For those who are curious from the quiz
If you took my previous magic quiz ( https://uquiz.com/iZQncD ) and wanted a little more depth about your magic, how it aligned with the other elements, what it means within the world, or anything else relating, then this is your post! READ ON!
To start, there are six gods that rule over the world within my novel. Each god represents an element that they control. Starting from the top of the chart and going clockwise, the gods and their respective elements are: Cyprus (who rules over the sky and air), Sigmas (who rules over the sun and day), Yvisha (who rules over the forest and creatures), Massa'ur (who rules over the ground and stone), Mikhail (who rules over the moon and night), and Gou-Son (who rules over the water and ocean). Each magical element reflects the values and personality of its god. i.e. Massa'ur as a god is very logical and values power, so channeling ground magic requires a similar outlook.
Magic itself can be manipulated into many forms, not exactly limited to an element. For example, every magic nature can learn fireball, but it might be slightly different per nature and have different strengths. A ground magic fireball would be very classic big orange flaming ball that goes boom. Whereas a sun magic fireball would be smaller but more intense and white hot. And a moon magic fireball would be bright blue! So each element nature is more a reference to someone's style than actual capabilities in terms of sorcery.
In my novel, those who can access and manipulate magic are known as sorcerers or "blessed", while those who cannot are simply "non-blessed". Nearly entire population is religious so the term blessed is seen vastly more than the political term of sorcerer.
A big thing the quiz couldn't show unfortunately is peoples percentages for other elements. The quiz only shows the top ranked result from your answers. But more often than not, people had multiple trending natures. most people would have one top nature and a secondary or tertiary nature (which is actually canon! lol). For instance, someone could have ground as their primary result, but looking deeper into their answers would reveal that they actually shared a lot of answers with nature as well. This would mean that a certain aspect of themselves holds values and interests highlighted by ground magic, but ALSO finds similarities with nature magic. Unfortunately nobody would know their spread without me personally going through their answers with them (which I did with a few of my lucky friends). So some results were more accurate than they initially seemed so don't lose hope if your result seemed a little strange!
Here is each magic nature and their characteristics in order of the chart (which is written in the native language):
- Sky nature (Soh) is casted naturally, driven by intuition and emotion. Sky magic is felt from the soul, being shapeless and formless. The users ask the question and let the magic do the answering. Sky magic users are often found outside and are easily inspired. People with sky nature are known for their unique problem solving skills, thinking outside the box, and going where the wind blows. It is hard for them to settle down and they actively want to improve themselves, taking pride in graining experience. They tend to be cooks and explorers, often acting as tradesmen to cure their itch for travel.
- Sun nature (Kah) is passionate and bright, driven by belief and ritual. Sun magic is felt like warmth washing over the body, being absorbed by the skin then repurposed. Users are sometimes instinctual and unpredictable, seeing magic as purpose and themselves as tools to move that power. People with sun nature are drawn to each other, often creating vast communities who feed off of each other’s ideas and passion. They tend to be teachers and builders, not afraid to reveal their inner secrets and particularly enjoy socializing and celebrating.
- Nature nature (Loh) pulls from the heart, driven by dedication and emotion. Nature magic is rooted in compassion, encouraging its users to be selfless and incorporate the restoration of others as a simple principle for channeling. Most users are particularly drawn to plant life and animal life, seeing it as a connection to the world. People with nature nature are known for their ability to easily incorporate into any social group. They feel a desire to help and assist others and often regret long periods of solitude, seeing it as wasted potential if not used wisely. They tend to be monks or shamans, focusing on providing physical and spiritual healing to people and the environment.
- Ground nature (Chah) is strong and powerful, driven by force and logic. Ground magic is casted by digging the magic from the earth and carving it into a useful tool. Users feel the magic like a heavy force and use it to build and construct. Ground magic values strong family bonds and building safe territory. People with ground nature are known for their sense of duty and protection, being surprisingly patient and thoughtful. They tend to be guardsmen and noblemen, drawn by their desire to protect and ability to jump quickly into action.
