Early DE is early...

[bjornwilde]

Inspired by my reading of Furies of Calderon, and with student_of_impossibility 's help (and by help I mean completely writing the post for me):

Alera has a set of powers called furycrafting, which amounts to elemental spirit magic. Some of those are just like motes of energy. Some are elementals with discrete forms, some of which come close to sentience. They come in all shapes and sizes! Tiny wood nymphs, earth hounds, wind horses, fire falcons, mirroring their human’s looks, just about anything really. Some people name them, some don’t, it’s really up to the person. ps they are totally pokemon

Alera combines traditional Eastern and Western elements into six: wind, earth, water, fire, wood, and metal. Each fury is just one element. Most people only have one, although some have two or even three (usually the third is quite weak). The most politically influential families have all six, all extremely powerful. If you want to know what people can do with different elements, and a little more theory, there’s a list here.

If your character lived in Alera, what would their furies be? Would they have a discrete form? Would your character name them? What type or types? Or would their element be something totally different than the canonical six?

Comments

[student_of_impossibility]

Hi.

[electro_kinetic]

You're a brat you know that Tavi.

[i_am_your_host]

I can't decide if Emcee's would be wind or water. Though maybe water as primary and wind as secondary. I like water for him because he does have a healing and empathetic nature, and wind because I think it would tie into music and sound? The elementals would look like glitter. Just streams and clouds of glitter.

Floki's for sure would be wood because he's a hippie carpenter. I don't know if they'd have a discrete form. Ferrets, maybe. Wood ferrets, yeah.

[venerable_ibis]

wood ferrets, i like it

[varadia]

Wonder Woman would have wind, earth, and fire. She's made of clay, she uses the fire of truth, and can fly.

X would have metal and earth.

Raven wields reality!

Sombra would have fire and water, because I am cruel.

Ysalwen would probably have all six, with a super weak almost-nonexistent wood.

Flemeth refuses to say, but the chances of her having all six very strongly is very high. She's probably met Alera, in this AU.

Nynaeve has all six, because in canon she is pretty equally strong in all five of the channeling powers. It is one reason her healing is so good. Maybe an edge in wind and water?

[student_of_impossibility]

Sadly for Flemeth, she really hasn't. ;)

[varadia]

If you can think of another analogous thing to the Titans, let me know!

[inlovewithwords]

Great Furies. Mountains, giant slip faults, eternal storm systems, volcanoes, the ocean itself. Plenty of those around. Usually one under every major city and if you detonate the thing WELP SAY GOODBYE TO PART OF THE MAP.

But the Titans are natural, yeah? Great Furies are the natural ones.

[varadia]

Okay!

[sunbaked_baker]

Magic handlers in Sunshine's world usually also have an elemental affinity that influences their abilities and preferences with their magic. Most are one of the main four - water, earth, fire, air - and less common but still well-known are metal and wood. When her grandmother was trying to figure out what Rae's affinity is, she said it was "something of fire, something of air, and something of neither," before she realized that Sunshine's element was specifically sunlight. Rae's grandmother said it was "a little unusual," which made the distinction difficult to spot at first, but Rae has never found records of anyone else in history with an affinity for sunlight, and her local Special Other Forces agents say there aren't any SOF records of anyone with abilities like hers.

I don't know if a sunlight fury would have a discrete form, and Sunshine probably wouldn't name it. She thinks of her magic ability as a tree - her handful of magic-handling lessons as a child with her grandmother as the planting of a sapling that grew when she wasn't paying attention - the tree's leaves soaking in sunlight to grow strong.

Sunlight is something of a transformative element - transmuting being the straightforward magic-handling skill that came easiest to Rae as a child. Sunlight as an element lends itself to healing and protection, to offering comfort and warmth and encouraging growth, to gaining insight and discerning truth, and its destructive aspects can also be used with great effectiveness against creatures of the dark. It does not lend itself well to illusion, invisibility, deception, foresight or telepathy, or enhancing one's senses or physical skill.

[bjornwilde]

Sam Wilson has two; a strong air fury named Redwing that manifests as a falcon (when it deigns to) and a lesser water fury named Riley. I don't think Riley has a form and I'm only including him as Sam is so damned empathetic.

Ahsoka Tano has an air also, which often manifests as a convor. Its name is Ashla because of course it is. I'm pretty certain she also has a fire fury that manifests as a wolf. I'm not sure of a name though.

Sabine Wren has a fire fury that manifests as, what else, a wren. Its feather constantly shift colors though. I'm not getting a name,

Danny Rand has an earth fury that manifests as a dragon, named Shou-Lao, naturally. It is very strong. (Fire is tempted but Danny's powers always manifest as more earth than fire.)

