Elementalist (Copy, Rough Draft)

Introduction

Long ago, magic was understood.

It was mapped and measured, whispered by scholars, etched into scrolls and minds.
In the high towers of the Old World, power obeyed laws.
It bent to language.
It bowed to intent.

Then came the Sundering.

The Loom unraveled. The ley lines screamed. Magic — once a current — became a storm.
Where formulas failed and gods fell silent, raw elemental will surged forth.

And from it, they were born.

Not made.
Not trained.
Born — vessels of raw, unstable essence.
Children of storm and stone, tide and light, fire and shadow.

They are not spellcasters in the traditional sense.
They do not channel the Weave.
They are the breach.

To name them "sorcerers" is to miss the point.
They are Elementalists — living singularities of raw magic, tempered only by will and instinct.

And most days, barely.

“They were not born into the world. They were born from it.”

“They do not ask permission.
They do not write spells in ink, or whisper them through prayer.
They burn them into the world with their presence alone.

It is… effective.
Like hurling lightning at a falling star.

But let no one mistake raw power for understanding.
The world gives, yes.
But it does not forget who scorched it in the taking.”
— Solin, Lanternbound, when asked if Elementalists are dangerous or divine

The Elementalist’s Creed

An Elementalist does not worship the elements.
They do not serve them.
They are not chosen by them.

They are born with the storm in their bones.
The tide in their blood.
The sun in their voice.
The stone beneath their skin.

Their magic is not studied. It is not memorized. It is not borrowed.
It is involuntary.

When they weep, the sky cries lightning.
When they scream, the air shatters.
When they love, it burns — and the world knows it.

They are resonant beings — vessels where chaos finds a home,
and sometimes...
escapes.

Where others prepare spells, they lose control.
Where others cast spells, they explode.
Where others learn magic, they survive it.

“We are not the voice of the world.
We are the scream it never meant to give.”
— Ashen Vale, Conduit of Shadow

The Legacy of the Old World

Before the Sundering, such beings were whispered of — anomalies, disasters in human skin.
Some cultures revered them.
Most feared them.

In the Old World, their power was studied like a disease — isolated, minimized, dissected in arcane labs and heretic vaults. Even then, no one could agree: Were they gifted? Or cursed?

Those questions died with the towers.

Today, in the chaos of Veilrift, their numbers grow.

Perhaps the world is healing in the only way it knows how — by birthing stormborn children who can speak in catastrophe.

Or perhaps these Elementalists are the Loom’s final scream — beautiful, broken, too loud to ignore.

What Sets the Elementalist Apart?

Classic Sorcerer

Veilrift Elementalist

Magic through bloodlines or fate

Magic through elemental resonance, trauma, or collapse

Controlled surges

Living conduits of unstable, living power

Individual power

Archetypal manifestation of elemental instability

Abstract heritage (draconic, wild, etc.)

Embodied elemental archetypes — each bound to a force of the world

Mystery as charm

Instability as identity

Manipulates magic

Is magic

The Elementalist is not a student of the arcane.
They are the result of the arcane failing — and what rose in its place.

They are not “mages.”
They are natural disasters with names.

Cultural Identity of Elementalists

There are no schools. No tutors. No rites.

An Elementalist’s awakening is rarely peaceful — or survivable for those around them.

It comes as:

• The boiling of bathwater that turns into geysers

• A scream that shatters every window in a skybound district

• A child’s laughter that floods an entire floating fragment

• A dream that opens a crack in the world

Many are exiled. Some are hunted. A few are raised by cults hoping to shape them.

But most wander — feared, furious, or free.

Different cultures treat them differently:

In the Embercrag Expanse:

They are sacred infernos — walking bonfires of renewal or judgment. Many Elementalists come here to die... or to learn control through fire.

In Skyreach Citadel:

They are threats under surveillance. Each Elementalist is assigned a Null-Code, a legal number dictating how many anomalies they may survive before forced containment.

Among the Starborne Nomads:

They are called “Sky-Screams” — the last voices the stars gave the world. Some are trained to sing their element back into harmony. Others are left on isolated fragments to burn it out.

Why the Name “Elementalist”?

“Elementalist” is not a title of pride.
It is a category of risk.

To Veilrift society, it marks someone born with no filters between themselves and the fractured elemental chaos that now suffuses the world.

It means:

• No one can fully predict what you’ll do when hurt.

• No place is truly safe when you lose control.

• No moment is silent when your emotions flare.

To the Elementalist themselves, it is not a role. It is a survival story still being written.