- Moon nature (Moh) is calm and casted subconsciously, driven by curiosity and the unknown. Moon magic feels like an enigma to its users, a vast power just barely within reach. It is about the tranquility of the night and communing with the stars. People with moon nature are known for letting fate guide them and acting as vessels for the gods, drawn to mystery. People with moon nature are surprisingly intellectual and put a tremendous amount of thought into each action they take. They tend to be nomadic by nature but lack a sense of adventure, driving them to a life of contained migration.
- Water nature (Gah) is the essence of persistence and creativity, driven by individuality and strength. Water magic is a gift from the gods to be used as a grateful tool to help heal and provide. The users pull water magic from the earth and let it form itself. Users can push and encourage it into certain directions and forms, but it is strong and often unruly and unmanageable. People with water nature are known for their solitude and resilience. They are attracted to bodies of water and enjoy the rain. They also tend to enjoy simple lives as farmers or fishermen, away from bustling cities and are not afraid of monotony or repetition.
If you feel like you resonate with one more than your result from the quiz, then it was probably your secondary nature. Many sorcerers in my novel can cast spells of multiple natures and most sorcerers have multiple natures. Personally, for anyone interested, I am almost full blooded nature type. I align almost entirely with its description and have a splash of sun type. The aspect I relate to for sun is their affinity for socializing. But emotionally I align with nature magic's style. I am also drawn to plant life lol.
So most peoples magic nature will be complimented by a different one.
In the chart the elements are aligned so they are facing their opposites and alternating between soft and hard magics. Sky, moon, and nature are soft magics, controlled by emotion and instinct. Sun, ground, and water are hard magics, controlled by logic and force. Soft magic is formed by feeling the magic and letting it flow through you, whereas hard magic is formed by building the spell in your mind/body/spirit then releasing it by force. Surprisingly, soft and hard natures tend to get a long with each other more often than themselves. The complimentary personalities can result in some very strong bonds. Whereas different natures from the same group might disagree on fundamental things that could cause friction. Canonically, in my novel world, the hard magics tend to start the most physical wars, with each other. The soft magics also fight with each other but they are less physically aggressive and play around manipulation and political tactics.
Elements next to each other on the wheel are easy to blend though. For example, if you combine sky and water magic, you get things like rain and clouds. Some combinations are more obvious than others, but that's what makes the system fun. The in-world scholars are always looking to develop new spells and new ways to utilize magic, then sharing their discoveries.
Black Magic: For those of you who saw "black magic" in the quiz and were curious; black magic is a form of magic that is drawn from the same energy that creates demons. In my novel, demons originate from a different realm of existence known as the Hollow Realm. That realm captures and contains the negative energy created by negative emotion from beings that can manipulate magic. That negative energy feels like static in the air to them. This energy is known as black magic. Naturally, the energy travels from the mortal realm into the hollow realm pretty steadily. Once in the hollow realm it simply sits there until the realm builds enough pressure to create demons. If you imagine filling a jar with steam, once it creates enough pressure the steam will condense, creating water. A similar process is done with the negative energy that births demons. The demons them rip their way back into the mortal realm where they are then vanquished by the royal guard usually. The energy though, can be manipulated by sorcerers just like regular magic, but based on channeling those negative emotions. Usually the result is violent or malicious spells that are almost all punishable offenses in the eyes of the empire. It, of course, cannot lay on the chart with the rest of the magics because technically it isn't magic because it doesn't come from the gods lol.
Religion: Religion plays a MASSIVE part of the world in the novel and is not entirely exclusive from magic nature. But it is extremely common to worship and follow the god that aligns with your nature. Each god has many different religious groups, some more devoted or extreme than others. Each god has roughly five or more different religious groups that worship them and practice their values. Most groups believe that their worship to the god correlates to their magical ability. This is not the case, and in fact someone's magical ability is worked like a muscle and grows with use and practice. Worship to the gods is completely cultural.
I am sure I'm missing things but hopefully this answers some questions you guys but if you have any extra thoughts please let me know!