Ice
Let it go! Can't hold it back anymore!
A very strange elemental magic due to the duality of it's abilities. Known for both fun little flurries and harsh chunks of ice, it's no wonder this element get's called extreme!
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Before refrigerators, dopalines would often learn this magic to help keep their food cold, or to stay cool in the desert, although even today with technology it's still a very popular form of magic!
BASIC SKILLS
Flash Freeze
Desc: Creating frost and ice is what this skill entails, though the former is easier to make than the latter. Used for fun more often than not, who doesn’t love a good, safe, all weather outdoor ice rink?
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Learning: It’s advised to start small with this ability, so rather than jumping straight to ice, a dopaline should try chilling the ground around their feet until frost begins to form. A cool environment and plenty of water on hand is recommended.
Limits/Risks: Creating more than just frost can be tiring for an inexperienced dopaline. This ice can persist regardless of the weather, but will melt if it’s sitting in the sun and isn’t being focused on.
Flurry Creation
Desc: The other side of what the cold can offer, flurry creation is as it says on the tin - making snow! Used by impatient dopals who just want winter to come already, or more usefully by special effects artists who don’t just want to use fake snow.
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Learning: It’s recommended to have some hydration on hand for this, more for your own wellbeing rather than the skill but it’s useful nonetheless, then focus on making the littlest snowcloud you can! If you do it right then hopefully it’ll work!
Limits/Risks: This snow can persist regardless of the weather, though the dopal making it has to stay focused for it to remain longer than a few minutes. This skill is also easier to use than Flash Freeze, though it still consumes more energy the longer it is there.
Decrease Body Heat
Desc: This ability is typically utilised to help overheating dopalines cool down, though it can also be used to resist oncoming cold related damage, much like increasing body heat can resist heat damage. Paramedics and snow wardens in warm climates like to learn this ability.
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Learning: Dopalines learning this ability should find a cool location, then work on matching their own body heat to their surroundings. Some might just go outside in winter, while others may go for a walk-in freezer(this isn’t advised).
Limits/Risks: Decreasing one’s body temperature to dangerous levels is a very real risk, so it’s advised to quit while you’re ahead if you manage to perform this ability.
Snow Manipulation
Desc: This ability allows a dopaline to manipulate the snow around them. It’s often used to win snow sculpting competitions, as well as generally see what kind of things you can make with the snow at your paws.
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Learning: To learn this skill, it’s advised you ‘walk into a winter wonderland’ so to speak. Saving energy on making a flurry will make attempting this skill much easier, as you can focus on shaping the snow around you into what you desire.
Limits/Risks: While this skill is easy to use once you’ve learnt it, at Basic level your shaped up snow can’t be much more complex than a snowdop or snowpet of sorts.
ADVANCED SKILLS
Deep Freeze
PREREQUISITE: Decrease Body Heat
Desc: If decreasing body heat wasn’t enough, with this ability a dopaline can make themselves so cold to the touch that it ends up cooling off other dopals. This is useful for if you want to become a portable cooler for your friends, though most just use it as a stepping stone to stronger abilities.
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Learning: A cool location is yet again advised for this skill, as starting off cold means it’ll be easier to make yourself even colder. You’ll know you’ve succeeded when your limbs go numb, though once you reach that point it’s recommended you stop.
Limits/Risks: Focus too hard on cooling yourself and you may accidentally find yourself encased in a thin layer of ice, immobile ‘til it’s thawed!
Blizzard Burst
PREREQUISITE: Flurry Creation
Desc: Perfect for movie effects and a speedy fight-finisher, Blizzard Burst is much like making snowballs, but with more power! Dopalines with this ability are often disqualified from snowball fights due to being perceived as cheaters, so a group of dopals with this skill have formed their own Snowball Fight Society.
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Learning: Dopals learning this ability are advised to use the same methods they used for Flurry Creation, but to instead focus the snow they create into an orb-like shape. Then, they simply let it go completely, and it should explode and fill the room with snow!
Limits/Risks: Might want to ask your parents or guardians before practising this ability, as a snow filled room is rather annoying to clear out.
