Okay, excellent ^^ Tatsua and I Skyped for a while last night and went through quite a bit, mostly about Chakra. We like the idea of "removing" Lightning as one of the base natures and making it a combination between two of the four classic elements, Earth, Fire, Water, and Air (Wind). However, much of the discussion was about the chemical legitimacy about how they combine. Here's what we came up with (None of this is concrete): Fire Earth Air Water F/E=Lava F/A=Lightning F/W=Boil/Steam E/A=Sand E/W=Wood A/W=Ice F/E/A=Metal E/A/W=Crystal A/W/F=Storm W/F/E=Scorch/Blaze F/E/A/W=Plasma We then decided that it's not the literal combination of the elements themselves (How do Air and Water create Ice? Isn't Ice just a different form of Water?) but, rather, the combination of the state in which the Chakras express themselves. Fire=Heat Chakra Earth=Solid Chakra Air=Gas Chakra Water=Liquid Chakra However, with this, W/E would create Ice instead of A/W (since it wouldn't make sense for a Gas and Liquid to create a Solid). What if some techniques are different manifestations of a release, say from Steam can come Boil/Acid? Which would we remove or transfer? So then I thought of an interesting idea: How about these elemental manifestations are purely Yin and Yang Chakra being expressed in a certain way. Yin is Spiritual and Emotional while Yang is Physical and Mental. Fire=Spiritual Earth=Physical Air=Mental Water=Emotional Lava=Spiritual/Physical Lightning=Spiritual/Mental Steam=Spiritual/Emotion So, in a sense, it's a 4-sided coin. We left it there and I wanted to continue thinking about how to structure the Chakra system. I like the idea of stemming everything from YinYang...but I want to hear everyone else's opinions. We went a little into the world itself, but Chakra took most of our time. We liked the idea of having the realm being ruled over by Shogun who command an army of Samurai and employ Ninja for the dirty work (referring back to the traditional idea of NInja). So it'd essentially be Shogun>Samurai>Ninja. We also thought of the idea of having Chakra be seen as a "curse" and condemnable but used by the Shogun regardless. This creates a lot of intrigue in itself. We also played with the idea that the Shogun invaded their land (when Chakra usage was more wide-spread) and wiped them out except a controllable number and now use them for services under the guise of protection and duty. The use of Chakra is considered dangerous. Then there was the idea that each nation/Kingdom/realm/country/etc. (we didn't decide on what to call them) would house some kind of Chakra Beast (liking the idea of "Power incarnate" being demonized for the sake of those in power to remain in power). Should enough individuals "cursed" with Chakra, those seals would break and the beasts would be released, cementing the idea that Chakra usage is a very negative thing. I think that's as far as we got with that. What do you guys think? Also, it's clear to me that people are either not reading or neglecting to go though posts and answering questions or contributing to ideas. Those who continue to do so will not be welcome to continue contributing to this world-building stage.