How to Write Magic Types: Elemental(Creative Writing)
Today, I want to explore the classic Magic Type; Elemental Magic.
Elemental Magic includes of
- Fire
- Water/Ice
- Air
- Earth
- Lightning
- Sometimes Light and Darkness (can fall under Divine Magic)
There is also Metal, Wood/Nature, so as you can see there is a lot to Elemental Magic.
Let’s go over each part of Elemental Magic so you can put them into your own story and maybe gets some ideas.
Fire
The Element of Passion.
Fire is usually an offensive element that can come in many colors from green to purple. It’s usually shown as red, orange or blue.
If you’re using Fire and want to use it beyond just another projectile then you could give the magic to someone that reflects the element.
He/She could be passionate or quick to anger but that’s only the explosive side of fire. The other side is a deep fury or determination to finish a goal. This causes the flame to be more focused and less explosive.
The element of fire can also branch off (or upgrade) into lighting since they share many features.
Not much more to say since it’s the one mostly used and widely know.
An example of how Fire is used in a beautiful way, look no further than “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and the episode “The Firebending Masters” in season 3.
Water/Ice
The Element of Change.
Water has many forms and is not bound to one shape making it very adaptable.
It’s forms are Ice, Water, Snow and even Vapor which can branch off into Air Magic.
It can used for solid defense or overwhelming power when condensed into a water blade. Also, Water Magic can expand to all forms of liquid like: Blood, Sweat, Oil, Poison/Acid and maybe even liquid metal.
The applications can truly be terrifying, draining all the liquid of a body for example. Because of that I would say this is the scariest element to face off against, maybe beaten by only darkness. Sad we don’t see many villain Water Mages.
Like all the elements here it can be assigned to characters based on personality.
In this instance the character would be cool, calm and collected maybe even the smart one in the party. The character doesn’t need to be like this from the start, it can be a point of character development.
For villains, it can be someone cold and calculating but with a friendly mask that would fool most. But that’s just my idea, you can play with the idea further if you want.
Because of how overpowered a Water Mage can be, I’ve seen that a user of water is usually locked into only one form of it. You can follow this trend or experiment with the ideas I’ve given you.
Air
The Element of Freedom.
Like Water, this is an element of change but less so. Air has 2 modes; peaceful gales and raging hurricanes.
Air is mostly used in the same way as Water but not as terrifying.
It can suffocate but not as good as Water but it does allow the user to fly which Water can only do with ice platforms.
It can also cut and shred many enemies from all angles better than Water can. Other than that Water beats Air in most situations.
Calm characters with a dash of an energetic personality would be assigned Air Magic.
Earth
The Element of Steady Defense.
When it comes to physical combat and defense few elements can compete with Earth.
This element can manipulate the Earth and advance users can manipulate all types of materials like:
- Crystals
- Mud
- Sand
- Ash and more
This element is used for powerful blunt offense but the element is mostly used for defense.
Creating walls of earth to block attacks or encasing the user in stone skin. When it comes to the strongest Earth spells, then Lava is also an option when you combine Earth with Fire.
Someone with steady and strong morals would use Earth Magic. Either that or the classic big guy with a big heart.
Like all the character suggestions this is not set in stone and is just the general depiction. With that being said. Earth users usually are strong in some internal way.
Lightning
The Element of Focus.
The advanced form of Fire and the second fastest element to use. Besides bolts and balls, the magic can transfom you into lightning to move at amazing speeds.
There’s even magic that allows you to manipulate the Lightning in any form like a whip, sword, armor or animal.
Lightning just like Fire can be of many colors like Red, Yellow and Blue.
Unlike Fire, I don’t think these colors have any symbolism. Villains and power/dangerous spells do tend to use Red but that’s it.
The only personality pattern I see is one where characters who use lightening have electric personalities and spiky hair. Example include Kamamari from “Boku No hero” or Luck from “Black Clover”.
Metal
The Element of Flexible Defense.
This element is either an improvement on Earth or a sub-element under Earth. Metal can be used in the same manner as Earth but it’s more malleable and thus can be faster.
It can even go into a liquid form and do some of the stuff that Water can do like liquid metal whips and suffocation.
It can be an upgrade from Earth because of metals like Titanium which better for defense.
Let’s also not forget that if the mage is in the medieval times they can manipulate the armor and weapons used.
Even in modern age, guns can be manipulated. Think of Magneto, that’s a safe example of a typical Metal user.
There are no noticeable patterns when it comes to personality types.
Wood/Nature
The Element of Life.
This is very connected to Earth Magic and usually spells that use wood and nature fall under Earth Magic. This element is all about the nature of the planet that the user is on.
Because of this, depending on your story a Nature Mage can use all the element excluding metal.
It also means that if the user is on another planet, its unique nature would have different spell possibilities.
Now when it comes to the normal usage, it’s used for capturing enemies using roots and veins.
For offense the roots can be used as whips to lash opponents or you can use poison from some plants.
If that was not enough, Mages that use Nature magic are naturally good at summoning Golems and Nature Sprites.
Mage that uses Nature are usually depicted as wise and calm people that of course love or respect nature. Think of Druid and you’re on the right track.
Darkness/Light
The Elements of The Divine.
Arguably the most powerful elements, so much so that they can be considered Divine Magic.
Light is the fastest magic while Darkness is the most traditionally evil.
Normal usage of these elements is nothing special.
Darkness can manipulate and merge with shadows while Light can create light constructs and shoot lasers.
But when you delve deeper, the abilities they can become really Overpowered.
Darkness
This terrifying element can:
- Create black holes
- Manipulate the dark portions of one’s personality
- Smother light sources
- Raise the dead
- Turn invisible (which light can do too)
Depending how you stretch what Darkness means, it can do many things. Another unique power of Darkness is that it can potentially use the other elements by corrupting them.
Examples included Dark Fire, Purple lightning, Poisoned Earth.
All these options from the power of Darkness, no wonder so many choose it over light.
A full powered dark mage would be almost unstoppable if it was not for Light.
Light
This magic type can:
- Heal
- Create illusions
- Allow Light speed Movement
- Cancel out necromancy
- Sometimes even call down stars!
The options might not be as vast as Darkness but it is just as powerful and deadly to those who use Darkness.
There is some overlap too like both can give flight to the user but Light is shown to do that more.
As you can see, these two elements can cross with other magic types depending on how far you want to take it.
The only other element that can do that is Water (of course) as seen in Avatar where it’s the healing element.
Summons and Sprites
One last thing to mention is the Sprites and Summons that are heavily connected to the elements.
When a mage masters an element they can befriend a Sprite or learn to summon something related to their element.
I’m just going to go into the generally depicted summons and then explain what a Sprite is.
- Fire- Dragons or more rarely a Phoenix
- Water- Leviathans, Krakens or Mermaids
- Air- Griffons or Large Birds (Falcons or the Roc)
- Earth- Stone Golems or Giants
- Lightning- Rajins or Thunderbirds
- Metal- Metal Golems
- Nature- Wood Golems or Ents (Living Trees)
- Darkness/Light- Demons/Angels (Probably not high level ones)
Now with that out the way let’s finish this with Sprites.
Sprites are generally embodiments of one element. There are many of them and they vary in size but from the ones I’ve seen they are small fairy-like beings.
Those particular gifted in an element can form close relationships with a sprite. This relation will gift the mage with a partner and magic enhancer. Nothing more to say on that matter.
Well, I’ve said my piece on this particular magic.
If I made any mistakes or missed something then comment and I’ll add it and credit you. With that, I’m done.
