The Elements have been updated to include Arcana and Metal as follows:

The reason they have been updated is due to wanting to tie the deities to an element over which they rule. Arcana is for the God/dess of Magic, once we have one again, and Metal is for our Goddess of Blades, Veronna Darkblade. Simply look to the deity to understand the element!

There will most likely be some other changes, like new shop ideas, coming up soon. They will be announced when they are up!

~Lady Era / AD

I don't paticularly favor this change in elements. Personally it doesn't make sense entirle to be to be aligned with magic or metal without being made of either. The Domains of Magic and Blades/arms are not elements at all. These are represent more so by class just as Light and Darkness are represented more by Good and Evil alignments on this site. It is afterall possible to have warriors of good using the power of darkness (not the power of evil), though not likey. If Magic and Blades were to have an actual element it would most appropriately be none for both, as that would show a balance of the other elements. Metal additonaly doesn't cover all weaponry as it is bossible to have weapons made of different materials which kind of defeats the entire purpose of having the metal 'element'.

Ultimately there would be not Blades/Arms magic shop, cause that would either fall under arms enchantments or of course general magic (which has no real elemental alignment), because it's not really an element where as earth,wind, fire, and etc are.

Lastly the elements are supposed to have a counter-element, paticularly the primary elments, such as Fire-Water, Earth-Wind, but Arcana is not an effect counter-element to blades.

Anywho I think that's all of my points.

The elements have nothing what so ever with someone being made of something or not, nor to being opposites (which isn’t really a requirement for an element as any can be combined as I will show in a moment). It is a kinship with an element and as far as I know is only related to the Planes and the Deities. It’s easy enough to explain… so, in order:

Fire = Goddess of Flame = Elemental Plane of Fire
Water = Goddess of Water = Elemental Plane of Water
Earth = God/dess of Nature = Elemental Plane of Earth
Air = God of Air = Elemental Plane of Air
Light = God of Light = Celestial Plane (Good)
Dark = God of Darkness = Demonic Plane (Evil)
Arcana = God/dess of Magic = Etheral Plane (Magic)
Metal = Goddess of Blades = Material Plane (aka Imythess itself. Which would be why she rules Taras!)

The following would be examples of Secondary Elements. They are in no way locked into place nor are they a complete list. The idea of opposites is actually only between Light and Darkness being Good and Evil, though as elements they can be combined.

Fire + Water = Steam
Fire + Earth = Magma
Fire + Air = Lightning
Fire + Light (Good) = Purification
Fire + Dark (Evil) = Ash
Fire + Arcana = Flame (controlled Fire)
Fire + Metal = Blade
Water + Earth = Mud/Clay
Water + Air = Storm/Mist
Water + Light = Healing (natural)
Water + Dark = Poison
Water + Arcana = Healing (magical)
Water + Metal = Ice
Earth + Air = Dust/Sand
Earth + Light = Nature
Earth + Dark = Distruction
Earth + Arcana = Magical Beasts/Beings
Earth + Metal = Stone/Coins
Air + Light = Life/Breath
Air + Dark = Void
Air + Arcana = Aether (Stars/Heaven)
Air + Metal = Wind
Light + Dark = Shadow
Light + Arcana = Holy
Light + Metal = Blessed/Peace
Dark + Arcana = Unholy
Dark + Metal = War
Arcana + Metal = Balance

Hope that covers enough! ^_^

As far as Elements go I've always looked at it as all creatures being a composite of all the elements, with the exception of elementals which obviously are made of their element. One's primary element would be what the element that ties to them the most out of the composition and generally the subject would show talent in that area. While one can legitimize looking at light and Darkness as apart from Alignment (for instance while batman is good in alignment one could certainly say he has a primary element of Darkness), but you really can't say that Arcana and Metal are apart from the Class.

Magic isn't apart of the Ethereal plane, magic doesn't even have it's full effects on the Ethereal plane, though it does effect the ethreal plane just as it effects spiritual creatures. Magic is very much entitled to the material plane as well, It's spells are most effective there. Of course if magic were to be of any paticular plane it would likely be of Limbo largely because it is parts of other planes coming together in a constantly changing chaos. Magic itself can't really be an element, but because that would mean that all magic is elemental magic. Magic is a skill and is appropriately noted in Class. There's really no need to iterate again that your character has ties to magic. We're much more interested in what kind of magic the character uses since that base is already covered.

Metal is not so bad to compare to the goddess of blades, but it fits horribley when you say it compares material Plane. Nature would certainly be more entitled to the material plane paticularly if you meant nature as in the spell shops rather than Earth which is something slightly different than nature. The plane of Force would actually be most appropriate for the domain of the Goddess of Blades. Force in fact would be much better used than Metal. Force is atleast it's own class of spells. Ultimatley the goddess of Blade's domain largely covers skill in battle, which is a skill shown in what a character chooses for a class. And As I said before there really no need to reiterate what was already stated in the character's class.

As for the list of composition it could be legitimized without the use of arcana and metal, arcana doesn't trully change anything drastically and Metal is notably earth and fire, so while I can see why you made, I don't see how it gets your point across.

