Vignette: Rainmaker

This scene is based on the content in the Elementalism Clarified, Part 2 post.

Dax stood in the field and tried to work the kinks out of his neck as he surveyed the early afternoon sky. Yesterday’s rain-calling had been more difficult than usual for this time of year, and it had been late afternoon before he’d soaked the earth at Gressa enough to move on to Karcher, where he’d had to keep the clouds busy into the night to make up for the late start and poor volume. The Karcher folk had been none too happy about that—they’d paid his fee, but the ceremonial meal he received for his services had been paltry and cold.

Still, he was on schedule, moving from village to village in his little contractual domain and calling down steady rain for a day to nourish their crops and fill their catch-basins. Six villages in all, two in a day, the cycle set for a dozen years now, arranged to give two steady days of needed rain each week to the village fields while not competing with the work of his fellow Rainmakers in the neighboring communities.

You could make the rain come, if you had the gift, but you couldn’t squeeze water from a stone or draw too many clouds too close to where another Rainmaker was crafting. The sky held only so much water and it had to be parceled out wisely.

Less than usual, this planting season. There were years when he hardly had to work his magic at all to get a steady downpour. Easy living, that, but then those were the times when people grumbled about the need to be paying a Rainmaker at all. Dax snorted to himself. As if the farmers hadn’t made back his fee ten times over from the extra yields at harvest time or gained security from the ability to get paid a little in advance for bushels promised to the city merchants at the county market.

No, the real trouble he faced was not a lack of demand for his services. It was that whelp of Jerzy Klint’s, the moon-faced apprentice of old Prat Dauber. Word was that the Klint boy could whistle up winds as easily as call the rain.

Dax could barely hold a cloud in place on a breezy day, much less guide it along like a yoked ox. He had to break up the clouds, walk his way from one village to the next, and draw down the waters again. If the apprentice kept progressing in his studies, he’d be able to call a nice downpour and send it floating pretty as you please over three or four fields in a day. One way or another, that meant more rain on the crops and competition that Dax would have to underbid to beat.

The wind picked up in his face as if to spite him. He dropped his hand and flexed his fingers. He’d just have to diversify, was all. Youngsters got caught up in the power of calling down the rain, but Dax could stop up the clouds as well. And he had a knack for shaping snow in winter. Next time a wedding ceremony was in danger of being washed out, he ought to show up and settle things down just to remind folks.

He nodded to himself and then caught old widow Bonner watching him with a critical eye from the edge of the field. Her stern gaze reminded Dax that he was burning daylight talking to himself. He blew out his cheeks and rolled his stiff neck around one more time before throwing his head back and flinging his arms up to the sky.

Within a few heartbeats he knew something was wrong. The water heard him, sure enough, but there was a stronger voice calling, a long way off but strong in spite of it. Dax stretched his spirit out into the sky like a fisherman casting his net, trying to sweep those little droplets together, get them to join up and attract their kin the way they always wanted to once enough of them got together. But that far off pull remained strong.

He caught the thread of that call and tried to trace it to the source. For his trouble he got a shock that froze up his muscles and fixed his face into a grimace of pain. He broke the contact and fell to the field like a discarded rag doll.

His fingers clawed at the soil while he tried to stop the world from spinning. He’d touched the edge of a swirling thunderstorm, wind and electricity and rain drawn together in a terrible fury. No Rainmaker would call down a storm like that, even if they could. That was weather magic meant for war, to batter and slow down an army on the march, or turn a field of battle into a wind-lashed quagmire.

This was the work of a powerful sorcerer, for there was a clear unity of purpose in the voice behind the storm. Dax looked over his shoulder in the direction of the city, saw the darkness building on the horizon. Everything was being pulled to the city. But was it Balthazar Black drawing it to stop an army heading toward the city, or an invader trying to keep soldiers and citizens from getting safely inside the walls?

Either way, there would be no rainmaking today. Nor tomorrow. And one way or another there would be men coming, demanding food and shelter . . . and maybe worse.

Dax picked his way gingerly to his feet, rubbing life back into his sore muscles as the widow and the headmen of the village approached him, their worried eyes on the distant skies. In a final indignity, his hungry stomach growled at him.

Copyright 2009 by Doug Sims

Elementalism Clarified, Part II: Associations

Revised format and content on 2/8/09

One of the limiting factors on Elemental magic is the natural affinities and oppositions among the Elements themselves, which restricts the types of elemental combinations that can be attempted by sorcerers.

Compatible Associations: Diads and Triads
The neighboring elements shown in the Elements diagram are compatible. This means:

• They can be used in conjunction with each other without causing harmful interference patterns that disrupt magic.
• They share similar symbolic languages, meaning that mastering one compatible Element gives a sorcerer insight into mastering one of its partners.
  

The most common compatible association is the diad. Typical diads include the magical Smith's use of Fire and Metal, the Miner's mystic connection to Earth and Metal, or the Architect's sorcerous talent for shaping Earth and Wood.

Triads are more complex and less common. A true Storm Wizard manipulates Electricity, Air, and Rain, for example. Mastering and balancing a trio of Elements requires talent (in the form of a very flexible mind), study, and practice. These limits do not apply to Dragons! Mature Dragons frequently master Triads; Elder Dragons can master as many elements as they care to study.

Whether Diad or Triad, most sorcerers who wield multiple elements are dominant in one and weaker in the others.

