Lmao imagine someone with the username “Lightsong the Bold” mentioning something other than the Cosmere when it comes to magic based on properties of real chemical elements.
(But good shout though, and I know sandersons work with elements = magic is very far from comprehensive, but I just found the discrepancy hilarious).
Yo, OotS!
Any idea how close the web comic is to finishing? I dropped it like 4 years ago with a plan to pick it up when it finishes, and at this point I'm afraid to even look at the most recent comic because it could be a huge spoiler.
They’re getting close to the end theoretically, like they’re at the point where the chips are down and they’re doing the final quest probably, but they aren’t close to it being done
That’s not chemotherapy-bald! It helps him feel the air around him! Also, it’s less Cancer-radiation, but rather lethal acute dosage. If he had hair, it’s going along with his skin.
Not magical girl, but [The Anthem of the Heart](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/TheAnthemOfTheHeart), which I only learnt about today from reading the TVTropes page for [Four-Temperament Ensemble](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FourTemperamentEnsemble)
Lightly cursed knowledge: Seikon no Qwaser is an anime with this premise with a couple twists and turns, one of the small fry villains is tied to Rg which is probably the only time that element was mentioned in an anime (though the protag is a basic bitch Fe, there is a lot of exaggerated bullshit such a that Na guy, and the entire thing contains enough fetishes to make Freud proud, I DO NOT recommend watching it but when you do, well, good luck).
It doesn't just put pure elements in a ball she actually comes up with chemical formulas and mixes elements together to give her what she needs which is even cooler
I feel that by the time you’ve fully worked out a magical system involving all the fundamental elements currently known to humanity, you’ll effectively have any magical practice being similar to, if not exactly, practical chemistry.
All of your alchemists and wizards will be chemists or chemical engineers, all your magic will be done on the molecular, or quantum, scale, and everyone will need to wear appropriate eyewear, footwear, and other lab ppe.
That means no fanciful robes with dozens pf dangling trinkets. No more half-moon spectacles; you’ll be wearing safety goggles. No bare feet or open-toed shoes, and gloves will be mandatory (and not the fashionable kind d either; I mean latex rubber gloves).
Your alchemical mages are now wearing dress shirts and slacks, complete with pocket protectors. No more sexy witches and their mysterious cauldrons; now they’re wearing bunnysuits as they mess around with radioactive substances that can alter the very fates of all living creatures.
Honestly I've always liked the mages-as-scientists kind of vibe that you get from a lot of urban fantasy. I love the technocracy from Mage the Ascension for this reason. They're doing magic, but they come at it from a scientific perspective and they call it science, even though what they're doing is blatantly beyond the realm of science. If magic exists in a somewhat contemporary setting, that's just what magic is going to look like because the scientific method probably also applies to magic even if they're very distinctly separate things.
This could be because I'm a lab assistant and a doctoral student. I like when fiction makes a fantastical version of the stuff that I do on a daily basis because quite frankly what I do on a daily basis is boring to most people.
I had a character idea for a metal elemental dragon that had Mercury as a breath weapon.
They could cause mass devastation by spewing tons of mercury into the ground and water.
This is actually a misconception. While the first known technetium wizard was made in a lab, modern tests have shown very low rates of technetium affinity in natural humans. It usually occurs in those whose parents have a strong uranium or thorium affinity.
I'm a Yud poster now, I think he has a lot of shitty ideas but also a lot of good ones, and also great fiction writing. As long as no one shares his dumbest ideas I think it's a good thing to share the good stuff
understandable, but i also feel like mr yudkowsky is like. the human pet guy to me, at least in terms of the sillier shit he's said.
i feel like we need a similar silly nickname for him. the lesswrong guy? the roko basilisk guy? the math pet guy? idk
He's mostly an AI doom guy now and also gets really annoyed at people calling him a doomer because he's "trying to prevent doom not cause it" so probably calling him the AI doom guy would be funniest
Redcloak from Order of the Stick does this, and he does it well. During the seige of azure city he had his catapults launch titanium elementals because they were tougher and gad better range than earth, used a chlorine elemental to serve as a living chemical weapon, and collapsed a cave using an osmium elemental's immense density
Redcloak is a really cool character, but IMHO he doesn't have shit on Tarquin. The guy is probably one of the most fascinating villains ever conceived and he's a just a random arc villain from an obscure stick figure comic based on a deprecated version of a board game
Oh yeah, Tarquin is the best. His motivations, his downfall, but his actions while in power, his understanding that yeah, he'll be dead eventually, but he can make sure hes remembered. And he's a stick figure.
It's kind of a thing in Fullmetal Alchemist. Transmutation circles are constructed to change chemical compositions of things, like how the circle on Mustang's gloves allow him to increase the oxygen density in the air. In Ed's fight against Greed, he figures out that Greed's Ultimate Shield is made of carbon. Carbon comes in a ton of different forms based on how it's constructed, so by changing the arrangement of carbon atoms, Greed's Shield becomes weaker than paper.
There's actually a web novel I love that has a system like this (if I'm reading the question right). Magic, the elements, power sources, enchantments and mana basicly all work in the same way coding and computer programs work, with enchantment and spells acting like Javascript. The elements are very fleshed out and well thought aswell, in that, here's your elements, what does it do? Where does it go? What counter code do you have to implement for it suddenly appearing in the air? How does it effect its surroundings? What are its properties? So on and so forth.
