#elemental school

(art by Naiyus on DeviantArt)

And we’re back with another elementalist school, and this time we’re looking at what is arguably the most iconic sort of elementalist out there in fiction.

Now, yes, by rights all four western elements as well as the eastern and nonstandard elements should in theory get equal billing, when I said elementalist, among your first thoughts was the pyromancer with big explosive spells and usually an unhealthy desire to use them.

I won’t say that such a stereotype is undeserved, either, because if evocation wizards get lumped into being destructive and impulsive, then pyromancers must be more so given their focus on the arguably most actively destructive element.

But is destruction all there is to these mages?

Fire is the element of energy and change, passion and expression. Fire transforms combustable material into ash and smoke, spreading to other such material when given the chance, but it can also reshape other elements as well into something stronger. Just ask the metallurgist that extracts pure and alloyed metals from raw ore, or the smith that transforms those refined metals into various useful objects, to say nothing of the pottery or ceramics artist that creates durable, beautiful wares.

In this way, fire mirrors passion and emotion. Unbridled emotion can be a wild, beautiful, and dangerous thing, bringing about ruin if left unchecked for too long, but passion that is directed and respected for what it is can be the catalyst for all manner of great deeds and works.

So, while there can be wild and uncontrolled pyromancers, they usually don’t last long since either their own fire will overwhelm their own protections and destroy themselves, or they’ll bite off more than they can chew. Successful pyromancers can still be passionate and emotional, but they are often driven and focused, controlling and directing their power rather than unleashing it without thought.

The destructive nature of fire does mean that most jobs and roles associated with this school are going to be combat-oriented, from professional war mages to adventurers or bodyguards. However, they also find work in magical crafting and plumbing the secrets of the arcane.

Naturally, the major opposite to fire in both western and eastern elementalism is water, with passion and energy giving way to serenity and fluidity as easily as a dousing wave or blizzard wind snuffs out a flame.

The fire elemental spell list have the typical elemental summonings and transmutations, but also has a lot of fiery defensive and attacking spells, both with pure fire, and those that manipulate existing fire or conjure superheated substances. As such, the list is not as much purely blasting, but also battlefield control.

A pyromancer starts by working on their complete supremacy over fire. This takes the form of a growing resistance and ward against flame so that they do not succumb to their own spells and element, culminating in total immunity. Additionally, with a gesture they can draw flames from nearby natural flame to wreathe their bodies, creating a punishing ward for those that would assault them at close range.

Their primary magical attack outside of spells unleashes long streams of fire that can sear multiple foes and catch them ablaze.

Their truest expression of mastery, however, is shaping flame, either bending the flames of their spells around allies to avoid harming them, redirecting continuous flame spells to other locations, or even pulling flames off of burning materials, extinguishing them but transferring that fire elsewhere, either extinguishing them from lack of fuel, or perhaps transferring them to another fuel source, such as an enemy.

The fire element is a fun one to be sure. Being able to control fire spells and natural blazes means you can get a lot more mileage out of a single casting of a fire spell, and even the basic fire attack of the school is pretty good, damaging in an area and catching foes on fire. While your spell choices will be primarily damage and battlefield control, don’t forget to diversify too, because just as fire is the most common damage type, a lot of things resist it too.

All sources of power can be teaching tools if allowed to be, and fire especially so since it’s so easy to go out of control and hurt yourself or others. As such, I can imagine pyromancers that get over the pyromaniac chronic arsonist stage have a strong belief in the gift that is second chances to learn and grow, because a power like theirs doesn’t always give such a boon.

In the darkness of the Inner World, fire is a rare boon to be cherished, and so trox that take on the role of pyromancer are treasured as great sages, and most strive to find the discipline to live up to that praise.

Once, Huan Feng was known as The Purifying Flame for his mastery over pyromantic magic and using it to destroy the undead. However, when captured and ritualistically slain by a death cult, he arose as the very thing he had fought so hard against, a jiang-shi. Now, despite his best efforts to stay sane and use his power for good, his obsessions and urges have turned him into a burning blight on the land.