The name is both a warning and a myth.

And most who carry it never asked for it in the first place.

Branches of Birthright: The Elemental Conduits

“We do not choose the flame. We survive it.”

Conduit of Flame

The Fireborn | The World’s Burnt Whisper

*“You think fire is rage.
Fire is hunger.
Fire is need without language.

The Flameborn are not angry.
They are simply… not full yet.”*
— Ashla the Red, who burned her name from history

Conduit of Flame  (Draconic Bloodline / Fire or Elemental Affinity)

Role

The Flameborn are elementalists touched by the pulse of fire in its truest, most primal form — not as destruction, but as devouring desire. Where others learn restraint, they burn. Where others wield tools, they become the tool — hot, flickering, always a moment from collapse.

They are the wildest children of the Embercrag, the storm-raisers of drifting siege-ships, and the wandering bonfires of revolution who leave legends in their wake and smoldering cities behind them.

How They Changed

Before the Sundering, fire was a tool.
A glyph. A shaped invocation. A utility.

Now, fire is personhood — and those born into it walk like smoldering scars across Aetheria.

Flameborn Elementalists:

• Heat the air by simply existing.

• Ignite under emotional duress.

• Speak in smoke when sad, and in sparks when furious.

• Have been known to cause combustion through grief alone.

Unlike other conduits, Flameborn rarely linger.
They live like fire does — fast, consuming, sacred, and tragic.

Common Manifestations

• Skin that radiates gentle heat at all times

• Hair that smolders when lying, burns when afraid

• Heartbeats that echo like flint-strikes

• The smell of char or ozone that precedes them

• Voices that rise in temperature with their fury — literally

Cultural Identity

In Embercrag:

They are kin — forged and tested by the volcano-temples and praised in the Ashbone Psalms. Ritual duels are common, as is the act of “self-searing”: branding one’s own chest with a flame sigil to prove mastery.

In Skyreach Citadel:

Often shackled at adolescence and tracked by flame-suppression glyphs. An underground rebellion — The Kindling Choir — works to smuggle them to freedom.

Among the Drow in Riftshadow Holds:

Used as living weapons in warfare against rival enclaves. The practice is brutal, and many Flameborn escape only after their first massacre.

Philosophy of Flame

“You think we lose control.
We are control — the last control the world had before it screamed.”

Flameborn don’t worship fire.
They understand it.

It’s not about anger.
It’s about intensity.
Totality.

They believe:

• To live half-lit is worse than death.

• Every flame is a promise: something must change.

• All endings are beginnings wearing fire.

The Flameborn’s Trial: The Heatwake

Before a Flameborn can be called “Kindled” by their people, they must pass the Heatwake — a pilgrimage into an unstable Riftvent where the fire of the world leaks freely. They must survive its breath without burning — not by resisting the flame, but by singing back to it.

Those who return are marked with glowing fire veins beneath their skin.
Those who do not... become part of the song.

Signature Echoes of Flame (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Pyreheart Surge — The Elementalist’s chest erupts in solar flare; allies near them are empowered, enemies blinded.

• Cindershard Curse — The next wound they take causes a scatterburst of molten shards around them.

• Ashen Wake — After death, the Flameborn leaves a delayed detonation of pure, remembered rage.

• Lick of the Infinite — The Flameborn kisses flame into a weapon or object, rendering it indestructible for a time.

• Immolate the Lie — With a whisper, they ignite a falsehood — in a person, a place, or a memory — burning it into ash, revealing only the truth.

Notable Conduits of Flame

• Ashla the Red — Said to have ignited the skies over three isles to stop a Riftstorm from devouring her sister. She has not spoken since.

• Vel Sootveil — Wears robes of smoldering gauze and laughs like a campfire — known to weep for every city she leaves burning.

• The Matchmaker — An anonymous poet who lights pyres of revolution with both their hands and their verses.

Conduit of Stone

The Earthbound | The Silence That Does Not Break

“Stone listens.
Stone remembers.
Stone does not flinch when the sky falls — it braces for the weight and welcomes it home.”
— Harra Deepmarch, Warden of the Quiet Path

Conduit of Stone (Earth Genasi / Elemental Affinity)

Role

To call the Stonebound slow is to mistake stillness for weakness.

They are not immobile.
They are inevitable.

Elementalists born of the stone are not forged by fire or molded by air.
They are grown, like crystals under pressure, emerging from the body of Aetheria itself with the solemnity of tectonic faith.

Their presence is grounding — sometimes literally. Their footsteps shake loose lies. Their silences fracture arrogance. When they speak, mountains move.

