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?

Damn, thought this was going to be a thread on the incredibly sexy Milla Jovovich.... damn....

Aside from that, I like the idea of Hermetics gaining access to the Wood element. Maybe instead of a MetaPlane quest, an Initiation MetaTechnique though?

Sphynx

I actually considered that; I was about 50/50 on whether it should be a quest or a metamagic, but I figured in the end it would be better modeled in the same fashion as finding an individual spirit's True Name, and besides - it doesn't *SEEM* like a form of metamagic.

Not sure I agree on wood being a hermetic element though. Unless Milla Jovovich is wielding this fifth element, in which case you can get a woody....

Simply make your own tradition that uses all five elements. The western "elements" do not include wood while the eastern elements do. Adding one more element changes things radically since you no longer have four elements in careful balance to each other, but four in balance and one that does not. If anything, the western "element" of wood is something of a mix of water and earth and not a pure element of its own.

That said, why make a new, more powerful, tradition when you can just be a wu fa of earth and have many of the same benefits without resorting to a whole new type of elemental, etc.?

I thought it was going to be about time travel.

I think Snow fox would say the 5th element, in the classic greek set up is "life."

That would be seriously horning in on Wu Jen turf.

Well, to be honest, I was trying bring in the last True Element from Earthdawn.

But then your material would be contradictory, as in ED there was no Elemental Plane of Wood and summoning a Plant Elemental required the a plant of the appropriate age for the stats.

The manitous and elemental spirits of the wu jen are something else again.

Now, if'n ye want to give a hermetic a SUmmoning Talent(manitou), that's legal and fits the guidelines.

Interesting. Need to research Earthdawn more, then. Thanks!

I thought the wujen elements were Fire Earth Water Air and Metal...

The Abstruse One

Nope, Fire/Water/Earth/Metal/Wood - I'm basically swapping out Metal for Air, and leaving the Hermetic oppositions in place.

I once heard of an initiate summoning a great form wood spirit and Viagra itself showed up!!!

Sunday

Why go for wood then, instead of the actual 5th element of the pentagram, the spirit, ether, or whatever?

L5R called it Void.

Probably to follow the model of the Book of Five Rings.

The version I read was translated "scrolls" I think (may have been spheres). In any case, it's an interesting read. As is Sun Tzu.

[A/The] Book of Five Rings is the traditional translation that I've seen. I'm playing an Adept who follows the Way of Go Rin No Sho, which is pretty fun.

Just read the Art of War this past weekend, in the hopes that my adept might find use from it, but I really didn't much.

So, assuming one would want to go with this idea, what should the stats for a Wood Elemental be?