Elemental suggestions?

I am going to start a book with characters who have control over the elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Air)
But.
I wanted a few minor elements that are not as powerful but people still have control over..
Any suggestions?

Jim Butcher included Wood and Metal by combining both Chinese and Western elemental mysticism. It worked out nicely.

Another tack is what Magic has done; in this case, "elemental" represents of "essence", so aside from the standard Fire Earth Water Air setup there are also "Time", "Blizzard", "Bog", "Cinder", "Bloodpyre"... anything impressive enough to achieve its own presence, basically.

Oh good ideas!

What about something like lightning and the other suggestions Notkieran made? If I come up with any more, I'll come back.

ok!
Thanks :3

How about an organizational chart with general categories and more specific disciplines? Don't forget to chart out opposing forces, like fire and water to see how they are going to interact. While water douses fire, fire can heat water. Air can starve out fire, fire can expend all the air in a space. Power can be relative to what forces you are combating.


TC

I added light and darkness to my magic system (not that those ones are minor). I've also got characters who might specialize -- for example, someone with earth might focus on metal or stone or sand. A water sorcerer could focus on water vapor (call it mist, if you like; it sounds cooler) or ice.

You can always do a 'human' element. I'm dealing with the concept of 'souls' in mine. Not entirely sure how someone would control souls, but it's an interesting concept, should you choose to pursue it.

D&D also includes "para-elemental" and "quasi-elemental". To quote from Wikipedia on the subject:

Wikipedia wrote:The Para-Elemental Planes are produced where the Elemental Planes come into contact with each other: Smoke (Air and Fire), Ice (Air and Water), Ooze (Earth and Water), and Magma (Fire and Earth). The Quasi-Elemental Planes are produced where the Elemental Planes touch the Energy Planes: At the intersection of the Positive Energy Plane and the planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water are Lightning, Minerals, Radiance, and Steam respectively. Around the Negative Energy Planes are Vacuum, Dust, Ash, and Salt.

That could give you some ideas for things you might include.

Try playing Doodle God? Base element combinations should give some ideas

You could work to combine the four basic elements, such as the Para-elemental planes, like what keolah said. The way the Para-elemental people became (just a suggestion) could be the people who originated from four base elements (Water, Fire, Earth and Air) having kids with other elemental origins. Like, say, a Fire and a Water had a kid, making steam. The base elemental people think of themselves (or are treated like) royalty, and the mixed elemental people would be weaker and less appreciated.

I know, confusing right? It's just a suggestion, but honestly I like the Para-elements idea a lot. I would do a little research on them.

I have a plotline where a group of people are given Elemental Talismans by a powerful Presence. A Presence is a spiritual being, not angel but not demon either, wiser and more powerful than humans. The Presence controls gravity.

Gravity control is creepy. The Presence can change the way things are made, such as turning a piece of wood into a puddle of oil or, if there are enough materials, into silver and a puddle of leftover stuff. She can to a certain degree read and control thoughts, make bains implode or explode as needed and often creates points of strong gravity or no gravity at random places. She heats things up or cool them down by changing the gravity immediately surrounding the object. She can also make things invisible by bending the light around them.