Elemental (AOS)

Elementals are a major type of spirit, separate from the gods but equally common in Creation and fairly numerous in Yu-Shan as well. They embody particular traits of their elements, and exist in many shapes and sizes.

Elementals differ from gods in many ways. Unlike gods, but like demons and devas, elementals are by nature material in Creation, although most can dematerialize at will. Some species are immortal (most notably the Elemental Dragons), but many have finite lifespans ranging from a few hours (in the case of Storm Serpents) to centuries or millennia. Typically, each species is the creation of a particular Lesser Elemental Dragon, but many of them can reproduce somewhat like animals or plants.

Most notably, elementals do not have to remain static throughout their lives, or depend on bureaucratic promotion for status. An elemental who refines its spiritual development can increase its Essence until it reaches Essence 6 or 7. At that point, no matter what their original species, they grow into a huge and magnificent Lesser Elemental Dragon. All Elemental Dragons have four legs and long serpentine bodies strongly reminiscent of Gaia's Five Elemental Dragons, although their heads are often reminiscent of their previous form. Unfortunately, a Lesser Elemental Dragon who refines its Essence too far (to 10) metamorphoses into a Greater Elemental Dragon. These beings are several miles long and apparently violently insane. The Kukla, the first Dragon to reach this stature, immediately went into a mindless rampage of colossal destruction until the Celestial Incarnae cast him into unconsciousness.

Elementals have a peculiar origin and an ironic, somewhat contradictory status. In the Time Before there were only five great elementals, one for each Gaian element (earth, air, wood, fire, and water), who were not related to the Five Elemental Dragons and did not resemble them. They sided with the gods and humanity in the Primordial War, and the Primordials destroyed them. Their essence shattered into countless little pieces, becoming the first ordinary elementals. All such beings had not been created for any purpose, and had no intrinsic place in the new order created after the War. Instead, they were relegated to the status of servants in the Terrestrial Bureaucracy and the streets of Yu-Shan, subject to sorcerous summoning, and generally considered inferior to the little gods. However, the Five Elemental Dragons successfully petitioned for special rights for Lesser Elemental Dragons, and ancient divine law guarantees every one a high position in the Celestial Bureaucracy, regardless of their actual qualifications. On the other hand, the Unconquered Sun decreed that all Greater Elemental Dragons must be imprisoned in eternal sleep, to prevent them from destroying Creation.

When Autochthon fled Creation, he deliberately repeated the creation of the original elementals, building six great elemental beings and then murdering them to create elementals of crystal, lightning, metal, oil, steam, and smoke. Some of these have become Lesser Elemental Dragons as well.

Creation Elementals

Autochthonian Elementals

Not Elementals

• The Five Elemental Dragons are the children of Gaia, or possibly her souls, and older than Creation itself
• Metody, the Malfean elementals of vitriol, are demons instead of true elementals.