History Main / ElementalBaggage

** its a bit more complicated then that. The summons are based on Druidic tradition/ritual which needs Element, concentration and gesture. The Wizzard tradition from which the iconic flame-ray comes does not need the element but proper incantation. The source-material goes more along the D&D lines with elemental planes. A way to get a druidic ritual properly wizzardized can be a mayor plothook and crowning moment for a player character.

* ''{{Franchise/Mistborn}}'' by BrandonSanderson has a more literal example where Allomancers require specific metals (both elemental and alloys) to fuel their abilities. Each element and alloy corresponds to a specific power and running low on (or out of) a particular element comes up from time to time. Allomancers generally carry several vials of metal flakes suspended in alcohol to refuel during encounters. Controlling the single known source of one (fictional) metal is actually one of the pillars of the economy early on.

* GreatMazinger has its Thunder Break attack, in which Great unleashes a weaponized bolt of lightning at his opponent. Sometimes (typically in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' and ''Anime/{{Mazinkaiser}}''), this includes sending a jolt up into the sky, which somehow causes a thunderstorm that sends an even bigger bolt back down for Great to use.

* Used heavily within ''CityOfHeroes'' and its sister game, ''CityOfVillains''. Superpowered characters and {{NPC}}s regularly toss lightning, summon fire in a variety of forms, create blizzards or jagged shards of ice, even generate radioactive material on demand. Made most obvious during Hurl, which picks up a chunk of rock off the ground and tosses it, even when used in the middle of an ocean or on top of an empty shipping container, or in ''mid-air''.

* Similar to the above example, dragons in ''TheElricSaga'' don't literally breathe fire, but rather have a caustic venom that causes flammable materials to burn. They have a limited supply of the venom and can run out in an extended battle.

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', this is {{Hand Wave}}d through the Elemental Planes of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, from which these elements can be summoned, and which double as exotic adventuring locales. If you're actually ''on'' those planes, spells involving the plane's element get a free power boost, while spells involving their opposed element -- fire/water or earth/air -- are much harder to cast.

* ''{{Franchise/Misborn}}'' by BrandonSanderson has a more literal example where Allomancers require specific metals (both elemental and alloys) to fuel their abilities. Each element and alloy corresponds to a specific power and running low on (or out of) a particular element comes up from time to time. Allomancers generally carry several vials of metal flakes suspended in alcohol to refuel during encounters. Controlling the single known source of one (fictional) metal is actually one of the pillars of the economy early on.

** The best example can be found in the Masoukishin units, each of which is blessed with the power of an elemental spirit. [[PlayingWithFire Granveil]] and [[MakingASplash Gaddess]] in particular generate massive amounts of fire and water (respectively) when attacking. On the other hand, [[DishingOutDirt Zamzeed]] is more concerned with manipulating existing sources of earth ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation which doesn't stop its pilot from using those attacks ''in space'', mind you]]) and [[BlowYouAway Cybuster]] doesn't use wind-element attacks as much as it uses PureEnergy and SuperSpeed.

** This is ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'', the game where under the right circumstances, a technique shown to be destroying the Universe does ''ten'' damage, in a series where unit health is usually in the ''thousands''. WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is required when you start the game up.

** ''UltimateFantasticFour'' had Johnny become a walking fusion reactor; his entire body has reconfigured itself to be as perfect an energy store as possible (which results in some bad effects on his health, as you might expect for someone who turns his stores of body fat into ''plasma''). WarrenEllis tried ''very'' hard to justify Johnny. He also has a protective layer of microscopic scales to protect him from this flame. Though that still doesn't explain how he flies...

* Any ''FinalFantasy'' game, as well as most {{RPG}}'s in general, as magic usually allows you to make flames, ice chunks, etc. appear out of thin air. Although you do have to sacrifice some [[ManaMeter MP]].

** Spells that create stuff always include the Conjurations spell school (for example, Bolt of Fire is a Fire/Conjuration spell). Spells that require ElementalBaggage never do.

*** Katara, in particular, carries a bag of "bending water"--literal ElementalBaggage--for use in waterless places.

* Used in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' and its spin-off, where elemental users seem capable of generating large amounts of their chosen element from thin air. Of course, much of it is explicitly explained as magic.

