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The Elementalist's Guild is an important part of Outpost's structure. It provides teaching to new apprentices, as well as allowing the masters of the Guild somewhere to conduct their researches and studies. The Head of the Guild is Alderman Matthew Carr, Viceroy of the Order of Shadow, a powerful Elementalist unsurpassed in the mastery of Shadow magick and highly skilled in the magicks of Air and Water to boot. Beneath him stand the Viceroys of the other five Elemental Orders - for the Elementalists of the Guild are divided into six Orders according to which of the six Elements they have an affinity with. There is frequently some minimal rivalry between the Orders, but this is frowned upon by the higher echelons of the Guild and dealt with firmly.
The Guild is centred around the mighty edifice known as the Library of Elements. An ancient structure, the Library of Elements seems to stand as part of the rock itself, and some say that it is grown from it as a child is grown from the mother. But what do they know, for the Library has stood for many millennia - indeed, it is said that the Library has been here since before Outpost, and that it was already ancient when the city was built around it. Within its great spires are rumoured to lie the secrets of creation, but only a very few are able to access those spires, and those who do are seldom able to understand even a fraction of the wisdom they contain.
Only those who have studied within the Elementalist's Guild are ever permitted entry to the Library, and even then access to the most ancient tomes is highly restricted. Only the masters of the Guild may enter the womb of the Library. Yet even those areas which novices are permitted to enter hold many tens of thousands of books, scrolls and codices, each with its own truths and each with its own lies. The amount of knowledge stored within the building is vast beyond any one person's ability to understand.
It is this great resource which sets the Elementalist's Guild apart, and allows its students to study with much greater ease than Elementalists elsewhere. However, there are other sources of magickal training in the world of Nocturne. There are those who wield the powers of Elemental magick but have left the Guild, or were taught by a non-Guild member, and the wily and brave have been known to seek these people out and gain training in this manner. Those who would follow in their footsteps are warned that the Elementalist's Guild holds little love for any within Outpost who wield the powers of the Elements without the Guild's blessing...
As with all the Adventuring Guilds, the Elementalist's Guild has a formalised Ranking system:
Information on some of the more noteworthy members of the Elementalist's Guild and their Ranks and Elements can be found here.
Below is a brief description of Elemental magick and its role in the world of Nocturne, together with details of many of the most useful spells for adventurers and how to cast them.
In the world of Nocturne, there are a number of people who call upon powers from other Planes of existence - some know only a little of what they do and how they do it, some have vast knowledge. Magick and theurgy are the practices of calling upon otherworldly aid by casting spells and miracles to create effects.
Magick and theurgy are two very distinct things - magick calls upon the powers of the Elements to cast spells, and is used by Elementalists, while theurgy calls upon the powers of the Spirits to cast miracles, and is used by Lorewardens. Both use similar methods to generate effects, but the sources and applications of the two sorts of power are quite different.
An Elementalist uses energy from other Planes of existence to cast Elemental spells. This energy is called Mana. There are six basic types of Mana, one from each of the six fundamental Elemental Planes: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Light and Shadow.
There is little distinction to be made between Elemental energy and Elementals themselves, since those who have studied these matters deeply claim that an Elemental is merely a complex pattern of Elemental energy given sentience and even sapience. Some Elementalists view all their magicks as being the shaping of raw energy into a form and function created by their own will, while others view all their magicks as simply calling upon the Elementals to do their wishes, and most take a stance somewhere midway between these two extremes. The vast majority of Elementalists care little for such fine philosophical differentiations - their attitude is: if it works, it works.
Elementals and Elemental energies cannot be said to be either good or evil: they are completely alien to our Plane of existence, which touches on all of the Elemental Planes, and such concepts do not apply to them. Although, having said that, there are some who worship powerful Elemental beings as deities and speak of them in anthropomorphic terms. Elementalists refer to our Plane of existence as the Material Plane; the Material Plane contains all of the Elements from the individual Elemental Planes in various forms, and the physical world is shaped by interactions between these Elements.
Elementalists cast spells by bringing raw Elemental energy into the Material Plane and shaping it into any form they so desire. These forms can be extremely destructive if the energy is released without restraint, since most living beings and material objects are composed at least partly of the nature of the Elements and pure Elemental energy can easily set this nature out of balance, hence all Elementals have the ability to destroy life. Some offensive spells are specifically designed to do this - such spells are particularly effective, since physical armour and Spiritual defences can provide no protection from raw Elemental energies. Other spells are designed to create Elemental energy in a particular shape - for example, an Earth Elementalist might use a spell to raise a wall or dig a hole, and a Light Elementalist might use their power to provide illumination.
