as-yet-unnamed fantasy world

[Shadowsong]

so, hi all. i've been real inactive over the last year or two ::shame:: and i'm sorry about that. i've come up with a potential idea for a fantasy world--i was originally going to squeeze it into the world of avatar: the last airbender, if any of you are familiar with that, but after a long discussion on the subject with some of my friends who are familiar with the show, have come to the conclusion that it would function better as a standalone universe. i'm a little concerned about filing the serial numbers off, but this is what i've got so far--any input, regardless of what it is, would be much appreciated ^^

four cultures.
at the poles, there's a race of people who use magic dealing with lightning/electricity/magnetism. they're a nomadic tribal sort of people, probably ending up being loosely based on the sami, herding reindeer/caribou and fishing and the like. the most powerful/destructive of the magic-users of this culture can also work with fire.

at the four corners of the map, we have a race of people who work with metal. i haven't worked out much about their culture yet, but i think they're fairly isolated and don't interact much with the other groups. the most powerful of these can work with earth as well as metal.

on a central continent, we have people who work magic with sound. not much of an idea about these people, they're the ones i've worked with least. the most powerful can manipulate air currents directly.

and on an island archipelago on the western edge of the map, we have people who work blood magic. they can manipulate any liquid inside a living body. most of these people are strictly healers, with the exception of each island having one (or two, on the larger ones) witch-line. these lines are strictly female, reproduction of the witches is rigidly controlled and done in such a way that it's unclear who their fathers are. a witch conceives and has her daughter when her grandmother dies or she turns thirty-five, whichever comes first. sons born to the witch-lines are killed. the witches are scary, scary people, who, among other things, can control a person's every move, stop their heart, 'blow up' organs, and essentially turn people inside out. there's a reason they kill laypeople who practice combat magic.

i thought for my Band of Heroes, i'd have a witch-born male (his mother being very young, in her teens, when her grandmother died, and had twins, and refused to kill her son and hid him in a cave or something), a female from the electricity-magic people, and at least one person from each of the other groups. i'm not sure what they'd do, exactly, i'm still in world-building phase (hence posting it here instead of in one of the writing threads).

any thoughts? for those familiar with avatarverse, what can i do to make this more clearly its own universe? any feedback is appreciated ^^

[extradimensionalcephalopod]

I don't watch Avatar, but in my perpetual quest for superpower ideas, I've obtained knowledge of enough stuff to hopefully discuss it intelligently.

So for the most part, the "bending" elements have their feats inverted in terms of skill required? It might work, if you can provide some interesting rules for the magic system. Scientifically it makes sense because if a fire it hot enough it becomes ionized, soil can contain trace metals, sound is fluctuating pressure, and Murphy's law can be applied to healing. Is the magic based on chi and martial arts also? Are these the only powers there are?

It might help if the cultures weren't as isolated as post-Airbender-holocaust Avatarverse. Were you going to have any mix and match critters? What sort of time period were you going to set this in? If you want to make it really different, you have to take the elements you want to use from the preexisting series and change everything else, including what the setting feels like to readers.

When you've got some more details for your world, or if you've got any other questions... umm... post them here like you were planning to anyway? I'm building/writing a world myself (posted in the magnificent Vault, a repository for Skiffy writing, created by BobTheFerret; contact him for an account), and I'm an expert on powers.

--ExCeph