visual art Elemental Symbols of Arylettopian Universe

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

I have a universe of concepts and such which I've already gone into extensive detail known as the Arylettopian Universe. One of which is my Elemental System. I've drawn symbols for each element, of which there are eight. This is months old, but I thought I'd post it:

 

 

 

Rena: Fire | Fallan: Earth | Nalit: Reality | Neol: Mind

Cete: Water | Breis: Air | Voi: Nothing | Laithos: Life

 

There's gonna be a LOT of text heavy here regarding each element's nature and why I designed the symbols the way I did. So will be spoilering. I also have general personality tidbits of info if you're interested in determining what one you think you relate to the most! (I'm Fire. )

 

Fire (Rena)

 

 

Represents not only obvious flames, but heat energy in general. Its sub-elements are Flame, Heat, Electricity, and Light. Its colours are red, orange, yellow, blue, and white. I tried my best to represent the sub-elements. Flame's representation is obvious, Electricity is represented by the blue sphere and lightning bolt in the middle, and heat is hard to represent visually, so I just thought that fire itself would be enough. Lastly, see that yellow thing to the side there? That's light, a flash of light. This symbol came out really well, and probably one of my favourites. And also, for some reason, it really reminds me of Blitzball from Final Fantasy X, and just looks like a symbol for a Blitzball team. No idea why.

 

StereotypeTidbits: Good-looking, energetic, fiercely loyal to friends, consider friendship very important, passionate, emotional, hyperactive, have offensive and speedy fighting styles.

 

 

Earth (Fallan)

 

 

Represents minerals and other materials that come from the ground. DOES NOT INVOLVE PLANTS. Sub-elements are Rock, Metal, and Artificial. (Which is for things like plastic which people make out of earthly materials) Its colours are many shades of brown/maroonish, gold, gray, and silver. Rock is represented by the mountain-like aspects, as well as the crystal gem in the center there. Metal is represented by the gold and silver-tinged outcrops, as well as that thing with the circles on the side of the gem. Artificial is represented by that white thing, which is supposed to be plastic.

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Down to earth, practical, good at doing physical work such as digging/mining/constructing, physically strong and resistant, have defensive fighting styles.

 

 

Reality (Nalit)

 

 

Represents the fabric of Reality, spacey physics things. Its sub-elements are Time, Space, and Darkness. Its colours are black, dark purple, and dark blue. As you can see, it matches up with the one bellow it, and both of them together have a meaning... which I will explain when I get there. For now though, the clock in the middle is obviously Time's representation, the floating spheres are Space as they move through space, and Darkness is just sort of the black colour its coloured. As a little bonus, the Space spheres sort of look like the sun up at different times of the day, further sort of getting that time image.

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Bleak, pessimistic, cynical, realistic, problematic, have psychological issues, sarcastic, snarky, intelligent, powerful, unsocial, cold and calculating fighting style.

 

 

Mind (Neol)

 

 

Represents the mind and all of its complexities. Its sub-elements are Thoughts, Emotions, and Perception. Its colours are a few shades of purple, orange, light blue, neon green, and yellow, As you have probably noticed, it looks like an eye. So I'll get to that first. The eye-shape is to represent Perception. What Perception is is basically sort of like sensing and senses, really. Another element that's highly related to this one goes into that, but Perception only entails the mind's processing of what its raw senses are picking up. An eye is a great symbol for Perception, I think, as I'm probably getting neural signals from my eyes to my brain telling me what I'm looking at right now as I write this. Seeing and reading takes a lot of thought and process. Emotions are represented by how the eye looks angry, its expression. Lastly, Thoughts were a bit more difficult, but I eventually ended up making that purpley smoke you see up there be their representative. How? Well, it's SUPPOSED to be a messed up thought bubble. Even though the entire thing looks like a joint as my sister has pointed out, that is completely unintentional. Though it does add to that psychedelic vibe I'm going for.

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Spacey, physically weak, social. Genius-Type: Clever, intelligent, nerds, quick-thinking, have a strategical fighting style which involves indirect effects and careful planning, yet are also flexible. Emotional Type: Emotional, sensitive, considerate, impulsive, reckless, erratic, unpredictable, have a fighting style that is often done on the fly and is mostly offensive.

