Elementals

Elementals are humans with an elemental affinity-- sometimes this runs in the family, though often it doesn't. This doesn't, however, mean every child of every generation is an elemental. Often it skips a generation or two, popping up here and there. If it does show up, it's not unusual for siblings to have it. Where elemental affinity does run in families, the element remains constant (so if siblings are both elementals, they would both be, for example, earth elementals, rather than one fire and one water). Not all elemental affinity is, however, due to heritability, sometimes it occurs seemingly at random. Abilities are wholly due to how much the person allows themselves to become in tune with their element. Some people go through their whole lives never even knowing they have abilities. Others connect right in and fully explore their affinity.

With an elemental affinity, there are some generalized personality traits that go along with that element. This does not mean that everyone fits the bill. In fact, some people just don't--or at least, not upon first glance. Usually there seems to be a reason the element has chosen a person, though that it may be may be a mystery to them. Elements are also locked in. Meaning, a person can't be more than one element. A general weakness elementals face is when they are emotionally upset, stressed out, etc, control may slip.

Earth
General Character Traits
Earth elementals are the mothers of the world. The parents. The level headed ones. They tend to be the leaders, having the ability and tendency towards caring for the well being of others. In tense situations, earth elementals keep their cool, thinking things out well before rushing in. They are difficult to rattle.

Earth elementals have the ability to find their way through the loops on the land side of town (though they do get as lost as anyone else if they attempt to leave town via the lake). Their connection to the earth allows them to feel the right way to go.

Lv 1) Earth has tuned you in to the basics. You have excellent directional sense, and you seldom have trouble maneuvering yourself even over rough terrain.
Lv 2) You can regain power by meditating with crystals, plants, being outside, etc.
Lv 3) You have a better communication with earth now. You can feel her better, you can sense faults in rock, and earth is more apt to listen to you. You can trigger cave ins or prevent them. You could incite earth tremors (mild ones), or you could effect the directions the earth falls. You also have a green thumb, and can get anything to grow.
Lv 4) Earth speaks to you and tells you her secrets. If it's buried, you can probably find it. Gold, minerals, something lost, if it's in your area you can dig it up or you at least know where to go to look.Your green thumb is better now as well, allowing you to speed up the growth process. Wilted plants naturally perk up around you. You have a mild healing touch to the sick. (non physical injury)
Lv 5) Earth has accepted you as part of her and you can become one with her.

Drawbacks
Part of being steadfast occasionally means you're not as quick to act as might be required. Earth's way is a slow one, taking thousands of years to get moving and get from point A to point B. You might not have that kind of time.

Air
General Character Traits
Air elementals are highly intelligent. They have a huge creative drive and are intellectuals at heart. The trouble is that often times, air elementals will seem scatterbrained. Their minds work so fast most of the time that they can't coherently explain themselves unless given a lot of time and perhaps a map. They also have tendencies to zone out as their mind is seeking out the answer to some question. They have been known to go for long stretches at a time forgetting little things like sleeping or eating. They were the kid in class who didn't seem to have a lick of common sense, but graduated valedictorian.

Lv 1) Air is nice to you. You never have trouble breathing. Air pressure doesn't effect you, even in high altitudes. You also have a keen sense of smell.
Lv 2) You can regain power by meditating with incense, being outside in a breeze or wind, etc.
Lv 3) Air does more of what you tell it to. You can create or calm winds, change its direction and call existing weather patterns into your area.
Lv 4) Existing weather patterns? You don't need that anymore, you can create them all on your own.
Lv 5) Air has accepted you as part of her and you can become one with her.

Drawbacks
Because of the flighty seeming thing, a lot of times Air elementals aren't taken nearly as seriously as they probably should be. They're often discounted as kooks or even stupid, even when the opposite is the truth.

Fire
General Character Traits
Fire elementals are the unpredictable lot. They're passion personified. They are often the first to rush in guns blazing, and often times the very last to go down. They're often martyrs, their passions overriding their survival sense. (It's speculated that things are much more important to Fire elementals for the simple fact that it is the only element that cannot survive without two others present. Without air to breathe or something to consume, there is no fire. Thus the martyr effect.) They can be fiercely loyal and caring even if they and rationality aren't the best of friends. They are known to fear little, and once they set their mind on something, it's difficult to stray them from their path.

