Elements

There are seven/eight generally-accepted elements of magic. This is commonly organized as a grid with a fixed layout.

Sorcerers are classified by their affinity– the elemental magic that they are attuned to. Affinities greatly increase a sorcerer's ability to learn and use magic in a given type, and is the only way they can effectively use magic in combat.

A sorcerer can have multiple affinities, though this is rare, with the highest amount documented being 3.

Tiers

The standard elemental chart groups the elements into vertical groups known as tiers. These are an approximation of the strengths of elements, with sorcerers in higher tier being consistantly stronger than those on a lower tier, and vice versa.

Tier 1: Low Elementals

Tier 1 represents the basic elements of Wind and Earth. Both of these have clearly defined use cases, but are overall weaker, with the former due to it's lack of raw power, and the latter because of the high mana costs.

Tier 2: High Elementals

Tier 2 has Ice, Fire, and Lighting– elements considered to be stronger in combat situations. Ice and Fire are considered complimentary abilities, roughly equal in overall power, while Lightning is seen as a situational affinity that is extremely powerful when the opportunity is present.

As a tradeoff to their power, the Tier 3 elementals come with significant self-damage that must be mitigated;

• Ice lowers one's body temperature, and can cause frostbite and hypothermia with long exposure.
• Fire is difficult to maintain for any length of time due to conjuring flames close to your body.
• Lighting almost always blasts the user back with every cast, and leaves a tingling sensation where it was cast. It also has the power to instantly kill you if reflected.

Tier 2: Abstracts

The highest tier of magic, Tier 3 describs elements that interact directly with systems that govern magic. While considered the hardest tier of affinities to have, the potential one has is dramatically higher.

Classifications

Wind

The simplest magic– wind magic allows for control of the air.

The basic usage of wind typically revolves around enhancing one's movement– jumping, dashing, and running. With enough practice, wind can be used to increase the potency of one's punches and kicks. Users with a wind-affinity go beyond this, using wind to mess up their opponent's movement, and sometimes sending individuals flying without even needing to make contact.

Wind is treated differently compared to the other elements because it comes with a lower mana cost than any of the other elemental types – to the point where it’s commonplace (and expected) to use it even without an affinity.

While seen as the weakest of the elements, wind users fill a niche– quick movement. Extremely fast wind users are nicknamed Dragonslayers – the name originating from the belief that the only way to reliably kill a dragon is to outrun it.

Earth

Essentially telekinesis, Earth magic deals with the physical, changing the world around them.

While providing a lot of control to the user, an Earth affinity is difficult to use because the mana needed to maintain control over an object is high enough to make it a situational ability. Additionally, Earth magic cannot create matter from thin air, limiting its versatility based on what’s currently around the user. All of these downsides are why it’s commonly seen as a Tier 3 element.

Ice

Ice magic focuses on the creation and modification of ice.

Ice magic stands out as it’s the only element that allows you to freely create structures to your advantage. This can take many forms – putting your hand to the ground to prop a wall of ice, turning the ground at your feet cold to move faster, and even creating custom weapons on the fly.

Ice magic represents the first element in Tier 2, and additionally represents one of the first flaws with the stronger elements – physical corruption. Unlike wind and earth magic, where overuse will lead to simply running out of mana, overuse of ice magic will lead to physical repercussions – numbing of the hands, frostbite, and possibly hypothermia. This phenomenon cannot be countered by attempting to “nullify” the effect (i.e. you cannot use fire magic to easily reverse this).

Lightning

Simply put, a lighting affinity allows you to cast lighting bolts.

Lighting users, despite effectively only having one move they can perform (lighting strike), are considered the most difficult element to handle in a duel. A lighting strike deals devastating damage, with very little ways to block it. This potency is taken to the absurd during a thunderstorm.

Offsetting its high lethality, Lighting magic comes with an extremely high mana cost and noticeable recovery period. Users can often only fire a bolt once every few seconds, giving wide windows to retaliate during a missed cast. Additionally, a caster will receive an ever increasing dose of their own bolt, effectively turning them into glass cannons that either kill quickly or get killed themselves.

Fire

Fire magic allows the user to create flames and generate heat.

Though simple, the cost of fire magic is noticeably lower than ice, making it more reliable in combat.

Just as with ice magic, overuse of fire spells will lead to bodily injury. Fire damage is seen as the worse of the two temperature elementals, though the lack of slowdown makes fire’s harm seen as less of an issue.

Chaos

Chaos users wreak havoc in a battlefield by directly manipulating the ethereal plane.

The strength of chaos magic lies in its sheer power – Chaos magic allows you to attack directly with mana, overwhelming other users by barraging them with spells. Defensively, Chaos magic allows you to cancel or negate spells by siphoning mana directly from the plane. In regards to attacking, Chaos users can conjure pure mana to throw at other magic users, disrupting their soul directly.

Due to the sheer magnitude of Chaos magic, enough use of the magic will create void spaces – areas where there is a high deficit of mana, limiting (and sometimes even preventing) spellcasting. Because of this, it is rare to have two Chaos members fighting together, as there is not enough mana to share between them.

Ethereal

The counterpart to Chaos, Ethereal magic focuses on extreme control (rather than power) of the ethereal plane, allowing users to envision and create at a much more developed level than any other user.

Ethereal users are both aggressors and defenders, being able to fight directly with mana, a normally unobserved substance brought as a white glow whenever casted. They are also viewed as healers, a few spending years understanding human anatomy, viewed as godlike saints.

Soul

A theoretical element in most academic circles– Soul magic would allow a user to directly interact with souls.

Though no one has been seen to ever have this power, Soul magic is believed to be the strongest affinity possible.

Theory

In general, the understanding that the mortal plane has developed on magic has been centered on combat and warfare. While magic has seen some use in improving the lives of everyone, the research and education of it has always been focused on what it can provide as a source of power.