Elemental

This page is about elemental beings. For information on elemental magic, see Category:Elemental.

An elemental is the living manifestation of an element or a humanoid being who is strongly infused with a particular element. To most (if not all) physical examinations, classic elementals are composed of nothing but the element they represent; frequently they will have partial or total control over ordinary instances of that element as well. The more humanoid races of elementals, common among Yuriban natives, appear largely flesh and blood and usually only have limited elemental control, but their physical and other needs often reflect their origin.

Types of elementals

Classically, most elementals come from the four Aristotelian elements: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Usually these are known as Gnomes, Salamanders, Undines, and Sylphs, after the 16th-century philosopher Paracelsus; however the more synthetic terms earth elemental, etc., are often seen. This is also true for classes of elementals that do not have specific names, such as shadow elemental or crystal elemental.

Amongst humanoid types, five are well known on Yuriba; Naiads (water elementals, fresh or saltwater), Dryads (tree or plant elementals), Salamanders (fire elementals), Oreads (earth and gemstone elementals), and Sylphs (air elementals). Less known are the Umbra (shadow elementals), and Lumena (light elementals).

Elemental springs

There are several springs which grant as blessings the form of an elemental; the best known are Kongqinyanniichuan (Sylph), Yuanquannyanniichuan (Naiad), Yannyanniichuan (Salamander), Shunyanniichuan (Dryad), Diaoxiangnyanniichuan (Oread), Anyingnyanniichuan (Umbra), and Liangnyanniichuan (Lumena).

Half-elementals

OOC: Half-elementals

The short version, for those of you who play D&D: genasi. Not the half-elemental templates. This is Yuriba, not FaerûnMUD or whatever.

Technically the springs do not grant a full elemental form: rather, they give the form of a half-elemental. As such, they do not typically have power over their elements, and are clearly composed largely (if not quite entirely) of flesh and blood; these forms by and large visually imitate the native elemental humanoid races, but usually entirely or almost totally lack their limited elemental control and maintain food and comfort needs closer to the blessed individuals original race.

Naming

In Greece, the naiads were the nymphs (the Greek version of genius loci, or kami of a place) bound to bodies of fresh water. As such, Naiad has been taken as the common Yuriban name for Undine.

Continuing this theme, the common Yuriban name for earth elementals is Oread, after the nymphs of the mountains; the Paracelsan Gnome is not found in this context, probably because the word has other, more common meanings.

Although wood is one of the classical Eastern elements, there is obviously no Paracelsan name for a wood elemental; however, as has been done with Naiad and Oread, the name Dryad has been adopted, being the name for the nymphs of oak trees (or of trees in general).

(No metal-elemental spring is known to exist; as metal elementals are somewhat rare, a metal-elemental spring is generally considered unlikely. However, the term Chrysomme (from the Greek χρῡ́σωμα, "something golden") has been adopted to describe them nonetheless.)