Lv 1) Fire and you are friends. You're not the kid who ever touched anything hot and got burned. In fact, burns and you don't exist in the same sentence. Heat doesn't bother you at all.
Lv 2) You can regain power by meditating with fire of any kind.
Lv 3) You can manipulate flames. You can effect their heat and intensity, their height and which direction it burns. You can flare it up or put it out. A spark with you can become a camp fire in seconds.
Lv 4) You don't need a spark anymore. You can create flames and manipulate it on a large scale just by thinking about it.
Lv 5) Fire has accepted you as part of her and you can become one with her.

Drawbacks
Hello irrational. Fire elementals are not well known for being the best thinkers in the world, and they've also been known to have quite a bit of a temper. They're all about the moment and the passion and often really can't think ahead to save their lives...and often don't.

Water
General Character Traits
Water elementals are the moody ones. Their surface hides wonders totally unseen from the shore. They are deep individuals, and can be very secretive. They can hold information to themselves without giving it away one bit. Never play poker with a water elemental. They are the ones who hide things incredibly well if they feel a desire to. Their moods can shift at the drop of a hat, but they can be the most reliable of people if you're on their good side. Water elementals can be your most passionate lover and your most poisonous ex.

Water elementals have the ability to find their way through the loops on the lake side of town (though they do get as lost as anyone else if they attempt to leave town via the land). Their connection to the water allows them to feel the right way to go.

Lv 1) Water likes you. Water pressure doesn't seem to effect you at all. You're a naturally excellent swimmer. Even in rough water, you will not drown.
Lv 2) You can regain power by meditating with water of any description.
Lv 3) Water and you are tuned in better now. You can create or calm waves, manipulate the force of them as well as their direction. You can effect the tides.
Lv 4) You can call upon water to aid you. You can call it up from nearby or directly from the earth's crust or the humidity from the air. You may also redirect certain weather patterns to your area ie: make it rain or snow
Lv 5) Water has accepted you as part of her and you can become one with her.

Drawbacks
You're that ex in everyone's history that they wish they'd never met. They have a tendency to want your secrets without giving away any of their own. And they'll keep your secrets, but do you ever really know them? They often leave people leaving exhausted, used up but without anything but their reflection staring back at them from still waters.

Rare Elementals
There are three other elements that most people are unaware of. Those are Spirit, Chaos and Death. They are extremely rare, to the point where it's generally believed that they were killed off and eradicated generations ago. For once, the rumors were true. It's only been more recently that these elementals have even hit the radar again, and no one's sure why they've come back now.

Spirit
General Character Traits
Spirit elementals are very much in tune with everything. They bear the burden of their power. They live the connection between the physical and the ethereal. They often seem a bit different, a little dreamy at times, deeply mystical. They wander the world trying to help it because they feel it so keenly. You do not get evil spirit elementals. If there were evil ones, they would be some of the most horrifying psyches known to man and may well scare demons away. Spirit elementals really are connected into it all, the feel of everything. More things have spirits than people believe. And they can feel it all.

Lv 1) You are in tune with the spirit world, and can sense spirits alive or dead. You can see auras, and can tell another elemental and what they are at a glance. Being acutely attuned to the spirit world, they feel it when something near them dies.
Lv 2) You can regain power by meditating with any element.
Lv 3) Spirits can talk to you, and you can talk to them. You can also effect them, and they you. You can immobilize a dead spirit if you need to temporarily.
Lv 4) You may now summon spirits dead or alive as well as infuse it into something for safe keeping if the need arises. If the spirit's body still lives, the person will be the same, only they will be unkillable until such a time as their spirit is returned. They are bound to whomever possesses their spirit.

*See Below
Lv 5) You can dissolve your physical form and become a spirit. You can also bind spirits alive or dead.

