Post by Sarin on Nov 26, 2008 18:58:25 GMT -6
What, Sarin actually wrote stuff this week? Blasphemy!
Anyways, I wrote some short things for the roleplay on my site (just a little background/plot related stuff). It's not Pokémon, it's fantasy. But I would appreciate criticism nonetheless.
Please keep in mind that I wrote these right before I went to bed, and I don't like revision so I haven't even read through them since I wrote them. ^^; But anyways... for a bit of background, these are a few pages written by a certain historian about the elements.
Water:
Before anything else was created, before ever fire raced through the nothingness and earth brought substance to the worlds we now know, before even light and darkness were known, there was water. Existing in this strange nothingness, it would be hard to recognize it as the water we know today. As there was no substance, color, nor any vision or feeling, it came into being as the first thought – that it, it was the first life, for into nothingness it brought the ability to think, create, and adapt. This thought quickly spread throughout the nothingness, and the nothingness itself became sentient and grew to know itself as nothing. Many have argued that the nothingness eventually became the Elemental Lords using this as evidence: for, they say, what are the Elemental Lords but vast consciousnesses? After all, they cannot take physical form, so it could be argued that they exist only as the Beginning-Water, thought. Obviously, those who argue this most strong tend to be those existing within the elemental sphere of water themselves; however, it is a valid argument that must be considered. The main counter to this general points out the fact that it seems impossible that a consciousness formed of the element of water – Beginning-Water, but water nonetheless – could somehow form a being of fire, fire being water’s opposite.
In any case, water is generally recognized as being the element of life and creativity. Though light is often associated with healing, often it is those of the water element who are gifted with this ability. As might be gathered, water is not the most powerful element for offense or defense, and its users generally rely on their ability to think quickly and come up with ingenious yet often simple solutions to challenges which often would be met with brute force. Though this is not always the case, creatures of the water element are generally calm, often to the point of seeming unperturbed when sending a typhoon down upon their foes (obviously, only the most powerful can do this, indeed the phenomenon has only been observed a few times throughout history). Of course, there is no accounting for individual personalities, and some water-aligned have been known to be fickle and temperamental.
As water was the first element to come into existence, the water-aligned also have another interesting feature: they are often the most in-tune with their element, as it has had longer to develop and mingle with life. Thus, the water-aligned tend to learn their skills quickly, and though these skills may never become as powerful as those granted to other elements, this extra time allows users to become familiar and again employ that ingenuity which they are often known for.
Water and fire creatures have nearly always been greatly opposed to each other, perhaps more so than any other pair of elemental opposites. As such, the two alignments are nearly always at conflict, and have only been observed to be at peace a handful of times throughout history. While individual creatures of these two elements may work together at times, the elemental enmity is hard to overcome and in general such alliances fail. Water is often allied with earth and air, and has a neutral stance towards the other elements, though there have been a few cases of battle, strangely enough, between groups of water and light creatures.
Earth:
The next element to come into being was earth. While water marked the introduction of life and sentient thought into the nothingness, earth marked the end of nothingness with the introduction of matter – well, sort of. Because there was still neither light nor darkness, nor vision or any means of feeling, the earth was as solid as a black dream. Which is to say, not very solid at all. As Beginning-Water was thought, Beginning-Earth was just the thought of form. It gave the now-sentient nothingness the ability to know that it could change from nothingness to energy, and from energy to matter. And with this, it gave the nothingness will. And from then on, instead of some unknown power bringing the Beginning-Elements into the worlds we know, it was the nothingness itself that took on the role of creator. From this originates the term ‘Mother Earth’, for it was essentially Beginning-Earth that had and granted the urge to create life and nurture it.