Limits/Risks: One wrong move and you can easily get yourself trapped within your own path, possibly even falling face first with your ankles encased in ice. Another issue this ability grants is dopalines not knowing how to stop once they’ve started, and thus running themselves to exhaustion.
Icy Pathways
PREREQUISITE: Flash Freeze
Desc: A fun-loving dopalines best friend, this skill allows you to create ice to skate on beneath your feet as you run! Many like to use it to race, creating intricate skate-tracks for their friends to then utilise afterwards. Also fun for making more dangerous sleigh-hills, if the regular hills of the Bound weren’t enough.
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Learning: To learn this skill, the first advice is to run. Once you’ve got a good sprint going, focus usage of the Flash Freeze into the ground in front of you. The result should be an ice path created at your feet as you run along it and create it as you go!
Snowcraft
PREREQUISITE: Snow Manipulation
Desc: A fun step up from Snow Manipulation, as now you can bring your formerly lifeless snowcreatures to life! They can’t quite walk on the air, but they can run around and follow your dopaline wherever they go. Often learned by parents who wish to really spice up their kids’ Hwyleira, though some dops may also use it to make movies about snowy companions. This ability also tends to be used by lonely dopals in need of a friend, but without the effort of social interaction.
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Learning: Learning this ability is either easy or extremely difficult depending on your emotions in the moment. It’s said dopals that still have their childhood innocence and wonder for the world may have an easier time bringing their creations to life, though a burst of anger or other strong emotion may also help. Some have even said that their tears did the trick, as one moment they were crying, and the next a soft snout was trying to crawl into their lap.
Limits/Risks: Your snowy companion is extremely fragile, and even a light hit can disfigure them depending on how strongly they’re held together.
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Total Whiteout
PREREQUISITES: Flash Freeze & Blizzard Burst
Desc: A skill perfect for disorientation and leaving your foes shivering in their boots, nobody wants to be stuck outdoors when Total Whiteout is used. The effects could be fatal, still it doesn’t stop eager film directors from getting this skill used on set for an authentic blizzard mid shoot, they’re just typically recommended to wrap up warm and have plenty of dops skilled in fire or flusterbugs on hand if actors get too cold.
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Learning: Many often suggest standing out in a cold dark night for this skill, honing in on nothing but the clouds and air around you. Breathing in and out as your own instincts do the work of whipping up a furious and fuming flurry of flakes and frost, watching as the world turns white and freezing.
Limits/Risks: Holding out the storm for too long can have some serious consequences, hypothermia being a prominent issue for those who get stuck within a whiteout. Some have even been said to have frozen to death if the blizzard’s that bad.
Icicle Armoury
PREREQUISITES: Snowcraft & Flash Freeze
Desc: Despite the name, this skill is actually just for weaponizing the ice and snow. Swords, spears, bows & arrows, anything can be sculpted to your will to aid you in battle. Combat seems to be one of this ability’s only uses, though you can use the weapons for any utility a normal weapon can be used for.
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Learning: A spar with another dopaline or simply a dummy is recommended for learning this ability, as it’s all about forming weapons from the cold around you. A simple ice sword is all you need to know you’ve succeeded.
Limits/Risks: Sustaining your icicle weapon for too long will often end up in an exhausted and dehydrated dopal, though their now melted sword works as some decent hydration. Still, bedrest is recommended after whatever stressful situation led to the need for such a weapon.
Chilled Defence
PREREQUISITES: Icy Pathways & Snow Manipulation
Desc: A chilled defence is a good way to stay protected during battle, whether it’s ice walls or armour on your body itself. This skill is often only used for combative measures, as it doesn’t have much use outside of that.
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Learning: A good way to get this skill going is to put yourself in a dangerous situation, or at least imagine that you are. Any sense of threat whether real or fake is a great trigger for this, all focus on making icy walls to protect yourself, maybe protect another if that makes it better for you?
Limits/Risks: Constant use can get you really tired, feelin’ like you got a nasty nasty brain freeze for who knows how long!