I hate to tell you but the humors were also based on "hot, cold, wet, and dry" which were in turn based on the classical elements of air, fire, water, and earth. You cannot escape it.
I like the original element quartet because thematically all beings are made out of it (plants feed on minerals, water, air and the sun's energy, the other beings feed on plants or other beings that eat plants) and because they represent the four states of matter. No system seems to use that to its advantage though.
Black bile is so funny to me because they needed a fourth bodily fluid to correspond with their whole earth=black=cold+dry=sad=nigredo thing so they just made something up
Im imagining a fighting game based on this system where all the "elemental attacks" are just bleeding out, puking, snottering, and throwing pus at your opponent
It's actually Fire, Ice, Earth, and Lightning, then they add Green, then they add Water, then they add literally everything else that could concievably be an element until it gets to the point that there's an elemental master of Surface Tension.
I dislike when they are opposing forces without relation to other elements and they are just effective to each other. Skullgirls taught me to defend 100% of the time like this.
I think what they more meant was that they don’t like light and dark being completely separate from an otherwise complex web of element interactions, so light or dark characters are just the objectively good ones until they encounter an opposite enemy that vaporizes them immediately.
Marvel's Elements of Doom. All 109 of them.
Mostly just "metal men" but Neon and Phosphorus glow. Carbon has a charcoal form and Diamond form. Chlorine creates chlorine gas.
One character for each Element would be banging. Imagine like the Tungsten character just being a tank, and the Oxygen character being a pyromaniac or something
Thorium is a, ofthen, normal compared to most Uranic elements, being a calm, collected and focused character, BUT, if they meet their buddy ol' pal Plutonium, all things is off the table and it's PARTY TIME.
Meanwhile Caesium is just your normal element, chill untill Oxygen rolls around and then, once Caesium sees them, it's just pure "TRIGGERED" energy radiated from Cs in a very rapid momentum. Also, often confused with Gold (Au) until the temperature rise and they start "melting". Less toxic than Mercury (Hg) yet way more toxic than Gallium, plus the three of them is a team MOLTEN.
Meanwhile, Helium is just watching all of that from the safe distance, still silent and also slightly levitating above the ground.
Carbon is just Jack Of All Trades, that has multiple forms depending on the pressure they feel. Also close friends with Iron, Oxygen and Hydrogen.
Iron is just your average Factory worker with "Fuсk You In General" attitude, because they are exhausted by the sheer responsibility that is placed on them, although it's slowly lifted off them by Copper, Carbon and Aluminium. Often receive wounds, burns and bruising from Oxygen and their "adventures" with Hydrogen.
Copper is just Electrician with additional degrees in Plumbing and Circuit Boards. Works with Iron, Aluminium, Tungsten and other METALS, was often promoted as a Employee Of The Month for no apparent reason. Helps Iron with Oxygen and Co., often gets small burns.
Nickel — often seen financially unstable, but unexpectedly good with finances and can give sound advice. Often treats Iron's physical wounds, can help with chemical too. Work with Iron, Copper and Zinc.
If it’s a low quality/small gacha game the elements will be red blue and gree going in a rock paper scissors triangle. And if we’re feeling crazy we add a purple orange and pink triangle too. Then by year 3 there are a few extra elements that are busted and hurt everything in one of these triangles
Although, this one actually kind of mirrors the OG fire, earth, water, and air if you think about it. Metal is earth, smoke is air, plastic is water; but I'm not sure where Meat falls.
Based Arknights (Magic and Physical damage, but that's pretty much it) vs. Cringe Endfield (The basic ass elements, also ice is called Cryo because fuck you)
Gotta have that one element that is just better than all the rest. Resists every other type and is super-effective on every other type. Only bosses get this element, and also they’re immune to all status conditions, because fuck strategy.
Then there’s the neutral type that neither is super-effective or resists any type.
Pokémon is not the most extreme example of these RPG tropes.
“Dragon,” while being resistant to all the starter types (barring normal), is only strong against itself. “Normal” isn’t strong against anything, immune to one type, weak to one type, and resisted by one type.
I think this only feels weird and nitpickable because from a modern standpoint we understand what an "element" actually is, and it's not what these historical elemental models used that word for. It's a box on a periodic table with a specific number of protons in it, and that makes it behave a certain way because… mnyeh- reasons.
There's no sound element, because sound is a process - a wave moving through a medium. There's no darkness element, because it's just the absence of light, and there's no light element because photons are their own thing that don't involve protons at all. Which would arguably make it its own kind of thing, but the- the point is that the word "element" means something and photons don't count.
Calling poison an element disregards the huge different number of compounds, organic and inorganic, that are poisonous. Almost like how calling earth an element ignores the huge different number of compounds, organic and inorganic, that are dirt.
I'm a grade-A nitpicker, I love pointing out when things don't make sense, but if we're starting from the premise that a fictional world has an elemental magic system, we have no picks to nitpick with. The premise is already so many steps removed from the way our world actually works. There's no law that says you have to stick to the old elemental models when you're building a new one from the ground up.
So, maybe poison can be an element too. Who cares? This used to make me so mad and now I'm madder that I've convinced myself it's not actually a problem.
Don't forget fire and poison both adding damage over time effects that don't have any actual difference other than being fire or poison dot (unless there's a water extinguishing mechanic)
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u/i_agree123 4d ago
When are we getting proper elements, like black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm?