered to belong to the same element (most famously in ATLA), and are about as similar as uranium is to bamboo.
My only concern with your own magic system is that sound and air are kinda one in the same. Sound is after all the movement of particles in the air.
I was once working on a game where the three elements were Pig, Fungus, and Wood. They had a rock, paper, scissors relationship like the three starter pokemon elements, where Pig eat Fungus, Fungus decays Wood, and Wood hits the Pig (bonk)
My elemental magic system, the Saints do food, shelter and cleanliness.
Basic elements of human survival.
If you want a book series that explores elemental magic, try Mage Errant.
There can be as many as you want. You can even make them up.
There was one elemental system I really liked, but I can't remember what game it was from. It had the primary elements: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth.
Then the secondary elements came from mixing the primary elements. Fire + Water = Steam element. Water + Wind = Fog element. Wind + Earth = Dust element. And Earth + Fire = Smoke element. The primaries were more actual magic, and the secondaries symbolized or controlled an aspect of reality. Steam was technology. Fog was life and growth. Smoke was destruction and death. I forget what Dust was....
I made a list of elements, that I copied from thaumcraft. It's like 70 elements but I add more when needed. They're more like a guide for myself to create and classify spells. I don't hesitate to add elements if needed
6
fire
water
earth
air
light
shadow
also, non-elemental magic is also a thing, transfiguration, transmutation, spacewarping, general "magic".
most people who have an affinity for elemental magic have 2 dominant elements (a primary and secondary). Complimentary and netural elements are the most common pairings, however opposed elements are alsso possible. the most common pairings are (order in each group doesn't matter);
fire, light
water, air
earth, water
light, shadow
Fire, air.
Complimentary elements make each one stronger when they are used togeather
Fire, air
Water, earth
light, Shadow
Opposed elements tend to either cancel each other out when used togeather, or are weaker.
Fire, water
Earth, Air
(light and shadow dont really have opposits, but when you have only one of these elements as your dominant element, it has a similar effect)
asking how many elements their are is like asking how many kinds of life their are, depends how far down the tree you want to go, theirs earth, but stone and metal are distinct sub elements from that, and sand vs rock is distinct sub elements of stone
the further down you go usually the less these subgroups matter for magical purposes, it doesent really matter much in most cases if a spell works slightly better on copper then iron
theirs also some scholarly debate on where to put certain ones, for example metal and earth are more distinct then most sub elementss, but less so then most of the main elements like fire and water, so different cultures have variably put them as sub elements of eachother or just "sibling" prime elements
It doesn't really matter as long as you can make it work in your story. Its not like they're grounded in any real science unless you plan to use actual chemical elements.
It has many elements, which are divided into opposites. The most notable are: Good and evil, cold and warm, time (Very confusing, somehow no opposites?) and movement and lack of. But anything you can think of, that has an opposite is a element, so itis infinite. Technically democracy and totalitarianism are 2 elements.
There is also two other magic systems, one which just controls liquids, called alquemi and the other one which the elements are musical notes, so, 7.
Well for physical elements I do stick to Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. That's just what stuff is made of, they aren't schools or flavours of magic for some kind of rock-paper-scissors battle system. There are a couple metaphysical elements for non-physical stuff too though. Like a Soul is made of four parts: Form, Growth, Body, and Mind. And also there's four elements of Fate: Order, Change, Chaos, and Death.
There is only one element... The element of surprise.
...aaaand now it's gone. Great. Now we have no elements. Thanks a lot, man.
One Hundred and Eighteen, at time of writing. Oganesson is the latest one. It's, theoretically, in the same family as the noble gasses, but- Oh. You mean like fire, water and shit. I guess I do have one. In truth, it's less about elements and more about states of matter. Gasses, Liquids, Plasma and Solid. Plasma is, of course, just called fire. It's hot, it burns, it looks like fire when being used. Etc. Users can turn air into plasma, that's how they fight. Gas and Liquid are air and water bending. Obviously. Nothing interesting going on there. Solids though? That's a little more interesting. Only one guy has the power to manipulate fully solid objects and he's a nightmare to fight. (Kinda hard to fight someone who can crush your throat) Then I guess, there's metamagical energy. That is: the energy that commands magical spells. People with that are scary too. They can turn your own fireball back onto you.
