What do elementals want/need

[Scalenex]

I'm working on a campaign setting. I want to keep most of traditional D&D elements intact, but I'm reducing the number of planes though and am pretty sure I don't want elemental planes. I do want elementals.

I figure elementals periodically are born from their component element, especially in areas of high magic energy, dwell for a bit and then recede back into their element after a period of hours or weeks.

An elemental summoning spell deliberately manipulates those energies to conjure an elemental out of it's base material temporarily and control it.

What I'm trying to figure out is what elementals do when they aren't being summoned.

If elementals feel no emotion or pain, but still periodically spring into existance once in a while? What do they do when they aren't being controlled by a wizard?

If elementals feel emotions, pain, and instincts (on par with animals), what would they do/want?

If elementals are sapient like human beings, what would they do/want?

If there were four elemental lords who didn't have temporary existences and were both sapient and intelligent, capable of temparily controlling their lesser elementals anywhere but not everywhere. What would they do/want?

I'd like elemental motivations/behavior to be understandable and beleivable, but more alien that that of animal/humanoid motivations/behavior.

[Eldan]

There are actually, canonically, eight elemental lords, two for each element. They are called Archomentals, and are pretty much continually in an eight-sided war over the elemental planes.
Old fluff stated that elements are actually a lot calmer and sapient when on their home planes, but that the shock of being summoned to the material made them temporarily go insane. I'd say they mostly want to go home.

[Lord Raziere]

I'd say they are constantly eating elemental energy to sustain themselves, making various sculptures with their element or something, and making various defenses against other elements, if they are in conflict.

I'd also think they'd have various discussions upon the nature of elements if they are more philosophically inclined- they might not think of morality as "good" or "evil" but what is morally fiery, or morally watery, or even morally stonelike and such.

I'd also think they'd might be constantly trying to get more of their elemental energies or something if they are selfish? and be constantly battling against selfless guys who want to distribute elemental energies equally? and have civil wars over what it means to be fire? Like a group who thinks fire is primarily light, versus a group who thinks fire is destruction or something?

Might be worth thinking about.

Edit: also, remember how elements show up in different ways? like how fire has many different colors? there could be conflicts between elemental class differences in their society, like fire elementals having a caste system based upon how how hot your flame burns depending on its color or something.

[NikitaDarkstar]

I'm not quite sure how you'll explain elementals without having elemental planes in some way, shape or form. They might be utterly impossible to sustain any form of life as we'd know it, but you'd probably still have something. Otherwise if it's just energy, well, why don't you have an arcane elemental or a force elemental? Especially since elements on the material plane are never pure enough to have something to return to. You'll always have them mixed to some degree.

As for what they'd want? When they're summoned and pretty much force to be somewhere they do want so obviously they'd want freedom. When they're in their natural state, well it would depend on the element I guess? But I agree with the notion that they most likely wouldn't identify morals and emotions in the same way as us, they'd have hot and cold and wet and hard and whispy(/windy?/airy?) feelings. Negative emotions or actions would most likely be compared to their opposites (so something bad for a fire elemental would be watery, while something neutral would be earthy or airy, good would be fiery.). And class systems based on characteristics of their element. (Hot hot their fire burns, how hard their earth is, how strong their wind blows, how deep (how much pressure?) their water is.)

What they'd want is what would compliment them I guess, which would be characteristics of the other elements in the right amounts. (Fire needs wood which is an earthy thing to burn, it also needs oxygen which belongs to air, but it can do very well without water, and so on.) Conflicts would arise when one element tries to force their opposite (and enemy) out and cast the elements into imbalance.

As for individual wants and needs, they'd probably be similar to humans in a way, but still be hard for humans to appreciate. One air elemental might really appreciate art and music, except humans can't really grasp what he considers art and music. (The patterns the winds make on the ground when they blow, the sound as it passes through a cloud, or whatever.)

[Funkyodor]

I could see their appearance in a fantasy setting without elemental planes; if you'd associate natural disasters like forest fires, floods, avalanches, and tornados to be extreme cases of natural elemental spontenanity.

Each elemental type could have certain mindsets. For example, Fire Elementals could naturally want to procreate and spawn little baby fires. Earth elementals are bipolar monks who don't want to be disturbed, with sudden violent movements (miners picking at them) or sounds (shouting in the mountains) bringing them on you like a cave in / landslide! Water Elementals want to travel and explore, and are like tourists interested in everything new who don't realize the damage they do until they leave. Air Elementals just want to party and dance flinging things round with wild abandon.

[Jay R]

I'm not quite sure how you'll explain elementals without having elemental planes in some way, shape or form.

