The Fifth Element Options

[ialdabaoth]

The Fifth Element

Being a Magical Treatise on the Properties and Inherent Nature of Elemental Wood

Whereas each of the Four Elements, complete unto itself, maintains a Proper Balance between itself and the Pillars of Creation, and the Cardinal Directions, and the True and Proper Wandering Planets, and Many and Wondrous Other Things that manifest themselves in the Splendour of Being, the scholar is well-advised to consider them to be Complete and Whole unto Themselves, unblemished by exclusion of Any Principle by which they cannot so Effect.

Yet beyond this Wholeness there exists a Deeper Integration, the Blending and Manifestation of Kether in Malkuth, and within this Primal Form exists the Wondrous and Resplendant Form of True Wood.

Each of the Four Elements maintains its Domain over a Sphere of Magic; Fire over Mars, and the Martial Arts; Water over Venus, and Illusions and Deceptions both comely and perverse; Air over Mercury, and all manner of Knowledge and Detection; and Earth over Jupiter, and Mastery of Form, of Wealth and of Material Power. But the Scholar is even more well-advised that there is a Fifth Form, an Element most Sublime and Essential, whose subtle Dominion is over Gaea Herself, and All Which Grows Within. Leave Earth the petty manipulations of base metals, unliving rocks and unthinking forces; yea, even the Gross Manipulation of Form that twists and disguises the Living Body; but receive from Wood the Power and Manipulation over those Unseen Things that go on within said Living Form.

Being both Of and Apart From the Other Elements, Wood is Opposed by None and All, it being in Its Essential Nature to grow and consume. Wood Opposses all the Four Cardinal Elements in turn when it surpasses them, and is Opposed in turn when their power surpasses it. Such is the Nature of Life that it struggles in its environment to find purchase, and only the Perfect Balance of Symmetry may find Peace and Harmony between the Powers.

System
Wood is the elusive "fifth element" of elemental magic. Hermetic Mages may learn to summon Wood Elementals by performing an Astral Quest to the Elemental Metaplane of Wood, but any Hermetic Mage who learns to summon Wood Elementals must visit all five Elemental Metaplane each time he Initiates thereafter.

Wood-aspected Elementalists also exist, possessing the ability to summon Wood Elementals and cast Health Spells from the moment of their Awakening. Wood-aspected Elementalists progress as do other Elementalists, visiting their home Metaplane when Initiating.

The Element of Wood does not inherently oppose any other Element in the same sense that Fire opposes Water or Earth opposes Air. Instead, a Wood Elemental is "opposed" by any Elemental with greater Force than itself, and a Wood Elemental "opposes" any Elemental with a Force less than its own. Thus, a Force 3 Wood Elemental would receive a negative modifier for attacking or resisting any non-Wood Elemental of Force 4 or higher, and any non-Wood Elemental of Force 2 or less would receive a negative modifier for attacking it. Similarly, a Wood Elementalist would receive a +1 bonus for banishing or otherwise dealing with any non-Wood Elemental with a Force less than his Magic Rating, and a -1 penalty for banishing or otherwise dealing with any non-Wood Elemental with a Force greater than his Magic Rating.

Opinion, Sirs?