History Main / ElementalEmbodiment

* Spren in Brandon Sanderson's ''Strormlight Archives'' series. Not just the traditional elements but also emotional states and natural prcesses lit decay and rot.

And sport and flutter in the Fields of Air.''

Compare with AnthropomorphicPersonification. See also MadeOfEvil, for when the element is... well, ''Evil.''

Variations include {{Golem}}s and {{Snowlems}}. May have VolcanicVeins.

* ''{{MARDEK}}'' features elementals on the Elemental Temples. Supposedly they are created by the elemental energy emitted by the [[MineralMacguffin Great Crystals]]. They appear as swirly glows with a symbol-like squiggle on them. They are mindless and don't ''attack'' so much as ''[[NonMaliciousMonster leak energy when disrupted]]''. As of chapter 3, you only encounter Earth, Fire, Water and [[MadeOfEvil Dark]] versions, but later chapters may have Air, Light, and Aether elementals as well. Probably not any Fig elementals though; as far as we know, there isn't any Fig crystal. [[spoiler:[[WildMassGuessing Unless that's what the ]][[ArtifactOfDoom "Violet Crystal"]] is...]]
* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' features the four classical elementals; each one has wildly different appearances and capabilities.
** The Manual of the Planes expansion adds several different elemental planes, with corresponding entries for elementals of each para- and quasi- type. These could include ooze elementals, steam elementals, salt elementals, etc.
** 4th edition has mixed this up (literally) with the Elemental Chaos replacing the old ordered Elemental Planes; the Chaos is basically an infinite orgy of the four major elements (similar to Limbo, a plane of chaos with swirling elemental matter in previous editions). The elemental matter of the plane can randomly gain awareness; travelers in the Elemental Chaos risk being chased by hovering lava flows or eaten by a hungry canyon. Most elementals are 'corrupted' or mixed with other elements (creating things like an Elemental which is a tornado that is on fire). The classic, 'pure' elementals didn't appear in a 4th Edition Monster Manual until Monster Manual 3.
** For the curious, one existing description of the Elemental Chaos is thus:
--> Here, flame speaks and lightning dreams, iron hates and seas hunger. Islands of earth, ash, mud, salt, or semisolid smoke and flame, some as vast as continents, float amid an endless sky. Rivers of water, lava, or liquid air flow from oceans bounded by nothing solid, cross landscapes of broken crystal, and spill over cliff faces made of tangible lightning. Winds of heavy vapor are guided by currents of chaos, whipping into enormous storms of burning hail and sharp-edged thunder.
* The avatars of the four elements are recurring bosses in the ''FinalFantasy'' series, going by the name "the Four Fiends".
** ''FinalFantasyI'' and ''[[FinalFantasyIX IX]]'' had [[TheUndead Lich]] for earth, [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Marilith]] for fire, [[EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods Kraken]] for water and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tiamat]] for air.
** ''FinalFantasyIV'' had [[TheUndead Scarmiglione]] for earth, [[FakeKing Cagnazzo]] for water, [[EvilIsSexy Barbariccia]] for air and [[WorthyOpponent Rubicante]] for fire.
** ''FinalFantasyXI'' and ''[[FinalFantasyXII XII]]'' had elementals that would occasionally appear in some areas (in a couple varieties of toughess in XII's case.) They're usually way stronger than any of the other enemies in the area, but luckily they would leave you alone unless you attacked them or used magic nearby. Of course, in XII you could land yourself in a heap of trouble by having your characters automatically cast one of their buffs when it wore off...
* Amusingly played with by ''OrderOfTheStick'', where the cleric Redcloak proves the value of a rudimentary education in chemistry with Chlorine Elementals and Titanium Elementals.
** In case you're wondering, the Titanium Elementals were fired out of catapults during a castle assault, and the chlorine elemental was used to kill infantry with its poison gas.
** Redcloak also takes the opportunity to point out that fire isn't even an element, 'they're not called reactionals'.
*** Of course anyone that does that kind of things in actual D&D campaigns is usually labelled a {{munchkin}}.
*** None of the four basic elements is an element by modern terminology - air is a mixture, water a compound, "earth" a very vague combination of chemicals, and fire a chemical reaction. However, they're more closely related to the states of matter - Earth = Solid; Water = Liquid; Air = Gas; Fire = Plasma.