That shouldn't be too hard, since the idea of elementals has been around for thousands of years, and the idea of the elemental planes was invented by Gygax just for D&D.

Elementals were originally the animated spirits of the four (or five) fundamental building blocks of the universe are Air, Earth, Water, Fire (and sometimes Ether). So they are basic to the construction of this plane, not alien intrusions into it.

In the 16th Century, Paracelsus identified the four elementals as Gnomes (Earth Elementals), Undines (Water Elementals), Sylphs (Air Elementalz), and Salamanders (Fire Elementals).

More information here.

They want to be free. Prospero finds one bound to a tree in Shakespeare's The Tempest, so she serves him to earn her freedom

[NikitaDarkstar]

That shouldn't be too hard, since the idea of elementals has been around for thousands of years, and the idea of the elemental planes was invented by Gygax just for D&D.

Elementals were originally the animated spirits of the four (or five) fundamental building blocks of the universe are Air, Earth, Water, Fire (and sometimes Ether). So they are basic to the construction of this plane, not alien intrusions into it.

In the 16th Century, Paracelsus identified the four elementals as Gnomes (Earth Elementals), Undines (Water Elementals), Sylphs (Air Elementalz), and Salamanders (Fire Elementals).

More information here.

They want to be free. Prospero finds one bound to a tree in Shakespeare's The Tempest, so she serves him to earn her freedom

Actually I didn't know all of that, but I'm still going to say that I (as in me personally) would have a hard time explaining them and accepting some for of explanation (especially in D&D) without some form of elemental planes. But the info you linked should prove to be interesting reading when it's not so late. :)

[Kid Jake]

Maybe make the elementals represent new life? A forest fire granted sentience by a mischevious god? A pool possessed by a lingering spirit? They lash out because everything is new and terrifying to them, they're little more than infants with destructive power. If there were Elemental Lords, they could simply be elementals who survived their spontaneous generation and matured. Maybe they hate the mortals because of their perceived persecution and their smaller cousins latch onto them out of a sense of familiarity?

Or maybe I'm just rambling.

[Ravens_cry]

Well, elemental are basically physical spirits of their element, the manifestation of their home plane and all it represents.
So naturally they want to spread their element and oppose other elements.
Like they say, light a man a fire, and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm the rest of his life.

[Algerin]

Well most Elementals are Neutral I believe so each one just want's what's best for them.

With no or Animal like intelligence they only want the most simple things of their "Element." Water want's to pool or drift, fire wants to consume fuel and air, Earth just wants to rest there and Air just wants to move.

With actual emotions though the previous pters seem spot on. They compete amongst themselves. A water elemental may brag about pooling in a secluded lake far up a mountain, in the realm of Air Elementals, or an Air Elemental may seek out fire elementals to fight and defeat but remember that most are still neutral so they want whatever benfits them most first of all.

[SgtCarnage92]

Jim Butcher wrote a book series called Codex Alera that has a casting system based around elemental "furies" which are essentially elementals. They appear to be spirits that inhabit the world and bind themselves to the residents of the nation of Alera.

I can see elementals being spirits that inhabit certain areas associated with their elements that are somehow considered special. A special pool for a water elemental. An active volcanic region for fire elementals. Earth elmentals being the embodiment of mountains. Air elementals being responsible for the jetstreams that carry storms.

[Leon]

Love. white text

[Cerlis]

Elementals are classically the pure energy of the elements given form. There is no difference between a rock and an earth elemental other than the fact that the elemental can fend for itself.

So basically, unless you break this trope, you need to think what does the element want?

Fire wants to eat, consume, and grow. It doesnt seek to burn, it doesnt seek to harm. but in order to exist it has to eat....something. Air, tender, oil. And to become more resistant to water and other things that would kill it, it must grow.

Earth wants to stay put. It sits there and its fine. That is its nature. Silence, stillness, patients. But when it IS angry, when it comes into conflict....well....the earth moves. An earth elemental would be almost impossible to convince to DO anything. it wouldnt be willing to help, or fight, or defend, or even move out of the way. It would have to be forced to, intimidated, or provoked. But once the avalanche started there would be no stopping it.

and so on and so forth.

[Scalenex]

Good replies everyone. I'm working on creating an detailed setting.

Part of it is an Age of Dragons which gives way to an Age of Elves and then an Age of Man.

