Zephyr Academy: Eclipsed Fates

Chapter Five: Exposition

In this world, there exists a fundamental essence that permeates through everything: aether. Aether connects the material and spiritual realms, allowing people to harness the eight elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Darkness, Time, and Space.

Fire is the element of force, but also life. From great explosions to flames no larger than a candle's, those with the affinity house the highest potential to deal damage. This affinity tends to make its users lean towards short tempers, but can also fuel the conviction of their soul.

Water, the element of change and growth, opens a canvas of diversity in its users. No two users of water arts are bound to the same techniques as there are as many styles as there are water users. Water frequently influences its users to be stable, but flexible to change. They can be as  stubborn as earth users, free-spirited like wind users, or explosive like fire users.

Wind, the element of fluidity, provides its users with the ability to separate themselves from the other elements. They are agile, fluid and flexible. Despite the lax nature their element pulls them toward, wind users are capable of extinguishing the largest fires, and weathering the hardest rocks. It is also not uncommon for wind users to be capable of flight.

Earth, the element of stability, sets the foundation of stability. They are durable and powerful. Most users tend to be hard-headed in some capacity, leading to unwavering beliefs and strong minds. Most earth users use the element to enhance their body, but especially skilled users are capable of harnessing the element in its raw form to create constructs, weapons or carve the land itself.

Within the four elements, each acts as a counter to another, like a game of rock-paper-scissors--or Naruto. Fire counters wind, wind counters earth, Earth counters water, and water counters fire.

Most have at least one of the four basic elements, and a majority of the population only has access to the four elements. The act of harnessing an element outside of one's affinity is, while uncommon, possible. Those of the 'God' tier are capable of changing the qualities of their aether to take the form of other elements, but their usage will always pale in comparison to their innate affinities.

In the domain of the divine, the light and darkness elements serve as foils to one another. Rare among the populous, many theories of the origin of said affinities exist: divine intervention, divine contact, luck. However, all agree that for every light user, there is a dark user. Given the lawful nature of light users and chaotic nature of darkness users, a significantly higher number of light users are known than dark users as the latter are seen as bloodthirsty or evil.

Lastly, the two primordial elements, space and time. Even rarer than light and dark, less than a thousandth of the world's population holds one of the two with a balance always existing between the two. Little is known of either element's capabilities as users deliberately hide their affinity due to their value to benevolent and malevolent forces alike. Time users are always wiser and space users are always more aware of their surroundings.

At its core, aetherial elements are weak and unstable. The first level of aetherial art training comes in the form of creating runes to channel the elements into a tangible form. With further refinement, one can forgo runes which is signified with a layer of elemental aether coating one's body. However, the most skillful are capable of manifesting their arts without coating their bodies in aether.

Alongside humans, some creatures are capable of naturally harnessing aether, making them formidable allies or adversaries. Aetherial spirits are an example of an ally; they are benevolent concentrations of pure aether that can act as a conduit in place for a natural nexus if one were to lack one at birth through coalescence.