Earth is often referred to as the element of tradition and ideals. Unlike most of the other elements, the element of earth governs all rock and mineral compounds, as well as all plant life. Therefore, the options and versatility of this element are very great. However, users of the element tend to use tried and tested abilities more than the more improvised techniques of water users – many defend this by saying that there’s only so much you can do with a rock, and simply bashing a foe’s head out seems like a good idea. And indeed, why should they bother with a more elaborate method (one of my personal favorites was Toriknah’s murder of Chief Jueq by coating his lungs with fine dust from a rock she vaporized)? For offense, a large boulder generally suffices, and for defense, it’s hard to penetrate a wall of rock. Therefore, earth users tend to be very secure in their offensive and especially defensive abilities, and do it without the showiness of several of the other elements. Like those of the water element, earth-aligned are generally fairly calm.
One strange perk of being one of the earth-aligned is that they often have the ability to communicate with the less intelligent animals, to some extent at least. As water is generally recognized as the element that ‘created’ life, it is often pondered why this ability should be granted to those of the earth and not those of the water, but it must be remembered that earth did play a huge role in the creation of the physical life we know – if not the vast, spiritual life that Beginning-Water created. This ability is of limited use, as many of the non-speaking animal species lack any great intellect, but it has been proven to come in handy. And apparently some find it fulfilling, as earth-aligned are more likely to become hermits than those of any other element (shadow being a close second).
While earth and air are opposite elements, whatever enmity exists between them is much less severe than that between water and fire. Indeed, though this alliance has switched throughout history, in general earth and air have fought as allies more often then as enemies. More often water and earth are found fighting – yes, though in the previous section I said that water and earth were usually allies, minor scuffles are very common among the two mostly due to that same argument about who is responsible for the creation of life. However, earth does have one major enemy: not since ancient times have earth and poison been allies, and indeed it could be said that they are in a state of perpetual warfare. Earth and darkness also tend to be enemies, although this exists mostly in glares and insults than in battle. And earth-aligned tend to conduct themselves cautiously around lightning and especially fire, for while not too many acts of aggression have broken out between the two recently, in the last both fire and lightning have fought on the opposite side of earth. For their part fire and lightning seem content to let bygones be bygones – whether this is truth or an act to gain the upper hand, none but their leaders know, and this accounts for the suspicion of the earth-aligned.
Anyways, I wrote some short things for the roleplay on my site (just a little background/plot related stuff). It's not Pokémon, it's fantasy. But I would appreciate criticism nonetheless.
Please keep in mind that I wrote these right before I went to bed, and I don't like revision so I haven't even read through them since I wrote them. ^^; But anyways... for a bit of background, these are a few pages written by a certain historian about the elements.
Water:
Before anything else was created, before ever fire raced through the nothingness and earth brought substance to the worlds we now know, before even light and darkness were known, there was water. Existing in this strange nothingness, it would be hard to recognize it as the water we know today. As there was no substance, color, nor any vision or feeling, it came into being as the first thought – that it, it was the first life, for into nothingness it brought the ability to think, create, and adapt. This thought quickly spread throughout the nothingness, and the nothingness itself became sentient and grew to know itself as nothing. Many have argued that the nothingness eventually became the Elemental Lords using this as evidence: for, they say, what are the Elemental Lords but vast consciousnesses? After all, they cannot take physical form, so it could be argued that they exist only as the Beginning-Water, thought. Obviously, those who argue this most strong tend to be those existing within the elemental sphere of water themselves; however, it is a valid argument that must be considered. The main counter to this general points out the fact that it seems impossible that a consciousness formed of the element of water – Beginning-Water, but water nonetheless – could somehow form a being of fire, fire being water’s opposite.
In any case, water is generally recognized as being the element of life and creativity. Though light is often associated with healing, often it is those of the water element who are gifted with this ability. As might be gathered, water is not the most powerful element for offense or defense, and its users generally rely on their ability to think quickly and come up with ingenious yet often simple solutions to challenges which often would be met with brute force. Though this is not always the case, creatures of the water element are generally calm, often to the point of seeming unperturbed when sending a typhoon down upon their foes (obviously, only the most powerful can do this, indeed the phenomenon has only been observed a few times throughout history). Of course, there is no accounting for individual personalities, and some water-aligned have been known to be fickle and temperamental.