They do not run.
They endure.

How They Changed

The Sundering did not shatter all things.

Some pieces of the world chose to harden, to resist.
And from these surviving roots of Aetheria, the Stonebound emerged.

While Flameborn burn fast and Stormbound vanish on the wind, Stoneborn Elementalists:

• Crack the floor with every footfall

• Stabilize collapsing structures with a breath

• Grow armor as instinctively as others grow fingernails

• Are rumored to sleep beneath the earth, whispering with ancient stone

Many are mistaken for monks, giants, or beasts.
Few realize the wisdom they carry — until they are buried by it.

Common Manifestations

• Skin that calcifies under stress, forming protective plates

• Hair threaded with crystalline spines or veins of ore

• Voices that resonate with subharmonic pressure

• The ability to halt motion entirely for hours — even mid-battle

• Immune response that triggers tremors in a 10-foot radius

Cultural Identity

In the Riftbound Halls of Hollowdeep:

Stonebound Elementalists are Reverents — called to serve as living foundations for their communities. Some are literally installed into structures to lend permanence.

Among the Skykin Nomads:

They are feared — believed to carry too much downward pull for aerial societies. Many Stonebound are ceremonially weighted and dropped from sky-bridges in a rite of symbolic exile.

In the Veilrift Cathedral Arcanum:

They are regarded as philosophical heretics: evidence that stability can be born, not earned — anathema to those who believe chaos is all that remains.

Philosophy of Stone

The Stonebound are not hasty.
They outlast.

To them:

• Emotion is erosion, not something to avoid, but something to shape.

• Truth is a pressure that reveals itself with time.

• Strength is quiet, heavy, and anchoring.

They believe:

• If they do not hold the ground, no one else will.

• The loudest voice is not always the strongest.

• Survival is a form of prophecy.

The Rite of Stillness

To be recognized among the Stonebound, an Elementalist must undertake the Rite of Stillness — a meditative endurance within a collapsing faultline or landslide zone.

For 72 hours, they do not move.
They listen to stone scream.
And if they live, the world accepts them.

Those who succeed are said to hum with unshakable gravity.
Their pulse synchronizes with nearby rock.
They no longer fall — they settle.

Signature Echoes of Stone (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Gravemark Stance – The Elementalist roots into the ground, becoming immovable. All strikes against them rebound with seismic force.

• Stonebind Oath – They etch a name into the earth; that creature gains resistance as long as they remain near solid ground.

• Crush the Hollow Lie – A resonant pulse that fractures illusions, disguises, and false promises within earshot.

• Pillar of the Lost – Raises a stone platform beneath an ally falling or dying, suspending them until aid arrives.

• Heart of Granite, Tongue of Dust – Grants the Elementalist absolute immunity to mental intrusion while denying speech — for some, a welcome price.

Notable Conduits of Stone

• Harra Deepmarch — She sat unmoving atop a Riftgate for eight years, preventing it from ever opening again.

• Thollan, the Tremor Orphan — A child who survived a faultline collapse by turning into obsidian; now speaks only in verse that causes mild quakes.

• Gravethread — A silent wanderer who carves memories into the bones of mountains so they will not be forgotten.

Conduit of Tides

The Tidebound | The Shape That Remembers All Others

“You cannot bind the tide.
It knows every shape it has ever been.
And if you cut it — it remembers your wound.”
— Seyla, Mourner of the Hollow Sea

Conduit of Tides (Elemental Affinity / Water Genasi / Sea Sorcery)

Role

Tidebound Elementalists are born of water — but not just the kind that flows. They embody the flood and the drought, the storm surge and the still pool, the memory of oceans long gone and the vengeance of those that remain.

They do not resist shape.
They become it.

Among the elemental lineages, the Tidebound are the most difficult to read — and the most dangerous to underestimate.

They weep harder.
They vanish faster.
They return... as tidal vengeance.

How They Changed

In the age before the Sundering, water magic was subtle, fluid, elegant — conjured in fountains, in healing bowls, in veils and mists.

Now? It grieves.
And through that grief, it remakes.

Tidebound Elementalists:

• Leave puddles behind when they dream

• Speak languages they’ve never learned after touching forgotten rivers

• Are prone to overwhelming emotional floods — grief that drowns, joy that swells

Some are so saturated with memory that their presence warps reflection — pools near them show the past instead of the present.

They are rarely trusted, but often followed — especially in times of mourning.

