Element System Where Everyone Can Use All Elements But Each Are Immune To A Specific Element

I was thinking of pros and cons of the four classical elements (and nature);

• Fire Elementals can survive extreme heat
• Water Elementals can breathe water
• Air Elementals don't have to breathe
• Earth Elementals are super durable
• Nature Elementals are loved by all animals

In addition the elements are broader than their names suggest;

• Fire includes ash, smoke, all light, electricity and even the absence of light
• Water includes ice and clouds
• Air includes all gases including poisonous ones and also sound
• Earth already seems broad with both dirt and rocks, but it also includes metal and crystals
• Nature obviously includes plants as well as animals, spirit energy and the power of love

As you can probably tell aside from the immunities the elements are mostly a social construct and the elemental focus on their elements due to a mix of them being easier/safer for them to bend and the idea that Elementals are meant to be immune to their own element

Edited by Wild-Starfish on Nov 13th 2022 at 1:16:52 PM

Doesn't that just mean that Nature elements are untouchable because nobody would want to fight them?

But more broadly, i'm not sure what the question is.

I'm using "all living things" in the same way as the trope Friend to All Living Things and to answer your question I guess I just want some feedback and worldbuilding ideas. (I didn't fully think this through)

It occurs to me that, functionally, Air Elementals can do anything that Water Elementals can do, and more: breathing water is superfluous for them since they don't need to breathe at all, in water or otherwise.

If I may suggest, perhaps an alternative immunity for them might be immunity to adverse atmospheric conditions: They can't breathe in space or underwater, but they can breathe safely in an ash-cloud, or in the midst of toxic vapours, etc; and they can move freely in heavy winds that might hinder—or blow away—others.

Otherwise, at a glance this seems like a reasonable-enough system.

My Games & Writing

It kind of feels like a vague and shabby system. Fire elements are resistant to heat but you imply they need to breathe. So how is, say, an Ash-wielding elemental going to breathe? Is a lightning elemental immune to lightning, since immunity to fire is so explicit?

Water and Air have a fairly weaksauce immunity. Earth and Fire are immune to themselves, but a water elemental would be hurt by the pressure they generate or the destructive nature of a waterflow? Same for air? Not to mention that since water include ice, they're not immune to freezing?

Are Air elementals immune to their own poison?

Furthermore nature elementals includes the power of love, which to me still implies they can simply make anyone that opposes them love them. Spirit energy feels superfluous as an additional magical system on top of an already plenty complicated elemental system.

Like, it's hard to exactly say how good of a system this is for your purposes, maybe the vagueness is the point, but it seems like it just raises a lot of questions. What happens when two fire elementals battle, will simply nothing happen?

I don't think that there are lightning elementals—my reading is that there would just be fire elementals, who would presumably be immune to the heat of their lightning.

(The question, then, is whether they're affected by the current of lightning that hits them.)

I don't know—it seems to me that the Water immunity at least could be pretty good. It may not be hugely combat-oriented, but I imagine that it could be very useful in research, transportation, stealth, and so on.

(I've raised my own issues with the Air immunity myself.)

As far as I see, I don't get the impression of there being an additional magic system present. My current assumption is that "Spirit energy" is no different to the other aspects of the elements: wielders get a power or set of powers associated with that aspect.

As to various loopholes overall, depending on quite how the immunities work, it seems to me that those gaps could perhaps make for some interesting storytelling.

For example, you raise the question of two Fire Elementals fighting. They're both immune to heat, so attempts to burn each other fail. But, if they're not immune to electrical current, then arcs of electricity could still debilitate them. Or if they're immune to that, then the fight may go to whichever first realises that fire can consume oxygen, allowing them to asphyxiate their opponent even if the heat of the flames is harmless. And so on and so forth.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Nov 13th 2022 at 11:22:11 AM

My Games & Writing

Thanks for the feedback I like your idea for air elementals immunity better

first of all the idea behind air elementals' immunity is that they are immune to their own poison yes second of all the vagueness is very much the point as unlike in Avatar: The Last Airbender there's nothing stopping any elementals from bending any element aside from in some cases lacking the Required Secondary Powers to bend them safely

Edited by Wild-Starfish on Nov 30th 2022 at 6:15:43 AM