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Hey all! First time I'm showing this off on the forums, since I feel like I've polished this up enough to make an in-depth post about it. Attached to this post should be the Chart I've made to show off my own take on a system of Elements, and the unique interactions that arise from 6 Prime Elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Order, and Chaos. I chose these 6 as the building blocks for the system for a couple of reasons, mainly personal taste. I wanted to have a fresh take on the classic Elements, and I'm also a fan of the idea of Order and Entropy being included in the mix for greater variety. Let's start with the basics, then. The 6 Prime elements are named as such because magically, they cannot be divided any further. They are the elementary (heh) "particles" of the system, like Quarks, Gluons, and Electrons, for example. Under proper circumstances in-world, the Primes can pair up with any of the other elements to create a Compound Element. Compounds are only ever pairs of Primes. There are no Compounds made of Compounds. My personal favorite example for Compounds is the Mortal Trinity of Compounds (named as such due to their positioning on the Chart, which places them in a triangle). These Elements include Life, Death, and Undeath. Life is made of Earth and Water (the things most would agree are essential for life). Death replaces the Earth of Life with Chaos (Entropy). Undeath replaces the Water of Life with Chaos. In this case, if you can manipulate the elemental content of something with Life, replacing one of the elements with Chaos, you can change its nature. Alternatively, you could take something Dead (Water/Entropy) and change it to Undead (Earth/Entropy). This, as expected, would raise it as an undead of some form. Ghost, Zombie, the end result depends on what part you change, and what ratio its elements are changed to. Powerful Undead like Liches require a large amount of Undead element to replace their natural soul (made of Life element) to sustain themselves. A properly-made Lich can even consume Life essence and Chaos essence and metabolize them into fresh Undead element to sustain itself for as long as it can maintain a high enough level of Undead element. All elements also have Compatibilities, which are Elements that share the Element(s) constituent Elements (how many times can I use Element in one sentence, huh?). For example, with the Mortal Trinity, all 3 of them are Compatible with the other 2. The dotted lines on the chart show all the Compatibilities between Elements. Crystalline structures interact uniquely with all elements, not just ones related to the Crystal element (though they are more receptive to that). Gemstones can act as elemental batteries, and metals can conduct elemental energy. Technomancy is a big part of the system with this, though it's not always "tech" in the sense of things like computers, or robots. Sometimes the tech is as simple as an obelisk with crystals on top, charged with Elemental energy. Automating things like Golems are indeed possible by charging a stone with Life element and giving it a body to work with, as well as certain mechanisms inside to replace the functions of internal organs and the like. Or... You could use real organs. Like a brain. Just be careful that your golem army doesn't try to rebel against you. Typical interaction with the Elements occurs via spiritual alignment to one or two Elements (either Prime or Compound, but Prime is much more common) when one is born. The elemental alignment of the parents does seem to influence the elemental alignment of the offspring, especially for highly magical creatures like Demons, Angels, Gods, and Dragons. Well, I say "Gods," but really I mean powerfully-aligned Holy element creatures. Most of them live in the Pantheon at the peak of one of the tallest mountains in the world, known as Heaven's Peak, for obvious reasons. Cities around the mountain pray to and offer sacrifices of food or other material things to the Gods in exchange for boons related to the domain of the God they appeal to. For example, Ronira, the Goddess of Plenty, who accepts food offerings and will bless farmlands to grow better crops. She has a lot of Holy element, but also a significant amount of Life element, which she actively channels to provide her boon. This channeling is achieved through Intent, and requires a sufficient spiritual focus and enough element present in the magic-user's body to expend on magical effects. Stronger spells will predictably require bigger volumes of element to be present when trying to cast. Elemental alignment determines what elements will naturally flow into the creature, meaning that their elemental reserves regenerate over time. Overusing one element constantly for a long time can cause side effects, typically related to the element. Overuse of Water might cause your body to grow gills, or fins. Crystal element might make your skin turn metallic, or cause you to grow crystalline claws on your fingertips. (And yes, those crystals could be used to contain Elemental energy, but that might not be practical. Or maybe it is!) Suffice to say, there's plenty of room here for complexity and depth, stemming from 6 Prime elements. You might be wondering why I've skipped over Aether (if you scrolled down and opened the chart picture), and that's because it's... complicated. I will say this though, people can be born with an Aether alignment, and they are either feared or revered, with powers that most people can only dream of. If enough people are interested in what I've said so far, I'll elaborate in a later post in this thread.