Common Manifestations

• Eyes that ripple when they blink

• Veins visible as flowing channels of bioluminescent blue or green

• Footsteps that splash in dry dust

• Hair that floats as though always submerged

• Tears that cause minor rainfall in enclosed spaces

Cultural Identity

In the Shardcoast Wakes:

Tidebound are revered as grief-priests — invited to funerals, water-blessings, and storm-namings. They sing the sea back to places that forgot it.

Among Skykin Isles:

Considered taboo — dangerous, volatile, and too connected to the pull of the deep. Taught to anchor themselves to skyglass talismans or risk falling.

In Hollowdeep Archives:

Used to extract memory from terrain and ruins — a process called "Waterspeaking." Many Tidebound die young, overwhelmed by the lives of the dead they channel.

Philosophy of Water

The Tidebound speak often of loss — not as a tragedy, but as proof of depth.

They believe:

• Water remembers. It records everything.

• Grief is a current — it pulls because it loved first.

• The world is thirsty, and they are here to quench or consume.

They are often soft-spoken, slow to act — but when roused, their fury is not shouted.
It is sung.
And it rises.

Rite of Submergence

Tidebound undergo a ritual when they come of age — they drown themselves willingly, submerged in a ritual pool of wild Aetherwater laced with memories of others.

If they resurface, they carry the memories of someone else — a stranger’s grief, a war they didn’t fight, a love they never earned.

This memory becomes their second heart.

They can whisper to it in the night.
Sometimes... it whispers back.

Signature Echoes of Tides (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Undertow Veil – The Elementalist fades into mist and reappears behind their foe — or into a memory not their own.

• Drown the Light – Pulls ambient light into moisture, extinguishing flame and revealing hidden sorrow.

• Torrent of Remembrance – Releases an emotional flood tied to a place or person; forces nearby minds to relive suppressed grief.

• Brineblooded Surge – At the edge of death, the Tidebound liquefies and reforms nearby in a pulse of healing saltwater.

• Echo of the Deep – Summons the sound of a drowned world — disrupting concentration, illusions, and sanity alike.

Notable Conduits of Tides

• Seyla of the Hollow Sea — Said to have wept for ten days after losing her sister to the Rift. On the eleventh day, her tears became a tsunami that wiped out a warcamp. She never spoke again.

• Tharn “Salttooth” Vael — A smiling pirate who walks on water and swears every wave knows his name — and who always repays a debt.

• The Singing Vessel — A tideborn mute who speaks only when submerged. Their voice causes saltwater springs to erupt wherever it is heard.

Conduit of Storms

The Skybound | The Breath That Breaks Before the Wind

“We do not touch the storm.
We become the pause before it breaks.
The inhale before thunder speaks.
And the world flinches — because it remembers that silence.”
— Veyrin Skyrattle, the Boltwalked

Conduit of Storms (Storm Sorcery / Elemental Affinity – Air)

Role

Among the Elementalists, the Stormbound are the most volatile — not for their temper, but for their transience.

They are not fire, seeking to burn.
Not water, seeking to remember.
Not stone, seeking to endure.

They are the storm — seeking nothing but expression.

Where a Conduit of Flame is a bonfire, the Stormborn are the strike that starts it.
They do not walk. They arrive.
And when they leave, the air still vibrates with unspoken endings.

They are movement personified — erratic, ecstatic, and often impossible to catch twice.

How They Changed

In the Old World, air magic was refined — used to redirect weather, guide ships, or carry messages.

In the Veilrift, it now howls, cracks, and turns against those who would tether it.

Stormbound Elementalists are born:

• With hair that floats on unseen updrafts

• With eyes that flash white when they lie

• With voices that scatter papers when they raise their tone

• With footprints that leave behind motes of ozone and momentum

Their presence is often preempted by subtle weather shifts — gusts in closed rooms, pressure drops in alleyways, distant thunder when they grow impatient.

They are the lightning bolt that forgets to apologize.

Common Manifestations

• Skin that sparks during strong emotion

• Constant static clinging to clothing or breath

• Weightlessness during sleep or meditation

• Screams that cause localized windstorms

• Involuntary levitation during anger or euphoria

Cultural Identity

Among the Skykin Flotillas:

Stormborn are Skyborn Sovereigns — navigators of the wind, duelists of the upper altitudes. Their presence on a vessel is said to halve travel time… or doom the journey entirely.

In Rift-Sunken Cities:

They are kept underground — controlled, muted, weighted. Many cities use aether-chains to suppress their ambient lift.

