Poll of the Day > In a world of magic, what must it be like to invent a new 'element'?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It happens... notably in Dragon Quest (and Pokemon sometimes)

Typically you have your basic elements; Fire, Ice, Thunder (which is actually lightning), and there's rarer elements like Water (when not also Ice), Earth, Wind, Holy, Dark... sometimes poison is its own element, sometimes SOUND is an element... Dragon is its own element in Monster Hunter and Pokemon.

So you're in this world of magic, and most mages have these stock spells... maybe some distant warlock or shaman can bring esoteric foreign powers to the table

But no one invents a whole new element, especially mid-narrative.

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anakin skywalker did. midichlorians was a new element.
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are elements even used as part of the narrative? maybe they mention them off-hand, "just use fire you dork", but not often as part of the story. (though I don't play many jRPGs these days so who knows)

the effect, I guess, would be to have sudden new defenses and offenses to certain other enemies, which could turn the tide of a war, or give an old enemy an opportunity to start one.

a story idea I always think would be good to implement in an RPG would be the invention of healing magic. healing is taken for granted in so many games. it would be good if there was a game where the invention of healing itself was the driving narrative, since it makes such an enormous tactical difference and would be a world-shattering technology.

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Sahuagin posted...

a story idea I always think would be good to implement in an RPG would be the invention of healing magic. healing is taken for granted in so many games. it would be good if there was a game where the invention of healing itself was the driving narrative, since it makes such an enormous tactical difference and would be a world-shattering technology.

I can imagine a warfront where the logistics of shipping potions makes war really expensive... then cometh The First Cleric; being able to heal on the front lines their small army can take on opponents tenfold stronger while also becoming an economic powerhouse since they can undercut potion prices worldwide.. ... if they can keep it a secret.

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side question: How often are you supposed to change your toothbrush... I can't remember if it's monthly, 3month or 6month

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Generally speaking, I don't see "inventing a new (magical) element" to really be a thing that happens outside of a new god or similar being coming to the world and granting power to their followers (in most cases, the new element in this case is dark, evil, or chaos, as the interloper deity/etc is usually not the good guy).

As science progresses though, understanding of the way the world works can naturally allow spellweavers to create spells with effects that were not thought possible before. For instance, once the techy race figures out radio waves, a spell could be developed which emits radio waves in some manner (like, for instance, a "transmit what I say into radio waves of X frequence" spell that could be used to communicate across an army... or by DJs). Advancements in understanding may allow for new spells that were previously too unstable due to lack of understanding (a "plasma shot" spell for instance might require the spell's inventors to understand electromagnitism enough to combine the heat and electrical elements in a way that stays contained long enough to get shot at a target).

Time-space magic can potentially be something that gets invented (or at least rediscovered) mid-setting, but many settings seem to already have it present in some way (i.e. warps, portals, bags of holding, etc).

Healing magic is one that would make the most sense in terms of inventing a non-divine healing spell. Healing spells granted by deities in settings are "extra magic" in that you, the healer, does not need to actually know much about what it is you are healing. However, a non-divine/prayer/etc healing spell (or likely, set of spells) would require both its inventors and its users to have medical knowledge. And if you don't have healing spells already in a setting, then this would be an interesting one to go with. It would be a set of them though, not just one spell, so hopefully its NOT a D&D style setting where you have a rather low limit on spells each day, even if only casting the weakest ones. Examples of spells used by these first healers can include: a spell that clears all non-target microscopic life from a small area (anti-bacterial spell), a spell that projects a small temporary force field tube and another that accelerates cell growth in an area greatly (together these two can be used to heal a severed artery), a spell that is cast using a reagent which detects and removes/breaks down said re-agent if its present in the target (i.e. an anti-poison spell that works on removing any poison as long as you have a sample of the poison, including things like what bacteria can produce, in the event you were able to acquire a sample of it)... and so forth. That last one would actually be very useful outside of medicine too, if used right.
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You could have a situation like in the Darksword Trilogy where you have an element completely banished from the world for being too dangerous (technology) and other elements of magic that were effectively lost to the world because casters with an affinity in that element were wiped out or suppressed by the Church.

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I invent toffee

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Atomic bombardment using a particle accelerator.

They're all too damned unstable though, and there are no uses for them.

Mead posted...

I invent toffee

Hi!

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