Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon
By atmosphere I do indeed mean just generic air. I'd imagine the super could get better efficiencies if he's just working with one component of the atmosphere (so just oxygen, just CO2, etc), but don't know enough about plasma physics to say which one.
It's probably alright - perhaps the power involves serious excitation of electrons, heating up the air and producing plasma as the electrons are stripped from the molecules. Do note, however, that any serious electricity-generating powers will give the character magnetic powers in a setting that attempts realism. This is because electricity and magnetism are very closely related, and one can readily create the other - running electricity through a "wire," which can just be any stable path, produces a magnetic field, while moving a wire through a magnetic field (or moving a magnetic field over a wire) will generate electricity in the wire. The former is how electromagnets work (and more mundane magnets are produced by exposure to other magnetic fields, so you can use this to make a "permanent" magnet). The latter is how the bulk of electricity is produced in the modern age (typically using steam to turn a turbine). The interactions of these two phenomena are how metal detectors work (they use electricity to generate a magnetic field, this generates electricity in metal objects, and the detector picks up the resulting weak magnetic field from this), and also why shielded networking cable gets a cleaner signal (the shielding prevents magnetic fields from nearby electrical wires from generating bursts of electricity and interfering with the signal).
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I just learned so much from your reply, so thank you. I'm going to try to sum up what I'm understanding about plasma powers.
Generating it could involve ionization powers that excites electrons to ionize atmosphere into plasma (though, is that just electron manipulation because ionization is a
process?), heat powers to sufficiently heat up atmosphere into plasma, electricity powers to "excite" (if that's the right term) atmosphere into plasma, air powers to super-compress atmosphere into plasma, or magnetism powers to... well, they do something that I don't understand too well still. I guess another option would be nuclear fusion powers, but that seems like it could be used for way more impressive things than generating plasma.
Containing or shaping it could involve plasma powers themselves (like plasma-limited telekinesis with a perk like Hydrokinesis to allow telekinesis to act as a container), or either air powers or magnetism powers to influence plasma.
Directing it could involve plasma powers themselves again (manipulating it into a self-containing toroid or spheroid should be possible), air powers could produce similar effects, or magnetism powers could do the same or contain it through a magnetic bubble (which apparently exist?).
I'm more than fine with plasma-limited telekinesis as a way of containing it and directing it, but I guess I'm still a bit tripped up on the best way (for my wants) to justify generating/acquiring plasma. Plasma-limited telekinesis could also pull plasma from the upper atmosphere, which, if I understand correctly, is pretty abundant. Though, that would require a long range and some high speeds. There don't seem to be very many other terrestrial plasmas readily available.
I like the ionization power for also generating particle beams. (It could also work for that, right?) The combination of an electricity power with plasma-limited telekinesis also works for guiding something like an electrolaser. Both would fit with firebenders being able to generate "lightning", which would be a huge bonus and nice plus.
My biggest worry about electricity powers is that, if the super has those, why wouldn't they opt for more primary applications of electricity instead of generating plasma. Maybe limiting the electricity power to small enough effects would stop them from overshadowing the plasma stuff. That makes sense, right? How much electricity do you need to generate enough plasma from the atmosphere to use it as an attack? A spark? Enough for a small arc (like a plasma torch)?