 

 

Water (Cete)

 

 

Represents water and liquids, as well as coldness. Its sub-elements are Liquid, Ice, and Cold. Its colours are basically varying shades of blue, and interestingly enough, at varying clarities. Liquid is represented by how there are small droplets of water going down the crystalline shape, as well as that swirly thing to the left side which is supposed to be a really abstract wave and those tiny bubbles at the base. Ice is represented by the whole crystalline shape (which is sort of shaped like a water droplet too if you look closely) in the first place, as well as the base of it which is supposed to look like the edge of a snowflake. Cold, like Heat, is hard to visually represent. So I figure an icy image does a good enough job of it. The entire thing uses a lot of transparency and clarity, which was my attempt to represent that aspect of water. Overall, it is one of my extremely favourite symbols, because I think it's very original. Also, it sort of reminds me of the Final Fantasy XIII symbol, and all its crystal stuff.

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Artistic, pretty, graceful, bipolar; are either calm and serene but will go absolutely wild intensely if angered, kind, liberal, cold, harsh, aloof, withdrawn. Basically can either be really nice or really harsh and mean, depending on their mood. Have graceful fighting styles that often are described as "looking like a dance."

 

 

Air (Breis)

 

 

Represents the wind and various gases, as well as a few other things. Its sub-elements are Wind, Colour, Weather, and Gas. Due to having Colour in it, it basically is represented by all the colours of the Rainbow. But as a shortcut, its main colour that represents it is a light blue. The Wind aspect is demonstrated by the swirling tornado from the cloud, the Colour is obvious because the tornado is rainbow, Weather is represented by the cloud, and Gas is represented by those tiny curly lines on the side of the rainbow tornado. Why is Gas represented by those lines? I saw a diagram of gas molecules, which said they were sort of chaotic and really spaced apart, and all of the lines on it sort of inspired me to mix it with the typical curly line wind sign. And yes, I know. The whole thing screams PEGASUS CUTIE MARK!

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Eccentric, unpractical, dreamy, random, perky, fun-lovers, intelligent, skilled, speedy, graceful, creative, artistic, have a fighting style that is massively unpredictable and incorporates a little bit of everything.

 

 

Nothing (Voi)

 

 

Represents... well... nothing. If you want to get more technical than that, it represents non-existence, as opposed to Reality which is... Time and Space and the fabric of existence. To explain how nothing works in my mind is with a theory that might get a bit confusing: I believe nothing to technically not be the absence of anything, which mindscrews me even to think of, but to actually be something isn't well-defined or specific. Something non-specific. Because things each have qualities that define them, regardless of whether they share them with other things or not. Nothing is a lack of such qualities. Simply put: It's the generic and unindividual. It has no sub-elements and its colour is white.

 

Now, to stop confusing you all with my explanations that don't make any sense, on to the actual symbol itself. It was basically designed as a counterpart to Reality, and for the two of them to be put together as one. The sphere in the center also is the visual representation of pure Nothing energy, what it actually looks like when spells involving it are cast. But anyway, when you put the two symbols together, you get a portal to what's called the Rift, which is a dimension made purely of Nothing and Reality. In other words, you get a big fat distortion in time and space. The two elements are highly connected, with the universe thought to be composed of Reality (which is Everything) with big gaps of Nothing inbetween. Hence why Nothing's symbol is defined by Reality, because Nothing is defined by Something.

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Blank, emotionless, stoic, merciless, anti-social, no personality, murderers, pure, clean, logical, holy.

 

 

Life (Laithos)

 

 

Represents the essence of being alive and life. And also, death, since death is a part of life. A very broad element, this one is considered to be the "default" of magic. In other series, where things would be called non-elemental, they would be called Life here. Its sub-elements are Sensory, Fatal, Physical, and Vital. Its colours are green, yellow, white, and red.

 

This'll need a whole lot of explaining, because this symbol was really the hardest to make. How to represent something so broad and abstract as life without making extensive use of human symbols for them? Okay, first off, Sensory is different from Perception in that it is the raw act of sensing something before your brain processes it and you begin to form opinions and thoughts about it and such. Mind is more visual, whilst Life is, at least to me, more audio-oriented. The ears are a great symbol for Sensory in my opinion, because simply, hearing is more of a primal sense and less of a Perception-sense. The ears just pick up a lot of sounds and seem very... raw as opposed to the eyes and their nitpicky Perception. Thus, Sensory is represented in the symbol by that sort of eight-shaped thing in the middle, which was a very abstract version of an ear to complement Mind's eye.

 

Fatal, which is basically death, is represented by the sharpness and sharp spikes on the symbol, which are also coloured red (and a bit of white) to emphasize further deadliness. Physical is pretty much the body to Mind's... well, Mind. Life also represents body, physical stuff, and all that. More specifically, it represents actions that are done using the body, such as kicking, running, etc, as opposed to what the body is made of which would probably go under Earth and Water.

