#elemental spirits

[madcat-world]

Elemental Spirits - WoodenPencilBox

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

“[Karoline von Günderrode] work incorporates features of early German Romanticism, including ideas of the universe as progressing towards unification […] death as the site of final unity with other individuals and the natural world, and love as unifying force. […] Günderrode, like [Dorothea] Veit-Schlegel, is keenly attentive to issues of gender, especially regarding social roles for women and their impact on women's identity and ability to act. This combination of factors makes Günderrode's writings an alternative to early German romantic models that reinforce traditional conceptions of gender. […] Her depictions of women show that she imagined women possessing characteristics and adopting roles that are traditionally considered masculine […] while the male characters around her are too weak or emotional to act effectively.

Like Novalis and [Friedrich] Schlegel, Günderrode presents love as a unifying force, emphasizing the capacity of love to unite individuals in death. For example, in “The Malabarian Widows”she writes that “Death will become sweet celebration of love, / The separated elements unified” […] In “The Bonds of Love” she depicts a connection between the living narrator and a dead ‘beloved’, writing that “Love this bond is called”. And “The Kiss in the Dream” describes a longing for a lover's kiss that can only be satisfied in death. However, unlike Novalis and Schlegel, Günderrode does not present this unifying love as necessarily heterosexual. The “separate elements” that are unified in death in “The Malabarian Widows” are the many elemental forces that constitute the husband and wife, like all other human beings and other entities, some of which harmonize with each other and which, once released from their earthly constraints in two separate bodies, can join together. […] human beings, as created from ‘elements’ that, over time, group together, then separate and recombine to form new entities, as individual creatures live and die, while ‘the life-principle in the elements is immortal’ […] After death, the attraction between these harmonious elements brings them together to create new entities.”

— Anna Ezekiel; “Women, Women Writers, and Early German Romanticism” (2020)

[erinhime83]

I was going to put these up per @callistochan87’s request because I had mentioned that my muse went on Elemental Spirits enough to pop out some designs (or rather, adjust some designs), and I had actually really liked what I had come up with design-wise.  BUT this morning, I had this random stray thought involving the story and reincarnation which suddenly completely changed the story.  Kinda of. 

The idea I have right now doesn’t actually involve reincarnation, but displacement, I guess?  Basically, rather than the priestesses being reincarnated while searching for the lost Priestess of Light, Addy, Jake, and Melanie are suddenly summoned to another world.  Addy and Jake are sort of collateral, since the aim was to summon Melanie, and they happened to be standing too close when she’s transported, and they’re just sort of stuck there and forced to deal with everything.

The world is undergoing something of a civil war at the moment, with the Realm of Spirits attacking everyone else.  The other priestesses were lead to believe that the Priestess of Souls had turned on them, but had discovered recently that the Priestess had actually be banished from Novis sometime ago, and a demon had taken her place.  The priestess had, in fact, been reborn on Earth and was raised there until the other priestesses preformed a summoning ceremony to get her back so she could help out with the war (and to just, you know bring back one of their own.)  They are a bit surprised when they summon three people rather than one, though, and as a result of the mix up, the vow to make their lives comfortable.

The first set of designs are the main characters – Addy, Jake, Melanie, and the priestesses.

Adrianna Roderick – Addy is about 20, and prior to being transported to Novis, she really had no plans for her life.  She helps out at her mother’s bakery for the lack of a better job.  She’s been having these visions of Novis her entire life, which she believes is just a world that she’s made up.  She desperately wants to write a story and do art to get the world out of her head.  She doodles and she plots, but hasn’t really come up with anything concrete just yet.  She’s excited to be in the world of her imagination, but she’s still not sure her place in it.

Jacob O’Reilly – Jake is also about 20, and he’s Addy’s best friend/next door neighbor/love interest.  He’s a chef, working at his family’s restaurant.  He was fairly popular in school, although he only had an interest in Addy, although he was too stubborn to say anything to her about it.  He’s rather annoyed at being summoned to another world, because he had Plans for his life, but sort of comes to terms with it because at least he’s there with Addy. 

