Reaching Beyond, a guide to Elemental Calling Magic

The elements are everywhere. They compose everything that is the world.

Elementalism users, most commonly elves, discovered that among the elements that they manipulated were some form of 'vital' essence of the element. It seemed to reside in the purest form of the element that was being sampled, an essence that had a form of consciousness, but no ability to move or act of their own volition. Even more strangely, it was discovered that the consciousness split as easily as the material it inhabited did, becoming smaller, less aware, bits of the whole that could become one the moment they were reconnected.

Elven theory generated over thousands of years of research and religious development believes that when the first word was spoken and the world came into being, the will that brought the world into its form was broken up into the materials that constructed it. There they continued to reside, countless millennium later, dormant and waiting to be called to action again. It still left many questions unanswered.

An Elemental Calling connects the mage to that elemental essence, and provides the elemental essence with power. In doing so gives the consciousness the energy needed to animate the element it is inhabiting, bringing it to life. The power is expended at a constant rate, dependant only on the factors of the size of the consciousness and the purity of the substance that it inhabits. A small elemental the size of a cat could take a small investment of power and remain operable for weeks, while an elemental of the same purity but the size of a house could only operate for minutes at best on the same amount of power.

Different elementals have different purity concerns. Water, earth, and fire elementals are concerned of the purity of their base material, or the material being burned in the case of fire elementals. Air and life elementals have notably less purity dependant requirements to be used. The elements presence is usually all that's required, but each comes with their own limitations that separate them from the other three. Air is usually completely connected to the air around it, so there have been no elementalism users who have successfully conjured a full sized air elemental since it would require more power than could be easily concieved of. Life is difficuult in that it worries not about purity, but can only animate 'thoughtless' forms of life. Trees, grass, flowers, many plants and some simple life forms, but never a living thing capable of moving of their own volition. A living, moving creature is already possessed with a will and ability to move of its own. There have been fables of ancient life elementalists calling elementals of pure life energy, but this has never been confirmed.

Elementals are interesting beings of purpose. When conjured, they possess a will of their own, personalities can vary but invariably they are pliable to the instructions of the one who gave them form. They follow commands given absolutely, with no flexibility or creative license to adjust to changes in a situation. They do not comprehend nuanced orders and will take the most obvious, direct interpretation of said orders. If not able to understand them, the elemental instead does nothing. This has led to several small disasters or even deaths due to inexperienced Elementalists. Imagine if you will an earth elemental commanded "Don't let anyone into my tower". Since the mage said anyone, the elemental would also attempt to bar the mage's path should he return.

On this end there are members of Elven family trees who devote their Pursuits to designing commands to the specifications of the Elementalist's desires. Similar to human Lawyers, these elves figure out how to phrase a command to an elemental to do exactly what the Elementalist desires, including contingencies and response actions during certain situations. Many elves who dedicate their entire life to Elementalism start off spending a few decades in this Pursuit before practicing Elementalism so they can manage on their own.

Elementals form a serious part of Elven culture, though the Suo'hdi are far better suited to the process than their dark-adopting Sha'hdi. Even so, Sha'hdi use of elementalism far outstrips human use of the art. Humans have little of the research and understanding that the elves do on the subject, and most of what they do have is barely enough to enable an experienced mage to conjure a small elemental for a few days at best. Elves use elementals for their cleaning, sewage systems, regrowing forests damaged by wildfires, preserving food supplies, personal security and much more.