No, really! Even though...

...Everway is a low-mechanics role-playing game, it does have some actual rules - at the very least, the outline of a system. What follows is an outline of the outline.

The Wheel of Elements

Beings in Everway (horses, hippogriffs, heroes) are ranked from 1-10 in each of the four alchemical elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In each case, the score of the typical human is 3, the highest a human is likely to obtain absent supernatural intervention is 6 (conceivably, 7) and a score of 1 indicates serious infirmity. Each one-point increase represents a rough doubling in ability - a character with a score of 6 is "twice as good" as a character with a score of 5, who is "twice as good" as a character with a score of 4, who is twice as good as Joe Average (3). (Since this is Everway, Joe was probably named after a cup of coffee.)

Earth is the element of resistance and integrity. It governs healing, resistance to both physical and mystical attack, imperviousness to poison, intimidation, and invasive and transformative influences generally.

Air governs logos - speech, rational thought, strategy, rhetoric. Most spell-based magic systems from most RPGs (e.g. Ars Magica) would be considered "air magic" in Everway because the spells are word-based.

Fire - Ah yes, this is how you hurt people. Fire governs athleticism, vitality and daring. Want to run, climb, dodge, bash in a door or hack someone's head off? Check your Fire score.

Water - contrariwise, check your Water score when you want (or need) to get all sensitive. Where Air governs the rational and visible, Water governs the felt and intuited. Water is key to understanding the emotions of others, sensing mystical energies and even getting a sense of local tabus and folkways.

The elements in action - Many qualities depend on more than one element at a time. You're a great warrior if you have 7 Fire, but you're not a great general if you also have 3 Air. Contrariwise, a 7 Air, 3 Fire hero is destined for the pundit circuit rather than the field HQ - you lack the elan to command the respect of a body of troops. You're also a much better debator than you are a motivational speaker.

You may have a very high Water score but a low Air score. Thus you would have a very good sense of someone's motivations but have a hard time articulating that understanding to your colleagues. You might have such a high Earth score that you can shrug off sustained spiritual assault but such a low Water score that you have no idea you just walked through the Valley of Death. Your high-water, low-earth companion, however, knew just what was going on, sensing every nuance of the doom she was completely unable to stand against.

Next: The Fortune Deck

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