* ''[[ChangelingTheLost Changeling: the Lost]]'' has changelings of the Elemental seeming, people who were taken by TheFairFolk and literally turned into mighty oaks, flames for forges, and burbling streams before escaping back to Earth. They're hardier than the typical human, but have trouble relating to others due to spending so much time as an inanimate object.
** The Inanimae of ''[[ChangelingTheDreaming Changeling: the Dreaming]]'' are fae spirits bonded to the elements - air, earth, fire, water, wood, and human constructs.
* Elementals exist in the world of ''{{Exalted}}'', too; a few are mindless, but they're generally spirits in the same vein as the gods, using a lot of the same Charms and abilities. Because they're naturally material in Creation, and come from the raw elements in the normal world, though, they're considered bumpkins by the actual gods. Except for the most powerful elementals, that is. Lesser Elemental Dragons are NOT fucked with. And Greater Elemental Dragons? [[ApocalypseHow Umm...]]

* In the NES game ''Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II'', the first four bosses are the elementals of wind, water, fire, and earth.

* ''TheElderScrolls'' games have both elemental automatons (called "golems" in ''Arena'' and "atronaches" in ''Daggerfall'') and elemental Daedra ("Daemon" in Arena, "Daedra" in ''Daggerfall'', and "atronaches" otherwise) hidden in their bestiaries.
** Constructed golems only existed pre-''Morrowind''. ''Arena'' included Ice, Stone, and Iron and ''Daggerfall'' introduced Fire, Flesh, and the unseen types called Air, Water, and Earth.
** Daedra have always been common to TheElderScrolls games. ''Arena'' had only Fire Daemons, ''Daggerfall'' included both Fire and Frost Daedra, while every game past ''Morrowind'' has included a third type called the Storm Atronach.
** Pre-Morrowind, all atronachs were constructed, and the descriptions defined them as the standard D&D golem, with a few additional flavors. From Morrowind on, they became elementals native to Oblivion.
* WorldOfWarcraft has plenty of elementals. There's the usual fire/water/earth/air ones, but also various combinations of the types (for example lava=fire+earth) and more exotic types such as arcane elementals and voidwalkers (while technically demon- not elemental-type mobs, they can be considered elementals of shadow). Plant creatures are also elemental-type mobs.
** Notably ''not'' mindless mooks, they were the original inhabitants of the planet before life was created (and they were banished to AnotherDimension) and have had civilizations (and wars) that have lasted millions of years. The little guys tend to get enslaved rather easily, but the [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking leaders]] [[PhysicalGod tend to cause geographical changes when summoned.]]
** In addition to the four classic elemental lords the Burning Crusade expansion also introduced Murmur, the elemental lord of ''sound''. However no lesser such entities have been encountered as of yet, making Murmur's origin something of a mystery.
*** According to the in-game hints about its origin, it verges on the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] ''[[TooDumbToLive summoning]]''.

