Elementist is the collective name for demi-immortal beings who live in the lands of one of the elemental gods and are blessed with their power. They're among my favourites, because there's so much to play with with so many small groups of people in a reasonably small area, each with huge cultural differentiations atop their magical differences.
There are a number of different races: air, water, fire, earth and metal are the ones I've focused on most (though there are others, mostly smaller).
They live in reasonably close proximity, and there aren't a huge number of them. On the scale of immortal beings they're younger civilisations and less long-lived than most immortal races, but they're powerful fighters and mages with regard to their respective element.
Fire:
The Fire Elementists are passionate and lethally polite. A lot of my cultural inspiration for them came from Japan and India. Physically, they're characterised with gold brown skin and red, black or brown hair. Their eye-colour is entirely limited to reds, browns and yellows. They're not warmongers, but they hate to let a grudge go. As a result, they have been in a state of civil war for centuries.
Each of the three city-states that make up the major population of the country are known for one primary focus. There's the political capital, which is also the capital city of the country, and names the monarchy as sole ruler of their civilisation. Fire there is used primarily for entertainment of the upper class, or for agricultural reasons on the lands surrounding 9fireproof grain seeds on flammable crops make a powerful fire mage indispensable after the harvest). It is in the north of the country, at the corner of the Fire God's lands, bordering on the north-eastern Air lands, and the north-western Metal. The economic capital is to the east, a little inland from the border with Air, and is known as a place to make and lose money, its universities and its flawlessly polite shop-keepers. Their magic is used primarily in art and craftsmanship – smiths, for example, use their god-given fires to better the forging of their wares. The religious capital is on the slops of a volcano to the south-west, against the Metal and Earth borders which are marked by the continuation of the mountain range that extends to the political capital. The religious capital is populated primarily by priests and is by far the smallest city-state, though they have a huge number of pilgrims come through. They are known for focusing entirely on their magical abilities, and train them in combat, for art and for music.
Physical presentation s extremely important to the Fire Elementists, and make-up, fancy clothing and jewellery/headdresses are expected on most occasions.
Water:
Water Elementists once lived in a small city on low lying land. They primarily lived on a diet from the sea – fish, seaweed and the like. However, after a series of volcanic eruptions, the land they lived on became unstable. The mangrove swamps were poisoned after near-permanent volcanic geysers formed there, and their city began sinking. Since they were already pushed almost into the water by the expansive lands of the Air Elementists, they basically decided 'screw it' and decided to build under the water instead. They created membranes of magic that created air bubbles which were manipulated to allow water corridors for boats and, as they were drawn to a functioning underwater city, for merfolk to use as well. Over time, magical modification became popular, and many Water Elementists gave themselves gills. Intermarriage with merfolk happened too, so a decent number of Water Elementists now have tails and two different respiratory systems more naturally. They're quite peaceful, focus on arts and underwater agriculture and breed salt-water dragons as companions and guardian creatures – underwater predators are still an issue.
Their physical appearance is greatly varied due to how long they have lived underwater. Their skins have begun to become paler than the gold-brown they had been previously, though they still maintain middle-eastern inspired features (Lebanese/Egyptian mostly) that result in darker eyes and hair.
Water Elementist culture is based mostly on that of the Mediterranean area. Influenced by stories about Atlantis and Ancient Minoan culture particularly.
Earth:
The Earth Elementists are the least combat oriented of all the races. Earth magic are trained into one purpose, and a single application of their power is learned from childhood. Very few ever choose combat, and there is no formal army or fighting force among them. There is a champion, Sun, dedicate of the goddess of war and volcanoes, and s/he is the only real recognised fighter among their people. The Earth Elementists have a closer connection to their God than most other Elementists: they have a coming of age ceremony which involves the child to become an adult ascending the Mountain of God and meeting with him to be blessed for his life to come. Prior to ascending the mountain, appearance of Earth Elementists is very dark skin – blue-black to red-black – and frizzy, tightly curled hair worn in a number of different styles, though shaving it is popular among both men and women. Their eyes are uniformly black. After ascending the mountain and receiving a blessing from the Earth god, eyes will take on the colour of a gem stone most connected with. As a result, eye colour can range from ruby to amethyst to onyx, but could not, for example, be like granite (which is composite of a number of crystalline structures), though more fully integrated multi-mineral stones like tiger's eye are rarer but do appear.