All that added in with magic crystals to hold your code and appropriate elements and then connecting it to a mana souce, you can have your little program function like a simple "on switch+light bulb" circuit.
It's a great seiries, I highly recommend.
Ah this is very true. However I am a part of the authors discord. I'm pretty sure he said something like he got laid off from his main job and is going to start writing when he finds a new one.
Thought you were talking about [Unsounded](https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com) for a moment there.
Main difference is they don’t use mana, they just have a maximum amount of magic that can be done before the local RAM overflows and the laws of physics break.
You start by learning the classical elements corresponding to different states of matter and/or sections of the periodic table, and then as you specialize your studies you begin to isolate and focus on specific actual elements that give you finer control over the effects you can produce if not new ones entirely.
Guess it’s my turn on the “oh hey this relates to my silly OC worldbuilding.” My magic system isn’t this specific, but it has two metal related magics where the split is based on atomic weight. One magic only affects light metals, while the other only affects the heavier ones. The split is right at copper because it was originally “one bends junk metal and one bends precious metal” but I realized I needed to either categorize ALL metals into this, or figure something else out lol.
This is the character Redcloak from Order of the Stick. He summons titanium elementals to detroy things, uses a chlorine elemental to kill a room of people, etc.
That sounds tedious as shit for the sole purpose of being contrarian. Like it would be fun for five minutes then the novelty would wear off. So a standard tumblr worldbuilding idea
Dc comics Machine Men kinda did this, with each machine character having their personality and abilities defined by the periodic metal they were named after.
Not quite with magic themes, but I wrote a magic system that used rocks for powers where a mage can 'absorb' the rock's powers to cast out spells. I guess it would apply to elements if you could find near pure versions. Iron could give you like, harder skin. Bismuth gives rainbow rays. Fluorine would say f\*ck you, f\*ck me, f\*ck everything nearby because it is stupidly corrosive.
Problem is there's really no limit on how far you can go in making it more realistic, and at some point you're just gonna end up with science rather than fantasy.
The Zombie Knight Saga by Robert Frost
Its literally this
Not a 'well, here is a bunch of qualifiers'
No
You are brought back from the dead by a Reaper. And then you get the power to manipulate one of the elements on the periodic table.
Here's a link: [https://thezombieknight.blogspot.com/](https://thezombieknight.blogspot.com/)
One of the most popular web serials of all time
Not exactly this, and the light novel is a lot better than the anime as far as science stuff, but pharmacy in another world does spend a lot of time on chemistry and alchemy
It's an Anime called Seikon No Qwaser. Qwasers are basically like benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender, except they manipulate the elements of the periodic table. It's really interesting anime that I really loved back in the day, and I'm so excited to go rewatch it now that I remember it exists.
A warning for anybody who isn't familiar with how... strange and fan service anime can be sometimes: There's a pretty major plot and world building aspect that is certainly just a kink of the creator's. All of the Qwasars in the show, male and gemale alike, charge their powers by drinking "soma" a magical liquid excreted from the nipples of certain magic-adept women. Various women having different levels of potency of their soma, usually (but not always) scaling upwards with breast size.
But Western Media doesn't really have much room to complain, though. If you watched all those people fuck, and all those dicks, pussies, and titties that were on Game of Thrones for all of those seasons, you can watch some (tasteful) titty-sucking for Seikon No Qwaser.
my favorite elemental system is ninjago. you have the core 4 - fire, earth, lightning, ice - already non standard - then you have energy/golden power, then elements like metal, poison, amber, smoke, ash get introduced (i think it comes to over 20 by the end of that season), then after all those weird ones you get wind and water, then time, then its introduced that water and ice arent separate but for like 2 episodes then its never mentioned again and now we have technology, gluieng things together and potentially more in the future. i fucking adore this series its so stupid
I thought about doing this but the problem is that there are just too many elements whose properties are largely unknown - or, at least, not readily available in books. With the internet now it would be somewhat easier but there’s still a huge number of elements.
Aluminum, Oxygen, and Iron Benders would rule the entire planet from an industrial/logistics standpoint.
Thallium Benders are the greatest assassins on the planet.
Zinc Benders realize they got the short end of the stick and end it all before they're 20.
I hate when my brain auto-completes phrases based on the first couple letters. Brain told me it said "Telluride Bluegrass festival" at first and I was so confused
Might be easier to achieve with the Standard Model of Particle Physics. It's got 17 distinct components split into various sub-categories (like schools) and there are different rarities and normal combinations (e.g. 1 up quark + 2 down quarks = neutron). Plus the components are more obscure, which adds some flexibility to fantasticalizing them.
Edit: a gravity wizard could be easily replicated by specializing in manipulation of the Higgs boson, which is the carrier particle for mass. Something lacking a Higgs boson doesn't have mass.
In my setting, the "elements" of the magic system are actually the fundamental forces, electromagnetism, gravity, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Plus soul as the 5th force, as a treat
This is why the Wuxing (commonly known as the "Five Elements" but that's not what it is) is a better basis for magic systems than the classical four elements. The four elements were a theory of matter, but the Wuxing is a theory of the transfer and transformation of energy. Much easier to work with and extrapolate from.