* The elementals first appear in ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic 2'' as natural creature with traditional Air/Earth/Fire/Water. In 3's ''Armageddon's Blade'' expansion pack, they are part of new ''Conflux'' town and new ''Psychic'' was added as new elemetal. They have upgrade form as Storm/Magma/Energy/Ice and Magic. While Psychic elemental was removed from later games, the tradition four remain.
* {{Drakengard}} ally characters have elemental summons: Leonard has a fairy (sylph), Arioch has Undine and Salamander, and Seere has... a golem. They do, however, mention a stonecrafting race that makes (different) golems, they [[WildMassGuessing might be gnomes]].
* Spiritmasters in ''{{Aion}}'' summon these.
* The cartoon incarnations of Thunder and Lightning from ''TeenTitans''.
* {{GURPS}}: Dungeon Fantasy (a mash up of D&D tropes) allows Clerics and Holy Warriors to have a Divine Servitor like this. A few of the elemental choices are slightly odd, like Beauty and Deception.
** In fact ''GURPS: Magic'' has a bunch of spells that turn you into the elemental embodiments of everything from Fire to ''Plastic''.
* MSFHigh: Rainer MAY qualify for this.
* The ''WorldOfMana'' series has the four elementals in the page description (Undine, Jinn/Sylph, Gnome, and Salamander), as well as the darkness elemental Shade, the light elemental Lumina, the wood elemental Dryad, and the [[{{Lunacy}} moon]] elemental Luna. Legend of Mana replaced Luna with Aura the metal elemental.
* ProgressQuest has Bacon, Cheese, Hair, Sand and... Porn Elementals. Talk about basic building blocks of the universe.
* The {{Golem}}s of ''EnchantedArms'' are made up of all sorts of material, but the [[BigBad Queen of Ice]] and her [[TheDragon dragons]] are explicitly god-level elementals.
* The Four Elementals are summoned against you in the second ''QuestForGlory'' game. Based on some jokes made in the original series, the FanRemake includes a Pizza Elemental as an EasterEgg.
* ''KingdomOfLoathing'' includes a Grass Elemental, a Spaghetti Elemental and a BASIC Elemental. (The programming language.)
* The five ancient races from TheSagaOfTheNobleDead each embody one of the elements and bear similarities to Paracelsus's original examples. An additional race is also present representing the element 'spirit'. The life force of a member of each of these races was sacrificed in order to help create [[spoiler:Magiere]].
* Although they don't quite fit this trope, in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender,'' each of the [[ElementalPowers four bending arts]] has a source in nature; [[DishingOutDirt earthbending]] comes from badgermoles, [[PlayingWithFire firebending]] comes from the dragons, [[BlowYouAway airbending]] came from the Flying Bison, and [[MakingASplash waterbending]] comes from the moon.
* CodexAlera has wild furies. They usually just cause mindless destruction based on their particular element and can be destroyed with the opposite element. They can be a very large threat if many furies of all the elements are forced together, since trying to counter one type of fury just increases the power of another type.
* These creatures have their own world, Zoomenon, in the QuantumGravity series. There are the basic ones of earth, wind, water, fire, and then ones for things like wood, metal, etc., up to and including [[spoiler:numbers, which give off some type of pulse to mark whether they're 1, 2, 3, or whatever else]]. In addition, in Zoomenon, any element can be found in abundance in its pure state, regardless of how reactive it is.
* ''{{Rifts}}'' treats its elementals much like ''Dungeons & Dragons'', but with the added relationship to ''Warlocks'', which in this game are magic-users who form pacts with Elemental Intelligences for their power. Elementals and Warlocks have an amazingly cordial relationship, and an Elemental that has been ordered to say, rampage through a city, will actually stop to talk to another warlock it meets while there, and will even helpfully tell him how to stop it if he should ask ("my summoner's over in the mansion six miles east of here, why not take it up with him?").
* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has had a few elemental embodiments. Legendary pokemon tend to be this.
* The ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' had a few characters who were the embodiment of the elements. Ifrit was a literal fire demon from Islamic mythology. Maelstrom was the "lord of storms" and could control wind, wave, and lightning. Indian superheroine Dhara is the [[PhysicalGod embodiment]] of the Vedic goddess of the earth.
* {{Shadowrun}} has standrard elementals that are summonable by Mages butt also SPirits of Land, Sky, Water and Man which are summoned by Shamans (and have subdivisions dependent on Terrain like Lake or Swamp Spirits).

* ''{{MARDEK}}'' features elementals on the Elemental Temples. Supposedly they are created by the elemental energy emitted by the [[MineralMacguffin Great Crystals]]. They appear as swirly glows with a symbol-like squiggle on them. They are mindless and don't ''attack'' so much as ''[[NonMaliciousMonster leak energy when disrupted]]''. As of chapter 3, you only encounter Earth, Fire, Water and [[MadeOfEvil Dark]] versions, but later chapters may have Air, Light, Fig and Aether elementals as well.

* ''KingdomOfLoathing'' includes a Grass Elemental and a Spaghetti Elemental.
** And a BASIC Elemental. (The programming language.)

* ''Pokemon'' has had a few elemental embodiments. Legendary pokemon tend to be this.

* ''{{MARDEK RPG}}'' features elementals on the Elemental Temples. Supposedly they are created by the elemental energy emitted by the [[MineralMacguffin Great Crystals]]. They appear as swirly glows with a symbol-like squiggle on them. They are mindless and don't ''attack'' so much as ''[[NonMaliciousMonster leak energy when disrupted]]''. As of chapter 3, you only encounter Earth, Fire, Water and [[MadeOfEvil Dark]] versions, but later chapters may have Air, Light, Fig and Aether elementals as well.