In Embercrag Expanse:

They are feared — the one element fire cannot consume, nor predict. Stormborn duels are forbidden, as even a heartbeat of uncontrolled wrath can flatten a village.

Philosophy of Storm

Stormborn do not see the world in boundaries — only in impulse and release.

They believe:

• Stillness is a form of violence

• To contain is to kill

• Motion is truth, and stagnation is rot

• They are not broken when chaotic — they are true

They do not build.
They do not endure.
They move, and let the world define what comes after.

The Boltwake Rite

Stormborn are recognized when they walk into the sky and return.

This rite, known as the Boltwake, involves climbing the highest point in their region and triggering a storm.

They must then ride the lightning down, leaving behind a trail of burned air and vindicated identity.

Those who succeed are never mistaken for anything else again.

They are sky-chosen.
Air’s last argument.
And every strike after them whispers their name.

Signature Echoes of Storm (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Whispershock Pulse — Releases a burst of static that causes enemies’ speech to echo uncontrollably, disrupting spellcasting and commands.

• Leap of the Noosewind — Allows the Elementalist to step through gusts of compressed air, teleporting with a sound like a thunderclap.

• Charge the Horizon — Electrifies the area around them in a circular surge — allies move faster, enemies feel time stretch.

• Breathe the Pulse — Inhales lightning mid-battle, storing it in their lungs for later release through scream or sigh.

• Calm Before — Silences all noise within a space. Anything loud that follows deals emotional damage as well as physical.

Notable Conduits of Storm

• Veyrin Skyrattle — Known for dueling three skyships mid-air, then vanishing into the upper clouds mid-cackle. Said to ride with the lightning still.

• Aerya Coil — A monk who chants only during storms. Her every step lifts her a few inches off the ground, even when asleep.

• The Sigh That Broke the Spire — A nameless figure who leveled a mountain-top war camp with a single breath. No one knows their face — only the story.

Conduit of Light

The Radiant | The Truth That Burns

“Light does not illuminate.
It reveals.
And when you are made of it —
there is nowhere to hide,
not even from yourself.”
— Liora of the Dawnscar

Conduit of Light (Divine Soul / Light Affinity)

Role

Light is not peace.
Light is not warmth.
Light is not kind.

It is absolute.
It is invasive.
It is final.

To be born a Conduit of Light is to be born with the world’s judgment burning in your chest. These Elementalists radiate more than glow — they expose. They drag hidden truths into view, force confrontation, and often do so without meaning to.

They are not “healers.”
They are revealers.

Their very presence turns secrets to smoke.
Their magic burns lies off the bones of cities.
And their hearts? Bright enough to blind — even themselves.

How They Changed

In the Old World, light was tethered to the divine — filtered through clerics and sacred lenses. It came when called, behaved when bound.

No longer.

Post-Sundering, light now moves on its own — it chooses, and when it chooses a soul to inhabit, that soul becomes the fulcrum of truth.

Lightbound Elementalists:

• Are born during eclipses or sunbursts that shatter skyglass

• Cause reflections to linger or behave incorrectly

• Radiate light when cornered, vulnerable, or angry

• Speak truths that cause pain — not metaphorically, but literally

Some are worshipped. Others hunted.
Many are used.

None remain anonymous for long.

Common Manifestations

• Eyes without pupils, glowing faintly even in sleep

• Skin that pulses with light during intense emotion

• Shadows that retreat from them, or form too perfectly

• Inability to lie without pain

• Footsteps that reflect before they land

Cultural Identity

In the Radiant Bastions:

Lightbound are installed as Oracles of Exposure, tasked with unearthing corruption — political, magical, or divine. Their presence is required by law during high tribunals.

In Hollowdeep and the Drow Enclaves:

Reviled. Light is feared as a weapon of colonial invaders and planar oppressors. Most Lightborn are exiled or blinded at birth. Some learn to cloak their glow in shadow — and grow into something darker.

Among Riftwalkers and Riftbound Cults:

Envied. Lightborn are believed to carry pre-Sundering memory in their marrow. Some are kidnapped and ritually disassembled — not for malice, but to learn what they shine with.

Philosophy of Light

Lightbound are not naive.
They know what their presence does.

They believe:

• Every hidden thing is a threat

• Illumination is not always good, but it is always true

• Pain is often a byproduct of clarity, and that is not a failure

Many Lightbound suffer from self-loathing, afraid of what they’ve exposed. Others lean in — becoming saints, spies, or executioners, depending on who writes the story.

