Concepts, Manifestations, and Archons

Let's go on a small trip down memory lane. It's been a while since I wrote something for high-fantasy worlds usable in a game like D&D. Back in June 2017 (I too am surprised how long I've been going), I wrote an article about souls. In it, I described genies as "souls lost outside of ethereal plane's reach that some element sticks to". Elements have always been a fascinating idea to me, and back then I only worried about addressing actual D&D things instead of coming up with my own ideas. In March 2018, I wrote an article about the senses. This one I admit is only tangentially related, you'll see it later. Later, in October of the same year, I wrote a cosmology article about Chained Realms. I don't think I actually played any D&D game that would explicitly take place in it, I just wanted an excuse to show off my cool new take on the elemental planes and how simple the cosmology could be. This is a crucial article for today's write-up. Last but not least, I wrote about the Tahjinn in March 2022 on Reddit. I made it because I knew that making the genasi more interesting would take very little effort.

All these things crossed paths in my brain when I read Izzy's simple question minutes into June 22nd:

Have y'all ever thought of the idea of an anti-elemental?

Concepts

Let's go from the ground level, just in case you forgot the theory written in articles from years ago. The significant part of the multiverse is covered by two transitional planes: Ether and Aether. Mortals named these, and they named these mainly because they found out about the Ether first, and then judged that Aether is its opposite. Aether is the realm that contains all of the elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spark. It also contains the mind, which is an animating force, though perhaps it can be treated as an element of sorts too.

Previously, I've said that the Ether is a realm of souls, as well as pure light and darkness. I think I've changed my mind on this, and it's time to build this up more. Let's start with a new term: Ether's realm doesn't contain elements, it contains concepts. They too have physical manifestations of sorts (listed alphabetically):

• Amber is a concept that encapsulates artistic and aesthetic ideas.
• Blood is a concept that encapsulates psychological and emotional ideas.
• Bright is a concept that encapsulates existential and metaphysical ideas.
• Crystal is a concept that encapsulates social and cultural concepts.
• Dark* is a concept that encapsulates ethical and moral ideas.

Similarly to how the mind is one of the elements technically, the soul is one of the concepts technically. An animating force is required, after all. There would be mixtures between the concepts too, but I didn't feel like coming up with those yet, because I have more exciting things to talk about. By the way, the concepts and elements would mix too, though I have no idea what would come of those unions.

I have a couple of notes on the above list, so let's talk about them.

Firstly, I've put the metaphysical and existential ideas into the Bright concept because of the senses article. Preception can be quite important to existence itself (something something quantum physics).

As for the Crystal, it refers to any kind of organized structure, not merely ice, salt, or gemstone.

Finally, I'm putting the morality and ethicality ideas under the Dark concept because I couldn't figure out a better place for it yet, and I didn't want to drop it. Sure darkness is just an absence of light, but in a fantasy context that can be ignored. Honestly, most of these are kind of placeholders, if I find something better I'm all in for replacing them.

Mystery is a strange thing. It cannot be held, yet it can be grasped. It cannot be seen and understood, for that undoes it. It is a fickle phenomenon, and yet it exists persistently throughout the universe. It is not an element, however, for it is not made up of molecules, atoms, or quarks.
Raziel, angel of mysteries, by Peter Mohrbacher

Manifestations and Archons

An elemental is a pile of elemental matter animated by a mind. Analog to that for the Ethereal planes would be a manifestation: a pile of conceptual matter animated by a soul. Angels are bright manifestations, fiends were formerly dark manifestations but now I'm not so sure. Crystal manifestations sound kind of like modrons, though I'd assume they would be more human-ish if that makes sense. Blood manifestations and amber manifestations would be just generally cool, even if I have no idea what those would entail.

When a mortal perishes outside of the reach of the Aether, somewhere in the Ether, their soul will travel wherever it needs to. That much I've made clear back when I wrote that article about souls I linked above. But what about their mind? If the souls go through a great recycling process, shouldn't the minds go through one as well? Now they do. And without access to the Aether, a mind will be stuck in the Ether. Conceptual matter will begin to clump around it, and what you'll end up with is an archon - a conceptual equivalent of a genie. I know, I know, archon already stands for a highly-ranking angel in D&D, I just wanted something that could share some sound with the word "archetype" but wanted to avoid using the label "archetype" itself for beings as numerous as genies.

