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Welcome to the home of The 6 Elements, a 3.5 Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign of unique magic and adventure amid thousands of (mostly) tropical islands that are the shattered spine of a once great world, now recovering from three centuries of darkness after a terrible war between the Starfallen Dragons and monstrous demons known as The Minzessine.
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January 19th, 2008 // Adventure 53: The Gilded Cage was last night, with the party reuniting once again with their old companion Bloodhammer (Stormbringer, whose player visited Michigan for the weekend) and attacked the fortress of a pair of Raptorians, both former Arkruz Centurions, holding a Starfall Marked captive, but discovered not all was quite as it seemed...with the forum dead, there isn't a summary currently but the experience page is updated. We're on temporary hiatus but I'll continue updating the website when we resume!
December 16th, 2007 // Adventure 52: The Storm was last night, with the party fighting a swarm of Deepling as well as trying to fight the curse of the Deepling bite...the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
December 2nd, 2007 // Adventure 51: A Small War was last night, with the party taking on more slavers and making some new allies, before a strange sound echoed from the sea, putting them into a trance...the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
November 24th, 2007 // Adventure 50: The Journey East was last night, kicking off a new "chapter" of adventures, and the party departed Andira giving chase to a ship from Abyinth with connections to the menta worms that had infested the islands, pausing briefly to meet with two other skiffer crews and to help a shipwreck survivor save his crew from slavers...the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
October 29th, 2007 // Adventure 49: The Mind and the Heart was last night and the party faced two distinct and very different challenges...the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
October 21st, 2007 // Adventure 48: The Prisoner of the Serpent was last night and as the massive snake-demon Sorizon began to erupt from the ground, the party entered the prison that was holding him (somewhat) in place, seeing the hideous creature close up....the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
September 16th, 2007 // Adventure 47: The Academy was last night and the party returned to Ioban, taking on The Assembly, rescuing several prisoners, and discovering a secret hidden within one of the city's most ancient buildings....the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
September 9th, 2007 // Adventure 46: Venomous Wounds was last night and the party discovered a ghastly secret buried under the island as well as the source of the hideous creatures ranging across the land....the summary is online in the forum plus the experience page and is updated as well!
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The 6 Elements are categories that define reality in our campaign world. They also form the basis of magic (including new spells and classes), which is based on the manipulation of these elements. As the elements are all natural forces of the world, magic is viewed as another way in which a person can change his or her environment: while a blacksmith could expend time and sweat into creating a sword, a Savant (who is skilled in manipulating matter and energy) could form one with a simple thought and action. Both are natural methods of creating the sword: the first is the most common method while the magical method is simply quicker.
 | These categories are detailed in depth within the Overview section of the Setting page, but in brief, they begin with quintessence. This 1st element is the "building block" of all things, essentially matter and energy without form: raw quintessence can literally become anything. Before the world was created, all reality was of this material. In current times, raw quintessence no longer exists, but certain feats can draw power from it to enhance spells, although not without danger. |
 | The 2nd element is sardra, which is all nonliving matter and energy of the material world: in a sense, it is quintessence given form (such as rocks, water, the atmosphere, and fire). There are even some creatures made entirely of sardra, such as elementals, although living creatures are of the next element. Those skilled with this element are called Savants and can transform matter and energy, often with lethal effects to their enemies. |
 | The 3rd element follows the same pattern of refinement: it is lithos, the element of life present in anything that can be considered alive, such as people, trees, and animals. Those skilled with this element are called Lifebonds and can heal and harm the living (while Lifedrinkers take this element from others). |
 | The 4th element further refines lithos: it is menta, the thinking mind and the power of intellect. This is both rational thought, separating sentient beings from animals and plants, and is a force that can be used to affect the minds of others as well as the world (such as with telepathy and telekinesis). Those that learn to wield it undergo a physical transformation that includes the burning of their irises, giving them the name Silvereyes. |
 | The 5th element is animus, which is the afterimage or echo of any person, place, or thing that existed as sardra, lithos, or even menta. In the world of The 6 Elements, anything that ceases to exist becomes animus: that is, the past. Memoria are those who can see this element and even borrow knowledge, skills, and spells from the past as well as communicate with the dead. |
 | The 6th element is umbra: the power of the imagination manifested. This element lacks physicality but is incredibly versatile, as those who understand it (known as Eminitors) can literally create anything they think of, but these creations are purely illusionary. |
This series of categories, with the next building upon or refining the previous, is used as the foundation of the campaign world, including the creation of new spell casting classes replacing the traditional Cleric, Druid, Wizard, and Sorcerer.
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- Classes // The traditional spell casting classes (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard) and the Psion are replaced by five new classes called elementalists, each of which is skilled with a specific element. Each is a spontaneous caster capable of using any spell of the appropriate element: all of the casters manipulate the elements themselves and have no need for books or prayer to use their abilities.
- Casting // All must first Gather One's Focus as a standard action before casting; furthermore, casters can cast spells beyond the number naturally allotted to them or at a level higher than they are capable of by Drawing Upon One's Focus. This process is dangerous but the alternative in D&D, for example, is a wizard who is of limited use once out of prepared spells.
- Gods // Religion and deities, while important, do not play an active day to day obvious role in the modern world. There are no rule distinctions between arcane and divine magic: it is all considered a natural force and a part of The 6 Elements.
- Death // The definition of death in The 6 Elements is the transformation of a creature to animus. Characters can, in certain circumstances, continue to function when killed: they can be come Deadwalkers (a non-living body playing host to the animus or spirit of the dead) or even a Fade (a kind of ghost).
- Metamagic // These feats are integrated into the magic system itself: every spell can have its range, duration, area of effect, and its effect easily altered by increasing or decreasing the spell slot used at the time of casting. Furthermore, casters can combine spell slots with a 3:1 ratio into higher level spell slots (three 1st level spells become a 2nd) or split spell slots with a 2:1 ration (a 3rd level spell could become two 2nd level spell slots).
- Healing // Though magical healing is available, it comes with a price: it function by forcing a person's body to spontaneously heal itself at such an accelerated rate that the repairing of wounds is not only painful but deals non-lethal damage (equal to full or half the amount healed, depending on the result of a Fortitude save) even as the lethal damage is removed.
- Commerce // Barter and trade are much more important in currency, as the traditional precious metals (gold, silver, and copper) can be created by even low level Savants by transforming another substance into them, thus thay have little value in this campaign. Purchasing goods and services requires trading finished goods or services.
- Travel // Magical spells such as Teleport and Dimensional Door are not options. Since the world has been broken by a cataclysm into a scattering of islands in a large sea, most voyages must be conducted using sea vessels which can require months to travel distances that might ordinarily have taken days in other worlds.
- Races // Gone are favored classes. All racial abilities tied to casting in typical D&D apply, instead, to an element. For example, gnomes are the most different from their standard counterparts: they lose all Spell-Like abilities in exchange for Fire and Cold resistance because of their inherent tie to sardra. Furthermore, races generally considered "monsters" in typical D&D worlds are much more commonly seen walking the streets of the civilized world. An ogre walking through a town, while unusual, would garner little more than a glance; even something like a Stone Giant in full battle plate would be noticed more for the fact that she has plate armor on than for her race.
- Cosmology // The world is mono-planar: that is, there is no overall cosmology or creatures like Outsiders beyond the world itself. Although variations on some of these creatures are used within the world as are some of their names (like "demons"), they are not extraplanar in origin.
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