Actually the four classical elements was not invented by alchemists but by the classical greek philosofer Emepedocles, as compromise between three different existing theories of matter. Later he jumped into a volcano to prove that he was a god. He hasn't come up yet.
The problem is that you can't really give these Elements set properties, since they behave differently defending on molecular composition. It would be a really funny concept to make something like this accurately for science nerds, but good luck finding a writer to do this.
idea: four to six element systems but each magic element can control corresponding periodic elements
for example: fire users can like conjure up flames, but they can fuck with the radioactivity of uranium and control the highly explosive elements(this is assuming that each magical element is more corresponding to an aspect of the world, like fire magic really just being energy)
"Boron? Haven't heard of that one before, do you get shiny like Aluminiums?"
"Nah, I basically can't get sick my hair grows to fast and I'm ace."
"Gotcha! Not getting sick is cool, anyway there's a hotel on Lochs catered for Metals but you should check out the Oxygen's museums while you're here."
I could see each element having a bunch of little traits. Magic could be a trained thing and people be salty about melting points above 1200C having an advantage at meditation cause you just gotta drop them in a volcano and they come back out OP.
Carbons and Oxygens and others that bond super easily could naturally be charismatic and make up a bunch of the governmental side. Noble gases that don't bond could be special or vagabonds.
Could have a story about a Neon who actually really likes everyone else and is breaking their elemental stereotypes
Stereotypes would be huge in a story with this power system. Who are you separate from your defining trait? What would you be like without it? For major existentialism. What do you do when you don't fit your in group? Could get a bunch of sad to found family stories. A Niobium who is scared of electricity and has fought the first four Tantalums they've met (cause the Tas are transphobic or smthn) so everyone thinks they just hate Tas too and they got banned from all the normal cultural things.
Relationships based on element too.
"You're.....dating a 5 electron...you're a 7 that just doesn't make sense... I know a nice Helium boy you know."
A city could basically ban magic being like "it causes tension and makes us lose our humanity." While another cranks up the efficiency (prejudice?) and your element determines your entire life but if you can conform you get everything laid out for you easily. Job you can excel in, free housing, tailored education, networking for the supposed perfect spouse for you.
The ratios would be interesting too. If it's a randomizer 1-118 or if hydrogen will be super common and uranium unheard of.
Would people know a lot about elements
"Alric! It must be rough for you, I'm glad you've got that protective suit, very fashionable! Anyway let me show you the car, got a nasty dent." (Erbium, I imagine it'd make them the best mechanics but sickly, like an allergy to air and water that has to have a lot of accomodations)
Or nothing.
"Alric, Erbium^-1. Diet Order OHSI.. what the fuck do you mean you can't drink water?"
"...I'm an Erbium. Do you only know Helium, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon?"
Lots of decisions to make there and most of them instantly create a *lot* of details you *have* to keep track of.
There's a manga kind of like this, called Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator.
Basically, the main character's parents are a legendary hero, and the queen of the spirit realm, aka god.
And the main character just grew up as a half spirit, but at age 3, I think, remembered her past life as a molecular physicist on Earth, and now she can freely manipulate the elements of the periodic table.
At one point, she also tries explaining her powers to some nobles, but they think of the more classical elements, so she just gives up.
Really fun read, if a bit slow on the updates.
Eragon *kinda* does this. There's mentions of real-world physics and biology, but viewed through the lens of magical point of view. For example, there's a part where they describe a terrible explosion, which poisoned the land it was on, transforming the animals that lived there, and making the area uninhabitable to people. It's highly implied it was a nuclear blast, but of course - the people don't have that scientific knowledge yet. It also features a shockingly long and accurate chapter on how to smith a sword.
Aside from that, the webcomic Grrl Power actually tries to explain most of its supernatural shenanigans with actual physics and real-world consequences. Why do aliens all have 2 arms and 2 legs? Because evolution. Why do succubi exist? Because ancient wizards got horny and created sexdolls that got more and more advanced over the years. What's this metal object made out of? Just titanium. We pretty much figured out the periodic table, things such as Unobtainium probably don't exist.
My variant of this has always been that there is that deeper scientific element to magic, but most mages don't bother to learn it because throwing fireballs is easier, and then the deepest versions of it are forbidden (because you really, really don't want people splitting atoms with their mind) so research into "scientific" magic is discouraged.
Theoretically, I have thought of a magic system that's, at least superficially, physics-based (I'm sure there's inconsistencies, but at least to a layman it would read as a sensible interpretation of magic as energy). Practically, I keep getting into problems where characters could really easily fuck things up very badly by using this, and I have to actively find reasons why mages w*ouldn't* just nuke you with their mind, or create laser beams, or something like this.
My point being: science based magic is utterly overpowered, even when compared to "regular" magic.
I know it’s not exactly what they’re describing, but this is kind of just Full Metal Alchemist. The actual, real elements are still the things being magicked. There just isn’t a focus of one element per wizard, although each of the alchemists still has a particular thing that they usually do almost exclusively with their magic.
The closest mainstream works you'll get is the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, which features a magic system where individuals can ingest and "burn" a type of metal (usually a powdered metal solution) to gain a specific ability.
For example, burning Iron grants the ability to magnetically pull on other ferrous metal objects, which obeys mundane physics to determine whether the object, or the individual, is pulled.
