I wish ^^' Not too good at coding. I want to learn, but it kinda confuses me. Nah, I made this for a Pokémon RP that fell through.
Now you can be a part of the planning ^^ It's good to hear everyone's input and thoughts.
All students attending are linked to the Mirror World, and thus an animal ^^ The elements, once finalized, will stay the same but the animals can change. Each group is sent to a different area of our world, corresponding with a location in the mirror world, basically. So to answer your question, yes the rival group has abilities too ^^
The Rival group might be the second best team, just for competition purposes. Wouldn't be fun if there was no one close to the main's level, since no one would challenge our group.
Which is where fire comes in. Fire is a source of light and heat. And wood really does make sense. I did a lot of research before deciding. There are the Western elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Lightning) and those are easy to see why they exist. While doing my research, trying to find a new element so my own character could be implicated, I looked towards other cultures. In Chinese cultures, the main elements are Wood, Metal, Fire, Water, and Earth (or as they called it, Soil). There were also elements like Light, Dark, Void, Space, Soul, Animal, Heart, etc. Going through them, I narrowed it down to Metal or Wood. Then I compared the two. From what I found, metal is more offensive, as well as a stronger version of Earth but being "sterile" meaning it can't do anything towards life, such as healing. The fact that I had trouble finding a use and that it was basically Earth, I ruled out Metal. Wood can be used offensively and defensively. It could also be used as a healing element, and one that creates life such as plants. While associated with Earth in Western culture, Wood is actually associated with Air in Asian cultures. This means that Wood is not Earth, and it bears enough differences from Air to not be the element of Air. And the argument of "if Earth is capable of life, and Wood is capable of life, what's the point" is kinda invalid because Earth bears life, Wood is life. Wood cannot take away life, and I will limit it so it can only create plant life not human or spirit animal life. Wood is also associated with leaders, as well as Yang or masculinity, and the character I made for the main group is male and the leader. The character I made for the rival group will possibly be the leader, but will hold the element of ice in that group. As for Wood being silly, it does kinda sound lame when placed into context like that, but it's a better word than plant or vegetation. "I have the power of Plant!" Or "I'm so awesome, I have Vegetation powers!" Those, in my opinion, sound even lamer.
In our world, maybe. But the mirror world is another world and another dimension. There, fire works. And, I also thought of making a sun which supplies the particles that cause photosynthesis but no or very little heat. Either scenario works. For the redundancy thing, it's rather true. While yes other things help create that life, the life itself (a plant of some sort) is necessary especially in a world of animals. The plants feeds the herbivores, thus making it necessary to live. As for carnivores, maybe they are mostly herbivores too because of the whole "each animal is connected to a human" thing and an animal eating another in the mirror world suggest the person whose linked to that animal killed someone in our world. While possible, a carnivore 's diet would suggest a serial killer. So yeah, plants are essential for the animals to live. Without them, they don't have a food source, one of the basic necessities of life. That means Wood works. I really did put a lot of thought into which element I'll add, or if I was going to change one. I spent a good hour researching, and my computer had crashed partially through, too. I didn't add any of the elements just randomly. A lot of time and thorough research went into choosing the final elements. Yes the other Elements help create plants, however, what if there was a drought or something and their food was too low. Wood would come in handy because they can grow some food rather quickly, with the help from a Water Elemental. Their healing properties also help, not just the creation of food. Wood is basically a doctor, to an extent. Without someone who works with medicine of a sort (in this case herbs) and has a general knowledge of various illnesses or injuries, the animals could die from a simple fever, which does happen in our own world if bad enough and not treated.
I know about the wave lengths and such ^^ That was one of my last lessons in sciemce. I said particles partially because I was tired, and partially because towards photosynthesis the light acts as a particle, as Sun light can act as a wave or particle. The one thing I didn't know was the blue part ^^ That's rather interesting. A "cold" blue star, I like it, it's unique since a blue star is one of the hottest stars out there. (Blue then white, but a lot of book and scholars and such combine the blue and white stars)
