Roleplay Ramblings: The Elements part 1
For as long as there have been philosophers and the scientifically minded, there have been people trying to sort out what the universe is made of and how it all works. Along the way, there have been many philosophies that have been created based on what the people of the time could observe.
Admittedly, by today’s standards many such systems seem antiquated and quaint thanks to the information we have now, but if you look carefully, you can see how much thought they put into these observations, which, while limited, were still based in reality as they could see it. As such, those philosophies are referenced and echoed in scientific knowledge as we know it now. For example, the concept of the atom originated from the idea that eventually, it would be impossible to cut and break something down past a certain point, and they were right, in a way. With atomic particles ceasing to be the elements they were expressed as when broken down into subatomic particles.
Which brings us to this week’s subject: The Elements. We’ve briefly talked about them before in the entries about the planes, as well as certain elementally-themed entries here on the blog. Regardless of culture, the elements were believed to be the building blocks of all things in the universe, and it was by their combination and interaction that all things occur. Classic western elementalism dictates there are four, two pairs of opposites in fire, water, earth and air, as well as a secret fifth in aether, according to some interpretations. Meanwhile, Chinese elementalism dictates a five-part circular arrangement of fire, water, earth, wood, and metal, and Japanese holds the four elements of western elementalism, but also having void at the center. And of course, there are plenty of other less widely-known arrangements as well.
These systems have been used from everything from occult mysticism, to the founding of alchemical principles, to even creating horoscopes about what your supposed element says about your personality. Its almost as if even before roleplaying games existed people were trying to categorize and chart up characteristics.
Elementalism and element-themed powers come in all forms in Pathfinder, though many of the aspects of the core setting still scream of western elementalism, namely the fact that the elemental planes and their elemental denizens still seem to follow the concept of four elements and the mixing of two such, with the one major update to the elemental type being the aether elementals native to the astral plane. Earlier editions of the world’s oldest roleplaying game did play this mixing game too, arranging the four elemental planes and the positive and negative energy planes like planets on an orrey around the material plane, with the rings bridging each element creating the paraelemental and quasi-elemental planes… with varying levels of creativity. (mineral? Seriously?)
Information about western elementalism has been done back and forth everywhere, but in the interest of fairness I’ll go over them in brief.
Air, aside from being the collection of atmospheric gasses surrounding our planet, is associated with wind, storms, life (by way of breathing), and even spirit (also by way of breathing, the Greeks used to think that respiration involved pulling vital spiritual energies out of the air). Behavior-wise its associated with flightiness, serenity, and freedom. Occult texts describe the spirits of this element as “sylphs”. (You’ll notice that yes, all four of these spirits get name-dropped in many rpgs, not just the tabletop variety.)
Earth, aside from covering every landmass both in mineral and soil form ever, is the element of mountains, landmasses, geological events, durability, life (by way of plants growing out of it), and even agriculture. It’s also associated with stubbornness, stalwartness, patience, and endurance. The occult alchemical elementals associated with it are gnomes or gnomides.
Fire aside from being a common energy by-product of many chemical reactions involving light and heat, is the element of the sun, warmth, protection (by way of the fear it strikes into predators), transformation (by way of how it can shape metals, reduce many forms of matter to ash, or heat-treat substances), power, and destruction. Emotionally, it evokes the ideas of passion, wild exuberance, wrath, but also temperance. Flame is associated with salamanders in alchemical lore.
Finally, water, aside from being a simple compound that covers most of our planet and is a key part of our biological processes, is associated with cold, life again (both in how it sustains us and harbors a lot of life within it), mystery, cleansing, healing, and the like. Serenity, flexibility of mind, and the like are its calling cards. Undines are the name if the spirits associated with it.
As we go through this week, we’ll look more and more at how other elements are interpreted, as well as how these elements might influence the game.