 

Honestly, I really had no idea how to represent that using images. It's like Heat and Cold, where the other things represent it without it having a specific image. I suppose the symbol itself is just... a physical thing, sort of. Just how it looks really sharp, and vivid, and solid. Vital's what you would think of if you think "life." It's pretty much like healing, things that recover and rejuvenate, and simply just being alive and well. As well as actual life energy. The opposite of Fatal which kills. Now, I represented that by not only having the eight-like thing in the middle symbolize an ear, but also have it further double as being a heart. At least, the top part. See that red tubey bit? Yeah, that's biological heart. But the eight-like also triples as something else. I tried to make the overall symbol resemble an embryo, giving it a long sort of tail and putting it in a "fetal position." The eight-like in the center is like, and this might mind-screw you a bit, but I very vaguely based it off of also not only an embryo, but a pregnant woman, using round circular shapes. I really went nuts on this symbol, but I just wanted to make it unique. And I think I've made something that I honestly quite like.

 

Then lastly, you're wondering what that little circle above the "tail spike" is for. It's to make it resemble the default symbol for magic, because Life is the default and most universal element. (The symbol for magic can be found here.)

 

And lastly, wrapping up my whole ramble and relating to the symbol for magic, you probably didn't notice that each symbol has a circle in it of some sort. (Minus Earth, but I consider some parts of it to be very misshapen circles) The symbol of magic has a dot in it. This is intentional; dots and circles in the overall culture of my universe's world are thought to be very magical and mystical, hence their constantly recurrence in the symbols. (Also, I just really like drawing them, but that doesn't count.)

 

Stereotype Tidbits: Varied, generic, mixed, jack-of-all-trades, average joes, irritable, high-energy, physical, athletic, brutal, impatient, caring, kind, passive, laid-back. Their fighting style tends to be energetic, physical, and more offensive.

 

[Fox 5,330]

Good job Arylett, these original elements are nicely done. If I was one... I think I'd be a Rena and Fallan hybrid. X)

[Khazmere 5]

o.o" My gosh, you sure did put a lotta thought into this concept. Did you come up with all of this entirely by yourself? And where might I get to read more about your Arlettyion universe?

*searches using "all posts by user" feature*

...its'k, I got it.

[Evilshy 5,090]

Your elements show a lot of similarities the colors of mana in Magic: the Gathering. The pairing of lightning with fire, as opposed to wind, as it usually is, the separation of the organic and inorganic aspects of nature, the acknowledgement of several elements, such as Nothing and Mind, being actual elements, and not sub-elements or just ethereal concepts unconnected from any elements.

 

I, too, enjoy creating huge universes. I'm actually in the middle of one right now, about half way through the major countries of the various continents in the world. I have several different systems of magic so far, and I'm not sure which I'm going to use, or if I'll just mash them together. I'm definitely going to have different parts of this world use vastly different kinds of supernatural stuff, just to give it a little more variety. I think I'll also find a way to link it to one of my old universes.

 

Then I'll offer it up to the RP world and see what people do with it

 

By the way, you should tag the different threads about the Arylettopian Universe to make them easier to find.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Evilshy and His Own Ego

[Khazmere 5]

Your elements show a lot of similarities the colors of mana in Magic: the Gathering. The pairing of lightning with fire, as opposed to wind, as it usually is, the separation of the organic and inorganic aspects of nature, the acknowledgement of several elements, such as Nothing and Mind, being actual elements, and not sub-elements or just ethereal concepts unconnected from any elements.

 

I, too, enjoy creating huge universes. I'm actually in the middle of one right now, about half way through the major countries of the various continents in the world. I have several different systems of magic so far, and I'm not sure which I'm going to use, or if I'll just mash them together. I'm definitely going to have different parts of this world use vastly different kinds of supernatural stuff, just to give it a little more variety. I think I'll also find a way to link it to one of my old universes.

 

Then I'll offer it up to the RP world and see what people do with it

You guise make it look so easy; as if anypony could simply conjure up an intracately detailed universe in ten seconds flat. Altho' I guess what they say is true, about how creative thinkers are born not made. Either ya have it or ya don't.

 

/self_pity

 

And you're sorta correct in compareing this system to the Colour Pie. They each have values which conflict with the others. But they also especially have values in common. I might be missing something here, but far as I can tell, the diagram and explanation above only seems to show opposites. I mean as in, the Elements in the top row all allies with eachother, amirite....?

 

o.o"/

[Evilshy 5,090]

And you're sorta correct in compareing this system to the Colour Pie. They each have values which conflict with the others. But they also especially have values in common. I might be missing something here, but far as I can tell, the diagram and explanation above only seems to show opposites. I mean as in, the Elements in the top row all allies with eachother, amirite....?