Drawbacks
Spirit elementals have to be strong, strong people. And if they are not, they don't last very long. With as interconnected as they are, they have a high rate of breaking down. Beyond this, sometimes it's difficult to deal with a spirit elemental as someone close to you, because they're not just close to you. They're close to everyone. And everything. They're as close to the houseplants as they are to you. Some people have difficulty with that.

*Spiritless living zombies retain all of their normal life save for that unkillable part. It is generally ill advised to do this to anyone, being if someone's reduced to hamburger, they're feeling and experiencing that. Many of them if faced with trauma like that go completely insane.

Chaos
General Character Traits

Chaos elementals come from everywhere. They have no set personality type, besides they seem to be a whole lot either luckier or oddness prone individuals than everyone else in the universe. They are walking strangeness. Just being around them tends to be a very interesting time.

Chaos elementals can sometimes avoid loops, or find their way back from them if they're wandering around where they happen. It doesn't work all the time, and isn't an exact science, but it is possible for them to try and avoid more lines of chaos, to find the areas where order has been established again--thus out of the loop they may have got stuck in.

Lv 1) Aren't you lucky!! Why yes, yes you are. A lot luckier than your average joe, anyhow. You tend to win your scratch off tickets, or you trip and fall only to be narrowly missed by a stray bullet.
Lv 2) You can regain power by meditating with any element.
Lv 3) Being around randomness for so long you begin to understand it now and are able to effect it a bit. You can create some random events, and control some to an extent.
Lv 4) You are walking chaos. Random events happen around you all the time. At the beginning of any scene, you must roll a die(six or ten sider) and whatever you roll, that's how many random events have to happen during the course of the scene.
Lv 5) You can enchant people or objects with the walking chaos charm. Meaning if you enchanted a necklace, and gave it to another character, that character's player would have to roll the die and add in that many random events into their scenes so long as they had it on their person. If it's an enchanted person, they have to do that every scene, etc.

Drawbacks
Well, it's not like it shuts off. So sure, sometimes it's amusing and for mischief loving folks, it can be a riot. But sometimes? You just want to relax and get some rest. But that doesn't mean the ability isn't still running. Screws fall out all the time, the world's an imperfect place...your screws are falling out all the time.

Death
General Character Traits
Death elementals have a trying time of life. They can hear their own lifewatch slowing down. They go out and mess up the bad stuff as much as they can. Often times, they're martyrs, but it's confusing as to what their true purpose was. It may just add up to them being suicidal. They know they're going down, they know when. Many of them wind up wanting to take as much down with them as they can. Quite a lot of them go down in a blaze of glory, because why not?

Lv 1) You are in tune with death and negative energy. You can feel bad karma, you can sense it around areas where something bad has happened. If the area hasn't been cleared out spiritually or purified, then it could be there for centuries for you to draw off of. Cities are good for negative energy, cemeteries for death, prisons for bad karma. etc. You can also see and interact with dead spirits. Death elementals are immune to poisons.
Lv 2) Regain magic by feeding off of bad karma, or negative or dying energy in areas.
Lv 3) You can re-channel bad karma or negative energy 'cleaning out' an area, person or objects. Doing this will regain your magic back without the meditation. You can purify anything, taking out poisons or toxins.
Lv 4) Negative or dead energy is yours to command. You can draw it in and blast it out like an energy bolt, which is a nasty thing to anything in its path. Anything hit by a blast of that decays, rots, rusts, succumbs to entropy fast.(Example: the elemental soaks up the power of a plant that is dying. The plant, no longer having the death energy killing it, will perk right back up, and the energy will harm whatever it's being redirected at.)
Lv 5) You can resurrect an area, animal or person at the cost of your own.

Drawbacks
Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse. Or, well...not usually the corpse part. But one of the biggest drawbacks of death elementals is the fact that their ability slowly kills them. They do not live long lives. If they aren't burning themselves out trying to purify things, they're burning themselves out trying to fight off people who would seek to use them. And if they're not doing that? They're burning themselves out bringing someone or something back to life. If they're power hungry? Then they're burning themselves out using their power. It's the same bottom line around no matter which way you look at it. They are not here for the long haul.