On Sun, 14 Jun 1998, darkstar wrote:

> No, I just put them in that order as an afterthought when I was doing
> the writeup. Basically it goes in the same order as is found on earth.
> Fire for the molten core of the plantet, earth for the crust, water for
> the oceans, and air for the atmosphere.

Although this does fit our modern conceptions of the earth, greek and
Ptolemaic physics has them in a slightly different order. Fire, because it
rises, "belongs" in the uppermost portion, rather than the centermost
portion. So according to that conception, the "elemental spheres" would
be, in order, earth, water, air, then fire. I mention this not because we
necessarily should follow the ptolemaic pattern, but it is true that much
of the game's background is based on that, including alchemy, herbalism,
theory of the four (or five) humours, etc., which many people do
incorporate into their games.

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu