Element

**Elements** (元素, *Genso*) are the basic substances that shape the World and play an important role in Magecraft.

Depending on the teachings of Magecraft schools, one could classify everything of reality into different sets of Elements. The four classical elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Wind) are said to came from ArcheWP in ancient Greece. The Mage's Association adds in Void (Ether) and some other elements to make their classification more practical. Besides, there are the Five Elements in oriental philosophies (Water, Fire, Earth, Wood and Metal) and Twelve Constellations.

## Elemental Affinity

A Magus is normally good at manipulating at least one of the Elements. To identify which of Five Great Elements his Elemental Affinity is, he can use **Consecration** (聖別, *Seibetsu*), the method composed of the use of sage, tarot cards and personality tests. Some magi possesses more than one Elemental Affinity and sometimes use them at the same time. Those capable of manipulating all the five Elements receive the title of **Average One: Wielder of Five Great Elements** (五大元素使い, *Godai Genso Tsukai*) and are highly valued by the Mage’s Association. For Magi whose Affinities are their Origins, completely different from the above Elements, Magecrafts using any of the Five Great Elements are difficult to perform, ones with their unique Affinities in turn are so easy to handle that they can occasionally realize what is impossible with normal Magecrafts. Elemental Affinity only indicates what kind of Magecrafts a Magus is good at, not meaning he can not at all use other Elements than his Affinity. To change one’s Elemental Affinity lead his ability as a Magus to decline dramatically.

## Known Elements

### Five Great Elements

**Fire** (火, *Hi*?)
One of the **Five Great Elements** (五大元素, *Godai Genso*?) that has Warm and Dry features. It is well suited for destructive Magecrafts, symbolizing life and death. In the Mage's Association, they call it normal. Paracelsus von Hohenheim assigned a red color to it following Tattva. Magi who have it and Water, the opposite Element, as their Affinities are few.
**Earth** (地, *Chi*?)
One of the Five Great Elements that has Cold and Dry features. Kiritsugu Emiya applies it to "bind" things that he "severed". Paracelsus assigned a yellow color to it following Tattva.

**Water** (水, *Mizu*?)
One of the Five Great Elements that has Cold and Wet features. Both this and Wind are good at liquid manipulation and Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald can make poisonous gas harmless using both of them. Paracelsus assigned a silver color to it following Tattva.

**Wind** (風, *Kaze*?)
One of the Five Great Elements that has Warm and Wet features. In the Mage's Association, they call it noble probably because a few number of its users. Paracelsus assigned a blue color to it following Tattva.

**Void** (空, *Kū*?)
It, also known as **Ether** (エーテル, *Ēteru*?), is one of the Five Great Elements. It also is called the **Fifth Imaginary Factor** (第五架空要素, *Daigo Kakū Yōso*?) according to the teachings of the Mage’s Association. It combines itself with any of the other four Elements in order to actualize the mysteries of Thaumaturgy. It is artificial magical energy that forms the basis of modern magecraft, although it did not exist during the Age of Gods. Although amorphous and incapable of materializing by its own power, it is what allows shapeless bodies to take a material form. Paracelsus assigned a black-purple color to it following Tattva. The Ether elemental affinity is exceedingly rare, and in the hands of a high-ranking mage can be used to interfere with the cornerstone of magecraft, the Fifth Imaginary Factor Ether itself, and dismantle the magecraft of another mage.
**Ether Clump** (エーテル塊, *Ēteru Kai*?)
It, also described as Liquid Clay, is a failed materialization attempt of Ether through the combination with one of other Elements. Under normal circumstances Ether can only be materialized after combining itself with one of the other Elements. In some cases however, mainly when there is some sort of failure on the part of the Magus, it will take the physical shape of a clay-like substance. Somewhat related to the First Magic. Other than serving as a conductor of magical energy, it is completely useless. Whatever the shape it is given by a magus, if left inactive for long enough (i.e. without magical energy running through it) it will eventually return to its original clay-like form. Known uses include True Assassin's Zabaniya, the first suitcase puppet of Touko Aozaki, Cornelius Alba’s slime creatures, and the main component forming Leysritt’s body.
### Imaginary Elements

There are two so-called **Imaginary Elements** (架空元素, *Kakū Genso*?).