Melanie Roland/Spira – Melanie is about 20 as well, and is Addy’s other best friend as well as the reincarnated Priestess of Souls.  She more or less accepted her fate once she realized what happened when she was a child, and spent her life on Earth just living as a human.  She had less of an idea what she wanted to do with her life than Addy did.  She’s rather surprised that her fellow priestesses figured out what happened and called her back, and even more surprised Addy and Jake are with her.  She is excited to share her world with her friends, though, although she works hard to figure out a way to send them back.

(The main design is how she looks through most of the story once she regains her powers.  The smaller bust is how she looks initially/while on Earth, and Addy is really thrown off by the change of her appearance.) 

Naida – Naida is the Priestess of Water, and the leader of the priestesses.  She is friendly and charismatic and generally loveable, always wanting to put others before herself.  She’s also the one who blotched the summoning ceremony.  She wants nothing more than to put an end to the war and bring peace to her world once more.

Demetra – Demetria is the Priestess of Earth, and Naida’s younger sister.  She’s the tomboy of the priestesses, a bit rough but rather sweet.  She somewhat lives in the shadow of her sister, but she doesn’t mind it too much.  She does all she can to support her sister.  She’s also the one least likely to use magic, preferring to do things physically rather than with help.

Ignia – Ignia is the Priestess of Fire, and the oldest of the priestesses.  She’s also the smartest and the most stoic.  She tried to think things through logically, which is hard when the others are more reactionary than she’s comfortable with.  They all look to her if the need advice for anything, and she’s rather interested in Addy and Jake and what they can tell her about Earth.

Electra – Electra is the Priestess of Lightning, and the youngest of the priestesses.  She’s a bit shy and unsure of herself as a result, thinking she’s not as good as the others because she has zero experience comparatively.  She’s a sweet girl who wants to help but doesn’t quite have the self-esteem to think of how she can herself.  The others make it a point to protect her and her innocent mindset the best they can.

The second set of designs are of the other important characters (although technically one of them should be on the first page, but then that’s too many people.)

Zephira – Zephira is the Priestess of Winds.  She’s sort of absent at first because she’s the one keeping the Realm of Spirits at bay at the moment, since she’s the one with the most magical power.  She’s somewhat annoyed when she learns that Addy and Jake are summoned as well, since she knows she wouldn’t have screwed up the spell.  But she ends up befriending them eventually as well.

Celedonia – Celedonia is Zephira’s younger sister who is with the other priestesses with Addy, Jake, and Melanie are summoned as Zephira’s proxy.  She’s a mage, and turns herself into a bird at times because, well, let’s fast is, it makes travel easier.  She’s mostly used to spy on the Realm of Spirits, which is sort of how they initially found out about Spira’s banishment.  She ends up becoming a sort of Guide for Addy and Jake since she has no real official duties.

Aquarius – Aquarius is Naida’s assistant and another mage who turns himself into a cat sometimes.  He doesn’t do this nearly as often as Celedonia does, though.  He is in love with Celedonia, although he doesn’t really want to admit it.  He hangs out with Addy and Jake a lot because she’s around them, though.  Which makes Jake glad cuz, you know. He’s surrounded by a bunch of girls.

Felina – Felina is one of Lady Spirit’s generals, although she’s not very good at her job.  She doesn’t really want to fight in the war, but does so out of sense of obligation since Lady Spirit saved her.  She tried her best but she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and people wonder why she’s kept around.  She often wonders that herself, and is worried about the day Lady Spirit is done with her.

Mukesh – Mukesh is another one of Lady’s Spirit’s generals, the main one, and pretty much the reason why Felina is still given chances.  He was saved by Lady Spirit alongside Felina, and he doesn’t have the same sort of compassion she does for anyone but Felina.  He carries out his duties flawlessly, as well as taking up Felina’s slack.  Lady Spirit keeps Felina around merely because she knows Mukesh would betray her if she actually did anything to his companion.

