Elementals in fiction

Elementals are a common theme in fantasy fiction.

In fantasy role-playing, computer and trading card games, elementals are typically used as difficult opponents for the player. They can often only be defeated by an element of a conflicting type (for example, fire elementals beaten by water), although in some games they are instead immune to that element and only that element. Many games use elementals composed of non-standard elements aside from the primary elements of Aristotelism, which are earth, water, air and fire — elementals made of acids, darkness, time, death, dust, gemstone, gravitational forces, ice, life energy, light, lightning, magical energy, magma, mana power, metals, mud, nothingness, ooze, plants, psychic illusions, sand, smoke, sonic waves, space, steam, temporal energy, toxins, weather phenomena and spirit are all relatively common.

How Elementals are portrayed

Form

Often in works of fantasy the elemental is usually anthropomorphic or humanoid in shape; however, their being is comprised of the element they represent. Typically An earth elemental has the body of stone. A fire elemental is a living flame or a dark figure enshrouded by smoke and flame. A water elemental has a fluid body with a skin of surface tension. An air elemental appears as a mirage or has an invisible yet tangible body.

One only needs to recall old silver screen cartoons with little candle flames possessing legs and feet walking about setting fire to all they touch to envision the most common portrayal of elementals in modern thought. Though the humanoid form is the way Elementals are most often described, it is not always the case. Examples of elementals in the form of dragons or with amorphous bodies are also quite common. Sometimes they are not visibly made of the substance they represent but are instead a creature the dwells in and thus immune, empowered , and capable of controlling that elemental force.

Personality

In fictional sources the Elemental runs the gamut from mindless to sentient and intelligent. Their personality however usually reflects the human experience of their nature. a fire elemental will be "hot headed" angry and short on temper. a stone elemental will be lazy and relaxed unless aroused into a rage then it is fierce like an earthquake. Other times like the forces of nature they are wild, uncontrollable and insurmountable. Most often however the elemental possesses a dualistic personality sometimes calm and benign and sometimes destructive and capable of turning without warning. Typically the Elemental is unconcerned with the affairs of men or their politics and must be cajoled by magical means or roused into action by appealing to what they actually care about; The protection of the Natural forces that they are an aspect of.

Role-playing and Wargaming

*In the "Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition" role-playing game, the elemental languages are Auran (Air), Aquan (Water), Ignan (Fire) and Terran (Earth).

*In the "Exalted" role-playing game, characters known as the Terrestrials can develop magical abilities related to the elements of air, earth, fire, water, or wood.

*In the "Battletech" sci-fi universe, the name "elemental" is used to describe suits of powered armour employed by Kerensky's "Clans" as well as their pilots, who are genetically engineered to be significantly larger and stronger than ordinary men. There are various kinds of these armour, being suited to combat in various types of battlefield, some known as Sylph, Undine, Salamander, Gnome, as such drawing on the writings of Paracelsus. Later versions of the armor were combined until the system was equally capable under all conditions and "elements".

*The MMORPG RuneScape created by Jagex Ltd. grants access to relatively weak elemental monsters after completing some of the "Elemental Workshop Part 1" quest.

Video and Computer Games

*In the "Mega Man Zero" games, the titular character's weapons can be endowed with elemental chips. Thunder (Electric) beats Fire-based foes, Fire beats Ice-based enemies, and Ice weapons beat Electric.

*In "Tales of Phantasia", Sylph, Undine, Efreet, Gnome appear as their respective elemental summons for Klarth. Additional elementals are Aska (Light), Shadow (Shadow), and Volt (Electricity). There are more spirits, but they are not elemental-like and thus not listed here.

*In the "Final Fantasy" series, the elements of Fire, Ice, Thunder, and Holy are embodied by many magic spells. Most other games in the series use at least one other element, but these elements are common to the entire series. Holy-element characterizes healing magic (such as "Cure"), and "Holy" (aka "White" or "Pearl") is the most powerful, and one of the few White Mage attack spells. While the four elements listed above appear in most Final Fantasy games, many games feature additional elements (Earth, Gravity, Darkness, Water, Poison, Aero (wind), etc.) In addition to the elements and spells, Final Fantasy games feature some sort of powerful summonable creatures. These creatures use elemental attacks. While each game has different summonable creatures, the three that represent the first three elements above are almost always present and are usually obtained first. They are Ifrit (Fire), Ramuh (Thunder), and Shiva (Ice).

*In the first "Final Fantasy (video game)" the story revolves around the defeat of four elementals called Fiends, in order to bring balance back to the world. Each one controls and dwells in the force of earth,fire,water and wind respectively. In "Final Fantasy IV" The four Elemental Fiends appear as obstacles to thwart the hero's quest. though they are revisoned in new character designs.

