Elemancers, Sunderers and Order

Just because my hero, Luke Ballard, is an elemancer - a magician who performs his magic using the elements - does not mean that he is all powerful. What a boring story it would be if he was! No, Luke must work within set parameters, precisely in the way that sunderers, mortal enemies of elemancers, do not.

All magic must be grounded in logic. Empedocles, born in 490BC, was a Greek philosopher who, some claimed could control the weather, destroy evil and cure old age. He established the four ultimate elements, fire, water, earth and air. Each elemancer in my books has a special affinity with one of these elements and it affects the way he/she is able to perform their magic. The elements are eternally united in love (elemancy) and perpetually torn apart by strife (asunder).

Mix this with the basic tenets of Elizabethan World Order and Chain of Being - the hierarchy of the universe ordained by God and the fundamentals of elemancy are born. Elemancers work for the good of mankind through the grace of God, to maintain the balance necessary for the world to function properly and for man to function within the world. Sunderers on the other hand work solely for personal power and to cause chaos and disorder.

The order of the universe was a recurring theme in Renaissance literature and many of Shakespeare's plays deal with the results of men's activities creating imbalance. Thus when Northumberland says in Henry IV Pt 2 'Let Order Die', the 16th century audience would have at once understood the depth of his grief for his dead son and heir and the strength of his desire for revenge.

The magic that Luke uses to maintain the cosmic balance is of the cause and effect variety. His spells gather data, information that will help his investigations, but which will not provide the answers as to whodunnit. As a balance to this way of magic, sunderers coerce their victims through threats and dark magic to obey.

This continual fight for balance is only part of the conflict that Luke must work with and through. He is part of a society where heedless gossip can easily lead to a spell in the Tower or worse. One of his main attributes is an unfailing sense of justice, especially for the poor and oppressed who, frequently innocent, are used as handy scapegoats for the crimes of the nobility. Will Luke ever come to terms with his loyalty to the King and his determination that the guilty, be they never so high, must and will be made to answer for their crimes?