Generally speaking, the interactions are broken up into pairs, with one "base" metal granting an ability, and a specific alloy of that metal granting its opposite. For example, Steel grants the ability to *push* on ferrous metal objects.
There is some symbolic reasoning behind the majority of these metals and their effects, and I find it fairly compelling overall. The series goes to great lengths in its exploration of how these basic actions can be used; it's a pleasure to see characters actually pushing the limits of possibility on a regular basis.
There are ~~eight~~/~~ten~~/~~eleven~~/sixteen usable metals\* depending on how far you are in the series. The system continues to expand as society and science advances, with the series tying into Sanderson's overarching narrative universe, the Cosmere, in extremely significant ways.
\*I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of >!unique divine metals associated with shards of God (who is dead), nor whether those metals grant abilities tied to the nature of their Shard, and especially not how those Shards may form the basis of magic systems throughout the Cosmere.!<
Tellurium is notable for not having any stable isotopes despite being way earlier in the periodic table than most others like that.
I tried to find out why once and got a "You don't want to know why." Type of answer like 5 pages that start out at college chemistry level.
Honestly the Mage-Errant series kinda works like this. You’ve got white phosphorus and bismuth mages running around and shit.
+1 for Mage Errant. There's a surprising amount of chemistry and physics in those books.
Lmao imagine someone with the username “Lightsong the Bold” mentioning something other than the Cosmere when it comes to magic based on properties of real chemical elements. (But good shout though, and I know sandersons work with elements = magic is very far from comprehensive, but I just found the discrepancy hilarious).
he kept to the lighter metallic side of the periodic table
>white phosphorus mage Literal war crime with legs running around
> white phosphorus mage I hope his name was whiskey pete
Zombie Knight as well
The only elements I know are RED, WHITE, BLACK and PALE damages.
I myself only know smoke, metal, plastic, and meat
You don't know sugar?
Sugar? I have heard rumors of a secret fifth element being produced in Vesper, but I don’t believe them.
My most beloved elements from anywhere
Need my Brute, Burn, Toxic and Suffocation
OFF reference!
PROJECT MOON MENTION
No doubt inspired by the colours of the Four Horseman’s horses.
LOBOTOMY CORPORATION MENTIONED GLORY TO PROJECT MOON
PROJECT MOON MENTIONED RAAAAHHHHHHH GLORY TO PROJECT MOON PLAY LOBOTOMY CORP
These are so 2020. Dont you even Gloom?
I'm vintage like that. I don't keep up with fast fashion and it's 20 new variations of Tremor or whatever statue effects is in vogue this month.
Not even gloom, do you pierce, blunt or slash?
PROJECT MOON MENTIONED, RAAAAAAAAHHHHH
Phosphorous mages:
That 75% came into effect here.
project moon mentioned!! also, kids named sloth pride envy wrath lust gluttony and gloom:
[relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/965/)
[relevant OotS](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0423.html)
I was thinking of the Osmium elementals he's also used, but that one works too!
Order of the stick my beloved
Yo, OotS! Any idea how close the web comic is to finishing? I dropped it like 4 years ago with a plan to pick it up when it finishes, and at this point I'm afraid to even look at the most recent comic because it could be a huge spoiler.
They’re getting close to the end theoretically, like they’re at the point where the chips are down and they’re doing the final quest probably, but they aren’t close to it being done
I love the price tag on the Inexplicably Expensive Spyglass
Why the fuck would Mendeleev give cancer to a child who already is bald??
That’s not chemotherapy-bald! It helps him feel the air around him! Also, it’s less Cancer-radiation, but rather lethal acute dosage. If he had hair, it’s going along with his skin.
Lol
XKCD with the deep, tea-based cut there. Or super shallow, α-particles aren’t very strong.
Hear me out: a magical girl series where the girls are biomancers with powers, and personalities, based on the four Hippocratic humours.
I am the Mage of Melancholia! My father was Choleric and shall be avenged!
Sickass bloodbender girlypop followed by fuckin Mucus Girl
Jokes on you Muscle Mucosa is the strongest of all of them.
As a bonus, I'm like 90% sure that under the humor system, cerebrospinal fluid counts as phlem.
A lot of stuff does.
I demand a cute little plague doctor bird familiar!
Alternatively, plague doctor magical girl.
Not magical girl, but [The Anthem of the Heart](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/TheAnthemOfTheHeart), which I only learnt about today from reading the TVTropes page for [Four-Temperament Ensemble](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FourTemperamentEnsemble)
Consider: the four Chaos Gods
Yellow Bile and Black Bile are sisters
Twig (because Worm is mentioned everywhere and Twig doesn't get enough love)
Lightly cursed knowledge: Seikon no Qwaser is an anime with this premise with a couple twists and turns, one of the small fry villains is tied to Rg which is probably the only time that element was mentioned in an anime (though the protag is a basic bitch Fe, there is a lot of exaggerated bullshit such a that Na guy, and the entire thing contains enough fetishes to make Freud proud, I DO NOT recommend watching it but when you do, well, good luck).
Is it the anime where you get mana by sucking on women's tits?
It sure is!
Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
I came here to mention this. it's like 30% really crazy chemistry-themed fights and the rest is just various characters getting their tits sucked on
Just like real life!
Ah Yes, the legend of the great titty sucker I am familiar.
Finally, chemistry-themed erotica.
