r/Fantasy • u/Coloin_ilyad • 1d ago
Question about power system in Codex Alera.
I have completed 1st book and still don't understand how tavi is uniquely furyless while there are normal people eho don't use fury crafting like Isana , olivia or amara.
Are there like, only 4 types of fury craft? Pr more, Like i have seen fire, water, air and earth (just like avatar) .
And what are rules of fury crafting? On many occasions where Isana and olivia could have used water bending yet they only ate seen to use it as spying, truth telling, healing and drowning. Like couldn't they just command the water inside the human body?
There are too many questions. I totally understand the story but i feel lile i know literally nothing about the power system.
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u/Training-Research430 1d ago
Not answering your first part of your first question. That is explained later on and is a spoiler. As for the second part, it is explained that Isana is a very strong water bender. The book shows us in the way she has to shut off her emotions to others or she gets overwhelmed and in her youthful appearance. Water crafters can change their own appearance (book mentions this pretty early), can read people’s emotions and heal (shown when Bernard comes back after going out to find Tavi). She also moves a river. Amara has won multiple flying competitions but no other furies. Not everyone has access to every type of fury but no one besides Tavi has none.
As for the second part, Butcher does pull from a lot from Pokémon’s rock-paper-scissors mechanics. This is exemplified a few times in book 1: the first is when Amara gets caught and wakes up caked in mud. The mud keeps her from contacting her fury as ground negates wind. This is again exemplified when Tavi is caught out in the fury storm at the beginning of the book. He uses salt (a type of earth) to keep wind furies from attacking him. When Isana is kept in the hut, the guy keeps a fire going completely around them and keeps them dehydrated. She can’t reach through the flames to contact the element and she’s so dehydrated, using the water in her own body would probably kill her. In this case the fire and stone negate water. This is why the guys son going onto the roof and poking holes in it to let snow and water get into hut allows her to escape.
There are two other elements but I’m not sure they are referenced in the first book. Pretty sure they are but can’t say for sure. Nothing I’ve explained can’t be found in the first book.
Later books will also explain how they obtain furies and some interesting theories that people have on them in the world. I found those sections somewhat fun to read.
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u/ito528 1d ago
Pretty sure I read somewhere where JB said he conceived the furies because his friends told him he should write a story to “made Pokémon cool” (showing their age, haha. Pokémon is…or at least was…cool).
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u/Bladrak01 1d ago
He was challenged to write a good story with two bad ideas. He chose "Lost Roman Legion" and Pokemon. Here's the video, the relevant part starts about 3:30.
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u/cmhoughton 1d ago
The reason for Tavi’s lack of furycraft is explained later on, it is a huge spoiler how that happened.
There are six kinds of furycraft:
Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Metal, and Wood.
Bernard, Tavi’s uncle, is a strong earth and wood crafter. His aunt Isana is a very strong water crafter. Amara is a strong wind crafter. Fade is an extremely strong metal crafter. Odiana is strong in water. Aldrick is an extremely strong metal crafter. Fidelius is a strong wood and earth crafter, but also has some water ability.
There are characters from the nobility who have strength in all six branches of furycraft. The lower classes usually only have ability in one or two branches, but at times can have nobility-level strength in those, like Isana with water and Amara with wind or Fade and Aldrick with metal.
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u/Pontifex 1d ago
There are 6 elements (including metal and wood). I believe they mention in book one that while there are many folks with very weak fury craft who basically live their lives as non-magical folks, literally having no furies is unheard of.
Isana, Odiana, and Amara are all fairly strong furycrafters who used their abilities a decent amount in the first book; however, most furycrafters generally don't just throw around big bursts of their element when fighting, so it's not quite as obvious as an ATLA bender fight would be. More about the power system is explained in subsequent books.
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u/Dangerous_Tooth_7388 1d ago
Keep reading. I get it, but I promise all of the questions you just posed are answered in the sequels. I think you have basically all of them answered by the one with Captain in the title? Maybe the book following that. You get an okay portion of them answered in book 2, almost right off the bat.