How can Elemental Magic positively enhance fields of work/careers?

Banshee_Lingers

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My goal is to create important aspects of each basic element (Earth, Air, Water and Fire), and how it impacts the world I’ve created socially, economically, and through the government. Specifically, I’m looking at different jobs people of these elements would lean toward.
An example is with the earth element. These earth elementals tend to fall under three main categories for field of work: agriculture/farming, construction and mining. They focus on plants, ground and rock. Farming provides crops for trade and feeding people, construction provides shelter and mining provides currency or trade depending on what is being mined.
While all three of those are basic necessities to life anywhere, I’m having a harder time finding specific fields of work in the other elements. Basic ideas I’ve come up with is smithing in relation to fire, sailing or exploration with water but for air, I’m seriously stuck. Except possibly scouts or spies, I can’t come up with anything.
I’m looking for suggestions people wouldn’t mind sharing, about how certain jobs could be impacted in a positive way by these elements. For a basic idea about my setting, its a mash-up between middle-earth and modern world. Magic replaces or enhances a lot of technology. For example, there are no airplanes because most people can teleport or use horse and carriage / walking for travel.
 

AwP_writer

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If your fire magic allows heat control and not just making flames, it would allow for advanced metallurgy. Air magic could be very useful on sailing. Water would depend on if you create water or just control it. Creating would be good for farming, and would be very useful in arid climate for drinking water. If it's controlling... Not sure of a good industrial use offhand.
 

Brightdreamer

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Elemental stuff can be tweaked and stretched in various ways. Can "air" include radio waves or TV signals (or in-world equivalents)? Air masters would then be very useful in long-distance communication.

Try thinking outside the box a bit. Water would be useful for sailing and fishing and such yeah, but water wheels powered mills, too, making them important to the economy (not just grain mills - IIRC, there were water-powered saws and lathes and many other uses) - plus you could have hydroelectric power. Hydraulic tools (IIRC, water was used for drilling and such at least as far back as Roman times - it's powerful stuff.) Food preservation (ice.) The human body is mostly water, so would water lend itself to healing as a specialty?
 

Antipode91

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An old story of mine was set in America, where the idea of powers was fiction. So this air manipulator hid away, and lived on a windmill farm, where he used his power to constantly turn the windmills, creating more energy and enough revenue to keep him away from civilization. That could be turned into a more career-focused thing.
 

Banshee_Lingers

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If your fire magic allows heat control and not just making flames
Air magic could be very useful on sailing.
Water would depend on if you create water or just control it.

These are good ideas.

I forgot how air can be used with other elements, like with sailing. I was being very narrow-minded on single elemental use, but if people combined their singular efforts together, that would help with sailing, and even making weapons or tools using fire.

As for my magic, it is controlling what already exists, not making it from nothing. So fire would need at least a spark to create the element. Meaning they need firestarter on them. That makes air, earth and even sometimes water much easier as it is everywhere.

Thank you
 
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Banshee_Lingers

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Air masters would then be very useful in long-distance communication.

I've thought of this in a way, but leaned more towards long-distance hearing abilities, where speech is carried through the wind. But using its opposite by communication is an awesome idea I want to play with.

Try thinking outside the box a bit.
Wise words that I promise to try my best at.

Thank you
 

themindstream

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If you are willing to get into looking at what others have done, get your hands on the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. They really did an ace job worldbuilding a society based on people with elemental powers. The sequel series, The Legend of Korra, time skips ahead to a more steampunk-inspired era but is also worth looking at. Do not bother with the live-action Last Airbender movie.
 

DougR.

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Perhaps your water elementals could liquefy other material. That could create an entire industry around liquified and molded material. Presumably they could re-solidify this material, so you could pour liquid wood into a mold just like metal, for example.

Earth, water and air represent the three most common states of matter, solid, liquid, and gas. Heat (fire) is the energy that converts between those states. Heat is just molecular motion. The faster molecules move, the hotter that material is. That makes heat the master over the three elements. However, you could take a different spin, and instead of going by elements, go by energy forms. Thermal, electric, kinetic, nuclear, solar, etc. That would make it vastly easier to apply your magic to industry, as all industry runs on energy, and it would be pretty unique.
 
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Banshee_Lingers

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Why not make crop cultivation an air thing? Plants need air more than they need soil.
After a day of deep thought and research, I realized air is needed in all the other elements. There is wind pollination, wind for sails and controlled air for a better controlled fire. Earth came so easily and appeared to stand alone. When I looked closer, I realized it needs both air and water working with it. Which is great, because it forces my people to work together as well.