Okay. I don't know if my opinion is going to be taken very seriously here, but I had a thought for a counter-element for metal. Lightning/Electricity. I mean, after all, what is lightning more likely to strike when the following two things are side by side? A tree, and a metal building. Both are the same height. But that's just my opinion.

EDIT: Just thought of something. Look at it this way. In the PlayStation game Legend of Dragoon, Thunder and Void had no real elemental opposites, but they were still considered elements. Just my two cents. Take em, or leave em.

... <_< *wonders why this became a debate, it was an Adminastrative decisions to change this after all, started by Lehona and approved by all of the Admins*

There really is no point in arguing Ace, unless you want to try and argue with all the Admin. It's not just my dissension after all, I'm just letting people know.

It was changed because we want the Deities to have their own Element. How it is handled is none on my business beyond the Element of Fire. If you disagree with the planes or such, feel free to take it up with the respective Gods or Goddesses. If and when we have them...

As for the Ethereal Plane, as far as I understood it it is a plane mirroring the Material Plane where things are unseen/unknown. Magic has always been considered a thing that can not be physically touched but is power all the same. If you become the God of Magic you can call it whatever you want. We are trying not to use D&D terms though, so it could be magic or we could create a Arcana Plane and say all magic originated from there… or perhaps I should suggest some Incarnum stuffs.

As for the Material Plane, this is where all the elements/planes come together. If Metal is too close to the other elements for you, simply think of it as Blades. Both Arcana and Metal are not meant to be physical representations of anything, just as Dark and Light are more concepts then real things, their ties to Evil and Good being the only driving factor behind the Deities. They are not entirely based on only Light and Dark, as the one cannot exist without the other in one way or the other.

Arcana is meant to represent unseen power and would work well as an element for characters who are half-dragons (dragons being inherently magical beings), many sorts of Elves, and any being made from magic like Sargoth and Taika. This would make them an inherently magical being and would make it easier for them to use magic, but by no means requires them to be part of a magical class. A Fighter with Arcana as an element could easily be magical all on their own, easily able to use spells to help themselves fight better with buffering spells or simply have the ability to effectively use magical weapons after having them only a short time.

Metal (Blades) is meant to represent the seen and physical, defenders who may or may not have access to magical power, but who choose to make themselves their own best defense. This is the use of their own power as opposed to an outside power. Weapons are easy tools for them to use and defending things would be natural, though what they fight for can be their own. Anyone who doesn't like, know, or use magic but feels it natural to use other such things can have Metal as an element. This has nothing to do with their class. A magic user with Metal would be one that could wear armor easily and may use their weapons to cast their spells in addition to using the weapons for their main use (WarMage).

This topic is not open for argument. These decisions were decided by all active admins of that time and we all agreed on it.

Tell you the truth, I really like the elements of Arcana and Metal. It actually gives me an element. While I know my element could be nothing, that's just plan boring!

Imythess is suppose to have room for things like this to exist. My goal, for Imythess, is to make it more original then any other fantasy/medieval site out there.

I'm not going to go on and on about this, because, well, I'm more straight forward then that.

But for right now, I like our decision and stand by it, and that is all that should matter to anyone. Sometimes you have to trust the admins and be open for new changes! ^_^

Meh, I hadn't intentionally turned into a debate. I merely was trying to say what I didn't like about it and why. I'm not a moderator, let alone admin so I don't have too much of a voice, paticuarly when all the admin agree upon it. Nevertheless, I guess it does hit the goal very well of setting Imythess apart from other sites.

There goes freedom of speech. Personally, I agree with Ace, but I guess each deity would want an element, so go for it.

I'm sorry that this new implement is not favored by all and it is understandable that not everyone will see eye to eye on everything. It is our hope as Admins to bring you a unique world to role-play in and that is what we have been trying to do.

While the world of Imythess was an absolutely wonderful idea in the beginning when first created by Laoura, it has evolved over the years into a beautiful land that welcomes many new characters in each month. Since the beginning, many new changes have been made in hopes of creating an even better set of forums and to draw in new members.

Now, it is not that you opinions are not valued, it is quite the opposite actually. Without the people of Imythess, there would be no Imythess at all. Please understand that while things may not always go the way you'd like them to, it is for the best we hope that they are the way they are.

Who knows, perhaps one day these new elements will be melded into something quite extrordinary. Our powers are limitless in this world we have all created, all we must do is open our minds and let our imaginations run wild.

I'm a bit behind in contributing to this topic but I thought I'd post my support for this change. :) To me, element choices were about what parts of the world people related to the most, or perhaps something they believed in strongly. Pyromaniacs might consider their element to be fire, someone like myself would consider their element to be magic, and perhaps someone that has spend their entire life training in the art of swordplay would most identify with metal. On my board Arda we have some more abstract elements like life, chaos, balance and time, none of which have tangible objects associated with them. I never saw elements as relating to what people are physically made of, that doesn't make sense for any human or elf to have an element like that. Sometimes I saw it as a representation of which deity a person followed too.