**Hollow** (虚, *Kyo*?)
Also called **Imaginary Numbers** (虚数, *Kyosū*?), it is an Imaginary Element that gives its users access to Imaginary Number Space. Lev Lainur used it as a time capsule and Trisha Fellows put her head into it when killed to keep her killer from using her Mystic Eyes. When the Matou clan restraining spells are used along with this, it is possible to imprison and skewer the target into a separate dimension composed entirely of shadows. Furthermore, when Angra Mainyu's power is imbued on Sakura Matou, she is able to use this ability even against normal humans. It is a power highly effective against those made of Mysteries, such as spiritual beings, but not so potent against those who have physical bodies.
**Nothingness** (無, *Mu*?)
In magecraft, it is defined as that "which is not possible, but materializes", contrasting Hollow which is defined as that "which is possible but not in the physical plane". It has a different meaning than the "nothing" of physics and math.
## Known Factors

### Human's Factors

Factors of human beings are Body, Mind and Soul. Alchemists of Atlas can set all three Factors of theirs as an arithmetic unit to accelerate themselves.

### Ether

The **Fifth Imaginary Factor** (第五架空要素, *Daigo Kakū Yōso*?). See Void.

### True Ether

**True Ether** (真エーテル, *Shin Ēteru*?), otherwise known as the **Fifth True Theoretical Factor** (第五真説要素, *Daigo Shin Setsu Yōso*?), is magical energy from the Age of Gods. It is also described to form the nine heavenly bodies that gave birth to the planet. Although it does not exist in modern times, True Ether, which was of a far higher quality than ether, permeated the Earth in ancient times. Gods, as well as nature itself, were formed out of True Ether. The natural enemy of the Fifth Imaginary Factor (Ether), bullets of Black Barrel are composed of this substance.

### Grain

**Grain** (ジン, *Jin*?, Gin), also called **Space Dust** (宇宙塵, *Uchū Jin*?), is the general term given to the toxic particles overflowing in the Earth of Over Count 1999, after the world lost its capacities to sustain life. Also called “ether” because even though poisonous, it promoted the surface of mutated life forms: the A-Rays, Liners and the Ether Liners.

The rate of energy transfer within the Grain-rich atmosphere is astonishing. A factor that resulted into the arise of a new method of combat that would not be possible in the old world. In a battle between A-Rays capable of absorbing Grain and Ether Liners wielding Knight Arms made of crystallized Grain, the power of conventional weapons is rendered useless.

Supposedly, Grain is the base component of all heavenly bodies. Therefore, the closer is the connection between a life form and its mother planet the greater will be the amount of Ether in their bodies. The greatest example of this would be the Ultimate One, the supreme existence of each respective’s planets and true avatars of their will.

Its antithesis is the True Ether or Black Barrel, which destroys Grain and anything containing Grain on contact.

### Daemons

The **Sixth Imaginary Factor** (第六架空要素, *Dairoku Kakū Yōso*?), also known as Daemon, is a force that reacts to the desires of humans and births Daemons out of their wishes. It needs a form, invented by humans, similarly to how it happens to higher-level spirits, in order to materialize itself, as a passive existence. This passive existence is an individual daemon and not a true daemon.

But regardless of the result, as a rule, daemons are gentle. They are the Imaginary Factor that understands one's pain and attempts to remove it. Depending on perspective, one can say that they are allies of humanity. They use Reality Marbles as their Alien Common Sense.

The retinal cells of Medusa's Mystic Eyes are made of the Sixth Imaginary Factor called Ether.