Flexibility is a good asset to any sort of creative writing but I do believe that we should still have some "guidelines" in place to follow so that we have a foundation in which to build our characters and their beliefs as well as their place and powers in the parallel world upon.  I do like the idea of tying it to the specific religions but I would like it to be a voluntary measure as I do not think my character is going to be very religious at first and really buy into the whole "powers" and "gods" part of the setting.<br/><br/>If we are claiming elements, I think I want to turn away from my instinctual grab of claiming "Fire" and instead look at "Water"/Black Tortoise.