D&D 5E D&D Power Sources ≈ Magic The Gathering Colors

[Yaarel]

Black
• shadow (death)
• shadow (necrotic, lose life, vampirism)
• shadow (undead, cannot lose)
• shadow (fiend, benefit at a cost)
• divine (divination, fate, bless, curse)
• psionic (mind, domination, control target)
• ethereal (force, destroy)

Black seems thematically tighter

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Interesting idea. Although I don't agree with a lot of the OP, it is an interesting thought experiment. What about the Ethereal-Color combos (which I know isn't really a thing in M:tG, but it is still an interesting concept to me)?

Ethereal-Divine (Colorless-White): Arcana Clerics? Banishment? Aura abilities (like Paladins' Aura of Protection, etc)? Maybe Astral Transcendence (like Monks' Astral Projection/Way of the Astral Self)?
Ethereal-Psionic (Colorless-Blue): Psychokinesis, Mind-Melting, creating matter from mind/thought. Order of Scribes Wizards.
Ethereal-Shadow (Colorless-Black): Shadow-Travel, Phantom Magic, creating objects from shadow-stuff (Shadow-Blade, Illusory Dragon), becoming incorporeal?
Ethereal-Elemental (Colorless-Red): Elemental Chaos? Wild Magic Sorcerers? Genasi? Maybe some Artificers?
Ethereal-Primal (Colorless-Green): Fey?

 

[Yaarel]

Interesting idea. Although I don't agree with a lot of the OP, it is an interesting thought experiment. What about the Ethereal-Color combos (which, I know isn't really a thing in M:tG, but it is still an interesting concept to me)?

Ethereal-Divine (Colorless-White): Arcana Clerics? Banishment? Aura abilities (like Paladins' Aura of Protection, etc)? Maybe Astral Transcendence (like Monks' Astral Projection/Way of the Astral Self)?
Ethereal-Psionic (Colorless-Blue): Psychokinesis, Mind-Melting, creating matter from mind/thought.
Ethereal-Shadow (Colorless-Black): Shadow-Travel, Phantom Magic, creating objects from shadow-stuff (Shadow-Blade, Illusory Dragon), becoming incorporeal?
Ethereal-Elemental (Colorless-Red): Elemental Chaos? Wild Magic Sorcerers? Genasi?
Ethereal-Primal (Colorless-Green): Fey?

Yeah, in the original post, every power source inherently combos with the ethereal power source. Often each source uses the ethereal source in a different way, such as a psionic subjective phantasm using the ethereal force to become an objective "quasi-real" illusion. Your example of psychokinesis where psionic uses ethereal is spot on. Also, various aspects of ethereal are available to any source, such as "magical energy".

If "ether" the fifth element is a kind of fundament of matter and the material world, it implies that the Astral Plane including the alignment domains, are completely immaterial, and only exist as a realm of mental ideas. This implies, for example, angels are inherently immaterial beings − pure constructs of intellect − a personification of a pattern − thus when they physicalize into the Material Realm, they are employing ether to become "real".

Yeah, ether is what each of the four elements derives from, and ether is what allows one element (or damage type) to transmute into an other one. So Elemental Chaos would have much activity involving ether.

Personally, I view both the Feywild and the Shadowfell as "frequencies" sotospeak of the Ethereal Plane, energized by the Positive Plane and unraveling at the Negative Plane, respectively.