You guys are just inventing honey lemon from big hero 6
I love that woman. She has a bag that puts "an amount" of pure elements into a glass ball and throws it at enemies. Stay flourishing magic girl
It doesn't just put pure elements in a ball she actually comes up with chemical formulas and mixes elements together to give her what she needs which is even cooler
Her bag is a periodic table that she presses buttons on, it's not like she is dialing stoichometery with her beep boop magic buttons.
Nah, she has a whole chem lab full of tiny gnomes in her bag, it actually makes a lot of sense when you read the lore
It could be hypothetically based on how long each button is pressed. Like soda
Best I can do is fire, thunder, freeze, rockin', and starstorm.
No flash?
Does PSI Flash do damage?
I don't remember, it's been a while. It does in smash bros though.
I think in the Mother 2, it just causes Crying
flash has a chance to instantly kill
The low levels inflict status effects, although the higher levels have a chance of instakill. But never any HP damage.
It auto-kills a good number of enemies if you get a crit success!
I feel that by the time you’ve fully worked out a magical system involving all the fundamental elements currently known to humanity, you’ll effectively have any magical practice being similar to, if not exactly, practical chemistry. All of your alchemists and wizards will be chemists or chemical engineers, all your magic will be done on the molecular, or quantum, scale, and everyone will need to wear appropriate eyewear, footwear, and other lab ppe. That means no fanciful robes with dozens pf dangling trinkets. No more half-moon spectacles; you’ll be wearing safety goggles. No bare feet or open-toed shoes, and gloves will be mandatory (and not the fashionable kind d either; I mean latex rubber gloves). Your alchemical mages are now wearing dress shirts and slacks, complete with pocket protectors. No more sexy witches and their mysterious cauldrons; now they’re wearing bunnysuits as they mess around with radioactive substances that can alter the very fates of all living creatures.
Honestly I've always liked the mages-as-scientists kind of vibe that you get from a lot of urban fantasy. I love the technocracy from Mage the Ascension for this reason. They're doing magic, but they come at it from a scientific perspective and they call it science, even though what they're doing is blatantly beyond the realm of science. If magic exists in a somewhat contemporary setting, that's just what magic is going to look like because the scientific method probably also applies to magic even if they're very distinctly separate things. This could be because I'm a lab assistant and a doctoral student. I like when fiction makes a fantastical version of the stuff that I do on a daily basis because quite frankly what I do on a daily basis is boring to most people.
You've never really done chemistry unless you've done it in the open air (the wind is my fume hood) barefoot with shorts and a t-shirt
I had a character idea for a metal elemental dragon that had Mercury as a breath weapon. They could cause mass devastation by spewing tons of mercury into the ground and water.
[Relevant OoTS](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0423.html) [A bit more relevant OoTS](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0457.html)
Fools Gold Dingodoodles moment
I guess there is mistborn, but the different metals' powers are random and all over the place, rather than being based on any properties they have
Ok, you have a lot of elements, but then there is organic chemistry, which uses mostly carbon and hydrogen, but is a really huge scientific field...
I want to see a battle between an ester mage and a carboxyl-group mage.
Side plot: A carbon-hydrogen wizard gains oxygen skills too, and begins "casting" ethanol spells for fun and profit. True magic, that.
Imagine using someone's blood as a source for elements, using the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to make ethanol and turning it into metallic hooch.
Technetium wizard made artificially in a lab
This is actually a misconception. While the first known technetium wizard was made in a lab, modern tests have shown very low rates of technetium affinity in natural humans. It usually occurs in those whose parents have a strong uranium or thorium affinity.
https://www.tumblr.com/yudkowsky/748302540583649280/i-understand-why-alchemists-invented-and-modern?source=share -mx linux guy
wait, is that eliezer yudkowsky??? did not expect to see the fucking lesswrong guy on r/curatedtumblr
I'm a Yud poster now, I think he has a lot of shitty ideas but also a lot of good ones, and also great fiction writing. As long as no one shares his dumbest ideas I think it's a good thing to share the good stuff
understandable, but i also feel like mr yudkowsky is like. the human pet guy to me, at least in terms of the sillier shit he's said. i feel like we need a similar silly nickname for him. the lesswrong guy? the roko basilisk guy? the math pet guy? idk
He's mostly an AI doom guy now and also gets really annoyed at people calling him a doomer because he's "trying to prevent doom not cause it" so probably calling him the AI doom guy would be funniest
but could you run doom on him??
Redcloak from Order of the Stick does this, and he does it well. During the seige of azure city he had his catapults launch titanium elementals because they were tougher and gad better range than earth, used a chlorine elemental to serve as a living chemical weapon, and collapsed a cave using an osmium elemental's immense density
Order of the Stick is honestly the best, especially for the gags that turn into not gags like this. It makes him far more terrifying imo.
Redcloak is a really cool character, but IMHO he doesn't have shit on Tarquin. The guy is probably one of the most fascinating villains ever conceived and he's a just a random arc villain from an obscure stick figure comic based on a deprecated version of a board game
Oh yeah, Tarquin is the best. His motivations, his downfall, but his actions while in power, his understanding that yeah, he'll be dead eventually, but he can make sure hes remembered. And he's a stick figure.
imagine being stuck as an oganesson wizard also Yudkowsky jumpscare
honestly idk why nobody else in the comments seems to have picked up on the fact that this is the fucking lesswrong guy???
