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thesilentmind
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 Elemental Sub-Species
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I was curious as to what you all considered actual sub-species of Elementals. I know some view dryads as a sub-species, while some consider dryads to be Fae. What makes a creature specifically an elemental? Do you believe there can be otherkin that aren't within a sub-species?
Personally, I consider myself to just be a plain earth elemental, no sub-species involved. But I thought it would be a good idea to investigate the sub-species of elementals just in case. So any resources or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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 Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:56 pm
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Nanara
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My personal understanding of elementals is that they are energy beings, i.e. that they're not physical. If they're not physical then much of the basis for defining a subspecies (i.e. physical differences) are mute. That said... that's only my understanding of elementals and non-physical beings of this world, I could very definitely be wrong or there could be other groups of elementals I've not experienced yet... so who knows?
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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:45 am
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Eternity
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Hrm...this is what I found when I was doing research on elementals some time ago. Of course, take it with a grain of salt.
Gnomes (earth)
Subtypes: Pygmies, sprites sylvestres, satyrs, pans, hamadryads, durdalis, elves, brownies, etc
Undines (water)
Subtypes: oreades, nereides, limoniades, naiades, water sprites sea maids, mermaids, potamides, etc.
Sylphs (air)
Subtypes: I have no idea
Salamanders (fire)
Subtypes: I have no idea
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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:01 am
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Arethinn
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Personally I consider dryads to be neither fae nor elementals, but nature spirits: the indwelling spirit of a natural feature, which includes plants, stones, bodies of water, etc. There is some similarity with elementals, but they're not identical.
Elementals, by definition, are composed of (the energy of) their element, so as far as subspecies the question is "what are the elements?" -- do we use earth, air, fire, and water, or some other scheme? -- and those would be your subspecies of elementals.
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 9:59 pm
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Aska
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For me an Elemental is a being without a physical body, the most basic existence I can think of. It’s a primal force that one should value and respect. (And not only fire, water, air and earth…)
Hmmm…So I can’t really think of something like a Sub-Species. This is probably because I don’t put much of a difference between Elementals and Nature-Spirits. For me, they are connected to each other and the border defining them as two different existences starts blurring at some point. Like they both stand on different ends, and in between that space there are a lot of beings, and those in the very middle can’t be put either way. So would those be the sub-species?
Well, I hope this wasn’t too confusing…
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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:29 am
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Miniar
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Elementals, to me, always just seem like antrhopomorphised representations of natural forces.
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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:28 pm
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thesilentmind
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Thanks everyone for your opinions.
Personally, I agree with them being energetic beings and there not being any sub-species beyond the element type.
| Quote: |
Hrm...this is what I found when I was doing research on elementals some time ago. Of course, take it with a grain of salt.
Gnomes (earth)
Subtypes: Pygmies, sprites sylvestres, satyrs, pans, hamadryads, durdalis, elves, brownies, etc
Undines (water)
Subtypes: oreades, nereides, limoniades, naiades, water sprites sea maids, mermaids, potamides, etc.
Sylphs (air)
Subtypes: I have no idea
Salamanders (fire)
Subtypes: I have no idea |
I have seen some references to Elementals being categorized this way, but most of that has been from, well, fluffy Wiccan books. I find the idea of all earth elementals being Gnomes hard believe, because what information I've read on gnomes show they have physical characteristic unique to them. This wouldn't really allow an elf or pan to be a sub-type of a gnome. But I could be wrong here, I can only go by what I personally know. This same thinking, though, applies to the others as well. Though, I could somewhat see Sylphs being air elementals, as I've never heard of a creature that is supposedly also within that category.
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:46 pm
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