D&D General Which "Elements" would you put in a Cosmology?

[Haldrik]

If you believe DC Comics, you could also add the following "elements":

Rage, Avarice, Fear, Willpower, Hope, Compassion, Love
The Speed Force, the Strength Force, the Sage Force

According to certain traditions within Jewish mysticism ...

Water: compassion, logic; amorality, neglect
Fire: justice, passion; violence, insanity
Air: inclusiveness, balance, transcendence; arrogance, betrayal
Earth: pragmatism, desire; despair, envy

 

[Tonguez]

I’ve forgone elemental frameworks and instead allow for alchemist and spellcasters to draw on Essences which exist in All-Things. Alchemist attempt to refine essences and capture the Quintessence the ultimate stuff of Spirit, while Spellcasters draw raw essences. Essences can be anything including the essence of Fire or the essence of Stone or the essence of Storm, or the essence of the Bear, or the essence of Motion (Force) or the essence of Love or even the essence of Cake

If you believe DC Comics, you could also add the following "elements":

Rage, Avarice, Fear, Willpower, Hope, Compassion, Love
The Speed Force, the Strength Force, the Sage Force

Dont forget The Red The Grey and The Green

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Dont forget The Red The Grey and The Green

Oh yes, good catch ! I'm not a huge fan of the "let's explain that Captain Boomerang gets his powers from the Boomerang Dimension, and while we're at it, let's add a Ball Dimension and a Frisbee Dimension" school of comic book writing, but I really enjoyed how they expanded upon the concepts of the Green.

 

[humble minion]

If you want to go for a vaguely elemental-styled model but earth/fire/air/water is a bit overdone, then the four humours could be an option. The multiverse could literally be the body of the ur-being, and the different planes different regions in her/his/its body.

Or you could steal a bit from Warhammer's chaos gods. Rage/indulgence/mutation/infection (which can equate to courage/joy/hope/life, depending on who is preaching about it...).

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

In my world, I break it down as such:

4 primary elements:

• Air
• Earth
• Fire
• Water

4 composite elements:

• Ice (air + water)
• Light (air + fire)
• Metal (earth + fire)
• Wood (earth + water)

2 conjoining elements

• Lightning (air + earth)
• Spirit (fire + water)

2 opposing elements

• Darkness (opposes light)
• Death (opposes of spirit)

 

[BlivetWidget]

I use a complex system that you're welcome to draw from, but recognize this is a magic system made by chemists, for chemists, so it might be more complex than most people are looking for.

In my system, there are classical element families of Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Aether. Then there are the mirrored Arcane elements of Barrier (Arcane Air), Cold (Arcane Water), Lightning (Arcane Fire), Metal (Arcane Earth), Death (Arcane Aether) and Vitality (True Arcane).

All matter is then derived from these elements. (And yes, powerpoint thinks much of this is misspelled lol).

 

[Marandahir]

Wood = Air.

Use the Air Element for trees and plants ... and oxygen. Also, even in European traditions, the sky can be the Tree, like Yggdrasil, and so on. In Jewish mysticism, the element of Air corresponds to the Tree of Life. In the I Ching, the hexagram of wood (double wood trigrams), talks about wind.

I know of and like the I Ching equation of Wood and Air, but feel that if I'm going to make a solid/liquid/gas triune I'd either make Wind the gas form of wood to reference that concept or make it the gas form of water to reference how the sea currents drive wind patterns of the planet.

Though that gets into complicated issues of Land/Water/Sky where Water and Sky are more intricately linked there than Land is. I do understand, however. that the sea currents also depend on the magnetism, rotation, and mantle convection currents of the earth and thus all are related. Perhaps Wind shouldn't be closely related to Water then, but then I'm left with a question of what the "Sky" form of Water should be (clouds? those are actually ice crystals. I like Fire/Ice/Lightning as a trinity of forces, but Ice is really a solid, unlike the gas-plasmatic forms of fire and lightning. Steam? Hmm.).

I'm not certain how I'd do it, but there are interesting thoughts to ponder. If Wind is the gas-plasma form of Wood, then is Wood the solid or the liquid? Would Coal be the solid and wood the liquid (due to a plant's growth and the "flow" of both the form of wood's xylem and phloem and the sap forth from the wood)? I'd kind of want to consider Coal/Oil/Fire a trinity, though, just in terms of combustibles…

It's a lot to think about.

I'm also a big fan of how Golden Sun did it:

4 Elementals:

Earth - Venus = Land, Rocks, Metal, Sand, Plants
Fire - Mars = Flames, Magma, Dryness, Heat
Wind - Jupiter = Gusts, Smoke, Haze, Lightning, Thunder
Water - Mercury = Waves, Bubbles, Rain, Ice, Snow, Clouds

2 Fundamentals:

Light - Sol = All four elements combined, sun, radiance, brightness, life
Dark - Luna = All four elements voided, moon, darkness, shadow, death

 

[Sir Brennen]

My approach was to start with the worlds' myths, especially creation, and work the planes out from that. It led to a few interesting changes in the way I picture the D&D cosmology.

For example, the "Negative" plane is really a deity of Nothingness (named Eleron), that existed before anything. The elemental deities spontaneously arose from him, and pulled his cloak back to reveal the sky (astral plane/upper planes). They then bound him in his own cloak to imprison him. The D&D Lower Planes formed in the folds of this cloak, and demons and devils spawned from Eleron's hateful thoughts. The plane of shadow is the literal shadow the plane of Eleron casts across the other planes.

There's much more to how my world's cosmology was formed, but you get the idea.

One other thought - you mention adding "sonic" as an elemental type. But "sonic" isn't a damage type in 5E. It's "thunder". You could merge the two into a plane of Thunder and Lightning. Or simply called the plane of Storms, that borders the planes of Water and Air.

 

[Haldrik]

I know of and like the I Ching equation of Wood and Air, but feel that if I'm going to make a solid/liquid/gas triune I'd either make Wind the gas form of wood to reference that concept or make it the gas form of water to reference how the sea currents drive wind patterns of the planet.

That works. Wherever seeing Tree/Wood, conceptually apply Air/Wind.

The idea is, the Tree moves in the same way that Air moves. The roots and branches grow Outward, expanding, and encompassing everything else within them. With regard to the elemental Movements, Tree and Air, are the same element. Indeed, Gas is understood this way, to have pressure that expands outward in all directions to fill out a volume.



The Water of the Sky is clouds and rain, and snow. So it is ok.

Ice and snow being a solid is slightly awkward. But Hellenists viewed Water as Cold-and-Wet, opposite Fire as Hot-and-Dry. So the cold forms of Water are included. That said, if wanting to emphasize the Solid aspect, maybe Ice is a Water-Earth coupling. Earth is Cold-and-Dry. Steam seems Water-Air, where Air is Hot-and-Wet.

 

[Aldarc]

Why not just go with the Elemental Chaos?

I would also check out RuneQuest and just consider every rune type as an element.

Another potential source is Dragon Prince. There is basically an earthly set of elements (air, earth, water) and a celestial set (sun/fire, moon, stars).