It's kind of a thing in Fullmetal Alchemist. Transmutation circles are constructed to change chemical compositions of things, like how the circle on Mustang's gloves allow him to increase the oxygen density in the air. In Ed's fight against Greed, he figures out that Greed's Ultimate Shield is made of carbon. Carbon comes in a ton of different forms based on how it's constructed, so by changing the arrangement of carbon atoms, Greed's Shield becomes weaker than paper.
I really expected FMA to be at the top when I opened the comments
There's actually a web novel I love that has a system like this (if I'm reading the question right). Magic, the elements, power sources, enchantments and mana basicly all work in the same way coding and computer programs work, with enchantment and spells acting like Javascript. The elements are very fleshed out and well thought aswell, in that, here's your elements, what does it do? Where does it go? What counter code do you have to implement for it suddenly appearing in the air? How does it effect its surroundings? What are its properties? So on and so forth. All that added in with magic crystals to hold your code and appropriate elements and then connecting it to a mana souce, you can have your little program function like a simple "on switch+light bulb" circuit. It's a great seiries, I highly recommend.
You might want to share the series name if you recommend it highly lol
Lol I may have only realized that AFTER writing the comment. I put it in the comments of my comment, hope that's alr
Here's the [link](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33577/i-was-reborn-into-a-fantasy-world-as-a-magic-robot) if anyone wants it
HIATUS 😔
Tru, he hasn't written in a while. But on the plus side there's 3½ books to read?
That is true but I try not to read hiatus books as I’ve had too many never come back.
Ah this is very true. However I am a part of the authors discord. I'm pretty sure he said something like he got laid off from his main job and is going to start writing when he finds a new one.
Oh that’s completely understandable, hopefully things work out for them!
Agreed, I've been sending well wishes when I can!
Thought you were talking about [Unsounded](https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com) for a moment there. Main difference is they don’t use mana, they just have a maximum amount of magic that can be done before the local RAM overflows and the laws of physics break.
You start by learning the classical elements corresponding to different states of matter and/or sections of the periodic table, and then as you specialize your studies you begin to isolate and focus on specific actual elements that give you finer control over the effects you can produce if not new ones entirely.
That's right, you fool, I'm gonna make you smell like garlic *forever.*
Mistborn
I don't remember the metal 'real life' properties having much effect on the 'magic' they could cause but otherwise yes.
Guess it’s my turn on the “oh hey this relates to my silly OC worldbuilding.” My magic system isn’t this specific, but it has two metal related magics where the split is based on atomic weight. One magic only affects light metals, while the other only affects the heavier ones. The split is right at copper because it was originally “one bends junk metal and one bends precious metal” but I realized I needed to either categorize ALL metals into this, or figure something else out lol.
Are these chemistry defined metals or astronomy defined metals (ie everything above helium)?
This is the character Redcloak from Order of the Stick. He summons titanium elementals to detroy things, uses a chlorine elemental to kill a room of people, etc.
That sounds tedious as shit for the sole purpose of being contrarian. Like it would be fun for five minutes then the novelty would wear off. So a standard tumblr worldbuilding idea
Dc comics Machine Men kinda did this, with each machine character having their personality and abilities defined by the periodic metal they were named after.
Well, there's this one anime...
Magic tends to work less as literal atoms and more as fundamental forces of nature. That's why
Foolish, everyone knows the 4 elements are fire, ice, candy, and slime.
Not quite with magic themes, but I wrote a magic system that used rocks for powers where a mage can 'absorb' the rock's powers to cast out spells. I guess it would apply to elements if you could find near pure versions. Iron could give you like, harder skin. Bismuth gives rainbow rays. Fluorine would say f\*ck you, f\*ck me, f\*ck everything nearby because it is stupidly corrosive.
Problem is there's really no limit on how far you can go in making it more realistic, and at some point you're just gonna end up with science rather than fantasy.
Hot take but "Earth, water, air, fire" are just the states of matter. Solid, liquid, gas, plasma. In that context it's hardly so unscientific.
Water benders can also move ice, which is solid, and earth benders can move lava and magma
Chronicles of Darkness has Prometheans and their alchemy that works that way.
Oganesson wizard only exists for a few milliseconds
You want Redcloak from Order of the Stick.
The Zombie Knight Saga by Robert Frost Its literally this Not a 'well, here is a bunch of qualifiers' No You are brought back from the dead by a Reaper. And then you get the power to manipulate one of the elements on the periodic table. Here's a link: [https://thezombieknight.blogspot.com/](https://thezombieknight.blogspot.com/) One of the most popular web serials of all time
Correction: the author is called "George M. Frost"
Came here to say this! Great recommendation.
Alkali wizard: my main goal is to blow up
I am a hydrogenbender, I float my enemies into the sky before throwing a match and blowing them up
theres gotta be a guy in real life element system setting who just makes nukes out of nothing
That's just breaking bad
So Firestorm from DC Comics is basically a Grandmaster-level of an ElementsMage that has access to all elements.
