A fantasy setting where magic is tied to the seasons

>a fantasy setting where magic is tied to the seasons
How could it work?

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Magic is divided into four schools based on the classic elements. Schools of magic are stronger during the corresponding season.

Summer=Fire
Autumn=Earth
Winter=Wind
Spring=Water
Have individual spells be affected by the season in varying ways. Some spells become super powerful in certain seasons, or don't work at all. Some spells have their effects reversed, or the range expanded/reduced.

Like Ryuutama?

Instead of the classical four elements feuding for dominion, dryads, which are the incarnation of the season like an elemental is its element, feud for control.

Mages are heavily attuned to the season to which their power is tied.

Summer mages are incredibly active in the hottest months, but freeze in the winter.
Autumn mages fly alongside the leaves in the fall, but find themselves heavy and lethargic in the springtime.
Winter mages stride below snow topped trees in the coldest months, but sleep during the summer.
Spring mages are bright and lively just as the snow finishes melting, but become weak and spiritlike when the leaves begin to fall.

While there may be some rudimentary organization among magic users, they are few and far between. Good mages may help villages or monitor the natural progression of the seasons in service of their god, while evil mages may attempt to harass innocent farmers and city slickers who venture to far away from the insulation of civilization.

The seasons are determined by ritualistic war between the marching fairy courts.

Check'd

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I think switching winter and spring makes more sense
Ice is really just frozen water, so it'd be all around you, makes sense it'd be stronger
And many flowers can be pollinated by wind, so it makes flowers, well, spring.

but true patrician taste would be having these magics ONLY work during their seasons.
That'd make politics and war a lot more interesting.
>when summer comes, fire wizards are sent to internment camps, if only so that others don't suffer from the heat they generate
>"urban legend" states that households that leave water outside during winter get visited and frozen dead by insane wandering ice wizard
>construction work almost exclusively takes place during autumn
>wind'o'mancers can choke twelve men using nothing but a light breeze and pollen during spring.

even neater would be color/element coded nations, so these politics are cyclical
>during summer, armies are amassed at the various countries' borders with the fire nation
>during winter, non-ice nation villages hide their water from sight
>during spring, soldiers wear thick, heavy masks to reduce the chance of getting "pollinated" by some wind wizard
>the earth nation's economy grows massively every autumn, making them the economic power house in the setting, but also making them snotty, arrogant and unwilling to take sides, even when there's more than politics at stake

yes last one is Swiss fuck them and their holey cheese

Its snowing in the middle of the desert.
What does it mean Summer Mages?

I mean, elemental associations really depend on how the weather acts during that season in whatever area you play in. Remember Aristotle's shit:
>fire is hot and dry
>earth is cold and dry
>water is cold and wet
>wind is hot and wet
Thus, in places like britain where winter is characterized by cold rain, winter is water associated; while in places like the midwest where winter is often pretty dry and ice filled, winter is associated with earth. perhaps it would be better to associate a season with one of these characteristics (i.e. winter is cold, spring is wet, summer is hot, and fall is dry), though those too can shift based on local climate

I personally think that tying the magic to elements is kind of a waste. There's so much you could do with seasonal magic.

>Spring: Gentle magics, like warmth, rain showers, rainbows, flower and animal magics. More oriented to an idyllic life, though more mischievous mages can pull off mean-spirited pranks or worse.
>Summer: Wild and lively. Can inspire burning passions in people and call down blazing rays of sunlight. Activity of summer mages can be pretty ostentatious, for good or ill.
>Autumn: Whimsical and flighty, mages glide along the falling leaves and are well acquainted with the spirits that come out during Hallow's Eve. Some enjoy flying from farm to farm to sample the dishes cooked from the fresh harvest.
>Winter: Mysterious and tend to keep to themselves. Can manipulate the cold winter winds and falling snow and ice with ease. Some might elect to make beautiful ice sculptures that only few will see before they melt in the new year, while sinister winter mages cause trouble for peasants in an already difficult season.

What?