During the First Age, the dragons were the dominant race, all other were either created to serve them or fight them (one of my gods was bitter that very few dragons worshipped her and has a habit of punishing those who shun her by attacking them with her monstrous spawn). The dragons thrived and prospered and built mighty kingdoms which became locked ina grueling war. One dragon king (or queen) to tried a massive spell over the lake at the center of the world in order to monopolize all the fresh water. The spell went awry birthing water and earth elementals in unprecedented numbers and drove them berserk at the same time. The elementals lashed out at each other and everything else they could find, splitting the mega continent into two. Today the tides ebb and flow echoing this fight. Rippling from the center elementals of all types were awakened in unprecedented numbers also driven berserk. Dragon civilization was collapsed beyond repair. Now the dragons are too disunified and small in number to do much besides hoarde and scheme as individuals.

This event was called the First Unmaking. Now they just live as independent treasure hoarers and schemeres. and the gods created elves to administer the new world after the elementals calmed down and receded back into their base elements.

New mountain ranges, lakes, and the like were created. Where earth and air elementals fought and died caves were created underground and flying islands above ground. Fire and earth made volcanos. Water and air made areas of perpetual rain. Fire and air made areas that periodically rain fire.

As an option I'm considering having the First Umaking allow burgeoning sentience/sapience occur for four/some/most/all elementals.

So there's a little more background for what I'm trying to do.

[Dr. Yes]

Living things everywhere, almost without exception, fundamentally want two things: to persist and replicate. Those that don't pass this basic check die off and cease to exist. Do elementals have any form of natural life cycle? Do they have to sustain themselves somehow, or actively do anything to seed new elementals? If so, that's what they'll spend their time doing.

If they spontaneously arise and decay, I guess you could have them feel basically anything. Maybe they spend their brief lives exploring the world around them, or---more likely, from your creation story---trying to destroy anything that isn't fundamentally their own element. Maybe water elementals would ignore natural life for that reason, and so be thought the most "friendly" or amenable to commingling with human society.

[erikun]

Elementals tend to "eat" or gain substance from their chosen element. That is, fire elementals "eat" fire or keep themselves alive by absorbing fire. D&D Elemental Planes tend to be implied to be somewhat sentient, with elementals spontaneously created from it. (This is only lightly implied, though, and is quite possibly wrong.) If so, then most elementals likely exist primarily to continue existing and enjoy themselves. This would primarily include being selfish to personal risk - not voluntarily putting themselves in danger - and sticking to places that they are comfortable. Given that a fire elemental likely gets as much "nutrition" from a normal fire as it does from another fire elemental or burning a humanoid, I doubt that elementals typically hunt or "eat" each other, outside of individuals how enjoy doing so.

The way I see it, most elementals start out as a small bit of elemental sentience (fundamentals) and as they continue to live, move up to animal and eventually humanoid intelligence. As such, you'd be able to find elemental "insects" drifting around with little independent thought, along with more territorial elemental "beasts" and the more intelligent actual elementals. (I say "most" because there are ways for other things to become elementals.) As such, beyond being in their comfort zone and having little to gain from venturing out of it, most elementals are likely very old and have no reason to believe they'll stop living anytime in the future - so interruptions to their 'routine' are generally quite undesired.


Summoning an elemental involves yanking it out of wherever it was and sticking it in an impure (and likely highly uncomfortable) body. They don't have control of their actions. Everything around them is actively wearing away at their body, likely making the experience quite painful. It would be similar to a person suddenly blacking out and finding themselves in the body of a zombie, with full tactile feeling and likely several parts missing, being forced to do things by someone they can't understand. They are likely confused, upset, in pain, and very angry when summoned.


If your summoning spells aren't calling an existing elemental but creating one, using the way elementals are "born" to create the creature, then these probably don't apply. A newly summoned/created fire elemental wouldn't know what it is like to be anything but a bonfire in a forest, and wouldn't be any more annoyed that the fact that its edges are burning out. On the other hand, a fire elemental who has "lived" its entire "life" inside the molten center of a volcano would probably have a nearly identical outlook/attitude when summoned as the one above, who has lived its entire life inside the Fire Elemental Plane. Earth-bound elementals could produce some interesting scenarios, such as Ocean Elementals trying to destroy islands or Magma Elementals tunnelling throughout a volcano, but probably wouldn't change how they react to being summoned any.

I would note that Earth-bound elementals would probably be more like Earthy objects rather than clumps of pure element. That is, you'd more likely see a Cloud Elemental or Wind Elemental than an Air Elemental, or a Cinder Elemental and Wildfire Elemental rather than a Fire Elemental. After all, you're summoning them from someplace specific - from the cinders of a fire or an active wildfire - rather than from a generic "Plane of Fire".

Also, note that D&D4 has an "Elemental Chaos" plane, if you like the idea of elementals coming from somewhere but the Prime Material Plane/Earth but don't like the miscellaneous Elemental Planes.