Their tools are, for the most part, crafted with stone since they can be made and maintained to better quality to metal weapons and tools, with the exception of Metal Elementist work.
Multiple partners are permitted without judgement. The higher-ranking member of a relationship, be they male or female, may marry two partners (if their first partner agrees). Biological ties are almost entirely discounted, and relationships between parents and children, lovers and siblings rely on mutual friendship.
Much of their food comes from birds, snakes and river-dwelling fish and crocodiles, as sell as succulents (cacti mostly) that bear fruit. The landscape is not suited to farming, being mostly rock shelves and clay, even on the river.
Aesthetic and minor cultural inspiration from a number of different aspects of African and Persian culture, names are also based primarily in Swahili and Igbo.
Air:
Air Elementists are nomadic tribesmen, for the most part, and live on the grass plains to the east. The far north of the grass plains become near tundra conditions, the south-western side is more temperate, and the far east becomes tundra. The land is almost completely flat, and there are few bodies of water. It is the largest country in the Elementist kingdoms, though the population is considerably less than that of the Fire Elementists. There is only one permanent city, in which the king of their land lives with those who act as merchants and farmers, or those who do not wish to travel, and any tribes which stop in for rest, trade and access to court rooms or the university. Teaching is based mostly in music, which is very popular, and allows children to be taught for the year without requiring a permanent teacher on hand. There is no written language, but they do pass long-distance messages with knot codes and songs.
Unlike the other races of Elementist, The Air Tribes worship three different gods: Harika, the goddess of fate, flowers (which are rare and considered good luck to find, much like a four leaf clover) and winds, Thekavi the god of storms, natural disasters of the sky (such as tornadoes which are particularly devastating inland), of war and of dancing (he is said to be seen dancing across the sky under the clouds, calling lightning and flattening grass), and lastly Mikoto, the benevolent trickster god. An April Fool's Day like event exists in the Air kingdom known as 'The Day Mikoto Laughs', and pranks that bring no harm are played on friends and relatives. It's considered extremely bad luck for the prank master if all people involved do not laugh and say, 'Mikoto laughs', which ensures the tricks do not take on a more cruel nature.
Some of the Air Elementists ride horses, most hunt with hawks or dragons. The bow is the most favoured weapon, since the land is flat and the arrow shot can be aided by the air magic of the bow user or a shaman.
Air Elementists are mostly inspired by Mongolians and Inuit tribesmen, with a small amount of lore from Native American tribes. Their physical appearance is brown skinned and thick hair. They have a lot of cultural contact with the Fire Elementists, which has led to the popularity of face powders and lip balms which double as practical protection from the extremely harsh winds of their lands.
Metal:
Metal Elementists live inside a single hollowed out mountain, and refuse to allow outsides any in with phenomenally rare exceptions involving all outside parties to be sworn to secrecy. They are great craftsmen and builders, and have created a glorious city with a number of different metals, spelled to glow in the darkness. Filigree towers, delicate etchings and fantasy-like palaces are populous. There is no monarchy, replaced with a council of master craftsmen. Their master smiths are beyond compare in whatever field they specialise, from gates to weaponry to armour to silverware. Theirs is the smallest civilisation, dwindling from the extremely limited outside contact.
They are also the lightest-skinned and most pale-eyed of the Elementist groups due to their long time underground. Mostly inspired by ancient Athens, my love of fantasy architecture, and Tolkien-esque Dwarves.
I'm sure I forgot things, but that'll do for now. If you want to know something more particular feel free to hit me up, these are super fleshed out. They're one of my go-to picks for new characters or storylines, particularly for tabletops and homebrew campaigns.
Well... I don't have a chapter to post on Saturday Story Time for today.... but I have been spending the majority of the day working on planning for The Elementists. Character development for the win~
Mostly, I have just been working on Lillian (the main protagonist for the first book) and the relevant characters in her life; however, I'm finding that the more "research" I put into this character, the more I feel like I should have the series start with someone else's perspective...
Anyway... I'm not nearly done with my notes, but I do have nearly 2,000 words already in notes alone - just describing her personality and relationships with other people. I'm still going to explore her storylines for other "episodes" and then am going to try to work on the character profiles for the other three Elementists before I go to bed tonight...
Here's hoping my 2,000 word count makes its way to 10,000 by the end of the night. Woot!
