The Four Elemental Warriors

 Like many people, I have been having a rough time this month. I have been taking comfort in my art, both in my writing, and in the recent series of character collages I have been making for various stories.

There have been many stories about four heroes who wield the powers of the elements. I came up with my own back when I was a kid in school, somewhere around junior high. It was originally going to be a spin off of The God Factor where there is a story arc where main character Dominick goes on a sort of recruiting spree across the multiverse looking for new heroes. He encounters a parallel world where the United States never expanded much beyond the original 13 states and most of North America is still controlled by native tribes who formed a federation. Also magic still persists in the world. When a great need arises the tribes will come together to appoint champions of the four elements to defend the world. In this case Earth is invaded by giant alien worms that adapt to the environment and then begin terraforming a planet to their needs. The worms don't care how many humans die in the process so the four elemental warriors are called to fight them.

In my original concept the warrior were going to be four brothers. Then looking at the concept again many years later as an adult I decided to change that and have equal number of men and women, and for them to not be related at all. Now lets take a look at these champions.

AMOS ROUGHSTONE

 Amos Roughstone is the elemental warrior of earth. He is able to move rock and soil with his will alone. He is also very muscular and draws on the power of earth to give himself superhuman strength and durability. At some point I decided that he is a very upbeat and energetic guy.

 

TABITHA COLDRIVER

Tabitha Coldriver is the elemental warrior of water. She can manipulate water to her will. She can also walk on the surface of water if she wants or she can swim at super speed. I decided that Tabitha is the most mission focused member of the group, determined to defeat the worms. Perhaps she suffered some personal tragedy from them or maybe she just takes issue with the idea that giant worms showed up one day and declared themselves the new residents of earth at the expense of everyone who already lives there.

 

MONICA SWIFTCLOUD

Monica Swiftcloud is the elemental warrior of wind. She can control all the air around her. She can even use it to make herself fly and levitate objects. Monica is a very optimistic young woman but gives of a much more laid back energy than someone like Amos. She hopes the four elemental warriors can all be friends and not just co-workers.

 

JUDE FALLINGSTAR

 Jude Fallingstar is the elemental warrior of fire. He can summon fire with a thought and control where and when it burns and how high or low. From the first day I came up with this concept, Jude Fallingstar was the one I had the most clear image of, and the only one whose name has remained unchanged from my original notes. Jude tries to set himself apart from the others, not out of pride, but because he knows he is capable of destruction on a scale far beyond the rest. The other elements are also suited for sowing life. Jude feels like his power is only good for fighting and destroying. Amos and Monica are always trying be friendly and get him to open up. Tabitha respects professionalism but even she finds Jude's brooding a bit much at times.

And there you have The Four Elemental Warriors, champions of an alternate history North America that is being invaded by giant alien worms. I don't have any concept images for the worms. I know what they should look like but there are not giant worm dress up games or character makers with giant worm options. Any attempt to put a description of the worms into an AI image generator all came out looking like crap.

If I ever did go forward with developing this story idea further I would have to do a lot more research on Native American tribes to figure out where exactly each warrior is from and how the whole federation of tribes works.