Here are the Primary Triads (so named because they are centered on one of the four Prime Elements, and thus have a stronger synergy):

• Air, Electricity, and Rain
• Fire, Electricity, and Metal
• Earth, Metal, and Wood
• Water, Wood, and Rain

Here are the Secondary Triads (because they are centered on a secondary element that mixes two other prime elements, and have less synergy as a result):

• Electricity, Fire, and Air
• Metal, Fire, and Earth
• Wood, Earth, and Water
• Rain, Water, and Air
  

Incompatible Associations: Oppositions
Elements on opposite sides of the diagram are incompatible. They can be used only to destroy or weaken their opposing element, not to combine with it. For example, Fire and Water are incompatible.

Elements can also be secondarily incompatible. For example, Fire is also incompatible to a lesser degree with Rain and Wood, which form a Triad with Water. One person cannot manipulate these Elements at the same time, and even group efforts are limited, because:

• They will cause disruptive interference patterns if present and active in the same location.
• They are based on very different symbolic languages that a human-level intellect cannot comprehend simultaneously. Remember, even mastering a compatible Diad or Triad is a rare gift.

Again, these limitations do not apply as strongly to Dragons. In particular, Elder Dragons are capable of truly remarkable Elemental combinations, though they must manage the resulting interference with great care.

The Prime Oppositions are:

• Fire vs. Water
• Earth vs. Air

The Secondary Oppositions are:

• Fire vs. Water, Rain, and Wood
• Earth vs. Air, Electricity, and Rain
• Air vs. Metal, Earth, and Wood
• Water vs. Electricity, Fire, and Metal

The Tertiary Oppositions are:

• Metal vs. Air, Rain, and Water
• Wood vs. Fire, Electricity, and Air
• Rain vs. Fire, Metal, and Earth
• Electricity vs. Earth, Wood, and Water
  

Other Limitations
If you are Bound to an Element, you cannot manipulate any other elements except those directly related to your chosen Element, and even then you do so at a serious penalty. You have immersed yourself in the symbolism and world view of one elemental form and have difficulty stepping outside of that.

In general, the greater the elemental versatility available to a magic user, the less the intensity of any individual elemental effect. That is, a Firebound individual of equal skill to a Smith is going to be able to produce more intense Fire-related effects than the Smith.

A skilled sorcerer can produce dramatic synergistic effects by blending together compatible elemental forces, however.

The Special Case of Spirit
Manipulating the fundamental, intangible Element of Spirit is a completely different discpline and art than manipulating the Forces and Matter of the other Elements. It is not a technique studied or mastered by the Dragons or their human scions, but it is the foundation of the magic of the Celestial Empire.

Elementalism Clarified, Part I: Spirit and Elementals

Aaron's comment on the previous post made me think about expressing the elemental concept more clearly. All Elements are tied to Spirit, which gives them a connection to living beings, which provides an avenue for communicating with and manipulating elemental forces.

The Role of Spirit
The underlying idea is that Spirit connects all the elements that represent matter and forces in the physical world--something similar to the 18th century concept of the ether, an intangible substance/energy form surrounding and flowing through objects.

Humans and other self-aware beings (including most higher animals) have souls that bind Spirit energies into intricate patterns (Soul-Knots) that store and process information, producing perception, intelligence, and insight.

Elementals are manifestations of the physical forces and energies in the world that also contain Spirit binding patterns, but of a less complex and more focused nature. As a generalization, Elementals tend toward expressing themselves and interpreting the world in terms of emotion, intuition, or will as opposed to rational thought.

Over the centuries, as beings with souls have died, fragments of many of those souls have become linked to Elemental patterns with which they shared an affinity. The result has been a gradual increase in the "personality" and awareness expressed by Elementals with multiple soul fragments forming a sort of gestalt identity within their pattern. Some have hypothesized that the increased practice of Elemental Bonding (see below) will result in Elementals acquiring more and more characteristics of humans, perhaps eventually becoming fully sentient beings in a rational sense. The impact of such a transformation is unknown.

Manipulating Elementals
It is by creating connections between these Spirit patterns (their own and those of the targeted Elemental) that humans and other intelligent beings communicate with Elementals. To facilitate a more powerful and coherent connection, a person has two choices.

• First, they can build up a familiarity with the Elementals of a specific location over time. This can involve repeated rituals and sacrifices, as well as regular mental exercises and visualizations to attune ones' self with the Elementals. The goal is twofold: enhance one's ability to empathize with the desires and perceptions of the Elementals and to insert ones' own pattern into what passes for Elemental memory.
• The second, more drastic option involves a person bonding him or herself with a particular Element, attuning their personal pattern to be more compatible with that of the Element they have chosen. Think of this as increasing both the bandwidth of the Spirit connection and improving the quality of the symbolic language used to communicate. At this level one can communicate with and control Elementals of the proper type in any given location. However, the price paid for this power includes physical and mental transformation of the bonded person.

Of Human Bondage
What follows is a brief description of the physical effects of elemental binding. Waterbound people grow very fat and though graceful may tire easily on land, but move with seal-like ease in the water. Firebound individuals have very little body fat, with a dry, leathery texture to their skin (like a person with too much sun exposure, except they are not necessarily tan!). They also become infertile. Airbound people shrivel to skin and bone, and their bones themselves become more fragile. Earthbound people have stiffer joints and develop various fungal and mossy growths on their bodies.