Elements and Attacks
The result of boredom and an overactive mind.

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

The very basic of physical elements, broken down into four categories, of with we're probably all familiar. Pretty boring when we're trying to think of elements our characters can control, right? Well, let's see about that.

From these four we can break the elements down further into different forms in which it can appear, then concentrate, dilute, and mix the elements together. The rest however we can determine in attacks, so please utilize this list of elements I've written for you, and refer to it if you're stuck in the future. Unlike my other article(s), this article HAS been made with the intent to give you ideas for elements of attacks, so I'm hoping to turn on a lightbulb or two over your heads.

EARTH
Clay
Boulders/Rocks
Soil
Metal
Crystal
Sand
Wood
Paper
Vines
Leaves
Grass
Electricity
Magnetism

AIR
Wind
Tornadoes
Oxygen
Sound Waves/ Vibration

FIRE
Lava
Flame
Smoke

WATER
Oceans
Ice
Drought

MIXED
Ash [Matter and Fire]
Coals/Embers [Earth and Fire]
Glass [Fire/Heat and Earth/Sand]
[Sub Element= Reflection = Glass + physical Light]
Mud [Water and Earth]
Clouds [Air and Water][Light]
Mist / Fog [Water and Air][Heavy]
Waves [Water and Wind]
Cold Wind [Water/Ice and Air]
Snow [Wind/Air and Ice/Water]
Rain [Wind/Air and Water]
Steam [Fire/Heat and Water]
Blizzard [Wind/Air and Snow/Water]
Sandstorm [Air and Earth/Sand]
Hot Wind [Fire and Air]

NON ELEMENTAL
Combustion {Explosions/Implosions}
Sheilds {Both physical and energy force}
Animals {Living, extinct and myhological}
Light {sub element - illusion}
Darkness
Insects
Pure Hearts | Dream Mirrors | Starseeds
Pressure/Vaccuum {Closest element would be air}

MISC
Purity/ Good
Contamination/ Evil
Life/ Ressurection
Healing
Leeching/ Draining
Death
Time

Now that we have that divided and categorized, it becomes more and more apparent that our elemental choices with our senshi and choosing which ones is much more broad a spectrum than what we think.

Attacks

Besides only taking place in the blink of an eye in reality and slowed down for the viewers' sakes, even the most experienced of Otaku Authors get stuck on how an attack appears and progresses. Below are a group of lists to consider when creating your attack, and hopefully I'll cover a good portion of the aspects of an otaku senshi attack. Now keep in mind that not all of these categories will apply to all of the elements.

> Before we lay the smackdown
There's quite a few things we need to think about before we have our senshi burn a place up (so to speak).

What is this attack's objective?
Do we want to harm an enemy or heal the wounded?
Is this attack offensive (to attack) or defensive (to guard)?
Can this attack harm many enemies or just one?
Does it involve your senshi's weapon?
Can this attack be deflected or interrupted in it's process?
Are there any negative or positive effects for the senshi and/or her allies?
Is there any margin for error in executing the attack?
Is this attack specified for one purpose, or could it be adjusted in specific ways according to the situation?


> What's in a name? Actually, a lot.
Now we all know that a lot of the attack names in the Sailor Moon world really come out of left field. I'm sure we all brought out our dictionaries when Sailor Moon first called out 'Moon Princess Halation' (a halation is blurring of a visual image due to glare from strong illumination [1]). Since these names can be so random in their origin, I think the difficulty in thinking up of our own comes from the fact that there's no real common theme between all of them to follow, except for the structure of the attack phrase.

Generally, attacks consist of anywhere from two to five words, usually the majority of which describe the attack itself being shown. They can consist of anywhere from nouns to adverbs, so it's pretty much an open book - reach for your thesaurus (online or otherwise - an online one however can be updated more easily) for wacky alternate versions of words you're considering using.

Examples of attack name structures:

Moon Spiral Heart Attack = {Planet*} [Noun] [Noun] (Verb)
Mercury Aqua Rhapsody = {Planet} [Noun] [Noun]
Sparkling Wide Pressure = (Verb) [Adjective] [Noun]
World Shaking = [Noun] (Verb)
Silent Wall = [Adjective] [Noun]


* = We all know the Moon is a sattelite of Earth, so Planet was placed here to keep the continuity and the purpose of examples.

It's a different way to think about attack names, but maybe by thinking of attack names in this fashion, it might be easier to come up with names. So once you've chosen a random combination of the types of speech above, you can think up of words which match them and if you like, look them up in a thesaurus and try to find unusual synonyms to use. Be as creative as you want to be!