* Lucy from ''Manga/FairyTail'' can only [[SummonMagic summon]] [[MakingASplash Aquarius]] when she has a fairly large source of water but to compensate Aquarius is [[WateryWallOfDoom always a match deciding spell]].

* ''MahouSenseiNegima'' often has characters summoning giant chunks of ice, balls of fire, pillars of stone, etc. out of nowhere. It's [[AWizardDidIt magic]], though, so no one seems to care.\\

* Averted in ''DarkerThanBlack''. [[AnIcePerson Ice-user]] November 11 and April, who can create cloudbursts, both need existing water to use their powers.
* Used in ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex'' and its spin-off, where elemental users seem capable of generating large amounts of their chosen element from thin air. Of course, much of it is explicitly explained as magic.

* [[PoisonousPerson Coco]] from ''{{Toriko}}'' plays with this trope. He can only produce a limited amount of poison at a time as his poison is composed of his own bodily fluids, in other words, the poison he produces the more dehydrated he becomes. At the start of the series his maximum was 15 liters of poison, however due to his Gourmet Cells evolving and learning Food Immersion, he can produce a larger quantity of poison than before, although their is still a limit.

* Similar to the above example, dragons in ''TheElricSaga'' don't literally breathe fire, but rather have a caustic venom that causes flammable materials to burn.

* Addressed during the Bohrok arc of the ''{{Bionicle}}'' comics. Gali's water-summoning abilities apparently work by forcing water vapor in the air to condense on command: she's able to summon a flood in the middle of a desert.
** That still creates a problem of scale, however-- there simply isn't that much water vapor in the atmospheric column over a dry desert.

** IIRC, they were stated to have large gas-sacs inside them and small nub in their mouth capable of generating a small electric spark. They exhale the flammable gas while igniting the spark and viola: instant fire-breath. I think the gas-sacs were also supposed to be part of how they fly, big buoyancy pockets inside them let them use their wings to fly (which otherwise would be insufficient to carry their large frames)
*** I think it's a [[TheFlightOfDragons completely different work]] where this is the case.
*** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Um, ok.]] The problem is that the chemical energy of that flammable gas has to come from ''somewhere''. The dragons simply can't consume nearly enough calories (especially by eating calorie-depleted ''ashes'') to produce such a flammable substance in such large quantities.
** This could be explained as him simply spreading the flames via the flammable gasses in the air.

*** Which blatantly ignores the time [=McGonagall=] transmuted a desk into a live pig...''which is nothing more than unprepared bacon, after all.''
*** It just says you can't create food out of nothing. If you could turn it into something else, you should logically (despite the whole "magic" thing) be able to turn something into food, or as the case may be ''back'' into food. It could also be because food has to have undergone some sort of reaction (i.e. being ''cooked''). I'm pretty sure some raw carrots could be summoned, or something like that.
**** Well couldn't you turn air into food then? Or dust particles? Or create an uncooked food and then cook it with magic?
*** It wouldn't surprise me if the wizards don't actually know exactly how their magic works. Dumbledore is described as doing things no one had ever done before in his fifth-year exams. Voldemort made up the whole resurrection spell. Hermione and Professor [=McGonagall=] are the kind of people who like rules and will stick to them in spite of contradictory evidence. Face it, if you can make things bigger on the inside than on the outside, brew luck, and make brooms fly at extreme velocities without so much as a single case of whiplash, who knows what's possible?
*** Just guessing here, but the problem is likely something to do with biological metabolism having trouble processing magical matter--especially if it was digested and metabolised, then removed by some magic-neutralization thing. You'd be full of microscopic holes.
*** [[WildMassGuessing Perhaps the magical world is the result of an]] [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Infinite Improbability Device]]?[[note]]The Infinite Improbability Device (or perhaps just a Finite Improbability Device) resulted in a highly-improbable mutation that allowed its carriers to control probability in certain predefined but as-yet undiscovered ways. The [[MagicAIsMagicA supposed rules of magic]] are entirely arbitrary, as they are the result of Infinite Improbability, so anything that goes...goes.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' had Frozone using water that's either in the air or in his body, and one scene suggests that the air is too dry and he's short on body water so he's screwed, but after a single drink from a cup from a water cooler, he creates enough ice to entirely cover a man and ''stop a bullet''.