Elemental Mandala

The Grand Elemental Mandala is a divine construction of elemental magics found in the eastern Arken Lands. It is vast enough to form a strangely shaped valley of its own. This mandala describes the Elements as they exist in relation to one another and emits potent magic of a dominant Element. Each new Age, the Mandala turns, generating a different kind of elemental power. A studious mortal may derive an understanding of True Elemental Magic from the Mandala's patterns; a slow but powerful type of elemental magic.

## Description

The most basic elements of the Elemental Mandala are divided into five groups of three elements, four of which are set in direct opposition to one of those other four groups. The four are the dichotomies of Light and Dark and Life and Death, while the fifth are the bounding elements of Space, Time, and Void.

### Bounding Elements

These bounding elements are beyond the reach of mortal spellcraft, though some word exists of some divine works bound to the form of mortal men and beasts which utilize their energies. None of these three elements has any particular primacy over the others, but for the purposes of diagramming it is convention to place the Bound of Space as the base of the outer triangle.

The placement of Time and Void is a matter of some debate, both discussion of the temporality of Life and Death and the intrinsic link between the mathematical concepts of zero and infinity both embodied by Void making symbolic links unclear. Regardless, these two bounds are collectively to as the Lens of Time and Void, as the two are generally placed together in very nearly all tessellations of the basic triangle.

### Dichotomies

#### Light and Darkness

The first dichotomy is between the Elements of Light, being Metal and Lightning and the Elements of Darkness, being Earth and Wind. This dichotomy is very much influenced by its relation to the bounding element of Space, Darkness occupying the wide base of the triangle near to space while Light occupies the narrow point.

This influence is quite clear from their secondary elements: Metal and Lightning being both directly comparable to and minuscule in comparison to the vastness of Earth and Wind. Yet this difference in size should not be mistaken for a difference in power, for does not iron split the earth and lightning split the sky? Both metaphors are significant in some tessellations of the basic triangle, wedges of Light splitting regions of darkness being very common. This alignment is believed by some to be the reason for the existence of the Abyss, unmatched by any similar realm associated with the element of Light.

The placement of the Element of Wind in this dichotomy is an occasional source of confusion for new students. How indeed did Darkness come to be associated with a transparent substance? The answer is that it isn't, Wind (known in some Baólian traditions as Current) is present on the Mandala as a force rather than any form of matter. Its underlying nature is as the force of unseen movement, that which is so shrouded as to hide itself from sight while also shrouding all beneath it through the movement of clouds, of dust, of bodies within the waves dragging them to the lightless depths.

#### Life and Death

The second dichotomy is between the Elements of Life, being Wood and Fire and the Elements of Death, being Water and Ice. As indicated by their bounding alignments, both are intrinsically temporal and intrinsically ephemeral: Life at once fleeting and encompassing the whole span of one's experiences, Death at once a momentary change and a never ending state. Wood, Fire, Water and Ice are similar, all being eternal in by some perspectives and ever shifting by others.

The elements of Life and Death are opposed, but also flow into one another, fire and ice extinguishing one another but also existing together in the natural cycle of seasons, water drowning wood in excess but also being necessary for its growth, trees wood drinking water but also protecting it with its shade.

The Lens of Void and Time laying between the two has many possible meanings, from the death of old life clearing the way for new over the course of years to the inevitable passage of living things into death over time to the death and rebirth of self in the moments between moments of experience cycling uninterrupted from the day ones eyes first open to when they last close.

The Element of Ice is another common source of confusion, though a more minor one. Again, it appears on the Mandala as a force rather than a substance and represents elemental cold. Of course, this is not nearly so significant in practice as its proximity to the Element of Water still makes the physical substance of ice a common tool for the element's wielders.