Element

Revision as of 04:23, 23 April 2008 by Krypton (talk | contribs) (terrene --> terrain (?), linked other Elemental Lords, content)

An element is one of the five basic building blocks - earth, fire, air, water, and spirit - that compose the material world. Pure, unspoiled elements manifest most profusely on their respective elemental planes. These planes are populated almost solely by elementals of that plane's given type and are lorded over by a primary elemental being. (For example, Kkractle, the Eternal Fire, is the chief fire elemental, although some Achaean physicists would argue that this Elemental Lord is the plane itself, a mere sentient manifestation of an otherwise seemingly inanimate terrain. The other Elemental Lords are Garash, the Immovable Mountain, Sllshya, the Great Ocean, and Whiirh, the Western Wind; there is no known Elemental Lord presiding over spirit.) As an example of a raw element, the fires of both the sun and the phoenix are composed of nearly pure elemental fire. Elemental ice, on the other hand, is frozen elemental water shaped by the Tsol'aa villagers of the Aalen Forest.

Mortals can call upon the elements by way of the Elementalism and Healing skills. A Vertani parallel may be drawn in the priests of House Hasii, who work with the spirit element in lieu of worshipping a given deity. By Vertani beliefs, the spirit element is a manifestation of the All.

The God of the elements is Agatheis, the Elemental Lord. In His early attempts to control the elements, Agatheis inadvertently created the Flame of Yggdrasil. Elements thus enter into the worship of a few distinct societies, such as the Aeraithians of the Aeraithian Falls and the Atavians of Genji.