* ''MARDEK RPG'' features elementals on the Elemental Temples. Supposedly they are created by the elemental energy emitted by the [[MineralMacguffin Great Crystals]]. They appear as swirly glows with a symbol-like squiggle on them. They are mindless and don't ''attack'' so much as ''[[NonMaliciousMonster leak energy when disrupted]]''. As of chapter 3, you only encounter Earth, Fire, Water and [[MadeOfEvil Dark]] versions, but later chapters may have Air, Light, Fig and Aether elementals as well.

* ''MARDEK RPG'' features elementals on the Elemental Temples. Supposedly they are created by the elemental energy emitted by the [[MineralMacguffin Great Crystals]]. They appear as swirly glows with a symbol-like squiggle on them, and don't ''attack'' so much as ''[[NonMaliciousMonster leak energy when disrupted]]''. As of chapter 3, you only encounter Earth, Fire, Water and [[MadeOfEvil Dark]] versions, but later chapters may have Air, Light, Fig and Aether elementals as well.

Variations include {{Golem}}s and {{Snowlems}}.

** 4th edition has mixed this up (literally) with the Elemental Chaos replacing the old ordered Elemental Planes; the Chaos is basically an infinite orgy of the four major elements and you actually rarely get 'pure' elementals. Most elementals are 'corrupted' or mixed with other elements (creating things like an Elemental which is a tornado that is on fire.)

The TropeMaker is the occultist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elemental Paracelsus's]] description of the four elemental creatures: Undines (water), Sylphs (wind), Salamanders (fire), and Gnomes (earth). [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondine_(mythology) Undines]] are essentially [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymph naked women (usually robed in fantasy) that live in rivers and streams]], Sylphs are usually represented as small winged [[FairyCompanion fairies]], Salamanders are generally quite a bit larger than the real-life variety, live in hot places like volcanoes, and breathe fire, and Gnomes are [[OurGnomesAreWeirder pretty much what you'd expect]] although they usually don't get much social interaction if they're relegated to being elementals, so any quirkiness they may have is usually lost.

* ''{{Rifts}}'' treats it's elementals much like ''Dungeons & Dragons'', but with the added relationship to ''Warlocks'', which in this game are magic-users who form pacts with Elemental Intelligences for their power. Elementals and Warlocks have an amazingly cordial relationship, and an Elemental that has been ordered to say, rampage through a city, will actually stop to talk to another warlock it meets while there, and will even helpfull tell him how to stop it if he should ask ("my summoner's over in the mansion six miles east of here, why not take it up with him?").

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** The fan-remake [[spoiler:adds, as a very special EasterEgg, the legendary Pizza Elemental that was hinted at during the later games of the series]].

* The Four Elementals are summoned against you in the second ''QuestForGlory'' game. Based on some jokes made in the original series, the FanRemake includes a Pizza Elemental.

The ultimate extension of ElementalRockPaperScissors, the Elemental Embodiment is when the elements that are the basic building blocks of the universe [[EverythingTryingToKillYou get up and come for you]]. Usually called "elementals". They are almost always mindless {{Mooks}}, but might well be very dangerous. If they're sentient, that usually means that they have status as a type of NatureSpirit; if they're mindless but associated with nature anyway, they may serve as a midway point between [[GaiasVengeance Mother nature attacking you]] with animals and with natural disasters. They can often be [[ElementalBaggage summoned out of thin air]] by people with ElementalPowers.

The ultimate extension of ElementalRockPaperScissors, the Elemental Embodiment is when the elements that are the basic building blocks of the universe [[EverythingTryingToKillYou get up and come for you]]. Usually called "elementals". They are almost always mindless {{Mooks}}, but might well be very dangerous. If they're sentient, that usually means that they have status as a type of NatureSpirit; if they're mindless but associated with nature anyway, they may serve as a midway point between [[GaiasVengeance Mother nature attacking you]] with animals and with natural disasters.

* Classic adventure game ''QuestForGlory II'' makes you deal with with four elementals attempting to destroy the city in which your character currently resides.