 

Well, it doesn't have A LOT in common with the color pie, I'm jut saying that it shares some concepts with magic that are absent in most other fantasy worlds. The biggest I'd say are that wind, lightning, and various types of weather stuff aren't all together under one element, the connection between fire and lightning (I'm assuming because they are both overtly destructive forces that focus on messing up physical objects with a "it's not dead yet? then use more" mentality). The separation between the inorganic parts of nature (rocks, earth, etc) and organic parts (plants, animals) is also something seen in Magic and not much else. The fact that the Life element is not inherently good and the death (or I guess void in this case) element is not inherently evil is another similarity. The Mind basically has it's own color in Magic, since blue is mostly mind stuff, and less about water and ice than it used to be in the early days of the game.

 

Of course, Magic has 5 colors, and arylett's system has 8 elements, so there;s more room for variation. For example, in magic, Red covers fire, lightning, inorganic aspects of nature, passion, aggressiveness, and fast, immediate gain at the cost of petering out and becoming vastly weaker if you don't win with your initial push. With 8 elements, inorganic nature can have it's own thing.

Or look at Black. It covers death, manipulation of lifeforce, necromancy, personal gain at all costs, negative manipulation of minds, where as here, Life gets the death related stuff, and Mind gets the Mind related stuff (you don't say...). Blue is magics Mind color, but it also has ice and water, and has a very reactive play style (I wait for you to do something and then fuck it up and laugh), whereas Arylett has room to make Mind it's own element, rather than grouping it with another, and no element seems to be inherently reactive, except maybe Earth's defensive fighting style.

 

Of course, I love magics color pie, the simplicity and complexity of fitting that much stuff into a mere 5 groups and having it all work. Not to mention the way that they're arranged and all the patterns in it and stuff (Ally colors all fit, enemy colors all fit, the triangles, wedges, duals, everything works in Magic )

Edited August 2, 2012 by Evilshy and His Own Ego

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

I never expected this to become popular. Didn't think people would be interested in my crazy ideas.

 

Thank you guys. I really appreciate all the brohoofs!

 

Good job Arylett, these original elements are nicely done. If I was one... I think I'd be a Rena and Fallan hybrid. X)

 

Thank you! Though you can only be one. No hybrids or anything. But people can use more than one element. It's just there's their main element. For instance, mine is Fire, but I'd like to think Mind is my second best and I can utilize it pretty well. Though not as well as a Mind-elemental person.

 

o.o" My gosh, you sure did put a lotta thought into this concept. Did you come up with all of this entirely by yourself? And where might I get to read more about your Arlettyion universe?

*searches using "all posts by user" feature*

...its'k, I got it.

 

Ah, good! I'm glad you found it. Though I'd just like to say that that link in my signature is also available... even if it's a bit outdated. I really need to fix that place up. Very glad to hear you're interested in more though.

 

As for the question, I didn't invent it all on my own, no. I'd say the Arylettopian universe is about 60% my stuff, and 40% or so a friend of mine. My partner, however, has been devoured by school, and probably won't be returning to continue roleplaying stories with me again. And since it bears my name and I invented a majority of the base work, I'm pretty much in ownership of all the concepts. Should he return, he'd be free to use them in any way he pleases, of course. But yeah.

 

Basically: Lauren Faust is to ponies as Arylett is to Arylettopian Universe. Except, well, I didn't leave.

 

Your elements show a lot of similarities the colors of mana in Magic: the Gathering. The pairing of lightning with fire, as opposed to wind, as it usually is, the separation of the organic and inorganic aspects of nature, the acknowledgement of several elements, such as Nothing and Mind, being actual elements, and not sub-elements or just ethereal concepts unconnected from any elements.

 

I, too, enjoy creating huge universes. I'm actually in the middle of one right now, about half way through the major countries of the various continents in the world. I have several different systems of magic so far, and I'm not sure which I'm going to use, or if I'll just mash them together. I'm definitely going to have different parts of this world use vastly different kinds of supernatural stuff, just to give it a little more variety. I think I'll also find a way to link it to one of my old universes.

 

Then I'll offer it up to the RP world and see what people do with it

 

By the way, you should tag the different threads about the Arylettopian Universe to make them easier to find.

 

It does? I've actually never played Magic. But that sounds interesting that someone else would have that idea. A bit of trivia is that we used to have Electricity under Air too, but I decided that since Fire was more of an heat energy sort of element, that Electricity made more sense under it. (Random revelations at school whilst supposed to be doing work. XD)

 

Oooh, sounds very cool! Another universe creator, eh? It'd be nice to see what you've come up with someday. I'd be interested in partaking in such an RP.

