Ratified Systems (To Be Held Until Split and Edited)

I'm just posting these here until they can be split up into separate pieces, fixed up nicely, then placed in the approved sections.



Elements
There are many "elements" found throughout the world. However there are only a few "True Elements", which have various categories and sub-types as listed below.

Factions: All true elements (yes there are false elements. Ask ChaosWizKid) fall under either Chaotic or Orderly factions based on what the most pure representation of them is.

"Pure" Representations: Every base element has a most pure form or representation of it. The pure forms are significantly diffrent in use and can be used independantly of their base element.

So without further ado, elemental chart!

Basic Element	Pure Form
Chaotic Faction
Darkness	Void
Fire	Lightning
Wind	Storm
Orderly Faction
Light	Laser
Water	Ice
Earth	Metal

Gods
1) Kar’Kaish-The most powerful god/goddess, having dominion
over all, and gains power from conflict. (Note: Kar'Kaish is a SHE)

2) Original Gods-These are the gods of Life and Death from the mythos. They are
more powerful than any of the other gods with the exception of Kar'Kaish.

3) Elemental Lords-These gods (in actuality they are the aggregate minds of all
elementals of an element, the most powerful elemental acting as the hive-mind’s
mouthpiece and hand) rule over a single element. While it is possible to work
with this element without their blessing true mastery over it almost always
requires it. They are known to make deals and take mortal champions. They do
not require worship, drawing power from the level of dominance their element
has over the mortal plane. While the terms "good" and "evil"
cannot be applied to them they seek above all else that their element should
dominate all others. There are only Elemental Lords of the 4 elements the "pure"
form of an element is still ruled over by the same Elemental Lord. There are no
Elemental Lords of Chaos or Order but there are several Created Gods for both.

4) Created Gods-Gods that are created by mortals. They start out as some focus
of belief and grow as more and more people believe in them. These gods need
continued belief to exist, to them belief is much like food, the greater the
show of belief and faith in them the greater the nourishment. Usually the
weakest of all the gods, there are rare exceptions where they can stand equal
to even an Original God. Usually when a god who is widely believed in has a
very specific purpose, as a great amount of power (belief) is focused into a
small area (very specific purpose) however in general they are on the bottom
rung.
Subtypes include
The Wasted-those who are not worshiped at all, still gods but super weak, near
mortal level (still above mortal level. The strongest of mortals might just be
able to stand against them)
The Forgotten-those who have been forgotten entirely, stronger than Wasted but
mortal, have a limited pool of belief. Use of god-like powers diminishes it.


Influence & Morality of Elements & Gods:
Elements: The elements (and their elemental gods), are
neither good nor evil however they all seek to increase their dominance in the
world. Each element has a different way of increasing their dominance (though
directly opposing elements methods are often just the inverse of the other).
However all of them seek to use thinking creature’s as pawns. To this extent
the more one person makes use of an element the more familiar with it they
become the more they want to use it(on a side note they also become more
devoted to Chaos/Order if thy exclusively use Chaotic/Orderly elements.
At the end of this road they become almost totally devoted to that element,
and use it exclusively, living almost for the sole purpose of increasing said
elements influence. However this influence can always be broken by application
of some purifying force OR by applying an equal amount of influence of the
opposing element. There is no such thing as an un-erasable influence; however
over time the influence built up over many years begins to require such a huge
amount of force or opposing influence to remove that they are practically incurable.

Gods: No one knows what the Kar’Kaish or the Original Gods
want, the Elemental Gods can be considered thinking representations of their
element, and the Created Gods want to increase their believer base and thus the
amount of worship and sacrifice they receive. Different gods use different methods
to do this.


MAGIC
Magic is the use of a source of mystic energy to accomplish
something.
The sources of mystic energy are many and diverse but the
ones we need be most concerned with are:

Mana, Elemental Blood, Ritual Energy.

Mana
Mana in its' base state is not attuned to any element, and as such cannot work
any spell that requires that element. Spell casting works thusly. We have a spell
that makes use of elements W, X, Y, Z and contains a non-elemental portion. The
caster devotes an amount of Mana towards the spell. That Mana is then sectioned
into 5 pieces (because there are 4 elements and non-elemental requirements) the
first pieces are “attuned” to the proper element and recombined with the 5^th (still non-elemental) piece. The caster then shapes the Mana into the
appropriate spell and let’s flies. It should be noted that the above is a very
advanced spell, as combing multiple elements (especially directly opposing
elements) is extremely difficult. About attuning: Anyone with Mana can attune
some portion or all of their Mana to an element; how closely it is attuned
reflects how efficient it is as a component in a spell. Full attunement is
almost impossible, and even values near it can only be reached through a pact
with the appropriate elemental god. All intelligent creatures have a standing Mana
“aura” which stops other spells from affecting them directly. For example one
can throw a fireball; one cannot cast a spell like “Explode Person”. Similarly
mind control of a thinking creature is impossible but a suggestion spell is
possible. If you can find a way to do something without an element then feel
free, but keep in mind the level of scientific know-how in this universe is low,
so advanced tricks are not going to be allowed.

Elemental Blood
I’m sure Chaos will publish the basics of what elemental blood is and how it
works soon. Until then badger him unceasingly.

Ritual Energy
No one understands the how or why of this. However it's possible to cast magic
without Mana by performing certain rituals. These usually involve long times
spent chanting, circles with patterns inscribed inside them, ashes, semantic components etc. etc. All of them involve giving something up. Be it memory, time, blood etc. It seems to function on same basis as sacrifice to the gods. The more that is given up the greater the effect. The ritual itself can be seen as a very complex order form. Certain shapes, inscribed lines and semantic components detail what spell is requested, the rest is the payment for the spell. This is usually only used when the Mana required to cast a spell normally cannot be gathered. However if something is impossible by the principles of magic it’s still impossible here.


Courtesy of BI