Mana Elements



Mana elements, sometimes called "attributes", are the seven core characteristics of mana. Each corresponds in element, colour, and function to one of the Supreme Gods or Eternal Five.

The seven elements are Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Life, Light, and Darkness.

All living things carry mana, if only in miniscule amounts, and each person, creature, plant, or material has a unique mana "signature" made up of different elements in different amounts. This unique signature can cause surprising effects in the natural world. For example, combining different plants and oils to make ink causes the pigment to change unexpectedly, depending on the mana elements of the ingredients.

Most living beings contain not a single type of mana, but a mix of multiple types. Purity refers to how little other elements an object or being contains apart from the dominant type. The fewer and smaller the trace elements are, the higher its purity is.

Living beings with mana (that is, nobles, Devouring commoners, feybeasts, and feyplants) are born with "affinities" for one or more elemental types. These affinities tend to run in families. Most laynobles have around one or two elemental affinities. Most mednobles have two or three elemental affinities. Archnobles can expect to have up to seven, depending on their family background. Having affinities for all elements is mainly seen in high-ranking duchies and the royal family. A noble's elemental affinities are checked at their baptism. Among the nobility, the word "aptitude" is also used, apparently completely interchangeable with "affinity".

Nobles almost always have an affinity for the mana of the deity associated with their birth season. The other affinities are greatly influenced by the parents, making it very likely that siblings of the same parents also share the same set of affinities.

Among feyplants and feybeasts, it appears that the affinities are entirely species bound with no differences between individual members of the same species.

A person's elemental affinities combine into their mana "colour." Those with fewer affinities have brighter and more saturated mana, while those with many affinities have very pale, almost-white mana. A person's strongest affinity will determine the general hue of the mana. For example, a person whose highest affinity is Water would have mana in some shade of green. Mana colour is not normally visible, but it can be seen when a person infuses their mana into a feystone or when they lose control of their mana.

Some elements are known to function more easily together than others.


 * Earth. Because Earth is adaptable, it can be mixed in with other elements that otherwise wouldn't merge well on their own.
 * Life and Earth. The element of Life is notoriously hard to use with any element except Earth. This is usually attributed to the mythological story that the God of Life is disliked by the deities of Water, Fire, and Wind.
 * Light and Darkness. Many potent magic circles require the combination of both Light and Darkness, such as those used in long-distance transfers and those powering the shumils Schwartz and Weiss.

Some common magical ingredients (such as feyplant and feybeast parts) contain several elements. Rather than combining elements that don't mix well, it can be easier to just use ingredients containing both elements to begin with.

Unrelated to its elemental attributes, each ingredient also has a "quality" or "capacity" that determines how much mana it can absorb. Creating effective potions and magic tools requires ingredients that have the right attributes for the task and a high enough quality for the mana involved.

If a noble gains the divine protection of one of the gods, casting any spell of the element associated with said god becomes much easier. Generally, nobles will be able to attain the protection of all the gods to which they have an elemental affinity.

Gaining divine protections is part of the Royal Academy Curriculum in the lesson Divine Protection Acquisition. There they first learn the necessary prayer, and upon memorizing it, they will perform the ritual itself. To attain this protection, the students need to correctly recite the prayer, the name of the associated god, and their respective subordinate gods. If they have the elemental affinity for this type of mana, they generally attain the protection of this god. If they lack the affinity, it is very unlikely they will gain the protection to the point that most nobles aren't even aware that it is a possibility to begin with. On the rare occasions that someone manages to gain the divine protection of an element they have no aptitude for, the benefits are of a lesser degree than for someone with the affinity, but still noticeable.

The only known ways to fail to gain the divine protection of a god a student has an affinity for is to fail to correctly recite the part of the prayer dedicated to that god or their subordinate gods or to mispronounce the deity's name.

In the very rare cases when a student is already name-sworn by the time they enact the ritual to gain divine protections and their master has affinities they lack, the student stands a good chance to gain protection from gods of those elements, in addition to what the have on their own, due to being surrounded by their master's mana at all times.

While it is very rare, it is possible to gain additional protections or lose some. Upon entering the Temple, Ferdinand of Ehrenfest was able to gain additional divine protections, proving the possibility. Likewise, if a person takes actions that anger the associated deity, it is possible to lose that protection again. An example of this is an archduke candidate of the past, who told an archnoble scholar the names of the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light, which are only supposed to be known by the person who learned them through a ritual and not to be shared. As punishment, the supreme gods withdrew their divine protections from the archduke candidate, and he was unable to ever reacquire them in his lifetime.


 * Angelica has affinities for two elements, Fire and Wind, but she failed to get Schutzaria's divine protection.
 * Brigitte has affinities for two elements, Fire and Earth.
 * Charlotte has affinities for five elements, Light, Water, Fire, Wind, and Earth . Her main affinity is Earth, resulting in her mana colour being pale red.
 * Cornelius has affinities for four elements, Light, Water, Fire, and Wind.
 * Damuel only has affinity for Wind.
 * Eglantine's number of affinities isn't known, but it was said that she had more than the King.
 * Ferdinand has affinities for all seven elements. His mana colour is pearl-white because his affinities are well balanced.
 * Hannelore's full set of affinities is still unknown, but she is known to possess affinities to Earth, Light, and Darkness.
 * Hartmut's full set of affinities is unknown, but it is confirmed that he has an affinities for Light and Earth, but lacks Darkness.
 * Hildebrand's full set of affinities is unknown, but it is confirmed that he has affinities for Wind, Light, and Darkness, but lacks Life.
 * Lestilaut's full set of affinities is not known, but Prince Anastasius believes he lacks an affinity for Darkness.
 * Melchior has affinities for five elements, Darkness, Water, Fire, Wind, and Earth.
 * Philine only has affinity for Earth.
 * Roderick has affinities for two elements, Wind and Earth.
 * Rozemyne has affinities for all seven elements . Her mana colour is very pale due to having a high number of affinities. The hue is between yellow and gold, leading her to speculate that her strongest affinity is either Light or Wind.
 * Trauerqual's number of affinities isn't known, but since Eglantine has more affinities than him, he has at most six elements.
 * Wilfried has affinities for six elements. His main affinity is Water, resulting in his mana colour being pale green . Judging from Charlotte and Melchior's affinities and the rarity of each elements, it's highly likely that the only affinity he lacks is Life element.
 * Hortensia has at least Light and Darkness affinities, since she's able to register with Schwartz and Weiss without issues. Her other affinities are not known at this point.

Table Legend:
 * ✅ This person is confirmed to possess affinity to this element by birth.
 * ❌ This person is confirmed to not possess affinity to this element.
 * ❔ It's unknown whether this person possesses affinity to this element.


 * Affinity for elements associated with seasons (Water, Fire, Wind, Earth) are common among nobles, whereas Light, Darkness, and Life element are much rarer.
 * Life element appears to be the rarest attribute. So far, only those who have all seven attributes are known to possess affinity for Life element.
 * Nobles are given rings with feystones of their birth season's colour during their baptism, because almost all nobles possess affinity for the element of their birth season. A noble's most prominent attribute appears to be influenced by his/her birth season too, while Rozemyne is one of the rare known exceptions (born in summer, yellow-coloured mana).
 * Mana elements and their properties are taught in the second year of the Royal Academy.