Lightning

[MegaPuff75]

In YS it says that lightning could easily be considered earth or air evocation, what I am wondering is would it be reasonable to say it was any other form evocation? Electricity is a form of energy so since spirit evocation involves manipulating energy directly, it could easily be spirit. Water conducts electricity so could you create a water lightning bolt?

[devonapple]

There are plenty of physics-adjacent ways to justify lightning using most, if not all, of the elements. By which I mean "sure, knock yourself out!"

[sinker]

For that matter it could easily be considered fire as well.

[Drachasor]

I don't think Spirit makes sense.  Might as well say Spirit can cause fire then.  When they talk about energy manipulation there, they mean more like spatial distortions (that's why they say "bending energies around them" and don't say it is about manipulating energy directly).  Spirit is already crazy-powerful compared to the other elements, so giving it more stuff doesn't seem like a good move.  Pure Water is actually a very poor conductor of electricity.  And overall lightning doesn't really fit its theme of liquids and entropy.  Fire perhaps makes the the most sense of all, given its relationship to plasmas, but fire has quite a bit on its belt being able to do cold and flame already.

I mean, sure, you could justify lightning with anything.  Heck, you could justify any element being able to make fire or cold.  It would require somewhat extensive reasoning.  However, at that point the elements stop being very unique and your choice of an element no longer matters.

[sinker]

To be honest for me it doesn't matter which elements are capable of doing what. They can all attack, block, and maneuver. Doesn't matter how they do any of those.

Something else to consider: the elements don't have anything at all to do with actual elements. They're all about what someone thinks or believes.

These associations
are based on tradition and folk belief rather
than on science, and exist mainly to help wizards
focus their effects more clearly. If a wizard can
think of a blast as “fire” rather than “the ramifications
of thermonuclear force,” he’s more likely to
pull it off successfully.
.....
When a wizard casts an evocation, he
chooses one of these elements to be the basis of
the effect.

So if one believes that lightning is heat/plasma then they're going to associate it with fire. If they see it as weather then they're going to associate it with air. If they see it as conductivity they may associate it with water. Even though pure water is non-conductive and any electrician could tell you that they clean power lines with it because of that, it's common belief that water conducts electricity, so it works.

I simply ask that casters give me a cohesive belief structure that I will not allow to change. If they want to do it differently later I say "Too bad you spent your entire life with this other belief structure. I doubt you could possibly ever work magic any other way."

[tetrasodium]

Does Lightning Go From the Ground Up or the Cloud to the Ground?

Actually it goes both ways!

     Charges usually separate in a cloud so that the negatively charged electrons are at the bottom of the cloud and the positively charged electrons are at the top of the cloud (the cause for charge separation in the cloud is still debatable despite several good theories).   What happens is that a negatively charged stepped leader slowly makes its way toward the ground in small steps (go figure? stepped leader).  At this point there is no lightning, just the electrical charges preparing for the strike.  The stepped leader induces a positive charge on the ground or objects on the ground, like a tree, a house, or even you and me.  


     Then, when the stepped leader is pretty close to the object or ground, a traveling spark is emitted from the object up to the stepped leader.  There is still no lightning yet, but watch out!  When the stepped leader and the traveling spark meet, huge amounts of electrons travel towards the ground.  Then, the actual lightning travels upward toward the cloud, following the path used by the stepped leader to reach near the object.  This is called the lightning stroke.   So lightning is a complex process combining movement of charges both up and down.  Usually the light portion is the result of charges moving upward towards the sky.  However, it is known to happen the other way around.  The stepped leader can begin from a tall building and then the light portion would result from  charges moving down towards the ground.

Lightning can strike almost anywhere.  It can strike another cloud, its own cloud, an airplane,  and even strike upwards toward space.  

http://weathersavvy.com/Lightning.html
I found that with a quick google search, but it seems to align itself with what I remember from school.  I think that the earth/air options ofor lightning are only because it's an element so tightly related to both clouds in the air and the ground itself in nature. I think a more important question would be "why are you trying to link it to spirit?".  If the answer is a specialization in spirt on the character, then it's probably uncalled for since spirit is pretty useful on its own.

[devonapple]

I think a more important question would be "why are you trying to link it to spirit?".  If the answer is a specialization in spirt on the character, then it's probably uncalled for since spirit is pretty useful on its own.

I'm probably muddying the waters by mentioning this, but for the sake of completion: it was once proposed that electricity (specifically electricity used to power electronics) was in actuality the spirits of the dead being used as energy, as if their spiritual substance were the electrons passing along the wires. I can't find an internet citation at the moment, I'm afraid, but I recall this theory from somewhere.