Thermal, electric, kinetic, nuclear, solar, etc. That would make it vastly easier to apply your magic to industry, as all industry runs on energy, and it would be pretty unique.
I don't know if this applies, but I did look at pressure. Kind of like you're heat in relation to molecules being sped up. Pressurizing air or water opens up other aspects I hadn't explored.
 

DougR.

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I don't know if this applies, but I did look at pressure. Kind of like you're heat in relation to molecules being sped up. Pressurizing air or water opens up other aspects I hadn't explored.

Pressure is a force derived from kinetic energy. If I put a concrete block on your chest, the pull of gravity on that block, combined with your innard's inability to escape your body, create pressure. Pressurizing air will eventually get you liquid, and since each gas will liquefy at a different pressure, any magician manipulating pressure could have a nice industry in liquid gasses, which are very cold (pressure reduces molecular motion, and molecular motion = heat). Likewise, pressurizing coal will get you diamonds, and pressurizing liquids will get you solids (water being an exception). Scientists recently created solid hydrogen metal using insane pressures in a lab, and the craziest thing about it is that it's stable at room temperature. Metalic hydrogen is a perfect conductor, which means you can transmit energy along it (electrons, for example) and not lose any in the process. Your fantasy world could have truly fantastic things, all grounded in science. You'll just need to do a bit of research to realize the potential of your magic users.
 
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ULTRAGOTHA

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Air is also useful for weather working. Another area to cooperate with Earth and Water. Dry weather when the hay is curing is vital, for example.

Another author had a field over windows to only allow in cool or warm air for air conditioning.

Air would be useful for winnowing grain. Also for running windmills which provide power for grinding grain, sawing lumber, carding wool, fulling cloth, pounding iron, running looms, hauling cars full of ore out from mines--anything steam engines did.

I'm not sure of what level of technology you're at, but if people are cooking and baking with solid fuel an air worker would be a boon in a kitchen to regulate the heat. If everyone in your world has this magic, then every-day domestic uses would be endemic.
 
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It's like in WITCH: the elements work best when together. True with all life-bearing planets, methinks.


Important aspect-wise, Air is all about atmosphere, so you could go the MLP-route and have Air manage the weather systems. Offer wind for sailors, create pollination patterns for spreading crops, manage windmills for...whatever it is windmills do ^^;;;

Fire is very often associated with blacksmithing and someone needs to fashion the metals Earth finds: having them work together is a good idea. Fire is also important for offering warmth in winter and cooking food, so maybe have them be in charge of food preparation and creating heating systems during the winter season: no one wants to freeze to death.

Water is the life-giving liquid said to have birthed all life-forms, not too mention we're all about 70% water (jellyfish are 90%, I think), just like Planet Earth. Water can be sailors, grand explorers and traders, and simple fishermen. I like the mill idea, too. Ice and Rain are also Water, so they can be in charge of helping Air manage weather systems.
 

Helix

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Plants get carbon dioxide and oxygen from the air, but nutrients come through the roots, so the soil is equally important.

Nutrients are dissolved and come in through water uptake by the roots. That's why you can grow plants in hydroponic set ups, and why there are floating aquatic plants and epiphytes like Tillandsia. So plants can grow without soil as long as they have water and nutrients. They can't grow without air.
 

Arcs

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Here's a nice list of modern jobs. https://www.careerplanner.com/ListOfCareers.cfm

If the average person had access to some sort of elemental magic, then we'd probably still have a lot of those jobs, but they'd be different.

Earth mage in an aeronautic field? Sure! they can stretch metal super thin, and do all the electronic work without taking apart anything because they can move the metal wires with their mind. There's room for all specialties in ever job, and some of the best rooms for improvement in a job/career might come from an unexpected element.

Wind mages that can send messages across country on a breeze. Fire mages that produce electricity by heating water for a town. Water mages as EMTs, to staunch bleeding and hold the body together on the way to the hospital.

I think you'll get out of your writers block if you just do a search for all the normal jobs that your kind of society would have, and then add your elemental magic. Perhaps some jobs disappear or meld with others, like farming would be a hell of a lot easier if an earth witch wouldn't need to use a plow, because they could just make the dirt move on its own. One good earth witch could feed hundreds of people. Etc etc.