Alright then! Xuanzang here... again... so, elements! Yes, basic magic (that is, magic which doesn't belong to one of the sub-classes - though don't make the mistake of thinking it's never complicated!) is divided into six elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light and Dark. One for each god, other than their Holiest of Holy Majesties themselves, who are too cool for elements. There are also opposing pairs of elements, which are good at negating one another and can't be combined. Those pairs are: Fire and Water, Earth and Air and Light and Dark. Finally, here's a nice picture of the elements Wukong drew:
No, I don't know what that thing representing Earth on the top left is either... but now on to the description of each element in turn!
Fire
Why does everyone always think of Fire first? Seriously, why not Air or Water? Or Light? Ah well. Fire's pretty simple - you make stuff burn. Well, alright, actually it's a little deeper than that. Specifically, 'Fire' is control over heat energy. You can make things hotter, make things colder... or, yes, just make them burn. Fire is the simple element in that it doesn't really any frills - whereas Water gets stuff like telepathy, Earth gets some nice healing powers and so on and so forth, Fire just has that - Fire. Well, manipulation of heat energy. You get the point. Not much else to say, here - obviously it's an element that's strong in offence, weak in defence and pretty useless in Healing magic, until you start combining it with other elements like some of the top-level Healing magic requires (that's a whole different subject, though). Honestly, it's rather boring really - it's just for people who like big explosions. Next!
Water
Alright, now this is much better! Water's a great element. Always been one of my favourites, really, though Air beats it by a little. (Psst. I'm actually better than Wujing in the water. He just hates admitting it.) Water controls anything liquid (with a few special exceptions) and anything to do with a liquid. So, obviously there's the basic water manipulation. Then you can use Ice and Steam too (it actually involves manipulating heat energy a little... ain't that Fire, I hear you ask? Yup, and there's a really funny story behind that, in fact... I'll tell you some other time...). A popular ability's being able to breathe underwater - never have to worry about drowning again! Obviously you can swim better too - actually there's a whole branch of support magic relating to moving around in the water (that's a popular one for the alchemists, since it's easy to put into amulets and what not). Then there's all the mental stuff - Undra is the Goddess of Wisdom, after all. Telepathy, telekinesis, dream-interpretation, foresight even... Water was going to have even more time-related powers, but Ebera put her fut down after the foresight thing. Wouldn't have thought time travel had much to do with Fate per se, but we reckon by that point she just wanted to get at Undra in any way she could. Still, unrealised-time-powers aside, hopefully you can see what a versatile element Water is. There's an old saying among Water Magi: "A Master Fire Mage can do just about anything with heat and energy. A Master Water Mage can do just about anything else." Well, they said it, not me, but trust me, this time they're not too far off. Balance-wise, Water's weak on the offence, decent on the defence and pretty good on the healing front (the human body is two thirds water, after all - oops, forgot you guys aren't meant to know that for another few centuries yet). Its real strength, though, is all the extra stuff - master that and it won't matter how weak the element is in other areas. Well. Mostly.
Air
Woohoo, Air! My favourite (though don't tell Undra... oh wait she's reading this... crap). Actually, that's fairly ironic seeing as Air is, if anything, even more skewed towards offence than Fire - until you get to the high-end abilities, Air really does have very little by the way of defence, and its healing abilities are practically nil. Instead, you've got a whole range of offensive abilities: there's your basic wind, of course, which can cause problems in a variety of ways depending on the battlefield. Then there's lightning - always a favourite with the battle-heads. You've got shockwave attacks too... similar to wind, but not quite the same. So yeah, quite a bit of variety. In that case, you ask, why do I, a self-declared pacifist, love this element so much? Well, quite simply because it's not about all that. Air's an element that's really rich in other abilities. Heck, a lot of them don't even have a real use - this is Venturia's element, after all. But they're still wonderful fun to use. Take flying, for instance. Well, it's a bit of a bad example, since flying's clearly very useful. But a lot of the attraction to it comes from just the sheer exhilaration of whizzing through the air - which is why it always beats teleportation on people's lists of 'dream powers' (always pisses Undra off... though fortunately she keeps a lot better lid on her temper than certain other goddesses). Then there's weather powers - absolutely useless! Well, on a large scale they could be used to help a drought, say, or something along those lines... actually, I have done that before. But most of the time? It's just fun! Anyway, see what I mean? Air is control over anything in the atmosphere, so you can see where all the variety comes from. I'd better stop now, I could talk all day about interesting Air powers but Her Divine Wisdom's giving me the evils... better move on!
Earth
Ah, Earth. Real honest element, this. Not surprising given that Humus is the god of loyalty and all. Earth's a bit more 'hard-working town healer' than 'crusading Paladin', though, if you're wondering the difference between that and Light. Anyway, I'm here to talk about powers more than character, so let's leave that behind. Just thought I'd mention. So, what Earth really is is two things. First of all, it's control over solids, just like Water is control over liquids, Air is control over gases and Fire is control over energy. That's the technical side of things. However, Earth is also the element of life. It's not quite as simple as just saying a few magic words and all the denizens of Mother Nature come at your back and call (it's more of a communal idea), but it does get the same sort of result. On a smaller scale, though, this is where Earth's great ability in healing comes in - drawing on life force and all that. That's the part I like best. As far as the nature thing goes, there's a lot of overlap between Earth Magi and Druids. Let me just say it, though: Druids are better at it than any Mage. That's just how it goes. There's a reason for it, too - ancient divine pacts I'm not allowed to talk about. So, if this branch of Earth magic is all that interests you, you may want to consider Druidism rather than Magecraft. That said, Earth magic does have a slightly different approach, so I guess it's partly a matter of personal preference. Plus there's the whole Earth manipulation thing to sweeten the deal. Stats-wise, Earth is strong on defence and healing but weak on offence and support. I mean, a massive boulder thrown at someone's head may hurt if it works, but it's not very subtle, whilst an earthquake has a tendency to hurt your friends as much as your enemies.
Light
What is Light? Well, to answer that I'd have to get into some pretty complex science - too advanced for you guys, sorry. It's basically control over states other than the ones mentioned already. Sort of. Look, just don't think about it too much, ok? I'll finish this off later, Wukong's left Fuxi in a tree again...
Okay, hi, it's me, Wukong! =D I distracted the old man so I could come and play with the magic writing paper. Oh! He's been explaining the elements? Well okay magic paper.
Um... Light... thats a weird one, Light. Lumen controls Light
Darkness
Dark Magic!? WHERE!? Wait, oh, nevermind. Sorry, I hate Dark Mages, they always play with my brain... Dark Magic is playing with people's mind. Now, the strongest and most experienced Dark Mages can actually take over some weak minded people's will entirely, now thats freaky s**t! Trick them into thinking they're in pain, make them fall in love with someone for a few minutes, hell, even shag 'em. Not that I need Dark Magic for that, o' course. Ahem... Also, with Dark Magic, mages
