Alicornutopia

You find yourself standing before an enormous stone ring, oriented vertically like a large round gate to nowhere. The ring is subdivided two ways, into three rings and seven arcs, making twenty-one panels altogether. Each panel bears three symbols in one of seven colours. On the innermost ring, the central symbol is a jewel; on the middle ring, a bird; on the outer ring, a flower. On each panel the symbol on the left is one of seven elements, and the symbol on the right is one of three signs.

The red flower is the Rose. Its element is Light. Its sign is Destruction.
The red bird is the Cardinal. Its element is Fire. Its sign is Creation.
The red jewel is Garnet. Its element is Earth. Its sign is Change.

The orange flower is the Lily. Its element is Fire. Its sign is Change.
The orange bird is the Oriole. Its element is Earth. Its sign is Destruction.
The orange jewel is Amber. Its element is Light. Its sign is Creation.

The yellow flower is the Sunflower. Its element is Earth. Its sign is Creation.
The yellow bird is the Goldfinch. Its element is Light. Its sign is Change.
The yellow jewel is Topaz. Its element is Fire. Its sign is Destruction.

The green flower is the Hellebore. Its element is Life. Its sign is Destruction.
The green bird is the Hummingbird. Its element is Life. Its sign is Change.
The green jewel is Emerald. Its element is Life. Its sign is Creation.

The blue flower is the Iris. Its element is Shadow. Its sign is Creation.
The blue bird is the Swallow. Its element is Water. Its sign is Change.
The blue jewel is Sapphire. Its element is Air. Its sign is Destruction.

The indigo flower is the Lotus. Its element is Air. Its sign is Change.
The indigo bird is the Martin. Its element is Shadow. Its sign is Destruction.
The indigo jewel is Amethyst. Its element is Water. Its sign is Creation.

The violet flower is the Orchid. Its element is Water. Its sign is Destruction.
The violet bird is the Starling. Its element is Air. Its sign is Creation.
The violet jewel is Tourmaline. Its element is Shadow. Its sign is Change.

Each ring can be rotated independently of the others. When a panel is in the highest position on the circle, it glows with an unearthly light. The space in the middle of the ring swirls with strange vapours whose colours correspond to the topmost three panels and whose movement changes depending on their signs and elements.

When three panels of the same colour are chosen, the mysterious smoke exhibits subtle concentric patterns. When three panels of the same element are chosen, the mysterious smoke swirls in intricate spirals with pleasing symmetry.

When any two of the chosen panels bear the same sign, the mysterious smoke becomes more chaotic and unstable, with hints of an extra colour: white for Creation, black for Destruction, grey for Change. When all three of the chosen panels bear the same sign, the instability is stronger and the extra colour is clearly visible.

~

Now I just have to decide what happens to you when you step through it. I mean, obviously you get magical powers, but what are they?

Also I might completely rearrange the assignments of signs and elements because Aesthetic.

(This setting exists because my brain looked at Shadopolis and went "okay, like, sort of that, but also completely not that, you get me?" and then refused to leave me alone until I made it happen.)

Update: Now there's a 3x5 version!
and a 4x4 version!

Are you planning to have people gain new "lives" in a new world?

...what do you mean by that?

In shadopolis (at least the version 1.0) the people taken by the shadows often find themselves with new identities, including new families. Does something to that effect happens here?

Well, that's part of what I haven't decided yet. I don't want it to work exactly that way, although I do think you end up moving universes. Possibly via dreaming about the gate.

Ah, ok. Do you want the powers to be... determined purely by the choice of symbol or they can be more personality-attuned or random?

I have some thoughts on that!

I think each colour has a power, and each element has a power, and you get upgrades to that power for having more than one of the colour or element. So e.g. Water's power is hydrokinesis, and if you have two Water choices you get hydrokinesis and you can breathe water, and if you have three Water choices you get amazing hydrokinesis and you can breathe water. Red's power is sensing metal, and if you have two Red choices you can sense and manipulate metal, and if you have three Red choices you can sense and manipulate metal really well.

Since Green and Life are the same thing, I'm kinda having a hard time coming up with non-redundant powersets for it, and some of the others are tough too. (Like, Blue's powerset is weather, but what the hell do I do with Indigo and Violet?)

Also, weird shit happens if you're unbalanced regarding Creation, Destruction, and Change. But I haven't decided on the exact kind of weird shit.

Re: moving universes by dreaming about the gate: ooh, might this do that cool concept (I've seen it proposed but never actually used) where when you're dreaming in one world you're awake in the other, and vice versa?

Do the flowers/jewels/birds have further significance after you've made your choice, or are they literally just the symbols on the rings?

Is there any way to figure out what the element/sign symbols mean while you're there, or do you just have to guess? (Like, I can maybe imagine a universalish symbol for "fire"; for "change", not so much.)

Are there criteria by which you're picking the color/element powersets, or just kappabrain? Do you want suggestions?

This is what I have so far on the powersets:

Earth: Geokinesis; stoneskin; better geokinesis
Fire: Pyrokinesis; fireproofing; better pyrokinesis
Light: Farsight; photosynthesis; illusion
Life: Healing; shapeshifting; biokinesis
Shadow: Darksight; invisibility; shadow step
Water: Hydrokinesis; water breathing; better hydrokinesis
Air: Aerokinesis; flight; better aerokinesis

Note that these are cumulative. If you have all three Shadow choices, you have all three Shadow powers.

Then I started to run into trouble with the colours:

Red: Sense metal; metallokinesis; better metallokinesis
Orange: Sense charge; electrokinesis; better electrokinesis
Yellow: Sense mass; telekinesis; better telekinesis
Green: Sense life; ???; ???
Blue: Sense weather; weather control; better weather control
Indigo: ???????????
Violet: ???????????

I wanted the red, orange, and yellow powersets to be things that felt like fire-earth-light things to me, because those are the three elements you get on that end of the spectrum. I similarly want the blue, indigo, and violet powersets to be things that feel like water-air-shadow things. Weather was easy, but now I'm stuck. And it's hard to think of anything for green that feels appropriately like a life thing but not such a central life thing that I have already put it under Life.

*sneaks back in and makes last-minute tweaks to the Shadow set*

Can you step through multiple times?

I want to send daeva in with unbalanced signs.