Lady Spirit – Lady Spirit is the demon who usurped the Priestess of Souls and banished her to another world before declaring war on the rest of the world.  No one knows her real name or motivation, calling her Lady Spirit once they realized she was not Spira.  She doesn’t go out much, preferring to use her generals, but she takes a real interest in Addy and Jake once she learns of their existence.

As far as the designs are concerned, these were really fun.  I originally had the priestesses in different culture outfits, but I liked the idea of the priestesses, at least, opting to wear something vague Greek/Roman, but then Spira and Zephira are not, lol.  That was intentional.  I like what Addy’s wearing, but it looks less fancy then the other’s.  I also gave her glasses because Ignia wouldn’t need them, and I like give my girls glasses. 

(I was considering giving her the blond hair, since I stopped myself from doing it earlier because I had a blond with tan skin in Tessa/Demetra, and I didn’t have her as blond anymore.  But it somehow didn’t look right, and I liked her with brown hair.)

I hadn’t changed Lady Spirit at all in the decades of her design, and I felt like it was time to do so.  It’s not as menacing somehow, but I like it. 

They all turned out so nice, and while I know I’ll probably not do this story, it’s nice to show off designs and jot down the idea I had.

[creature-wizard]

Hi, what are your thoughts on element based spirits and entities? Do you work with any of them? Have you ever encountered one? 😁 Would love to read your version of gnosis on this topic. Favourite element?

Great blog btw, follow button pressed. 💚

I think with the four elements, it's important to understand where that whole idea came from: Aristotle proposing an interesting, though extremely wrong theory of matter.

The idea of a favorite element is strange to me, because I'm accustomed to them as part of this theory of matter. For me, getting asked what my favorite element Aristotelian element is, is sort of like getting asked "do you prefer calcium, oxygen, iron, or carbon?"

I haven't tried any elemental spirit workings, because the four elements paradigm doesn't resonate with me on an occult level. I also don't have what I'd call gnosis about them.

(Also just to be clear, I'm one of those "most spirits are probably psychological projections" people, because after comparing so many spirit encounter stories, it became clear that people's experiences were informed by their cultures. Like when you start seeing like D&D and White Wolf tropes popping up, or when someone's gnosis looks suspiciously similar to Homestuck, well... it's a bit hard to deny.)

[sp00kybimb0]

👣Not mine! 👣

[aesethewitch]

What's you opinion on elemental spirits like gnomes, salamanders, undines and sylphs?

I don't often interact with them; I'm more likely to interact with the elements themselves or with spirits of specific places, bodies of water, etc. than the elemental denizens, so to speak. In general, I find that they won't bother me if I don't bother them first. I tend to view them as neighbors in the neighborhood, folks I know but that I don't actively seek out.

We're playing "What's your opinion on...?"! (:

[charnel-grounds]

Boris Dolgov (1910-1958), Our Fair City

(Weird Tales, January 1949)

[tenshiharmonia]

I'm currently watching a let's play of Tales of Vesperia, and I must say, I'm still a little sour that they didn't expand more on Elucifer (or Elucifur, as it is spelled in the French version*). I mean, sure, he is long dead when the party finally hears of him, but still, he played such a pivotal role in the history of their world, both past and present. And I'm not even taking into consideration what happens during the ending of the game.

Truly, there are so many unresolved things about this guy. What happened to his apatheia, for example. We can see Duke mourn before a tombstone on Ehmead Hill that is supposedly Elucifer's. But as we know, Entelexeia don't leave corpses behind them when they die, so could it be his friend's apatheia that he buried on that cliff ? I mean, the scene in Yormgen shows that he much prefers to "return" them to aer, but one can only wonder if he actually could have brought himself to destroy what is essentially the soul of the person he held the dearest in the entire world. Granted, if Elucifer’s apatheia was still around, one could think that Duke would have been a little more enthusiastic when hearing about the possibility for his boyfriend to be reincarnated. But then again, considering how unnatural he thinks the process is, it could be brushed off as him not being thrilled at the idea of his dear comrade being defiled like that...

