We know the game will have spells, but we're within a fortnight or less of the non-NDA alpha we still know just about nothing about how channelers will learn new spells. So the time for pie-in-the-sky ideas, heckling, etc., is dwindling. With that in mind, I think that the Five Elements need to be partnered with Five Ways to Learn Your Spells:
- Inherent research ability for channeler and some champions
- Bonuses and/or direct production from infrastructure
- Diplomatic exchanges (trades, tribute, honor-gifts--hopefully including independent powers like elder dragons and Geoff the Slug)
- Quests (dungeons)
- Events
I chose bullets because I generally don't like being asked to give rank-ordered lists for anything. I'm a former recovering postmodernist. But the bullets are more or less in what I think of as Most to Least Important order.