The Radiant Rite: Mirrorflame

To come of age, a Lightbound must undertake the Mirrorflame Rite — a ceremony in which they stand before a fragment of true Riftglass and speak their worst truth aloud.

The mirror does not reflect their body.
It reflects what they hide.

Only those who do not flinch may leave with the title “Conduit.”
Some never return.
Some never stop screaming.

Signature Echoes of Light (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Lance of the Undeniable – Fires a line of radiant magic that passes through walls, lies, and illusions, stopping only when it hits truth.

• Brilliance of Shame – Causes enemies to visibly relive their worst moments, weakening them emotionally and magically.

• Solar Wound – Leaves behind a burning sigil in the air when the Elementalist is harmed — an echo that follows the attacker for days.

• Revelation Pulse – Blasts a zone with purifying light, dispelling concealment, magical darkness, and moral ambiguity alike.

• Cauterize the Soul – Heals with radiant power — but scars the target forever, marking them as “saved” by light.

Notable Conduits of Light

• Liora of the Dawnscar — Burned half her face revealing a High Arcanist’s crimes. She has never once spoken anything but the truth since — even in battle.

• The Wordless Beacon — A mute child who glows brighter the more lies are told in a room. She is passed between courts like a living truth-detector.

• Vel Karuun, the Blindlight — A war-criminal turned pacifist who gouged out his own eyes to prevent his powers from exposing others. Still, his presence reveals.

Conduit of Shadow

The Veilbound | The Memory That Moves

“Shadow is not the opposite of light.
It is its echo.
The shape truth leaves behind when it turns its face.”
— Eras Venn, Keeper of the Night-Sung Ledger

Conduit of Shadow (Shadow Magic / Elemental Affinity – Darkness)

Role

The Veilbound do not shout.
They do not dazzle.
They do not demand to be seen.

They observe.

Elementalists born to shadow move like dusk — not as a force to conquer, but as a presence to inhabit. They draw power from what is hidden, what is half-remembered, what is nearly true but not yet spoken.

If Light sears away illusion, Shadow teaches you how to live within it.

Shadowbound are the masters of subtlety, sorrow, secrets, and survival.
Where others confront, they remind.
Where others illuminate, they infiltrate.

They are the element of half-closed doors, names you don’t say aloud, and choices you haven’t made — yet.

How They Changed

Darkness was once feared as emptiness.
Now, post-Sundering, it is density — a weight, a record, a living memory that pulses under things left unsaid.

Conduits of Shadow:

• Hear whispers that mimic their thoughts

• Cast shadows that move just slightly out of sync

• Find themselves forgotten in crowds, even when speaking

• Carry darkness within themselves that is not malevolent — but mourning

They don’t sap light. They cradle it.
They don’t hide. They simply don’t need to be found.

Common Manifestations

• Irises flecked with starlight patterns

• Shadows that mimic emotions, not movement

• Cold breath in warm rooms — especially near grief

• The tendency for nearby light sources to flicker when they enter

• Being “unphotographable” in magical records — details shift

Cultural Identity

Among the Shatterfang Tribes:

Veilbound are trained as Memory-Speakers, traveling lorebearers who remember the lives of the forgotten. Their songs are heavy, but sacred.

In the Bright Towers of the Skyreach Archive:

Shadowbound are barred entry without constant surveillance. Their presence is considered a breach of informational integrity.

In the Murmuring Vaults of the Night Courts:

Worshipped as Emissaries of the Between — go-betweens for the dead and living, often tasked with enforcing contracts no one else remembers were made.

Philosophy of Shadow

To a Veilbound Elementalist, silence is not absence.
It is a space to listen.

They believe:

• Not all things should be seen

• Memory is an ecosystem — disturbing it wrongly destroys more than it reveals

• Identity can live in absence just as strongly as in presence

They are often the emotional keepers of their groups — silent but observant to a fault. They rarely explain. But when they do, they already know what you did.

The Ritual of Eclipse

The Veilbound do not come of age with fire or flash.
They disappear.

For one full cycle, they vanish into the Abyssal Fringe — a borderland where light dies and time forgets its steps.

If they return, they are changed:

• Marked with black lines across their eyes

• Trailed by a shadow that only animals notice

• With knowledge of things they did not experience

If asked what they saw, they respond the same:

“What I needed.
And what I’ll never tell again.”

Signature Echoes of Shadow (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Memory in the Dark – Causes enemies to see a painful truth from their past, halving their will to strike.

• Veilstep – The Elementalist passes between two shadows, even across barriers or lightfields.

• Blacktongue Oath – Whispers a secret into a target’s ear. If the target breaks the implied trust, they are cursed by darkness.

