Some headcanons I had about how elementals work. Open to adjusting this, and obviously not every elemental will fit in such neat boxes. There will always be variations or unique monsters or even groups of monsters that do not conform to these things.
Introduction
There are many different types and subtypes of elementals, the main categories of which change depending on the local cultures and mythologies. The four basic categories most will be familiar with, known as the classical elements, are fire, earth, air, and water. Some cultures added void or aether to this list. Some classified air instead as wind. Some cultures did not have this sort of concept at all.
China's Five Phases system, for example, had a generative cycle and a destructive cycle using wood, fire, earth, metal, and water that they used to explain how various interactions and other things occurred instead of as a means to describe the makeup of various substances.
For the sake of simplicity, I will be confining myself to the four commonly agreed upon classical elements.
Associations
Being creatures either inspired by classical myths or that inspired them, monsters and elementals alike tend to vary a bit based off of their local culture. In a way, we see this the best in what I imagine what River calls 'conceptual' monsters (such as Temmies, Tsunderplanes, and other 'meme' based monsters). How they function and what they look or act like changes based off of how they are thought to function or act (which ties into a completely separate theory about how human SOULs influence their surroundings but I'll likely write more on that later).
Fire is generally considered hot and dry, but some cultures associate it with destruction whereas others consider it to be the opposite, creation. Or sometimes even change, wisdom, passion, or kinship.
Earth is thought to be heavy, stable, and solid. The ancient Greeks also considered it cold. Some others think of it as sheltering, loyal, or strong.
Air is associated with freedom and breath and sometimes also communication, intellect, or energy.
Finally, Water is wet, obviously. Ice and snow for some, the warm tropical waters to others. Emotion and intuition, sometimes even fertility.
All of them have an association with life in one culture or another, which makes sense considering that elemental monsters are indeed alive and not simply their element animated.
Types of Monsters in the Underground
Which brings me to the point: most elementals likely have needs that are a bit different from the common, everyday monster. Have you noticed the kinds of monsters you see in the Underground? Fire monsters? Everywhere, practically. Makes sense, considering the mountain is a volcano. Earth monsters? A few yup, with a lot of mixing with the fire elementals. Also makes sense.
Water? Yeah sure there are plenty, but they're mostly fish or other more biological creatures instead of more elemental type monsters and almost all of them live in Waterfall or Snowden.
And Air? I couldn't find any, could you? Just a few birds, which is a bit of a stretch in my opinion when we're talking about elementals.
Elemental Starvation
My aforementioned statement about elementals probably having different needs from your average monsters? That all is what spawned the idea.
I posit that most elementals probably need their element to be around. That association earlier I mentioned, that air is sometimes called wind in some cultures? The Underground doesn't really have wind, does it? The air that it has is probably fairly stale, and I'm certainly not seeing much in the way of freedom down there.
This means most air elementals would be missing both a core feature of their element itself and a very common cultural association. Any air elementals that did make it to the Underground probably didn't last long, and the ones that did likely didn't have to worry about that sort of thing, but clearly there's something going on.
It isn't even that elementals themselves are uncommon because again, fire elementals are practically everywhere. Mount Ebbot is a volcano. Fire elementals? Doing fine. Earth, not as common but seem to be doing alright. Water, restricted to mostly one or two spaces and not very many monsters one could call an actual elemental. Air? Nope.
So what if most elementals had a basic need to be near their element, like how us humans need oxygen? You see this a bit in the show Avatar: the Last Airbender in how firebenders who are locked in the 'Coolers', away from their element, are unable to firebend (except for Zuko who knew a secret, but that's beside the point). What if elementals sort of starved without it?
Obviously this doesn't apply to all of them because Grillby stands as a rather strong counterexample, living surrounded by snow and ice, but one or two outliers are possible. This brings me to my last bit of rambling regarding this headcanon.
Elemental Magic and the SOUL
So, assuming all of the above stands true this takes us in an interesting direction: how does this affect their magic? Well first off I imagine they likely recover much more quickly when surrounded by their element and probably expend more magic than usual with away from it. Likely with some, but not all, elementals even suffering crippling effects when without their element or effectively slowly 'starving' without it.
I also imagine each elemental has a teeny bit of what they consider their 'home' elemental source all tied up in their magic. Maybe even in their SOUL. This probably influences what their magic or they themselves look like.
River's grandmother, for example, was from the deeper, bottom waters of the Sporades basin in the north Aegean Sea. As a water elemental of dark, deep waters she tended to be a bit shadowy and strange herself. River actually takes after her a bit.
One's 'home source' would probably be important to them. Of course one can survive without it, but it would be more compatible with their natural magic. Something their SOUL is more used to, which could have all sorts of minor influences on them.
I wonder what that would mean for elementals born in the Underground?
Just a quick sketch I made for a Resolvetale character. This is Pedro. He’s an Iron Elemental Golem that forges magical weapons and armor for The Royal Guard and The Crown in ResolveTale.
His name is based on a Minecraft Iron Golem @slylock-syl made called Pedro. Syl was ecstatic to see that I had created a character based off of this Golem.