 

Great idea, actually. I'll start doing that because since people seem interested in my stuff, I'll probably be posting more of it soon enough.

 

You guise make it look so easy; as if anypony could simply conjure up an intracately detailed universe in ten seconds flat. Altho' I guess what they say is true, about how creative thinkers are born not made. Either ya have it or ya don't.

 

/self_pity

 

And you're sorta correct in compareing this system to the Colour Pie. They each have values which conflict with the others. But they also especially have values in common. I might be missing something here, but far as I can tell, the diagram and explanation above only seems to show opposites. I mean as in, the Elements in the top row all allies with eachother, amirite....?

 

\o.o"/

 

It is honestly quite easy to me. (Sorry if that sounded braggy, I really didn't mean it to.) It just... comes to me out of nowhere, really. I don't have control over it, my mind is always making thoughts and never shutting up. But the advantages of not being like that is that your mind is probably a lot more organized, and less confusing. It's not really a peaceful sort of mind to have. ><

 

I realize though that it isn't as easy as it looks. Inventing stuff can be a very hard process of writing, and I know from having had some minor writer's block. Just because you're not good at it though, doesn't mean you don't have your own talents.

 

Although I will say: It does not take ten seconds flat. I've been working on this since 2008. It takes a lot of time, work, motivation, and dedication. Sometimes one day, you'll be sitting there (example about revelation on Fire/Electricity being related) and then, bam! You just realized something of yours was messed up, and you have to go change everything. I've had that happen a million times. It takes a while before you get to something presentable, and even when I've been working on this for years, I still have a lot of work to do to put it together.

 

If you're talking about my picture, then yes. The elements above and bellow each other are opposites. (Fire, Water. Earth, Air. Reality, Nothing. Mind, Life.) They have a sort of yin-yang relationship under this system. Being opposites, yet being closely connected. It's most evident with Reality and Nothing. The two elements are often paired in nature, yet oppose one another.

[Pinkazoid 3,493]

(sorry, I was only able to bro-hoof it yesterday because I was on my phone xD)

 

I can't tell you how awesome this looks Ary.

 

I liked Breis the most, and after reading it's personality traits, I laughed a bit, to be honest, I think it's personality matches mine xD

 

 

I took my time to read them through them more carefully today, and you outdid yourself, brohoof for you Ary :3

[Evilshy 5,090]

It does? I've actually never played Magic. But that sounds interesting that someone else would have that idea. A bit of trivia is that we used to have Electricity under Air too, but I decided that since Fire was more of an heat energy sort of element, that Electricity made more sense under it. (Random revelations at school whilst supposed to be doing work. XD)

I think you'd find Magic's color pie quite interesting

http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Color_Pie

 

Oooh, sounds very cool! Another universe creator, eh? It'd be nice to see what you've come up with someday. I'd be interested in partaking in such an RP.

 

Great idea, actually. I'll start doing that because since people seem interested in my stuff, I'll probably be posting more of it soon enough.

Thank you, I'll be sure to let you know when I post it. Although, you'll probably see it anyway, being in charge of RP world and all.

 

 

It is honestly quite easy to me. (Sorry if that sounded braggy, I really didn't mean it to.) It just... comes to me out of nowhere, really. I don't have control over it, my mind is always making thoughts and never shutting up. But the advantages of not being like that is that your mind is probably a lot more organized, and less confusing. It's not really a peaceful sort of mind to have. ><

 

I realize though that it isn't as easy as it looks. Inventing stuff can be a very hard process of writing, and I know from having had some minor writer's block. Just because you're not good at it though, doesn't mean you don't have your own talents.

 

Although I will say: It does not take ten seconds flat. I've been working on this since 2008. It takes a lot of time, work, motivation, and dedication. Sometimes one day, you'll be sitting there (example about revelation on Fire/Electricity being related) and then, bam! You just realized something of yours was messed up, and you have to go change everything. I've had that happen a million times. It takes a while before you get to something presentable, and even when I've been working on this for years, I still have a lot of work to do to put it together.

 

This. My mind never stops running with ideas, though most are stupid and never go anywhere. They also keep me awake But the most annoying times are when an awesome idea hits me, but I'm at work, or driving or something and can't write it down, so I try to remember it. But then by the time I'm able to write stuff down, my mind has already moved on and I only remember a little of what I had :/

 

Although, while doing the dishes last night, I had a huge breakthrough on how I can add the major concepts of three of my previous universes (one from last year, the other two from about 5-6 years ago) to the one I'm currently building and not have it seem like I just threw them together. The combination of the Collectors universe and the Void Angel universe even gave me a creation story for this particular world