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This. If you're going to go with a unique spin on magic schools/classifications by making them season-themed, it seems like a massive waste of that potential to then just boil the seasons down to the four elements.

I'm bumping this thread because I find it fascinating.

Mages draw their power from the realms of various Fey courts. Some fey allow this in askance of the mage's aid in war or other circumstances, while others must be tricked.

But why is Summer evil?

Is fire evil? Fire is what gave man dominion over the earth.

Some say this was a pact with the summer court, but none know what was given in exchange

>Is fire evil?
Undoubtfully.
>Fire is what gave man dominion over the earth.
I wish this meme would die.

seasonally

>renewal is evil
I bet you're a trash hoarder.

Is the Sun the source of magic? Then astronomy and the study of the sky is hugely important for magic.

>fire is renewal
Another meme that should die.

Fire is destruction, plain and simple. It doesn't transform, it doesn't renew it only destroys.

It's an edgy retard's element and only edgy retards speak of it as anything other than completely evil force.

Muh nigga

Ok then see what happens in spring if theres no sun, is the grass going to come back?

>what is smithing
>what is cooking
>what is keeping fucking warm at night

Those all are humans using controlled fire.

Fire by itself is all-consuming and all-destroying. it's evil.

destruction is necessary for renewal, without it there is only stagnancy

Guess what? Fire magic is also humans controlling fire. Ergo, it isn't inherently evil.

none of that is related to renewal

I'm not the guy that's talking about renewal but forest fires do result in nutrient rich soil which makes fore increased growth.

>t. anime villain
Fire magic is more often than not LOL I FIRE EVERYTHING. It's the brainlet's magic.
firefags know fire is the weakest element and so they compensate theit tiny weenies by burning Level 0 commoners.

>t. never cleaned anything in his life

What if instead of elements it was affected by celestial alignments. Positions of constellations change slowly through the year which alters the flow of magic. Certain spells/schools grow or wane in power as constellations appear. Some spells reach maximum power on one day a year which correlates to certain festivals (or days of mourning for when a spell was used for an evil purpose). Throw in effects from phases of the moon and no two days are the same.

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>Fire magic is more often than not LOL I FIRE EVERYTHING.
That doesn't make fire inherently evil, it just means that people are more likely to abuse it than not. It'd be like me saying that water magic is inherently evil because of floods and people using it to drown people.

The only edgy thing here is you thinking fire is only about destruction. You're actually too stupid to understand the other facets of it. And even then, destruction is not inherently evil.

This user knows what's up

>Arguing over such silly elemental nonsense
>Not checking 's trips

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But fires are vital for the reset of climax habitats.shit won there's species of trees thst only germinate after wildfires.

Are spoons evil as well? Cause you see they aid in the act of consumption.

I agree. What other magical things could be tied to the seasons? How well does a summer wizard operate in the fall? Would necromancer fall under Autumn?

And of course earth's orientation has an effect as well, with some spells working better at the equator or the poles.

I wonder if that could make an interesting card game. Have a constant cyclic timer going and spells work differently based on timing. It would add a new dimension.

> iron and steel weapons forged with fire
> guns use fire to kill
> bombs use fire to kill
> atom bombs use bombs to unleash pure fire to kill

Whatever deal was made with the summer court was likely free. They knew what man would do with fire.

honestly, though it seem like it might be autumn I'd go for necromancy being a spring thing. After all, both spring and necromancy about the return of life after a period of absence, as opposed to the loss of what is already there. Though that could just stem from an overly positive viewpoint on necromancy as a whole

With the current fantasy definition of necromancy as animating dead bodies that become undead and not truly alive, I'd argue that spring has more to do with resurrection magic.

steel is used for a lot more than just weapons
nuclear weaponry kills with photons btw

>creative and healing magic functions best in the spring
>evocation and big high energy magic functions best in the summer
>divination and introspective magic functions best in the fall
>spooky death magic functions best in the winter

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Spring: Healing
Summer: Offensive boost
Autumn: Destruction
Winter: Protection

Vivaldi is god

Everyone can only cast magic missile and they're just fighting over whose is the prettier seasonal color.