*Elementals are a major part of the Seiken Densetsu series; they are spirits of Mana that enable mortals to cast spells. The original "Secret of Mana" featured Paracelsus' four elementals as well as Shade (the elemental of Darkness, a one-eyed bat-like creature), Lumina (the elemental of Light, a pale flame with a face, renamed Wisp in later games), Luna (the elemental of the Moon; changed to Aura in Legend of Mana and represented the element of Gold) and Dryad (the elemental of plants and mana, appearing as a traditional Greek dryad.

*In Seiken Densetsu 3 or Secret of Mana 2 there are eight spirits, four are the classical elementals (of which Fire, Water and Earth have the name of Paracelsus' elementals, while wind is named Jinn), and the other four are Wisp (Light), Shadow (Darkness), Luna (Moon) and Dryad (Wood/Plant). They are all required to get to the Mana Holyland and to use spells of their elements.

*In the game "Lost Magic" by Ubisoft and Taito for Nintendo DS, the four elementals can be found and captured using the Trap Dark Rune. The only difference is that the Sylph is called a Silfeed. Salamanders and Gnomes have projectile attacks, whereas Silfeeds and Undines do not.

*The Pokémon universe is based on elementals. Each Pokémon has either one or two types, denoting what attacks can damage it normally, powerfully, weakly, or even none at all. Also, each attack is of a single type. There are 17 types in all, some being standard (fire, water, earth) and others being non-standard (dragon, steel, flying)

*In the adventure game/RPG hybrid "", the desert city of Shapeir is attacked by four elementals - fire, air, earth, and water. Aziza, the enchantress of Shapeir, explains that elementals can never be fully destroyed, but they can be defeated. Only by confronting each elemental with its counter element can the hero of the game weaken and control it.

*In the massively multiplayer online RPG game "World of Warcraft", the Shaman class can choose to specialise in causing damage with the powers of the elements, in particular air, by specialising their 'talent points' into the elemental talent tree.

Novels

*In Michael Moorcock's novels concerning Elric of Melniboné, elementals, such as Grome (elemental of Earth) and Straasha (elemental of water, and Grome's brother) help (and occasionally hinder) Elric in many of his quests. They are said to be neutral in the struggle between Law and Chaos.
*In the third Children of the Lamp book (The Cobra King of Kathmandu by P.B. Kerr) a djinn unleashes a water elemental on a fire to put it out. Also, in the second book of the same series, a young djinn tricks two others into setting a water elemental on his stepmother, nothing is clear about the elemental itself as this was merely mentioned but the result seemed to be quite explosive, with a rainstorm inside the stepmother's apartment..

*Fantasy author Mercedes Lackey wrote a series of books featuring Elemental Masters (those who can command and control elementals). The books include "Phoenix and Ashes", "The Gates of Sleep" and "the Fire Rose". Each book is a re-telling of a popular fairy tale.

*in the fantasy series The Guardian Cycle, elementals play a major role in the plot.

*China Meiville's The Iron Council from the Bas-Lag trilogy features a number of elemental creatures.

*In the Novel and later film adaption "Howl's Moving Castle", the story revolves around the protagonist Sophie Hatter's wager with a Fire elemental named Calcifer. If she can break his contract with Howl he will undo Sophie's curse. Calcifer is portrayed as a living flame the eats wood and other cumbustables while residing in a hearth.

*In the web game Dragonfable elementals are a common enemy.

Television

*In the short lived series by Saban, the Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, each of the knights was powered by an elemental. The red knight Rohan was the Knight of Fire. The blue knight Prince Ivar was the Knight of Water. The white knight Princess Deirdre was the Knight of Air. The silver knight Angus was the Knight of Earth. Prince Garrett, a fifth knight whose powers are not a traditional elemental, is the Knight of the Forest.

*In the 2007 animated movie The Invincible Iron Man, there are four statues which are brought to life. The statues are called Elementals, and each has a different elemental power.

*The animated series "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" Includes a number of elementals. The villain Duke Nukem is an elemental of nuclear energy. The title hero of the series captain planet is a crystalline elemental summoned by the powers of earth, fire, wind, water and heart (empathy towards life). He has power over all the elements and represents the benign forces of nature. A few episodes revolve around his antithesis Captain Pollution who represents disharmony and destructive forces of nature and feeds off pollutants such as industrial waste and harmful radiation.

