Magic

After the chaos of the Emergence, humans suddenly found that some of them could use magic. Elemental in nature, it came about because Nature itself had gone insane and the world struggled to balance itself out. To sustain itself, a system must reach equilibrium. Granting elemental magic to human beings was a step towards regaining equilibrium.

One culture in particular, descended from the Survivalists of old, feared and hated users of elemental magic. But other cultures accepted and occasionally even revered mages. New terms arose to label users of elemental forces, because the term "magician" held negative connotations of charlatans and tricksters. No matter what the elemental mages were called, though, they all shared a common goal of keeping humanity safe and fighting against the pissed off nature spirits.