(art by Indigojrps on DeviantArt)

And it’s time for yet another elemental school, this time going into the element of earth!

There’s something… odd about imagining your stereotypical wizard being a geomancer. We tend to think of most wizards being frail, feeble, and weak of body while their minds can bend reality itself. That visual language does not lend itself well to a character that invokes the raw might and resilience of earth.

Of course, that assumption is based both on the belief that a person has to reflect their abilities (which while useful and fun, is not necessary) and also the belief that a mage has to be physically weak, but there’s nothing stopping you from having an above-average strength score as a mage.

In any case, the element of earth covers all earthly materials, from the dirt beneath your feet to the stone and minerals of the rocky strata, and the geometric perfection of crystal and the potential of raw ore. It is the element of resilience and immovability, slow to act and patient, but absolutely unstoppable on the path to a goal once it starts moving. And while it is possible to shatter stone, it takes great effort, and even then, the shards left behind retain much of their former strength in their own right, and sport an edge that can prove dangerous to foes.

Earth is also an element of potential and crafting, as it’s many minerals have a myriad of uses both physical and chemical, so it is not surprising to see it be favored by elementalists who seek to create great works, particularly of stone, gems, or even metal, though obviously the latter is favored more by the spreading elemental tradition of metal.

Naturally, earth as an element is opposed by air in the western style, and by wood in the eastern cycle style.

The earth element lends itself well to defensive magic, but also offensive, and as such, such mages make for excellent allies in a siege, with their ability to create and tear down fortifications. However, they can also be found practicing more benevolent magic such as building great public works like bridges and buildings or crafting wondrous items using the magical properties of crystals, and so on, to say nothing of their expertise concerning natural geological formations for the purposes of delving and/or mining.

The earth elemental spell list has the old general staples concerning summoning or polymorphing into elementals, but it also has a lot of focus on conjuring or shaping masses of earthen material, which can range from creating walls, showing foes with rubble, to more esoteric uses like conjuring molten obsidian or tar or even clouds of toxic gasses such as those leaked from underground. Transmutation to or from stone is also a part of their arsenal, and they also gain plenty of offensive and defensive acid spells, since acid is associated with earth in First Edition thanks to the number of caustic minerals that exist in the earth. And who could forget all the various extradimensional pit spells?

Like many earth elementals, these mages derive strength from the ground beneath their feet, being supernaturally hard to make stumble or forcibly move. What’s more, their attacks hit harder and surer when both they and their foes are in contact with the ground. Finally, the most powerful geomancers can use the earth as a conduit for their magic as easily as the open air, meaning that earth and stone no longer block their spells, though obviously they still cannot see through it without other magic.

As a basic attack, these mages can conjure clouds of acidic gas, the fumes of which also debilitate those that inhale them.

Later on, they learn the art of earth gliding, able to swim through the ground the way earth elementals do. However, they can only do so for a limited time.

While no wizard is going to be winning any wrestling matches without magical aid, these elementalists can prove able to hold their own when foes try to inhibit them up close, plus the ability to earth glide means they can get out of nasty scrapes relatively easily. That being said, the real draw of this school is their focus on spells that control the battlefield, set up defenses, and of course generate all sorts of lingering damage. If that sounds appealing, a geomancer might be the right choice for you, but don’t forget to expand your magical arsenal to diversify as well.

I have to imagine that geomancers are a lot like geologists, and while they spend a bit more time mastering magic to manipulate their chosen element, they are likely very passionate about the many different times of stone and rock, and of course the composition and uses of various minerals.

Using arts stolen from dwarven enclaves they infiltrated over the years, the reptoid colony of Vaaskuta is built deep underground from the magically-terraformed rock, and these geomancers protect it still, preventing outsiders from learning of the city or of their plans.