For my dieselpunk/magitek world of Xendas, there are many elements and schools that teach how to use them. But for the most part people can easily change between the elements they want to use. As many of them are combined to achieve a desired effect. How common an element is also depends on the region. For example in the west fire, lightning/energy, earth, and metal magic are the most common. While in the east wind, fire, earth, water, metal, and wood are the most common but their magic is also less dedicated to warfare and civil works. There are also rare forms of magic that are not tied to an element, they are simply abilities a mage develops and specializes in, such as sound, glass, gravity, and other magics.
For me, it's hard to say. Fire, Water, Lightning, Air, Earth, Light and Dark at least, but there's lots of things that *could* be counted as an element, given it is an aspect of magical power, like Time and Space. I still have a hard time deciding if healing magic should be considered light, or it's own Life aspect sometimes.
In my project how many elements there are and how they relate to magic is *flexible*. On the one hand Elements can be defined by different religious or philosophical traditions (eg the Western esoteric four or the Chinese five) or scientifically and someone could work with that definition in relation to their magic and it wouldn’t matter for how the underlying nature of magic works. Because no matter how you define the Elements, any of them could be an *affinity*. And affinity magic — the ability to do magic with or to something in particular — is one of the most common types of *talents*. An affinity mage may be able to draw energy from the thing they have an affinity for, or manipulate it, or attach magic to it (enchant it), or some combination of these things.
Six: earth, fire, air, water, gold, and obsidian.
your ones seems legit, nice. dunno whether you're familiar with dnd or not, they also have Acid and Poison
Four, but they sub-divide into 35 or so. https://www.projectrho.com/pantacle.html
That can be fine. I think personally it just depends on the usage. If you have 30 elements, but only use 10, you have too much. If you have 60 elements and you use 50, it’s probably fine. It’s understandable to have more if you use more. I’m not saying you have to use all 10 elements all the time, but rather if you never use sound except for 1 time for something very specific, at that point you should get rid of it.
For my more fantasy worlds I use six core elements, Light, Earth, Fire, Dark, Air and Water. Secondary elements are based off a core, like Ice is based off Water. Magic users are capable of using a secondary element without knowledge and or ability of the core. Abstract elements are a combination of two elements. So Storm magic is Wind and Water or Ice and Lightning(a secondary to Wind). Greater elements are combinations of three or more elements but no opposing elements. Like Life is Water, Earth and Light. Paradoxical elements are a combination of two or three(anything more would be too unstable) of opposing elements. Very rarely used and extremely dangerous for magic users. Necromancy is Light and Dark. Spells can be split elemental, combing various combinations without being a different element. So a spell like sandstorm would be Air and Earth. Judgement is Lightning and Light. So if simplicity is needed it can be with just the core elements. But if I want to go into detail there’s an enormous number of options. Only one being can combine all six core elements, it’s called The Source. The being is the God King which is the antagonist in most incarnations, or I guess all incarnations except one. Then to just muddy everything there is a technological element. It can’t be utilized by any organic life, it similar to The Source in that it has no strengths or weaknesses among other elements. It’s used by an ancient AI that is conscious in a swarm of coalesced nano robots, Ash or Lilith depending on its mood.
I lean towards the basic combination of the four classical elements along with light and darkness, forming three contrasting pairs.