He’ll be making his first appearance in Chapter 2 of Resolvetale. In this picture he is swinging back a hammer to hit onto a sword he’s forging. I also did a forward facing head too. The structure at the top isn’t as good though on the singular head.
Now time for some quick lore!
In Resolvetale, Golems are 1 of the 10 original species of monster, or 1 of 4 monster species that remain in high numbers, with 2 of the ten having been wiped out in the Great War, and another 4 being brought close to extinction. Golems have many variations, consisting mainly of the materials Ice, Stone, Wood, Clay, Water, Air, Dirt, Quartz, and in very rare cases, Iron. Golems, in Resolvetale, unlike in most fantasy worlds, have free will. However, they tend to be very unintelligent and as a result, they do most of the grunt work in Monster Society and are ostracized from the rest of the group. In fact, the ice that Ice Dog in Snowdin throws into the river to be run down to the Core in Hotland actually comes from Golem Town, out past Snowdin Forest, cut and sent over an underground conveyor belt by the Golems. Pedro here, is actually very intelligent, unlike his fellow Golems, and his composition is normally blamed for that. He’s nearly 40,000 years old, older than even Asgore and Asgore’s father, Asgrov, combined. He has been the Royal Smith for as long as the Monster Kingdom has been a unified Kingdom, and even before then, he did much work for the leaders of the smaller monster kingdoms and the Human Kingdoms. He forged Asgore’s Trident, Gerson’s mace, and Undyne’s spears just to name a few. He knows his craft and he knows it well. Over all, Golems have a very interesting lore, and I’d love to talk more about Pedro in the future.
So, uh, @silverskye13 was offering to mention elemental OC’s in an upcoming chapter of Casting Rain, and @drawing-intherain has been posting some lovely elemental ladies, and I got inspired to make my own. This is Miki.
Short (maybe slightly taller than Sans) -- she’s tried being taller, but it makes her dizzy.
Likes bright colors and making patterns with her fire when no one’s watching
Ever helpful
Tends to startle people by casually tossing her axe in the air
Hasn’t fought a mage yet
I had some other ideas, though I’m undecided now that she’s drawn out. I’m thinking she might have been summoned after Gehenna by someone who thought ‘that’s it, we need more fire elementals.’ I might also fit some version of her in my own wartime concept (with the hooded gaster and Perpetua). Idk. She was fun to draw.
(The original sketch had more of a face, but it wasn’t looking right digitally. This is probably the face you’d see if she got really dim.)
(For more of my ramblings about elementals, see here.)
So we've established the basics on how I see elementals working, which brings me to a different type of elemental altogether, one we don't really see represented in the Underground at all.
That is, the idea of what I call primordial elementals. By necessity, every one of them would be a boss monster but that still leaves the question of what are they?
Simply put, they are elementals who are their home source. Not an elemental who simply has their home source wrapped up in their magic or even their SOUL a bit, because even they can still leave. It might suck for those elementals with source connections, but still. They could leave. Go somewhere else and then come back to recharge.
Primordial elementals can't leave like that because they are their own source. We're talking places like Mt. Fuji or Krakatoa, who probably have pretty damn impressive fire elementals inside them, or the Black Sea, which would probably have a hell of a water elemental associated with it.
A primordial elemental need not be related to so impressive a location though, or even an entire sea for example. River's grandmother mentioned before is one of these. She is the deep sea waters of the Sporades Basin in the Aegean Sea. Is she powerful there? Certainly, but she'll never be able to leave it because you can't simply relocate an entire sea basin.
I imagine this comes with its perks and downsides. I mentioned one downside already, but perks? Elementals of this type are likely extremely long lived. A primordial volcano elemental will not die until their volcano does. A primordial river elemental will live until their river dries up.
This also means primordial elementals are far more sensitive than usual to negative things happening to their homes, and what they see as negative might not be the same as what humans do, or even what another elemental does. Pollution obviously would be one, but while a mountain pool might see a powerful storm that refills it as a good thing, the mountain itself (who just got hit with numerous bolts of lightning) might be a bit annoyed.
Hey, I like the fact that Miki and Feuergeist are the two fire elementals that are purple.
Oh hi! I knew there were other Casting Rain inspired elementals around, but @drawing-intherain‘s were the only ones I’d seen so far.
Heh, I decided I wanted Miki to be purple first and then spent too much time trying to find out where a purple fire would come from (I love the concept of elementals coming from specific types of fire). Purple seems to be a really rare fire color that you’d only get burning specific chemicals in a lab, so maybe the color comes from someone’s fire magic? Or an alchemist of some kind? I should figure out who summoned/escorts Miki, she’s kind of existing in a vacuum right now, hmm
It might not be very interesting food (some kind of simple porridge), but Miki is going to make sure everyone gets fed!
Oh, I didn’t mention it yesterday because it wasn’t final, but I’m doing these in celebration of purchasing my very own tablet! Experimenting a bit more with settings than with the previous (borrowed) tablet and it’s been really fun.
Anyway I’m stuck in an airport for the next 7+ hours, if you want to send in random asks or something, we’ll see what will post.
(@followerofmercy I’m assuming you meant Miki; @cuandollueven-mapaches has a Minna, but I don’t have a Mina :P)