Anime/Manga

*In the animated series "Voltron" The Lion force Voltron is formed from 5 elemental robots in lion form. They reflect the 5 traditional Chinese elements and are immune from damage caused by their respective element and are actually powered by it. They are hidden in dens that represent their element. In battle they are capable of elemental attacks.

:The Red Lion dens in a volcano and is an elemental of fire. The Blue Lion dens under a lake and is an elemental of water. The Green Lion dens in a forest under some roots and is an elemental of wood. In the Chinese system wood also represents air, as they are similar forces, gentle yet penetrating and capable of infiltrating earth. In battle it uses wind attacks. The Yellow Lion dens in a desert cave and is an elemental of earth. The Black Lion dens upon a pillar and is an elemental of thunder. Its color scheme probably represents the dark clouds of a thunder storm.

*In the anime and manga series "Sailor moon" each sailor soldier/scout has one or more elemental affinities that manifest themselves in their various attacks. most noticeably Rei uses fire and Ami uses water.

*In the anime and manga Shaman King, there are a group of five elemental spirits, known as the Godaiseirei.They are the Spirit of Fire, Spirit of Earth, Spirit of Thunder, Spirit of Rain, and Spirit of Wind.

*In the anime and manga "One Piece" various characters in the storyline are transformed into elementals after eating the Logia type devil fruit. They then gain the ability to wield said element and to transform into a full aspect of the element. Examples include Sir Crocodile A major villain and sandman, Portgas D. Ace The brother of the main character and elemental of fire, Commodore Smoker an elemental of smoke who pursues the main characters throughout the story.

*In the anime and manga "InuYasha", evidence indicates that Inuyasa's half-brother Sesshomaru is an elemental of poison, since he can wield and is immune to poison and poisonous vapours. The plot also sometimes relies on use of Inuyasha's robe of the fire rat, The skin of a fire elemental that protects the bearer from intense heat and flame.

Film

*In the movie "", characters called the Elder Gods appear in the form of elementals they are responsible for turning the lightning elemental Raiden into a mortal so he can aid humanity directly, and furthers the movies plot.

*In the "" Film, one of the characters summons a magma elemental called a Magmin for the purpose of gaining council, but it quickly goes berserk and has to be destroyed.

*In the Animated movie "", The main villain of the film is a pollution elemental named Hexxus who feeds off of toxic gases and chemicals and other pollutants and seeks to ruin the worlds ecosystems in order to sustain his being.

*In the film adaption of the novel "The NeverEnding Story" , One of the first and last characters that the secondary protagonist Atreyu interacts with is a stone elemental called Rockbiter; who as his name suggests eats rocks and his body is stone-like.

Satire/Parody

*The 1999 American film by Kevin Smith Dogma featured an "excremental" (or a creature originating in human biological waste), which attacked the protagonists, who defeated it by means of a breath freshener aerosol.

*In the online webcomic "The Order of the Stick" Titanium elementals are used to assault a city, a clear parody of the Dungeons & Dragons elementals. Later, a Chlorine elemental also makes its appearance.

human users of elemental forces

*In the television series "W.I.T.C.H." The five protagonists are each a guardian of one of the 5 classical elements of earth,fire,wind,water and quintessence (aether) and utilizes it in their individual attacks.

*In the television series "" The plot revolves around various characters labeled benders, who are able to effectively wield the element of earth,water wind or fire respectively. while other offshoot specialists can bend sand, plants or metal.

*In the anime and manga "Naruto", Each ninja has an elemental affinity towards either earth,air,water, fire or lightning represented in their nature manipulation jutsu. Some special people possess a genetic trait that blends 2 natural forms into a 3rd, such as wind and water form ice, earth and water form wood/plants

*In the animated series "", the character of Keven Leven can absorb the elemental property of any solid object he touches; turning his body into stone, metal, crystal, etc. He uses this ability to aid the main Protagonist Ben Tennyson

*In the Marvel Comics series "Fantastic Four", through exposure to cosmic radiation it can be argued that the four main characters became elementals. The Thing represents earth, The Human Torch represents fire, Mr. Fantastic represent the fluid nature of water, and the Invisible Woman the unseen yet felt force of wind.

ee also

*classical elements
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate earth
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate fire
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate water
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate wind
*ENERGY
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate electricity
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate magnetic fields
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate light
**List of fictional characters who can generate and manipulate radiation
*NATURE
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate weather
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate plants
**List of fictional characters who can poison
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate darkness or shadow
*SPACE/TIME
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate time
**List of fictional characters who can manipulate gravity
**List of fictional characters who can alter probability
**List of fictional characters who can teleport
*MENTAL/ESPER
**List of fictional characters with telekinesis

References