Natural Philosophy

Since the old times, even before the Sealing, philosophers have been trying to ascertain the nature of the world. The most prevalent school of thought is that everything is composed of four pure elements.

These four fundamental elements as the natural philosophers understand them are Order, Chaos, Creation and Destruction. Every object is made of a unique proportion of each of the elements and the proportions determine all of the external properties that people can interact with, such as shape, colour and function. This also holds for more ephemeral effects and concepts, up to and including feelings. For example, the feeling of affection could be said to be made up of Chaos and Creation. There are a number of concepts that strongly associate with only one of the elements.

Applied natural philosophy can be divided in several disciplines. Some look towards how they can fuse elementally active ingredients together to get interesting properties. This is the study of Alchemy. Many alchemists have rather lofty goals such as distilling pure elements or creating the fabled philosopher’s stone but the more mundane side benefits of their study are enjoyed by all.

Then, there are those philosophers that, through the medium of ritualistic gestures, symbols, intonation and actions, can work in concert to effect changes on the world. This is the art of Thaumaturgy.

It’s not really known why, but it seems that thaumaturgy and science are somehow incompatible ways of looking at the world. Those that dive too deeply into understanding one discipline find themselves unable to properly comprehend the other. While thaumaturgy and alchemy can produce somewhat similar effects, they seem to do so by completely different methods. What is known is that thaumaturgy is more flexible, but is considerably less efficient, and has great difficulty creating effects that are long-lasting - almost all thaumaturgical effects break on sunrise. Thaumaturgy is however good at affecting areas. Alchemy on the other hand can efficiently create powerful focused effects, and they can be bottled to be recreated on demand even quite some time later. Alchemy is, however, very inflexible in comparison to thaumaturgy.

Legend has it that before the Sealing some were able to channel magical energy very quickly. This “Evocation” hasn’t been seen since the Sealing, and is largely thought to be exaggerated myth. While invokers can achieve immediate elemental effects, the power comes from the specially constructed focus, which severely limits their flexibility, while evocation was said to be innate. The closest anyone can come is the ability to quickly channel a thaumaturgic ritual, but this always comes at the cost of the life of the ritualist.

Elements

The element of Order is one of stability and permanence and dislikes change. It also encompasses hierarchy, social propriety, politics and control of others. It’s the element of truth and facts, but also intrigue and misdirection without lying. It’s also the element of discovery by logical deduction, as opposed to the intuitive approach of Chaos. It is associated with earth, the colour blue, and the season of autumn.

Chaos is the element of social revelry, freedom, individualism and wanderlust, but also of lies and outright deception. Chaos likes for things to change, to be in flux and motion. Chaos is the element of discovery by inspiration and lateral thinking. With unconstrained freedom also comes savagery and uncontrolled violence. It is associated with fire, the colour red, and the season of spring.

Creation is the element of life and growth, and also of personal growth and self improvement. Creation is direct. It’s the element of strength and victory, of having power and wielding it, but also of forgiveness and new beginnings. It also encompasses healing, and building items. It is associated with water, the colour green, and the season of summer.

Destruction is probably the trickiest element to grasp. Most superficially it is the element of death, destruction, weakness and ruin, but Destruction is also the element of difficult choices and survival by any means. Destruction is the element of wisdom and subtlety, of skill winning out over strength. It is also the element of vigilance and vengeance. It is associated with air, the colour grey or white, and the season of winter.