Chance Falconer doesn't have a fury yet. I'm inclined to say she'll get an air fury and/or a water fury, but the future is unclear.

Ato Touji has a strong earth fury that manifests as an oni. It is nearly feral and refuses to give Touji its name. (I realize this might not quite fit Alera canon.)

Hank McCoy...I'm not sure. Metalcrafting seems to fit his role as an inventor.

Shinatose Izana has a plasma fury, which allows her to interface electrical devices. It manifests as a butterfly and is named Orakuru. (I am hoping Google translate is playing nice. The name is supposed to mean oracle.)

Selina Kyle either has an earth fury (that can only effect worked stone, i.e. urban areas) that manifests as a cat, or she is like the Marat and bonds with a cat. Honestly, bonding with the cat makes more sense to me and I have no ideas as to any names.

[inlovewithwords]

. . . Selina is totally Marat.

I absolutely love that.

[bjornwilde]

Season 03 of Gotham, if the spoiler image I saw is anything to go by, seems to even echo her Batman Begins canon/origin.

[student_of_impossibility]

I just realized that for reasons oh god yes Selina is 100% Marat and I can't even say why because it's the funniest thing.

I love enabling my canon. :D :D :D

[inlovewithwords]

Okay, now instead of trolling I'll do the ones I actually had to think about.

Anakin - all six. Definitely no discrete furies for him. Potentially out-classes every furycrafter except maybe Gaius Sextus while First Lord, and that's for Reasons.

R2 - extremely powerful metalcrafting and reasonably powerful windcrafting, enough to fly himself and make some sparks. He does not have a discrete wind fury. He is metal. His metalcrafting helps him be so very indestructible.

Lois - has only weak furycrafting, but water and wind. Water slightly stronger—enough, I think, that she can heal herself slightly faster than some people and look younger and have slightly more lifespan, and just barely enough to do very weak water videophone projection with little range. She can’t heal others except maybe papercuts. Some wind, for hearing and seeing things far off, and a tiny bit of stealth. She for sure can’t fly, which eternally pisses her off. I think maybe water kitty. I think she’d really want to name the cat and then fail so hard at doing so she just calls it Cat, and then it's habit, and then she's embarrassed and refuses to change it out of pride.

Evelyn - probably water and fire, both pretty powerful. A little bit of a strange combination, I know, but my preferred element with her is ice and fire as secondary. Water rather stronger than fire (handy, she could heal, and dang I miss healing spells in DA:I). And then, er, well. Then she discovers a new element type which is a furycrafting shortcut to the Canim’s ritual blood magic that rips holes in reality! Yay! Everything is terrible! I don’t think she has a discrete water or fire fury. Eventually her Rift-fury takes. When it does, it will be her favorite breed of dog, aka mabari (blame Liranan).

Eriond - All six. If he has a discrete fury, it is a horse. He calls it Horse. Would probably have to be wind-type—not to plagiarize, sorry Amara!—because of the speed and transport bit.

. . . Well. I'm actually kind of lying, because he's a near-omnipotent god. The above answer is an understatement. Probably applies prior to end of canon. Actually, the understatement is Horse. Horse is not a wind fury. There is a sort of man-made demi-goddess in the canon, literally only one to two people alive at any given time ever know about her and they're all a single family line. She's an artificial composite of all six elements. Given that Eriond could rearrange stars if he wanted? Yeah. He has all six, and also Horse is a composite on that scale. ...That looks like a regular horse. Because Horse.

[ceitfianna]

Okay, I'm going to start with the ones that are easier and try and not mess it up. The elementals are tricky.

Sameth has metal, wind and fire possibly more but I'm not sure. His metacrafting is the strongest as I think that maps along best.

Quentin would have wind and water.

Cassian would have water and fire with Kay being a fire elemental.

Demeter is basically an Earth elemental or titan, I'm not sure which fits her better.

Charles is an incredibly powerful watercrafter and I don't know what else.

Moist is hm maybe earth and water.

William I think would be pretty much earth with maybe a little wind crafting.

Will S. would be wood and possibly fire and somewhere within Sherwood is a powerful wood elemental.

Ivan, I'm not completely sure.

Tumnus would I think be earth and wind.

[chanter1944]

Will is such a woodcrafter. :D I've imagined him as specifically a greenmage a time or two.

[ceitfianna]

Oh yes, there's a reason that so many retellings of Robin Hood include magic from Sherwood, it fits.