• Eclipsing Presence – Temporarily renders the caster unreadable by magical or divine sight. Even names vanish from memory.

• Silhouette of the Self – Summons a semi-autonomous shadow duplicate to act independently for a brief time — mimicking spells, movement, or voice.

Notable Conduits of Shadow

• Eras Venn — Known as the “Archivist Who Remembers What You Forgot.” Allegedly retains the memories of an entire lost island — and shares them only in riddles.

• The Moth in the Doorframe — A recurring figure who appears in moments of doubt. Always one sentence away from saving you or cursing you.

• Ashla-in-Absence — A former Flameborn who gave up her light to walk in the shadows — and now teaches others how to carry fire without being consumed.

Conduit of the Unbound

The Chaosborn | The Question the World Refuses to Answer

“They are not unstable.
They are unreconciled.
The world touched them in a moment of weakness — and forgot to explain itself.”
— Torrin of the Thirteen Blinks

Conduit of the Unbound (Wild Magic)

Role

Where the six elemental Conduits embody forces of nature, the Unbound are something else.

They are not born of earth, fire, wind, water, light, or shadow.
They are born of the interval between them — the crack where meaning slips, where the world hiccups, where magic itself forgets its shape.

They are not chaos made flesh.
They are potential without agreement.

Unbound Elementalists are walking improvisations.
The world doesn't know what they are.
And neither do they — not fully, not ever, not in the same way twice.

How They Changed

The Unbound were rare before the Sundering. Their birth was seen as anomaly — a flaw. Something to be cured, or caged, or converted into study.

Now? The world spits out Unbound by accident — or perhaps on purpose, trying to balance its own unraveling.

The Unbound:

• Shift elemental resonance day to day

• Speak languages that don’t exist — and forget them hours later

• Unknow facts about reality in ways that affect others

• Sometimes cease to exist in a room and reappear mid-conversation, never realizing they left

Their powers are unpredictable — not random, but erratically contextual. They are most powerful when least stable. And most dangerous when desperate.

They are feared.
They are beloved.
They are often alone.

Common Manifestations

• Irises that spiral and change color when blinking

• Hair that reacts to emotion like a mood ring, or floats without wind

• A constant aura of “near-event” — others feel something is about to happen around them

• Magic items behave differently in their hands

• People forget having spoken to them... until reminded

Cultural Identity

In the Spiral Monastery of Veilrift’s Edge:

Unbound are trained to map their anomalies, cataloging “Patterns of the Lost.” These records are studied, even revered, though no two Unbound ever match.

Among the Rift Pirates and Smugglers:

Unbound are prized — as navigators, saboteurs, or reality divers. Some say they can see holes in the world and choose to step through.

In most formal cities:

Feared, restricted, or declared magically incompatible with survival infrastructure. Many are tagged with arcanic tethers that discharge if they cast spells too close to crowded areas.

Philosophy of the Unbound

There are no “Unbound Philosophies.”
There are only Unbound stories.

They don’t agree on anything.
They aren’t meant to.

But many believe:

• Magic is a question, not an answer

• Purpose is a side effect

• The more you try to explain yourself, the more you narrow what you could have been

Some worship entropy.
Others worship spontaneity.
Most just try to keep moving before someone gets too attached to their current identity.

The Event That Wasn’t

Each Unbound tells a different story of their awakening — and some of them are mutually exclusive.

But most share one common moment:

• A door that opened when it shouldn't have

• A name they said that didn’t belong to them

• A surge of feeling that tore a hole in the room

• A truth spoken aloud that the world then made real

This event is called “The Pivot.”
It never appears the same way twice.
Some say it’s a living idea that chooses Unbound like a muse with bad impulse control.

Signature Echoes of the Unbound (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Whim of the Infinite – A spell slot erupts with unpredictable consequence, chosen by narrative context rather than table mechanic.

• Fold of the Not-Yet – The Unbound says something they shouldn’t know — and reality adjusts to make it true for a moment.

• Arcane Misfire Elegy – Forces all nearby magic to behave erratically — enemy and ally alike.

• The Unbeing Blink – For six seconds, the Unbound does not exist. They cannot be targeted — but neither can they act. When they return, something has changed.

• Chaotic Anchor – Grounds a small zone of space around them in stability by contrast. Ironically, the more unpredictable they are, the more they can stabilize others.

Notable Conduits of the Unbound

• Torrin of the Thirteen Blinks — Famous for accidentally stopping a war by unintentionally merging both generals’ memories for ten seconds. They have been in exile — and high demand — ever since.

