HOT is the element of passion and hunger. It is fever-pitch love, blood and veins and skin flushed red. Lust, rage, yearning. HOT is found in caffeine, gasoline, summer flings, and your heart.
HOT damage manifests as heart palpitations, fever-sweat and, obviously, fire.
COLD is the element of clarity and detachment. It is sniper-stillness, ice, steel, glass. Calculation, lucidity, the wisdom of distance. COLD is found in mirrored sunglasses, the glint of a blade, untouched snowfall, and your brain.
COLD damage manifests as numbing pain, stabbing headaches, forced dissociation.
WET is the element of excess. It is wine-drenched hedonism, mother-of-pearl and abalone shells, salt on your lips. It is ocean-as-expanse, boots soaked through, storm drains overflowing, liquor bottles rolling in the backseat. WET is found in petrichor, raw oyster, goldfish platform shoes, and your tongue.
WET damage manifests as intoxication, drowning lungs, sensory overload.
DRY is the element of absence. It is cracked earth and dusty rooms, radio static and empty spaces on shelves. DRY is found in desert roads, pregnant pauses, vinyl crackle and your bones.
DRY damage manifests as dehydration, loss of memories, abrasion.
NATURE is the element of all that lives unfettered by the laws of ARTIFICE. It is coyotes in the suburb, mold on your bread, roaches in the corner. It is the billion-year memory of biting into meat. NATURE is found in the moss between the bricks, the sound of cicadas, the open sky and your teeth.
NATURE damage is dealt by animals and witches, sometimes. Wounds inflicted by weapons of NATURE are prone to rapid mutation, painfully filling in with fur and feathers before they can heal right.
ARTIFICE is the element of all we craft to keep ourselves above NATURE. It is plastic and asphalt, it is city becoming skyline, it is bread and thread and buildings and roads. It is a blaster in a glove compartment, the roof over your head, the wires in the walls. It is found in flip phones, cooked food, angels and your hands. (Nagas sometimes claim that their lack of hands explains or proves the absence of ARTIFICE in their bodies.)
ARTIFICE damage manifests as plastic poisoning, stiffening of joints, shrapnel in your skin, repetitive stress injuries.
DOOM is the element of knowledge. It is grave dirt and old tomes. It is the romance of tragedy, running mascara and the taste of cigarettes on black lipstick kisses. It is skepticism borne of age. It is picking your battles 'cause just ain't no winning sometimes. It is found in newspapers, dead channels, horses and your hair.
DOOM damage manifests as abyssal pressure, a lingering malaise, cold fingers feathering the small of your back.
HOPE is the element of belief. It is the lambent dawn, sugar rush, an audience screaming lyrics back at the band. It is the armor won by the stubborn thousands who dream the world could be that simple. It is found in graffiti, birthday candles, the glint of the stars, and your eyes (though in most people it is not often visible).
HOPE damage manifests as bursts of delusion, an intravenous shot of confidence and joy, burdensome visions too bright to see, hubris overwriting pain, the ache of wanting more than this.
NOTES
sorry for waxing poetic about my stupid bullshit this has been swirling in my head for the past week
elemental system of this game has long been due for a rework. we didn't have anything like the NATURE/ARTIFICE line yet, and the "dark" and "light" element were Creepy/Righteous, the former of which was literally derived from a combination of Kingdom of Loathing's spooky element + enabling the possibility of Creepy & Wet damage. why did i do that. why were the design decisions that i made when devising my elemental system to any degree influenced by the fact that sometimes i can reference an ai-generated greentext meme. wrong with me.
anyway i like this system way way more because it feels actually elemental and not just a bunch of stupid bullshit i did out of obligation.
fully aware that doom and hope are homestuck aspects. also aware that they are not opposed aspects in that setting. i have not read homestuck and do not really plan to at this time. i might eventually. people who like homestuck keep saying i seem like someone who would have read homestuck back in the day and i'm never really sure how to take that.
oh yeah also ARTIFICE was called TECHNE at first but i wasn't really sure about that name. also considered CRAFT before tentatively settling on ARTIFICE. suggestions welcome. i don't want to do CIVILIZATION i think that sounds trite and pedestrian to have be the elemental opposite of NATURE even if that's practically what it symbolizes.
my Freaking ex-wife (who is historically and presently one of the most opinionated glitterglog enjoyers worldwide and thus the irl i go to when i want to iterate upon an idea im rotating in my head) was very vehement last we spoke on this idea that i call it artifice instead of techne and also that hope damage is goofy and stupid and that really i didn't need an elemental system at all, and i appreciate and value her very very much and think she is wrong on the latter two points.
UPDATE: mona total victory
specter and gallant due for some edits in that like, specter's hot/creepy hell portal ability doesnt make nearly as much sense for doom & similar, but i did very much conceive of these new elements with those two classes in mind. specter was originally hot as in ghost rider and gallant cold as in woahhh coooool but frankly i think the new system implies much more fun characterization of hot as passionate emo and cold as chilled out detached dude. & doom/hope is way cooler than creepy/righteous i think.