> States of matter -- or elements.
[ Dry | Cold | Wet | Hot ]
[ Gas | Solid | Liquid | Plasma ]

It's a given that each of these apply to each of the four elements - Air (Dry/Gas), Earth (Cold/Solid), Water(Wet/Liquid), and Fire (Hot/Plasma) - but it can be applied in a much broader sense. Again, please note that not ALL of the elements I will have listed will have full use of these different categories, but we'll use as much as we can to embrace the diversity of said element. Conversely, I couldn't name every single element that there is in existence, but I've tried my best.

For those of you unfamiliar with plasma as being part of the Solid, Liquid and Gas group, Plasma is an electrically neutral, highly ionized gas composed of ions, electrons, and neutral particles. It is a phase of matter distinct from solids, liquids and normal gases.[1] Examples of common plasmas in nature include; lightning, ball lightning, the ionosphere, and polar aurora (Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis). The Sun and other stars (plasma heated by nuclear fusion) as well as nebulae are also examples of plasma occurring naturally in the universe. [2]

One example I can show you is that of Sailor Mercury's Shabon Spray attacks (since there are a few of them, but the basis is the same). Her element is ice, yet in this attack it takes a gaseous form to chill or freeze her enemies, even though her element was previously of a solid form.

So these are the two sets of four things that we can think about when we're dealing with our element - can it take another shape? - could it behave differently than from it's natural state?

For instance, I have a sand senshi, named Sailor Suna. I just want to start off with two attacks, so one would be the basic sandstorm attack which would temporarily blind the enemy, since it would get in their eyes; another would be where the sand takes an almost rock appearance, most likely in the form of a body, and slam against the enemy.

> Oh, Shiny!!
You probably won't believe me when I say that we have a lot more choice when it comes to attack sequences. I know, I'm crazy.

There are a lot of things to consider in the appearance of our senshi's attacks. Background image/scene, shape of the attack, ending pose, and whether or not our senshi's weapon(s) (if they have one at all) is used.

Background Image or Scene
I'd like to think that this is free range. With Sailor Moon's 'Moon Spiral Heart Attack', it's the image of the Moon Kingdom which is in the background, at least for a portion of it. Most commonly with attacks, it's a field of differently coloured streaks with sparkles and whatnot, so why not try a garden (or even just a flower or two), ancient ruins, stars, planets, nebulae, clouds, images of mythical beasts, gods, even rainbows.

All different shapes and sizes
Since it would take forever to mention where each one could appear, I'll merely name some of the 'screen' areas you can have this in, and some of the shpaes you have to choose from. Whether it be behind, to the side, top, bottom or front of your senshi, it's good that we have a wide choice of geometrical and non-geometrical shapes which can represent her element. Straight lines, curved lines, half circles, ovals; spheres, cubes, pyramids, cylinders, cones, and attack energy can even be in the form of mythological beings, such as Mars' Snake Fire and Jupiter's Thunder Dragon. Mists, spirals, ribbons, the world is your oyster!

Once you figure out the shapes you're going to use, you can then determine in which degrees they'll appear; solid, transperant, jelly-like, splintered, etc.

For instance, I'll make up two attacks on the spot for the sand senshi mentioned in the previous topic.

So I have my sand senshi with one sandstorm and one with a sand-man attack.

Attack
Name: Rolling Sand Crest
Visual: The desert first appears, and Sailor Suna appears, with her head down and her hands limp to her sides. A huge wave of sand collects behind her, as sand spheres swirl around her hands. The sand wave quickly reaches her, as she takes a step foreward and thrusts her hands outwards, to call out her attack and for both the sands around her hands and the sandstorm from behind her to attack the enemy.
Effect: Damages and temporarily blinds the enemy.


Attack
Name: Earthen Effigy
Visual: Sailor Suna places her hands downwards, until a cone (pointed at the top, wide at the bottom, a shoulder width wide) of sand collects from the ground. She then closes her eyes and concentrates as a mimic of her own body created from sand is revealed. Sailor () releases her power from the mimic, as the immitation charges towards the enemy, and body-checks them. The only drawback is that this sand mimic can't be airborne, and has to have constant contact with the ground for the attack to be complete.
Effect: Physical damage to the enemy.

> In Closing
I hope that I've helped you think of your attacks in a way that is helpful to you! If you have any questions or comments, or if in the one of a million shot that this article helped you, please send your e-mails to zerachinhime @ hotmail.com.

Thanks for reading! ~Lorelei

Sources:
[1] This definition provided by Dictionary.com
[2] Plasma (Physics) at Wikipedia