The great underground lake of Banu-Nur is a place where the elements of water and earth meet, and there exists a rivalry between the elementalists that harness both elements. This has most recently come to head with a competition to see who could best retrieve rare crystals from the bottom of the lake. While the hydromancers may at first seem to have the advantage, their earthbound associates know the best conditions in which the crystals grow, and both will be relying on the bathysphere jellyfish of the lake to do their exploration and work.

(art by Christina Kritikou on Artstation)

 And we’re back with another elemental school, this time focusing on the first of the classic western elements: Air!

In case you missed the entry on Aether, elemental schools are an alternative to traditional arcane schools hailing from lands and locations where the elements take metaphysical precedent over what the spells themselves do. While these wizards are just as capable of all the same feats as more classically trained ones, their specialization is much broader than what you’d expect.

With that in mind, students of aeromancy are by default opposed to the magics of geomancy in the western elemental system… and outright unheard of to followers of the eastern elemental system as air is replaced by wood and metal in that system.

In any case, aeromancers are the masters of everything about the element of air, ranging from wind, weather, and even storms and electricity (shoots a look at Second Edition).

As such, they can be expected to have the solution when problems arise in the open air. Need more speed for your ship on the sea? Aeromancer casting gust of wind or control winds. Enemy in the air? Cast fly and bring them down with wind and lightning. Enemy on the ground with no good ranged weaponry? Take to the air again and rain down hell from above.

With all these offensive applications, one might assume that aeromancers are limited to careers in warfare but that is hardly the case. They can also be engineers of flying vehicles or even entire flying cities, important members of ship crews, long-distance communicators, messengers, and so on.

Unlike certain other elemental schools, the spells of what is “in school” for the element of Air doesn’t really include anything that is outside of normal wizard abilities, but naturally includes the basic spells that work with all elements, as well as those that manipulate wind, weather, electricity, and even sound in some cases, as well as those that grant aerial utility abilities such as flight.

 These wizards are true masters of the air, training themselves to be better fliers. What’s more, they devote some of the magic to defying gravity. At first they can use this to slow their fall at will, but later they can use it to ascend vertically, or even properly fly. At their zenith, their mastery of flight is so great that they cannot fall unless they want to.

As an offensive measure, they can discharge a small flash of lightning around themselves to harm foes and dazzle them.

They also learn to create a minature cyclone around themselves, blocking incoming projectiles, making it difficult to approach them, and even knocking flying foes above them out of the air.

The ability to eventually fly at will, as well as ground other fliers can be quite effective, and this school is perfect if you plan to be a flying spellcaster that rains down spells from above. Don’t forget to diversify though, for while you are certainly set up to blast from afar, wizardry is more than just damage-dealing spells.

 Air typically represents concepts like freedom, whimsy, and the like, and certainly a fair share of aeromancers share these traits, but they don’t necessarily have to. Indeed, some may have the even temper of still air, or they might be as tulmultuous as the storm.

  Though the sun hurts their eyes and their darkvision limits their abilities in the air at night, the orcs of Mount Yakraan have a special love for the sky and flight, wearing smoked goggles as they ride mighty flying steeds. Their shamans, however, need not steed, instead using arcane magic to master the sky all on their own, and strike down their enemies with lightning from above.

 Powerful and wary, the legendary emperor stags almost rival the legendary cerynitus in desirability as a hunter’s prize. Most nobles let their hunting hounds mostly do the work, but the most recently discovered bodies have been slain by even less sportsmanlike behavior, sporting burns on the tops of their backs. Someone with mastery of air magic has been ambushing them from above, taking their antlers and leaving the poor beasts to rot.

 Ah, it is finally time to touch upon the elemental schools of wizardry, and we are starting… with perhaps one of the hardest to wrap our heads around, as the element in question does not appear to exist in the real world.

But first, a little explanation of how elemental schools work. Rather than specializing in a traditional school of magic, the wizard instead specializes in spells that adhere to the definition of that element. Fire focusing on pyromantic effects, water focusing on mist, water, ice, and so on.