Almost every object and creature has a Spirit, which represents the metaphysical ideal image of that thing. As all sentient beings hold a common, subconscious understanding of the ideal of an object, so all sentient beings contribute to the form of these Spirits. More powerful Spirits may take on a sapient persona, and even more potent Spirits may begin to manipulate the material world through mortals known as Lorewardens. These are people who are able to both draw upon and influence the powers of the Spirits.
Beings of pure Spirit cannot interact with Elementals, who are beings of pure Elemental energy, just as Elementals cannot interact with Spirits. Neither can sense nor affect the other in any way, nor can either even conceive of the existence of the other. Elementals are completely unaffected by Spiritual theurgy, as Spirits are completely unaffected by Elemental magick.
Humans, on the other hand, are a blend of the material, the Elemental and the Spiritual, like most living beings native to this plane, and are able to understand all things given time. Humans understand that there are both Elemental beings which dwell on other Planes, and Spiritual beings without bodies (or, in the case of many of the undead, with animated corpses) which exist alongside living things on this Plane and are native to both this Plane and others. Humans may study both Spiritual theurgy and Elemental magick together.
There are some creatures living on the Material Plane who have no Spirit, some of whom are innately magickal. Included amongst these creatures are the Iachæ and the Fæy. Creatures without a Spirit are never affected by Spiritual miracles or effects - a double edged sword, since this includes beneficial effects such as healing and protective miracles.
Undead, meanwhile, are all creatures of pure Spirit, although some of them are able to inhabit and animate the Material and Elemental shells of corpses, and indeed must do so before they are able to directly affect the Material Plane.
Then there are dæmons, creatures from the Nether Plane, whose natures are strong in both Elements and Spirit, but in whom the Material nature is weak.
Legends also speak of other, rare creatures which are a blend of the Elemental and the Spiritual, without any Material nature at all; such an exotic creature would be highly dangerous if hostile, since there are few people who could defend themselves against such a beast.
Some Elementalists study methods of strengthening the Elemental nature within base Material items, through a process known as Enchantment. Enchantment can enable an item to store Elemental energies in the form of Mana or spells put there by an Elementalist, or even enable an item to draw, and sometimes shape, Mana directly from the Elemental Planes.
Enchantment can also be used to strengthen the Elemental nature of armour and weapons - Enchanted armour will defend against raw offensive Elemental energies from which normal physical armour would provide no protection, and Enchanted weapons will damage powerful Elementals and other magickal creatures whom mere steel or wood would leave unharmed. For more information on Enchanting items, click here.
The Elementalist is a character who is in touch with forces beyond our normal Plane of existence. These forces, called Elementals, reside in the Elemental Planes outside the Material Plane, our natural world. These forces are not like Spirits, they are truly alien to this world and often resent being summoned to it. They are also naturally destructive, and it takes the Elementalist's skills to make these forces into something more constructive.
Elementalists use Elemental magick to cast spells, much in the same way as Lorewardens use Spiritual theurgy. Each spell requires a certain amount of energy, called Mana, to cast. For more information on casting spells, click here.
All Elementalists are biased towards one Element, which is chosen at the beginning of character generation (or at the point at which the character begins to learn magick). This Element defines which class of spells the character will first learn and will have the ability to become most powerful in, what form many of their Common spells will take, what kinds of Elementals they will be able to summon and what Element they will be most capable of fighting and protecting themselves against. A list of the spells available to each Element may be found here.
There are six Elements known to the Elementalist scholar:
| Element | Colour | Opposing Element |
|---|---|---|
| Earth | Brown | Air |
| Air | Blue | Earth |
| Fire | Red | Water |
| Water | Green | Fire |
| Light | White | Shadow |
| Shadow | Black | Light |
All Elementalists must possess the skills Enhanced Elemental Power and Spell Casting if they wish to cast any spells. Note that it is perfectly possible to play an Elementalist without either or both of these skills, but the character will not be able to cast any magickal spells.
Enhanced Elemental Power:
This skill gives an Elementalist "Mana" points, at a rate of four points per level in this skill. An Elemental spell costs one Mana point per level to cast (i.e. casting a fourth level spell costs four Mana points).
Spell Casting:
This skill grants an Elementalist the ability to cast spells. The Elementalist may cast spells in a particular Element up to a level equal to his Spell Casting skill level in that Element, and may also cast Common spells up to a level equal to his Spell Casting skill level in his chosen Element.
For example, a Fire Elementalist with Spell Casting - Fire at level 4 and Spell Casting - Earth at level 2 may cast first and second level Earth spells and first, second, third and fourth level Fire spells and Common spells.
At least the first two levels of this skill learnt must be in the character's chosen Element. See the skill rules for a more detailed description.
For information on casting spells, click here.
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