Magical affinity is linked to proximity of similar elements to those used in spells, simple.

Mana cost/ component requirement is reduced/waived when casting ice magic within a blizzard etc.

Spring Mage all day. Can I out beef a Winter Mage if I love more than they hate?

>a fantasy setting where magic is tied to the seasons
In my setting, it does work that way. Each season is tied with a magical source, which besides representing the circle of the year also represents circles through history.

> Spring
Sprint represents Arcane magic, which in my setting is the magic of creation, and is also the magic that shaped the world into what it is. In a historic sense, during Arcane ages great things rise, such as great empires.

> Summer
Summer represents the magic of Life. It is the type of magic that is present in the living, as well as in the nature. Summer is also a time where the natural deities are in their greatest shape.

> Autumn (Fall)
Autumn represents the magic of Chaos, which is a force as great as the Arcane magic, but uncontrollable and unreliable. Its very rare for someone actually to use Chaos magic because its very nature is to cause things to destroy themselves. Historically, the ages of Chaos are when great strife comes into the land, bringing down great empires as well as great heroes.

> Winter
Winter represents the magic of Death, and is basically the other side of the coin of Summer (magic of Life). Its not exactly about dying, but about the dead and decay, or in other words, about what happens after death. A lot of cultures in my setting worship Death as a deity and have their whole civilization built around it, so necromancy is not necessarily something evil.

>Summer=Fire
>Autumn=Wind
>Winter=Water
>Spring=Earth
FIFY

Bump

Actually IRL hardest season for some creatures. Inbetween the new shoots of spring yummy plants and too early for awesome bountiful harvests. Winter you can sleep through if you're into hibernating, or just fly away if that's your deal.

>this level of uniqueness to your setting

I wish I had the brainpower to conceive of a place where the years weren't 365 days long and magic was just a Force-style "controllable with training" power

But what if the Seasonal element was the one that everybody celebrates the most and have festivals for each season?
Spring=Wind - On a warm spring day, everyone gathers in a big meadow to enjoy kite-flying and showing-off their fancy wind sculptures and chimes.
Summer=Water - In the dog days of summer, everyone gathers by a body of water for swimming, ice cream and watermelon.
Fall=Earth - On a brisk autumn day, everyone gathers by a south-facing cliff to enjoy the radiant heat from the stone and have warm (ground temperature) mud baths, and jumping in giant piles of brown leaves.(b/c brown=earth)
Winter=Fire - The water is froze, the ground is froze and the wind is froze. On a bitter, freezing, miserable day, everyone gathers around a big bonfire to stay warm and have campfire skits, shadow-puppet contests, show-off fancy lanterns, eat warm/spicy food and relax in a nice steamy sauna/heated bath.

>Winter=Fire - The water is froze, the ground is froze and the wind is froze. On a bitter, freezing, miserable day, everyone gathers around a big bonfire to stay warm and have campfire skits, shadow-puppet contests, show-off fancy lanterns, eat warm/spicy food and relax in a nice steamy sauna/heated bath.

people do that around here, sort of. Host tropical-theme parties, crank the heat up, wear bikinis and drink pina coladas and shit

I like the get angle, but I'm not sure how to characterize get from the autumn and spring.

>Fire is destruction, plain and simple. It doesn't transform, it doesn't renew it only destroys.

You are aware that regular brush fires actually clear away underbrush and allow new growth in most plant-rich biomes, right?

Already exists.
And it's great.

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>What if instead of elements it was affected by celestial alignments. Positions of constellations change slowly through the year which alters the flow of magic. Certain spells/schools grow or wane in power as constellations appear. Some spells reach maximum power on one day a year which correlates to certain festivals (or days of mourning for when a spell was used for an evil purpose). Throw in effects from phases of the moon and no two days are the same.

This is how it works in Eberron. The moons/planes orbit the material plane and their relative position has an impact on how strong/weak magic is and allows easier travel to the plane.

Also, having 13 moons really fucks with lycanthropes in the setting.

See

I'm a filthy mobile poster and my phone corrected fey to get.

Bump