From there, elemental spells also have a single opposition school, which is usually either the opposite element according to western elementalism, or if they use the 5-element eastern elementalism system, it will be the one that counters and overcomes their element. Additionally, some elemental schools grant access to spells that are not normally on the wizard spell list, and it is worth noting that spells that came out after those lists were introduced might also be on the elementalist in-school list. Consult you GM.

As one of two elemental schools that exist “outside” of this system, the aether school picks their opposition school from the classic four.

In any case, the element of aether!

In real-world science, aether was a theorized substance which filled the entirety of the cosmos beyond our atmosphere, providing a medium through which light could travel and the conduction of gravitation. (nobody had come up with the idea that radiation and gravitation could pass through a void yet). However, as science advanced, it became increasingly clear that aether, much like phlogiston and other disproved substances, was a product of us filling in the gaps in our knowledge, almost like how our myths were used to explain natural phenomena. Of course, there are still fringe theorists of varying credibility always hoping to bust the study of physics wide open by revealing it’s existence.

So of course, in a fantasy world, why not take aether and make it its own thing?

In Pathfinder, aether is a substance/phenomena that appears when the ethereal plane touched upon other planes. Because of this, it is likely related to, (or a form of) quintessence, psychic energy, telekinetic force, or something else. It’s so hard to study that aetheromancers are rare, but not impossible to find. In short, though, it is essentially an expression of all the strange stuff that happens in the ethereal and astral planes.

I do like the aesthetic that Paizo came up with for aether, incidentally, invisible shapes outlined by swirling neon-bright outlines of multi-colored energy. Also I am fully aware of the irony of talking about both aether and quintessence in the same sentence while meaning two different, albeit related things.

Aetheromancers are typically esoteric researchers, the very definition of the wizard/scientist that focuses on things most lay-people have no full grasp of, which can make them seem eccentric or aloof. The fact that they can pick and choose their opposition element does mean that they can succeed at pretty much any career that a wizard may be involved with, gaining the full benefits of having a school with few limitations since they can pick an element that is least useful for them. As long as they have time for their research, I imagine they don’t mind much either way.

 The aether school taps into magic that most wizards do not delve into, adding a handful of new spells to the aetheromancer’s arsenal. These include conjuring force weapons and guardians, telekinetic attacks both large and small, animating objects, and manipulating ether and ectoplasm.

Adept at the telekinetic arts, members of this school take a leaf out of the book of arcane tricksters, being able to use minor telekinesis to steal from foes with ease.

Channeling a telekinetic barrier, they can also protect themselves when necessary, albeit only for a few moments.

Reaching into the aether with strands of energy, these wizards are able to sense nearby foes even if they cannot see them, and keep their defenses up.

In general, the spells of this school include those that manipulate force, ectoplasm, or telekinetic power in some way.

Force and ectoplasm are hard to resist, damage-wise, so if you’re interested in a wizard that has a lot of battlefield control and reliable damage against even ghostly foes, this archetype might be for you. I’d recommend a fairly balanced build, but otherwise go nuts.

 With the obscurity and lack of knowledge that exists for aether, I imagine that many of these wizards have trouble being taken seriously by certain, more world-focused parts of the magical community, but much like theoretical physicists, it is foolish to underestimate them.

  The traveling aetheromancer Nikas does not exist as anything more than a cover identity for the reptoid Sakin, who uses the obscurity of his magical art to recruit and indoctrinate loyal students who are all too eager for his knowledge, molding them to be agents in the future.

 Bristle the ravenous tumbleweed is a menace of a plant and a nuisance of a familiar, but it’s master, the aetheromancer Yi, finds the misbehaving antics of the hungry bush to be highly amusing, much to the chagrin of her friends at the academy.

I had this ready yesterday but I wasn't satisfied with it. Obviously I changed the pose, took inspiration from the Cape of Fire gear, and tweaked the symbol to give it more perspective (but looking at it now, it just looks swished).