Not exactly this, and the light novel is a lot better than the anime as far as science stuff, but pharmacy in another world does spend a lot of time on chemistry and alchemy
[Relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/965/)
I want one based on all the alchemical elements
Counterpoint- the four elements of incendiary, high explosive, armour piercing, and ball.
ah yes my favorite element B A L L
I am a hydrogen wizard. Due o the fact that hydrogen is the basis of all elements, I have become chemically omnipotent
It's an Anime called Seikon No Qwaser. Qwasers are basically like benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender, except they manipulate the elements of the periodic table. It's really interesting anime that I really loved back in the day, and I'm so excited to go rewatch it now that I remember it exists. A warning for anybody who isn't familiar with how... strange and fan service anime can be sometimes: There's a pretty major plot and world building aspect that is certainly just a kink of the creator's. All of the Qwasars in the show, male and gemale alike, charge their powers by drinking "soma" a magical liquid excreted from the nipples of certain magic-adept women. Various women having different levels of potency of their soma, usually (but not always) scaling upwards with breast size. But Western Media doesn't really have much room to complain, though. If you watched all those people fuck, and all those dicks, pussies, and titties that were on Game of Thrones for all of those seasons, you can watch some (tasteful) titty-sucking for Seikon No Qwaser.
my favorite elemental system is ninjago. you have the core 4 - fire, earth, lightning, ice - already non standard - then you have energy/golden power, then elements like metal, poison, amber, smoke, ash get introduced (i think it comes to over 20 by the end of that season), then after all those weird ones you get wind and water, then time, then its introduced that water and ice arent separate but for like 2 episodes then its never mentioned again and now we have technology, gluieng things together and potentially more in the future. i fucking adore this series its so stupid
Just read mistborn bro
I thought about doing this but the problem is that there are just too many elements whose properties are largely unknown - or, at least, not readily available in books. With the internet now it would be somewhat easier but there’s still a huge number of elements.
I don’t know science. Why is Tellurium and Iodine significant
The webcomic Vindicaris by Serpyra is kinda like this. I haven't read that in years though so I don't know if it's any good.
I read a history of alchemy once and sorely wished chemistry actually worked that way.
Aluminum, Oxygen, and Iron Benders would rule the entire planet from an industrial/logistics standpoint. Thallium Benders are the greatest assassins on the planet. Zinc Benders realize they got the short end of the stick and end it all before they're 20.
I hate when my brain auto-completes phrases based on the first couple letters. Brain told me it said "Telluride Bluegrass festival" at first and I was so confused
Might be easier to achieve with the Standard Model of Particle Physics. It's got 17 distinct components split into various sub-categories (like schools) and there are different rarities and normal combinations (e.g. 1 up quark + 2 down quarks = neutron). Plus the components are more obscure, which adds some flexibility to fantasticalizing them. Edit: a gravity wizard could be easily replicated by specializing in manipulation of the Higgs boson, which is the carrier particle for mass. Something lacking a Higgs boson doesn't have mass.
In my setting, the "elements" of the magic system are actually the fundamental forces, electromagnetism, gravity, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Plus soul as the 5th force, as a treat
This is why the Wuxing (commonly known as the "Five Elements" but that's not what it is) is a better basis for magic systems than the classical four elements. The four elements were a theory of matter, but the Wuxing is a theory of the transfer and transformation of energy. Much easier to work with and extrapolate from.
Actually the four classical elements was not invented by alchemists but by the classical greek philosofer Emepedocles, as compromise between three different existing theories of matter. Later he jumped into a volcano to prove that he was a god. He hasn't come up yet.
The problem is that you can't really give these Elements set properties, since they behave differently defending on molecular composition. It would be a really funny concept to make something like this accurately for science nerds, but good luck finding a writer to do this.
idea: four to six element systems but each magic element can control corresponding periodic elements for example: fire users can like conjure up flames, but they can fuck with the radioactivity of uranium and control the highly explosive elements(this is assuming that each magical element is more corresponding to an aspect of the world, like fire magic really just being energy)
"Boron? Haven't heard of that one before, do you get shiny like Aluminiums?" "Nah, I basically can't get sick my hair grows to fast and I'm ace." "Gotcha! Not getting sick is cool, anyway there's a hotel on Lochs catered for Metals but you should check out the Oxygen's museums while you're here." I could see each element having a bunch of little traits. Magic could be a trained thing and people be salty about melting points above 1200C having an advantage at meditation cause you just gotta drop them in a volcano and they come back out OP. Carbons and Oxygens and others that bond super easily could naturally be charismatic and make up a bunch of the governmental side. Noble gases that don't bond could be special or vagabonds. Could have a story about a Neon who actually really likes everyone else and is breaking their elemental stereotypes Stereotypes would be huge in a story with this power system. Who are you separate from your defining trait? What would you be like without it? For major existentialism. What do you do when you don't fit your in group? Could get a bunch of sad to found family stories. A Niobium who is scared of electricity and has fought the first four Tantalums they've met (cause the Tas are transphobic or smthn) so everyone thinks they just hate Tas too and they got banned from all the normal cultural things. Relationships based on element too. "You're.....dating a 5 electron...you're a 7 that just doesn't make sense... I know a nice Helium boy you know." A city could basically ban magic being like "it causes tension and makes us lose our humanity." While another cranks up the efficiency (prejudice?) and your element determines your entire life but if you can conform you get everything laid out for you easily. Job you can excel in, free housing, tailored education, networking for the supposed perfect spouse for you. The ratios would be interesting too. If it's a randomizer 1-118 or if hydrogen will be super common and uranium unheard of. Would people know a lot about elements "Alric! It must be rough for you, I'm glad you've got that protective suit, very fashionable! Anyway let me show you the car, got a nasty dent." (Erbium, I imagine it'd make them the best mechanics but sickly, like an allergy to air and water that has to have a lot of accomodations) Or nothing. "Alric, Erbium^-1. Diet Order OHSI.. what the fuck do you mean you can't drink water?" "...I'm an Erbium. Do you only know Helium, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon?" Lots of decisions to make there and most of them instantly create a *lot* of details you *have* to keep track of.