• The Girl with the Vanishing Name — Known only by titles others give her, never the same twice. Last seen arguing with a version of herself from next week.

• Blinkcoil — Claims to be the future echo of the first Unbound. May be lying. May be inevitable.

Conduit of the Wyrm

The World-Kissed | The Spark That Was Never Meant to Live

“They are not Dracovates.
They are not chosen.
They are what happens when a dragon is foolish enough to feel —
and the world dares to let that moment echo.”
— Drekhael of the Scaled Path

Conduit of the Wyrm (Draconic Bloodline)

Role

Where Dracovates are sworn, structured, and shaped by pact, the Wyrmborn are something else entirely.

They are not servants.
They are accidents.
Byproducts of tenderness, rage, or curiosity felt by a World-Dragon — once, for just long enough.

The Wyrm-Conduits carry no command.
Only resonance.

A whisper of draconic truth lives in their marrow. A tremor in their breath. A gleam in their eyes. They are not trained — they flare. Their magic is not gifted, but inherited by mistake, or more dangerously... longing.

To a dragon, they are a scar.
To the world, they are a warning.
To themselves... they are still becoming.

How They Changed

Dracovates are crowned in oaths and trials.
Wyrmborn are marked in womb, wound, or wake.

Their connection is intimate, but incomplete.
They reflect the dragon that touched them — but imperfectly, unpredictably.

Wyrm-Conduits:

• May sweat scaled patterns during stress

• Speak a draconic phrase they do not understand when startled

• Cause nearby dragons to pause — and recoil, or grieve

• Radiate elemental presence linked to a single World-Dragon: heat, storms, silence, starlight, rot, or birthlight

They are never full-blooded.
They are always haunted.

Common Manifestations

• A birthmark shaped like a dragon’s eye that moves

• Shifting pupils that narrow when they speak truths

• Reactions from draconic creatures ranging from reverence to frenzy

• Spells involuntarily given voice — each casting roars with resonance

• A subconscious hunger for flight, solitude, or vastness

Cultural Identity

Among the Dracovates:

They are taboo. Wyrm-Conduits represent unauthorized intimacy. No rite. No pact. Many are hunted as aberrations — or seen as temptations, signs that the dragons are still fallible.

In the Lowfire Courts:

Worshipped. Seen as dragon-kissed prophets, born to signal a new age. Some are smothered at birth to preserve their purity. Others are crowned and cast adrift.

Among Elementalists:

Feared as partialities — walking distortions of purity. They embody no element, yet carry a piece of all. In chaos, they shine. In peace, they sometimes break.

Philosophy of the Wyrmborn

Wyrm-Conduits are fractured reflections.
They do not inherit dragonhood — they echo it.

They believe:

• A spark need not become a flame to change the forest

• The divine is never whole — only glimpsed

• Their purpose is to find meaning in being left behind

Many seek their progenitor — the dragon who stirred when they were conceived, or screamed when they died.

Some find them.
Most do not.
A few... find something worse: recognition.

The Shardborne Rite

There is no formal ritual for Wyrmborn — but some take it upon themselves to undergo the Shardborne Rite: a pilgrimage to a World-Dragon’s nesting site, grave, or myth.

There, they offer themselves to be seen.

If the dragon remembers them, they may be blessed.
If it does not... they may be remade to fit the memory.

Few return.
Those who do... never need to speak again. Their presence speaks for them.

Signature Echoes of the Wyrm (Narrative-Only Examples)

• Breath Without Source – Unleashes an elemental cone tied to the dragon’s echo — often without conscious choice.

• Name the Flame – Speaks a draconic name; the next spell echoes with that dragon’s intent, changing its effect.

• Molten Lineage – Briefly grows draconic features when under threat — claws, wings, scales — then sheds them like regrets.

• Wyrm’s Memory – Calls forth a vision of a dragon’s past — an overwhelming psychic imprint that can charm, terrify, or inspire.

• Icarus Pulse – When falling (literally or metaphorically), erupts in a flare of unformed flight — arresting the descent, or shattering everything nearby.

Notable Conduits of the Wyrm

• Seruval, the Unsired — Born during a dragon’s scream. Breathes ice in dreams. Wears armor grown from their own skin.

• The Once-Named Child — Whose voice causes dragons to remember regrets — and who has never met the same dragon twice.

• Maedra of the Hollow Echo — Known only by the dragon who loved her mother — and abandoned them both. Now, her steps make volcanoes cry.