Conceptual Mixtures

So let's give this a go. What could the mixtures of the concepts above be like as physical manifestations? I seriously doubt I'll get it all perfectly on the first try, but that's what happens when one treads an unfamiliar territory. It's going to sound silly, since we could map these to the already existing elements, but it is what it is.

Concept	Amber	Blood	Bright	Crystal	Dark
Amber	Amber	Paint	Glass	Mosaic	Ink
Blood	Paint	Blood	Dream	Wine	Venom
Bright	Glass	Dream	Bright	Prism	Shadow
Crystal	Mosaic	Wine	Prism	Crystal	Obsidian
Dark	Ink	Venom	Shadow	Obsidian	Dark

Following the same logic I outlined in the Chained Realms article linked above, we could thus deduce how would the different Conceptual Planes look.

• Conceptual Plane of Amber would have seas of ink and paint, with mosaic islands that have glass and amber structures on them.
• Conceptual Plane of Blood feels the most watery to me, so we could make the dreams in it a physical thing that one could stand on.
• Conceptual Plane of Bright (the closest thing to a fantasy heaven) would be made of glass lands and prismatic mountains, perhaps with liquid dreams as the oceans, but still with some shadow here and there.
• Conceptual Plane of Crystal feels the most like earth, but wine would make for an amazing ocean among all those hard materials.
• Finally, Conceptual Plane of Dark (the closest thing to a fantasy hell) would be islands of Obsidian among venomous ink, with darkness all around, and yet shadows that lurk within the darkness.

It ain't perfect, but frankly it's some cool mental imagery.

Air, earth, fire, spark, water, and mind. Five plus one elements. Amber, blood, bright, crystal, dark, and soul. Five plus one concepts. The multiverse is perfectly balanced, as all things should be. And it feels great, as long as you don't ask me what the difference between mind and soul is supposed to me. So far, I'm gonna claim it's the split between one's internal logic, versus emotional side.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Updates to the Opposed Rolls Combat System

Originally I wanted to write an article just on "sword dance", but I figured I'd add some more stuff to it. This article will therefore be made up of a couple short ideas.

Sword Dance

The secret to a combat that changes all the time is to make stuff change all the time. And the simplest way to change the circumstances always is to add motion.

When you attack another creature, you can choose to attempt entering its space. The opponent can decide as part of its reaction whether it stays in its space, or moves away from you (some reactions can allow for a movement in different directions), letting you enter it. If it stays in its space, you gain a [substantial] bonus to your attack roll. If it leaves, it must enter an adjacent space, and it is still attacked.

Extra mini rule: When someone reacts by dodging, they must actually move to an adjacent space. Yes, you could in theory duck or something, but making that an option will only be another element keeping a battle static.

What the [substantial] bonus would be depends on playtesting.

Fighting in a constant motion is way more interesting than standing in places smacking each other with weapons.
Screenshot from the movie Princess Bride.

Regarding the Opportunity Attacks

I gave this a lot of thought, and the best way to avoid the opportunity attacks seems to be letting you freely leave the presence of a foe you attacked in this turn, assuming they didn't counter-attack. Think of it this way: you attack them, they decide to go into a defensive stance, and now you surprise them by running away. Before they realize what's going on, you're off. Simple!

Non-lethal Combat

Now this one might sound silly at a glance. What the heck do I mean by non-lethal? I have an issue with an anticlimactic character death due to a random encounter that has nothing to do with the main story. I had a chat on this recently with a dude named Rachayz on Discord, and I realized something - why have hit points in a fight that you can't lose anyway? Let it cost you something else. I mean, it could still cost you some hit points, but "losing" this fight should give you some handicap while winning it could grant you some benefit. How powerful this benefit/handicap is and how long it lasts depends entirely on how difficult the encounter is to conquer. If you meet a single goblin, it could be something you get over in a day. If someone sends after you the Cerberian Hellhounds with a boss fight bar and all, you might not be able to walk for the rest of your life.

I've kept this article as a draft for weeks at this point. I don't know if there's anything I can add to it at the moment, it's just a couple of unrelated ideas that I want to put out there so I can move on to processing other ideas. I might make this into an actual RPG eventually, just as an experiment.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!