[chanter1944]

Primary strong woodcrafter/secondary firecrafter? Will, primary windcrafter/secondary watercrafter Sariel, powerful watercrafter/secondary earthcrafter/tertiary windcrafter (with his ability to calm people and his almost precognitive sense of when things are going to go pear-shaped, he has to have some of the latter two) Roe, and almost equally balanced watercrafter/metalcrafter Scurlock... *muses on that team* They'd hand some evildoers' hats to them, wouldn't they? :)

What do you say, Scurlock-mun re: your own?

Seriously, I <3 Will's ties to benevolent green magic, especially as they seem to run seamlessly alongside his religious faith, I really do.

[arkadia]

Yamato is the easiest one of mine, since the Crest of Friendship has its own elemental affinities: He'd be a shoo-in for wielding Water, Wind, and Fire, with an eye to both sharpening his perceptiveness, and to manipulating ice and snow.

At least one of his Furies would have a discrete form, because Gabumon would be one of his Furies.


Eden is more difficult, since the element I've dropped on him from Kingdom Hearts' weird tangle of elements is light -- but he'd probably wield Wind and Fire (muscling in on Ventus' territory there a little). You could probably make a case for him wielding all six, with Wind and Fire as his strongest.


Hawke basically already wields Wind and Earth, but since he's a healer, he'd also be a shoo-in for wielding Water to heal people.

[electro_kinetic]

Well Noriko is easy; she's not one of the traditional six, being Lightning-aligned (hi there fake Jedi tricks!) and probably possessed of a very willful fury.

Ganymede, being the originator of Aquarius, is most likely Air-aligned, though he'd probably also have elements of Earth in there too. I like the idea that he'd have a wind-elemental dog of some sort, or maaaaaaaybe a bird. Maaaaaaybe.

Still gotta think about Micah.

[student_of_impossibility]

Actually, Noriko might be wind as well! Windcrafters can throw lightning (partly because it's a highly fine-skill-work application of their ability to control weather). It is, in fact, an excellent technique in battle.

[fairy_fixit]

Let's see if I remember...

Amascut is pretty much the equivalent of a High Lady and thus talented in all six types of furycraft, though I figure she heavily favors fire and earth. The enhanced slave collars are unfortunately something she would very likely be involved in creating. Her own madness sounds like something that happened because of water furies. Appropiate, perhaps, since her mother in canon is a river goddess.

None of the furies she commands has a discrete form or name. She had an impressive lion-shaped fire fury once, but bad things happened.

Fairy Fixit has wood and air furies. It is an odd combination but it runs very strongly in her family. Her air furies are all moths and her wood fury is a hummingbird.

[chanter1944]

Sariel would be a higher-level windcrafter; the heightened perceptions, the flight, and the potential for manipulation of objects by carrying/balancing them on cushions of air - yep. She would have a wind fury with a discrete form, a house wren called Alexandre. Yes, this borrows from that daemon AU I tend to use for AU week. I'd also say she has weaker watercrafting, enough for definite receptive empathy and very minor healing ability - scratches and bumps, but not broken bones. Maybe some weak videophone work, wobbly projections with fair range, usable in a pinch. Her water fury would not have a discrete form, I imagine it as a small sparkly greenyblue cloud more than anything.

There is also, Millicanonically and by virtue of her canon being what it is, a tie to starlight with her. I wonder, would that link back to wind via lightning, to fire via plasma, to plasma itself, or something else? Starlight on its own? Hmm.

[andinfluencepeople]

Clint: Wind is VERY important to how I play him, but Wood's description suits him better -- so I'd say mild Wood & internal Wind? He innately understands trajectory. I doubt either would have a discrete form, and he sort of amiably ignores them (like he does most of his friends when doing stuff).

Sebastian: Internal Fire. No discrete form, but he definitely talks to it and it has a bunch of changing names/terms used to reference it. Chosen with the help of Lee, because I couldn't figure out what elemental would allow for his canonical tendency to get straight up adopted >.> and then get Very Mad on occasion.

Quatre: Mild/moderate Water -- mostly a very strong empathetic sense. Elemental is somewhat sentient & defined, and is called Sandrock. Because... yes. Also, to invent one, he also has a Space Elemental that no one else can see so I'd say Internal, but it tells him things >.> and is his best friend >.>. And is called The Heart of The Universe.

Chuck: Has a Metal elemental, because while he's an angry guy his major characterization point is complete commitment to a cause far beyond normal human limits. Said metal elemental is probably a mote (unnamed). 'Cause he already has a dog, who is the best dog, and is flesh & blood.

Melinda May: It was hard for me to choose between Wind (flying) and Metal, but I think the latter is really what best describes her. She has a Metal elemental and is very, very dangerous with it. Even though she endeavors to use it mostly to protect her & hers.

... yep!