Another theory I’ve seen is that Elucifer’s apatheia was stolen and used by Alexei to power Heracles. I mean, according to a conversation in Halure, the dude was reportedly ginormous. At least as tall as the town’s giant tree (then again, said conversation also states that his body is buried under Ehmead Hill, so it has to be taken with a grain of salt). So it’d make sense for his apatheia to be quite big, and the one that powers Heracles is probably the biggest we got to see. Also, I could easily imagine the guy talking with the deep voice that thanks the party when they destroy the crystal to save the capital (which would in turn match what we know of Elucifer’s character, as he was a gentle soul who would obviously object to his power being used to cause such a cataclysm). But then again, I’m having a hard time accepting the idea that Duke would have let Alexei - or the Empire for that matter - run away with his partner’s apatheia...

Anyway, if Elucifer’s apatheia is still intact, it begs the question : what happened to him when they all were converted into spirits at the end of the game ? Sometimes, I like to think that he would have been reborn as Aska, the great spirit of Light. Although I must admit that it’s partly because I tend to subconsciously use Aska’s model from Xillia 2 (I’m sure you know which one I’m talking about :p ) as a mental placeholder for what the guy might have looked like. I mean, his daughter sported quite a lot of avian features, so I guess it’d make sense for him to look like a big bird. Besides, if I recall correctly, Duke describes his golden form - at least in the French version - along the lines of "his friend lending him his strength", indicating that it's something he learnt from Elucifer. So I don’t think it’d be too much of a stretch to assume that the Entelexeia sported a similar palette when he was alive. Which, in turn, would go pretty well with the idea of him having an affinity for Light. And I’m not even talking about how his name alludes to a certain angel also known as the "bringer of light"... I’m just brainstorming, of course, but I think that you can see where I’m coming from.

That being said, I also kind of feel like being reborn as an elemental spirit wouldn’t really be "enough" for an Entelexeia as powerful as Elucifer, if you see what I mean. So maybe he could be reincarnated as one of the franchise’s traditional higher spirits, like Maxwell or Origin. The latter is usually revered as the king of spirits, so it’d make sense for him to be born from the one who was regarded as the king of the Entelexeia. Then again, I’m just sorting ideas here, so don’t take any of this as definitive headcanons (supposing that headcanons can even be definitive...).

Speaking of kings and headcanons though, I also like to picture Elucifer as a descendant of the Spiral Draco, which Duke describes as "the ancient king of the Entelexeia". Maybe not his son, but his grandson. I mean, as I said, Elucifer was also regarded as a king among those mighty beasts, so it’d make sense if he inherited the title. Moreover, if we take into consideration the previous point regarding Duke’s golden form and how he may have learnt it from Elucifer, it’d give a new layer to the way the Fell Arms react to Duke’s power during the third phase of the final battle, as they were made using the power of the Spiral Draco. Besides, while the Entelexeia are usually born directly from aer, we know for a fact that they can also produce offspring - although the exact details of the process were obviously left to the imagination -, as demonstrated by none other than Elucifer himself.

Anyway, I don’t think I have anything to add on the matter, but still. As you can guess, the relationship between Duke and Elucifer is one aspect of the game that I find infinitely endearing and fascinating**. And I still resent the game for its unwillingness to elaborate on the topic. I mean, come on ! They didn’t even let us get a glimpse of what the big guy might have looked like ! And it’s not really an uncommon stand that, as excellent as the game is, a good chunk of its characters could have afforded to be fleshed out a little more... With that being said, thank you once again for your attention. It’s always a pleasure to share my thoughts with you guys. I’ll make sure to write a follow-up if I think about anything else, but for the time being, take care. ^_^

 * I must admit, I kind of prefer the "fur" spelling. Sure, it makes the etymology slightly less perceptible, but it also makes him sound like an extremely fluffy guy. :3

** It goes without saying that I like to picture them as having been more than friends, but obviously, it’s only a matter of personal interpretation.