Abracadabra

OK, I’ve done the riff where we joke about the difference between “classical elements” and “modern elements.” Wait, one more. Can you imagine a Sodium Elemental? Drop it in a lake and watch it burn. And if the Sodium Elemental and Chlorine Elemental fought, you’d find a pillar of salt.

In the last installment, I mentioned the dichotomy between magic and science, and this is just an example of that dichotomy. The Greek elements were their basis for understanding how things worked. According to the Greek philosophers, each element consisted of dry and wet and hot and cool, fundamental pairings. Air is wet and hot. Fire is hot and dry. Earth is dry and cold. Water is cold and wet. The elements had their own spheres – earth was the center, water was wrapped around earth, air was wrapped around water, and fire was on the outer ring. Past fire was a fifth essence, “superior to the four essences found on Earth.” (Kieckhefer 25). This essence, ether, was the basis for medieval astronomy or the idea that the stars could influence terrestrial matters. These spheres also led Ptolemy to the geocentric view of the universe – if earth was the center sphere, then Earth was the center of all the spheres.

The doctrine of natural place stated that each element moved toward its natural sphere. This was why solids and liquids fell to the ground, and gases and fire rose. This is natural movement, and if an element moved away from its normal sphere, this was called violent movement.

Furthermore, these elements were not static, like our elements. If you took wood (solid, earth) and burned it, it would convert to air (smoke). “Thus something that is predominately earth may by exposure to head or some other influence change to a mixture predominantly of fire, and the result is the motion of the new mixture upward. And since both elementary and mixture changes are going on unceasingly, the terrestrial world is essentially in motion.” (Clagett 66). Changing from one element to another wasn’t an odd process or arcane chemical reaction, but just a part of nature.

These four elements also worked inward. “The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; these make up the nature of his body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health…. Pain is felt when one of these elements is in defect or excess….” (Jones). To gain good health, you needed to balance the four elements – this involved herbs, ointments, and bathing.

How about a Mercury Elemental? Have you seen mercury? It is dense and has a metallic sheen. But, it’s liquid, kind of like the T3 effects. To top it all off, mercury is rather poisonous. A Mercury Elemental would be scary.

So, after the history lesson, what does all this mean? Chemistry and physics and biology are intertwined. If we persist on using a classical framework to model the modern world, what are the effects?

Air: The typical version of an Air Elemental is a tornado with eyes. Air equals wind. Because, otherwise air is just air, and how would you know where it is? But, air is also steam and poisonous gases. Changing oxygen to chlorine or natural gas could be fun. Aristotle and his contemporaries did not believe in a natural void – they believed that air surrounded everything. They knew that air was omnipresent. And since air surrounds everything, an Air Elemental can touch everything.

Air elemental magic often includes illusions, invisibility, and sound. In GURPS, air spells include lightening and weather. This makes sense to our world, but ancients did not know that sound traveled through air, or light was a substance that could be controlled, or weather could be controlled by air. Likewise, GURPS says “races who do not breathe an Earth-normal atmosphere may learn Air spells customized for their own atmosphere – i.e. the version of Create Air taught on Neptune might create methane!” (GURPS Magic) Again, scientifically sound, but possibly missing the point.

In the metaphysical sense, air is thought and logic, but at the same time, air elements were linked to the soul. Air was known to give life, and breath was closely linked to life. Its cardinal direction is east.

Water. I always thought Water Elementals were the weakest of the elementals. Some would say that since the body is 60%-80% water, having control over the water element would give you a lot of power. The Wild Cards character Water Lily could desiccate people at will, instantly killing them. But, you’re thinking like a modern. Isn’t this against the spirit of medieval structure? If it looks solid, it is. So, living things are out of scope.

AD&D came up with the paraelementals, borders between the classical elements. Personally, I think fanwankers wanted to see a Magma Elemental in action. But, each to their own. Under this theory, as earth heated to a liquid form, it would fall under the jurisdiction of Water. Not only would this make Water Elementals uber-powerful in a volcano, but it also seriously twists what a Water Elemental could do.

In the metaphysical sense, water is emotion and intuition. Water cleanses and gives life. Its cardinal direction is west.

Earth: Again, the version pictured in the Monster Manual is a huge rocky/earthy golem-like creature, “its clublike arms of jagged stone swinging at its sides.” (Monster Manual). But earth is more than that – it’s the metal that buildings are made of, plastics that are created, forests and plains. An Earth Elemental would theoretically have power over everything solid.

In AD&D, an earth elemental can “glide through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water.” But what about metal ore? Does that count as metal? There’s no logic why earth does not include metal, except of the modern viewpoint that “Earth” doesn’t consist of metal.

So the metal issue may just be a game mechanic; there needs to be some limit to that power. Going back to Wild Cards, Earth Witch is the newest of the superheroes, able to control earth. She ends up destroying armies. Earth is the base, the thing that everything sits on. It’s like the Tick said when asked if he could destroy the world, “Egad. I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff.”

In the metaphysical sense, earth is sensation and maternal. “Earth Mother” and “Mother Nature” aren’t terms that came from nowhere after all. Earth is endurance, growth, practicality, and stability. Its cardinal direction is north.

Fire: The other three elements are matter – Fire Elementals are energy. In the modern world, energy is a continuum, from light to thermal to kinetic energy. “Energy” elementals would be so powerful as to be silly. But, this is the ancient world. Fire is just fire, a way to release energy as heat and light. Still, in the combat-heavy world of RPGs, fire elementals can do a lot of damage.

In the ancient world, fire is also the key to survival in cold environments, of hunting and cooking game, and of smelting metal and ironwork. It’s no mystery that Vulcan is the god of both fire and blacksmiths. We see fire as a runaway force, burning buildings and wildfires. The ancients were more dependent on fire than we are, and for that reason, painted fire in a much more positive light (if you excuse the pun).

In the metaphysical sense, fire is emotion and masculinity, anger and courage. It is also a sign of purity, just like fire and metalwork. Its cardinal direction is south.

Plutonium Elemental? Nah, too easy. Too deadly as well. And, it would be glow-in-the-dark. I promise that’s the last joke on the matter.

So, did I have a point in all this beyond wanting to speculate how many Helium Elementals it would take to power a lighter-than-air craft? Yes. The elements are important. “Perhaps this model is so widely used because it can be easily associated with the most prominent natural cycles and phenomena which surround us. (Whitcomb 73). Most games that have magic use these four elements. If you want to use some types of magic, embrace the urge to go in full throttle, to accept and embrace the decisions and worldviews of what those types of magic represent. For example, the fact of accepting Colleges of Air, Colleges of Water, etc. (as AD&D and GURPS does) suggests a geocentric universe with a certain mindset. And if you break that mindset, you risk running into things like Chlorine Elementals.

Next, we look at the other side of nature: animals, plants, and weather control.