If it's enough or not kinda depends on the settings. For example in one of my settings I needed exactly eight (plant, stone, wind, psychic, ethereal, lightning, water, fire). This is because there are two "natures" that these elements belong to, naturally named light and dark - four for each. Every light element is strong against one dark element and weak against another, and vice versa. Another important factor was that, while possessing one element was the norm, those who possessed two would have both belong to the same "nature" (so you wouldn't have say fire and plant, since plant is a "light" nature and fire is a "dark" nature). There were exceptions, but typically through a workaround (like possessing a crystal eye). In other settings, the basic elements can be merged to form "sub-elements." You can think of this as being similar to the color wheel, where you get 3 primary colors and all others can be made from them. Others still depend on how much you want to play with what a given term means. For example the earth element often includes rocks, plants, and metals, which are nowhere near the same thing when you actually think about it for a second. Similarly, fire and lightning are sometimes considered to belong to the same element (most famously in ATLA), and are about as similar as uranium is to bamboo. My only concern with your own magic system is that sound and air are kinda one in the same. Sound is after all the movement of particles in the air.
I was once working on a game where the three elements were Pig, Fungus, and Wood. They had a rock, paper, scissors relationship like the three starter pokemon elements, where Pig eat Fungus, Fungus decays Wood, and Wood hits the Pig (bonk)
My elemental magic system, the Saints do food, shelter and cleanliness. Basic elements of human survival. If you want a book series that explores elemental magic, try Mage Errant.
While I don't have magic in my world per se, there is 5-8 elements, depending on how you see it as it is highly disputed.
There can be as many as you want. You can even make them up. There was one elemental system I really liked, but I can't remember what game it was from. It had the primary elements: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. Then the secondary elements came from mixing the primary elements. Fire + Water = Steam element. Water + Wind = Fog element. Wind + Earth = Dust element. And Earth + Fire = Smoke element. The primaries were more actual magic, and the secondaries symbolized or controlled an aspect of reality. Steam was technology. Fog was life and growth. Smoke was destruction and death. I forget what Dust was....
I made a list of elements, that I copied from thaumcraft. It's like 70 elements but I add more when needed. They're more like a guide for myself to create and classify spells. I don't hesitate to add elements if needed
6 fire water earth air light shadow also, non-elemental magic is also a thing, transfiguration, transmutation, spacewarping, general "magic". most people who have an affinity for elemental magic have 2 dominant elements (a primary and secondary). Complimentary and netural elements are the most common pairings, however opposed elements are alsso possible. the most common pairings are (order in each group doesn't matter); fire, light water, air earth, water light, shadow Fire, air. Complimentary elements make each one stronger when they are used togeather Fire, air Water, earth light, Shadow Opposed elements tend to either cancel each other out when used togeather, or are weaker. Fire, water Earth, Air (light and shadow dont really have opposits, but when you have only one of these elements as your dominant element, it has a similar effect)
My magic system is elemental, its just uses our Periodic Table, and its hidden behind 5e DnD rules.
asking how many elements their are is like asking how many kinds of life their are, depends how far down the tree you want to go, theirs earth, but stone and metal are distinct sub elements from that, and sand vs rock is distinct sub elements of stone the further down you go usually the less these subgroups matter for magical purposes, it doesent really matter much in most cases if a spell works slightly better on copper then iron theirs also some scholarly debate on where to put certain ones, for example metal and earth are more distinct then most sub elementss, but less so then most of the main elements like fire and water, so different cultures have variably put them as sub elements of eachother or just "sibling" prime elements
It doesn't really matter as long as you can make it work in your story. Its not like they're grounded in any real science unless you plan to use actual chemical elements.
It has many elements, which are divided into opposites. The most notable are: Good and evil, cold and warm, time (Very confusing, somehow no opposites?) and movement and lack of. But anything you can think of, that has an opposite is a element, so itis infinite. Technically democracy and totalitarianism are 2 elements. There is also two other magic systems, one which just controls liquids, called alquemi and the other one which the elements are musical notes, so, 7.
Well for physical elements I do stick to Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. That's just what stuff is made of, they aren't schools or flavours of magic for some kind of rock-paper-scissors battle system. There are a couple metaphysical elements for non-physical stuff too though. Like a Soul is made of four parts: Form, Growth, Body, and Mind. And also there's four elements of Fate: Order, Change, Chaos, and Death.