LOL! I LOVE how on this forum, I say something like that and I get a "plausible" reaction. That's really cool.

Thanks for all ya'll's help!

[grins] Plausible, for fantasy that is.

What if two parents are elemental, by chance, and they do test their child? Is the child more likely to be elemental having two elemental parents? Or is the child always elemental with two elemental parents?

eruheran

Anything is plausible in fantasy.
Would the likelihood of being an Elemental be because of a gene, then?

Actually, if both parents are elemental, I think their children are more likely to be that way as well.

But not always. And two completely normal parents can have an elemental child. It's a gift that people have for a reason. And it isn't linked to a gene.

Right now I'm thinking of that really lame movie where the kids go to a super-hero school in the sky...

But never mind that. So could a child be Elemental and not even know it for his whole life until he took the test? What does the test look like? Is it a multiple choice test with 25 questions? Or is it more of a 'go out and prove it' test?

I was thinking more scientific, scary lab type testing. Maybe that's just me though.

LOL! I don't really know what the test is. It isn't done any more so I hadn't thought much about it, but I definitely should and SOON.

Basically, magic is channeled through these little animals that only an Elemental can see.

hehe... I kinda liked that movie.

What was it called?

I like the idea of the little animals. So elementals can give orders to these creatures? What if the test was just another elemental asking the child in testing what he saw in different places?

I think you are talking about the movie Sky High. My cousin loves that movie.

[offtopic]It's actually called "Zoom", but it's similar to Sky High. [/offtopic]

Well, see, I'm thinking that there are people (not elementals) who can maybe see certain types of these animals (there are different kinds). But they aren't able to control them, and they can't see all of them.

That would make me think that there is a slight genetic propensity in this. Like part of a strain from somewhere back in their lineage?

So the test would probably have to do with bringing all the different kinds of animals to this child, (without telling him what they were doing) and seeing if he can see them, and communicate with them.

(ugh, I just used way too many parentheses. )

[offtopic] Well, I think I was thinking of Sky High, but Zoom is also lamethetic. [/offtopic]

That sounds reasonable, Willow. So just how many kinds of these creatures are there? 10? 100? What do the animals look like? Right now I'm imagining large rats. I'm assuming that the different kinds of creatures control different elements or areas of magic?

I don't have these characters fleshed out yet. But when I do, I'll post the link here. Their thread will be in the creatures forum.

Does anyone know of a fractalling process for animals? I haven't run across one...

Ok.

That would be helpful. Then again, I don't fractal much. But it would still be a good system to have around.

Make a fractalling system! I've actually thought about it before but never had time....or you could just pester Jay until he does it.

eruheran

Hey, that was my thought! You could probably just go through and tweak the character fractalling system.

It's so similar, you could actually probably just use the character fractalling system. And tweak it as you go along and give it to us.

LOL! Well...I don't know how to make a fractalling system. But I sure could try.

The idea of having embodied powers is a magnificent one, but I would avoid the use of the word magic.

I have a short story that was inspired by this thread. It is called, Not a Slave.

Where should I post it? It is about 37 paragraphs.

I think the Fireside... Not 100% sure about their policies over there. But I'm pretty sure it's still where you would post this story tsahraf

Alright, thank you Seer, it is posted.

It is called: Not a Slave.

Fascinating discussion here.

*pokes Willow* Did you ever write this story?

I did, two years ago.

Then about a year ago, I started tweaking it... The animals were waaaay too much like familiars, so now that I've gotten back to writing over the summer, I'm going to be re-tweaking it, and we'll see how it goes.

I have a new question for all ya'll! What kind of an animal would you envision to embody magic? Or, perhaps what emotion/vibe would you expect from such an animal?

Very interesting idea.

On the subject of little invisible animals that only a certain race can see, what about:

The animals are pretty much a physical representation for the magic in your world. These animals cannot be seen by anyone except a certain line of people. They also cannot interact with the visible world, unless a person with this trait comes in contact with them(like, has one for a pet -- say a raccoon is the animal of earth, and having one as a pet allows you to use the magic associated with earth).
These people who can see the animals have a trait which (in the version I thought of, a virus) enables them to interact with the invisible creatures. at one point in the past, this virus gave an (this is just an example [and me thinking about this too much ]) entire city the ability to see these creatures. Unfortunately, they were taken as insane (seeing creatures which no one outside of the city could see? XD) and imprisoned to prevent them from harming others.
But a few of these 'special' citizens escaped, and had a low level of control over these creatures(They're wild animals, just like the visible versions of them). Those people were taken as wizards, etc., and the number of them decreased slowly.

I think I had too much fun there.

Ah.

I'm so glad you're back into writing!

Hmm... Maybe a gryphon?

Griffons are already magical, so they would be less as special as say, a sparrow with the element of air. Since everyone thinks of griffons as being powerful, mighty, and mysterious, why not a little sparrow or mourning dove for air? That would be...unusual.

Just a thought.

I like the idea of having different "species" of magic...that's something I'll have to look into...

As far as using regular animals, like sparrows, how would such animals differ from those with no magical properties?

*nods* That's what my concern was...

Bears. badgers, sparrows are some things I am thinking of. You could have it so that when people see them they know that they look exactly like something, but are something else. One idea, I think from Arabia, was that animals that are spirits (whether good or bad) have a slit in their ear.

Ooooh, ok, I'm liking this idea. And only my Elementals can see them!

Now, I'm thinking, should these animals be sentient or at least fairly intelligent and "help" or should they be more of a manifestation of magic being present?

I like the manifestation idea.

Now see, when posed the question, the first thing that comes to mind is a white ferretish type creature with a lithe body and sharp eyes.

Don’t ask me why.

...
That is awesome.

Hehe. Glad you think so.

That actually IS really awesome...*grin* mind if I use that idea?