As water was the first element to come into existence, the water-aligned also have another interesting feature: they are often the most in-tune with their element, as it has had longer to develop and mingle with life. Thus, the water-aligned tend to learn their skills quickly, and though these skills may never become as powerful as those granted to other elements, this extra time allows users to become familiar and again employ that ingenuity which they are often known for.
Water and fire creatures have nearly always been greatly opposed to each other, perhaps more so than any other pair of elemental opposites. As such, the two alignments are nearly always at conflict, and have only been observed to be at peace a handful of times throughout history. While individual creatures of these two elements may work together at times, the elemental enmity is hard to overcome and in general such alliances fail. Water is often allied with earth and air, and has a neutral stance towards the other elements, though there have been a few cases of battle, strangely enough, between groups of water and light creatures.
Earth:
The next element to come into being was earth. While water marked the introduction of life and sentient thought into the nothingness, earth marked the end of nothingness with the introduction of matter – well, sort of. Because there was still neither light nor darkness, nor vision or any means of feeling, the earth was as solid as a black dream. Which is to say, not very solid at all. As Beginning-Water was thought, Beginning-Earth was just the thought of form. It gave the now-sentient nothingness the ability to know that it could change from nothingness to energy, and from energy to matter. And with this, it gave the nothingness will. And from then on, instead of some unknown power bringing the Beginning-Elements into the worlds we know, it was the nothingness itself that took on the role of creator. From this originates the term ‘Mother Earth’, for it was essentially Beginning-Earth that had and granted the urge to create life and nurture it.
Earth is often referred to as the element of tradition and ideals. Unlike most of the other elements, the element of earth governs all rock and mineral compounds, as well as all plant life. Therefore, the options and versatility of this element are very great. However, users of the element tend to use tried and tested abilities more than the more improvised techniques of water users – many defend this by saying that there’s only so much you can do with a rock, and simply bashing a foe’s head out seems like a good idea. And indeed, why should they bother with a more elaborate method (one of my personal favorites was Toriknah’s murder of Chief Jueq by coating his lungs with fine dust from a rock she vaporized)? For offense, a large boulder generally suffices, and for defense, it’s hard to penetrate a wall of rock. Therefore, earth users tend to be very secure in their offensive and especially defensive abilities, and do it without the showiness of several of the other elements. Like those of the water element, earth-aligned are generally fairly calm.
One strange perk of being one of the earth-aligned is that they often have the ability to communicate with the less intelligent animals, to some extent at least. As water is generally recognized as the element that ‘created’ life, it is often pondered why this ability should be granted to those of the earth and not those of the water, but it must be remembered that earth did play a huge role in the creation of the physical life we know – if not the vast, spiritual life that Beginning-Water created. This ability is of limited use, as many of the non-speaking animal species lack any great intellect, but it has been proven to come in handy. And apparently some find it fulfilling, as earth-aligned are more likely to become hermits than those of any other element (shadow being a close second).
While earth and air are opposite elements, whatever enmity exists between them is much less severe than that between water and fire. Indeed, though this alliance has switched throughout history, in general earth and air have fought as allies more often then as enemies. More often water and earth are found fighting – yes, though in the previous section I said that water and earth were usually allies, minor scuffles are very common among the two mostly due to that same argument about who is responsible for the creation of life. However, earth does have one major enemy: not since ancient times have earth and poison been allies, and indeed it could be said that they are in a state of perpetual warfare. Earth and darkness also tend to be enemies, although this exists mostly in glares and insults than in battle. And earth-aligned tend to conduct themselves cautiously around lightning and especially fire, for while not too many acts of aggression have broken out between the two recently, in the last both fire and lightning have fought on the opposite side of earth. For their part fire and lightning seem content to let bygones be bygones – whether this is truth or an act to gain the upper hand, none but their leaders know, and this accounts for the suspicion of the earth-aligned.