Alicornutopia

I think that works, but they seem to fit what they are currently quite well. Do you have the new five-element group planned out, or does it just seem easier to think of than trying to brainstorm for another theme?

I mean, perhaps you could have a 5-group with powers that almost reach into other groups. "Different metals" might be interesting for a group of five (but it sort of ties into "ground", which might be more an elemental group?), and could have some interesting results depending on which ones you pick, but perhaps it'd be better left as an option for bigger groups, or not at all if you don't like it? Perhaps someone with "gold" could have some sort of magic involving valuables, and "iron" would probably have a high durability; "silver" or "platinum" might be similar to gold, and you could have a weird type like "osmium" that's somewhat separate from the rest? That might allow you to fulfil someone's criterion of being "special"? I don't know.

Kappa wrote:I wonder if I could turn the elementals into seasonals... this would sadly destroy my cute nicknames for the elemental hybrids, and would mean I'd need to re-theme some of their powers, but if I made the seasons their primary theme group then I could let them keep the secondary elemental affiliations and make a five-element theme group next.

Dryads would obviously be Spring, maybe Summer.
Mirages I think fit Fall, but Summer wouldn't be too bad.
Sylphs seem most Winterlike to me, but might fit Fall.
Undines might work for Summer, or on the other hand if I went with the ice<->water connection they could be Winter.

Does this hold together? Am I missing anything?

They still are "loosely based on sim-stuff-x"?

I like the idea of winter-themed sylphs, but diskike fall-mirages, so fall-sylphs would make a overall group.

I don't have a 5-element group planned out, but it's surprisingly difficult to think of a 5-theme I can base a theme group on that doesn't tie back into elements somehow.

There are way more than 5 metals, so I'd want to reserve those for a bigger group.

Yes, if I made the elementals into seasonals they'd still be (loosely) based on fairies/genies/mermaids/plantsims.

Bah this is hard XD

Personally I think Dryad=>Spring, Mirage=>Summer, Sylph=>Fall and Undine=>Winter works best, if only because that's how AtLA matches elements to seasons

That was my first thought. Apparently AtlA does not match classical relationship, though (which matches in Fire and Water but has Earth and Air switched).

Other things that come in fives:
Five basic food groups: vegetable, fruit, grain, meat, dairy
Five kingdoms of life (who cares if real-world taxonomy no longer uses that model): animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, protists
Five climate classifications (which don’t really make sense in a chunk-based world, I guess): tropical, dry, moderate, continental, polar
Big five personality traits (I don’t know how you could reasonably do this one): openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism
Vowels (mostly joking): A, E, I, O, U

Hmm, there are 7 life stages for sims, so you can’t use that

EDIT: add the necessary “does not match” to the second sentence.

<3 <3 <3

If I do seasonal-elementals I think I'll go with the ATLA correspondence. But I'm still not sure I'm going to do seasonal-elementals.

Some systems of seasons use more than four. IIRC, ecological seasons go "hibernal, prevernal, vernal, estival, serotinal, autumnal", total 6.

I was actually wondering about that because it would be odd if Welce used both seasons and quintiles, but I didn’t know there were real-life examples.

In the meantime I've been giving more thought to sky-kin magic.

Starspeakers' big stat boost is speed, ad they drink blood and stop aging at Young Adult...

Moonsingers' big stat boost is strength, and they eat and drink normally and turn into wolves and stop aging at Adult...

Sunwalkers' big stat boost is durability, and they don't need to eat or drink and stop aging at Elder...

The asymmetry here suggests that Starspeakers and Sunwalkers might should also turn into things. I'm going to go with owls for Starspeakers and lions for Sunwalkers.

And as for the remaining bit of magic they have, I'm divided on whether they get it but if they do I think it will be weather-related. I just can't think of how to divide up "the weather" into three distinct not-too-unequal pieces, particularly not without breaking the sky theme.

Man, I need a name for this world so I can make an etherpad for it.

Wouldn't bats be more traditional than owls? Also mammalian, to go with mammal wolves and mammal lions.

You're also left with a little diet asymmetry, if starspeakers and sunwalkers have special diets but moonsingers don't.