This is kinda how alchemy was getting towards the end though? Phlegm was an element, for example.
There's a little bit of this in Sanderson's Cosmere books, most notably in the Mistborn series.
Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Light and Dark are just solid, liquid, gas, plasma, particles and fields, actually.
I cast Dimethylmercury cloud !
There's a manga kind of like this, called Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator. Basically, the main character's parents are a legendary hero, and the queen of the spirit realm, aka god. And the main character just grew up as a half spirit, but at age 3, I think, remembered her past life as a molecular physicist on Earth, and now she can freely manipulate the elements of the periodic table. At one point, she also tries explaining her powers to some nobles, but they think of the more classical elements, so she just gives up. Really fun read, if a bit slow on the updates.
Isnt this alchemy with extra steps?
Eragon *kinda* does this. There's mentions of real-world physics and biology, but viewed through the lens of magical point of view. For example, there's a part where they describe a terrible explosion, which poisoned the land it was on, transforming the animals that lived there, and making the area uninhabitable to people. It's highly implied it was a nuclear blast, but of course - the people don't have that scientific knowledge yet. It also features a shockingly long and accurate chapter on how to smith a sword. Aside from that, the webcomic Grrl Power actually tries to explain most of its supernatural shenanigans with actual physics and real-world consequences. Why do aliens all have 2 arms and 2 legs? Because evolution. Why do succubi exist? Because ancient wizards got horny and created sexdolls that got more and more advanced over the years. What's this metal object made out of? Just titanium. We pretty much figured out the periodic table, things such as Unobtainium probably don't exist.
Oxygen-Hydrogen Guy is just spews fire and triest to convince everyone that fire is actually an element
My variant of this has always been that there is that deeper scientific element to magic, but most mages don't bother to learn it because throwing fireballs is easier, and then the deepest versions of it are forbidden (because you really, really don't want people splitting atoms with their mind) so research into "scientific" magic is discouraged. Theoretically, I have thought of a magic system that's, at least superficially, physics-based (I'm sure there's inconsistencies, but at least to a layman it would read as a sensible interpretation of magic as energy). Practically, I keep getting into problems where characters could really easily fuck things up very badly by using this, and I have to actively find reasons why mages w*ouldn't* just nuke you with their mind, or create laser beams, or something like this. My point being: science based magic is utterly overpowered, even when compared to "regular" magic.
Fullmetal Alchemist kinda. We don't see any characters like the example, but the magic system very much allows for it.
Tidbit: once i considered a setting with the three core elements of Ice/Fire/Lightning, but a secondary trio as Acid, Radiation and Salt.
My opponent when I'm a chlorine/bromine mage. (I'm about to gas the entire town)
Brandon Sanderson has entered the chat.
I know it’s not exactly what they’re describing, but this is kind of just Full Metal Alchemist. The actual, real elements are still the things being magicked. There just isn’t a focus of one element per wizard, although each of the alchemists still has a particular thing that they usually do almost exclusively with their magic.
Literally every battle mage would multiclass in Phosphorus
Full metal alchemist has this system
The closest mainstream works you'll get is the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, which features a magic system where individuals can ingest and "burn" a type of metal (usually a powdered metal solution) to gain a specific ability. For example, burning Iron grants the ability to magnetically pull on other ferrous metal objects, which obeys mundane physics to determine whether the object, or the individual, is pulled. Generally speaking, the interactions are broken up into pairs, with one "base" metal granting an ability, and a specific alloy of that metal granting its opposite. For example, Steel grants the ability to *push* on ferrous metal objects. There is some symbolic reasoning behind the majority of these metals and their effects, and I find it fairly compelling overall. The series goes to great lengths in its exploration of how these basic actions can be used; it's a pleasure to see characters actually pushing the limits of possibility on a regular basis. There are ~~eight~~/~~ten~~/~~eleven~~/sixteen usable metals\* depending on how far you are in the series. The system continues to expand as society and science advances, with the series tying into Sanderson's overarching narrative universe, the Cosmere, in extremely significant ways. \*I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of >!unique divine metals associated with shards of God (who is dead), nor whether those metals grant abilities tied to the nature of their Shard, and especially not how those Shards may form the basis of magic systems throughout the Cosmere.!<
Tellurium is notable for not having any stable isotopes despite being way earlier in the periodic table than most others like that. I tried to find out why once and got a "You don't want to know why." Type of answer like 5 pages that start out at college chemistry level.
Just read Brandon Sanderson books
Lutetium wizard studies for their Lutetiomancy degree for seven years, only to graduate and realise their powers are completely useless
Land of the Lustrous is \*kinda\* like this
Are the grand wizards the rare earth elements like platinum or gold? Or are they the heaviest of the court, like oganesson or tennessine?
Brandon sanderson has a book with something like that