What are Elementals?

Elementals as the name implies has to do with the elements. Most forms of elementals depicted in most forms of entertainment, especially gaming, are usually some kind animal or beast. Often times they simply look like barely formed entities or as in Final Fantasy XII, big round balls with different color schemes using specific kinds of attacks.

                                                          




The images above are examples of an elemental in a formless shape. There are kinds of elemental shapes including creatures with a definable face and limbs and others that take on a monstrous warrior type shape.

Now in the reality of the Blood Guard, elementals can be broken down into two separate classifications; bestial and humanoid. Bestial elementals are creatures formed by the combination of certain events, certain places, the interaction of certain elements or objects, and even the clashing of other powers. There will be other methods of creating such elemental beasts, but it is mainly left to the reader's own imagination which allows a greater range and versatility to work with.

Elemental beasts are primarily driven by the instinctive needs for their particular element or the threat presented by an element that is either a direct opposite of itself, similar to itself, or senses that the being/force has an ability/gift capable of either inflicting extensive harm to itself, confining or controlling it, or cause its immediate destruction. This trait is commonly found in sound based elementals and yes, sounds can become an elemental beast under the correct circumstances usually lightning or a similar force interacting with certain kinds of mineral deposits/formations.

The second classification is humanoid, meaning that they either have a human like shape or an actual human form. Several members of the Prism fall into this category and there is an entire sub-division of the Guard devoted solely to elementals. The humanoid elementals are broken down into three sub-categories; natural, awakened, and creationary. There is a reason for this distinction and that is the way in which their powers exist, are generated, maintained, the positive/negative effects, and the way in which it effects the physical form.

The first sub-category is the natural elemental. The definition of natural in regards to elementals is that their powers are active. When a humanoid elemental is born, they either are in their elemental form or manifest elemental powers within the first few weeks of their birth. Natural elements usually have much better control over their element because they have been synchronized with said element for their entire lives. This natural affinity also makes them quite powerful and usually possess a greater range for element based abilities.

Natural elementals are capable of a full elemental conversion, meaning that they can completely shift into their element and relinquishing their human forms altogether. Due to this natural talent, retaking their physical form is simple and causes little to no strain on the body. Natural elementals also possess the ability to generate their element from seemingly thin air; however, after much scientific research into their elemental powers, it has been determined that natural elementals simply rearrange the molecular structure of the environment to the design of their element. Further information into this concept will be posted at a later date.

Examples of natural elementals include but is not limited to: Poseidon, Hook, Mars, Venus, Deathdealer, Silver, Hope, and the list goes on.

The second sub-category of elementals is the awakened variety. They possess similar abilities as their natural counterparts, but there are some limitations in which an awakened elemental cannot overcome...there are always exceptions to this concept, The Second Captain being one of them. Awakened elementals are individuals that have their powers forcibly activated. These powers can be a result of a dormant gene within their DNA or a power that sleeps within their very soul. Oftentimes, only one power is activated, but there are occasions in which both occur.

Due to their powers being awakened later in life, their range of element based abilities is less than a third of a natural's range. Thus limiting their effectiveness, but there are exceptions. When certain criteria or circumstances have been attained, it is possible for an awakened elemental to gain the same versatility as their counterparts and given enough time and experience, they could surpass their natural counterparts.

The biggest difference between an awakened elemental and a natural elemental is the full elemental conversion. Awakened elementals cannot perform a full conversion. Losing one's physical form for the first time is extremely traumatic, so much so that it kills them, simply unable to handle the strain. Even if an awakened elemental survived the conversion, they would not be able to regain their humanoid form, because they don't know how to convert back into a solid state nor do they have the exact definitions of their body.

In the case of The Second Captain, he was fortunate that Her Ladyship was so stubborn and very clever. Light is a lightning elemental, so when he fully converted, the Star Child saved him. By using her own brain, she encoded and stored his electrical pattern into her memory. She folded him into her dreams and kept him safe, but it also resulted in a rather nasty side effect that no one could detect until it was too late to do anything about it.

In order for Light to be extracted from her brain...she was struck by lightning...twice...in a row...while sitting in two feet of water and in the middle of a deluge. Since his original pattern had been an exact copy, the lightning simply acted as a power surge. It reformed his physical body, but he did kind of go flying away from her. Not long after, the duo was cornered by the enemy and when Light was fatally injured, the Star Child acted as a conduit and channeled a single bolt of electricity towards him and giving him just enough power to fully convert into his elemental form and sending her somewhere else.

The problem was that the second conversion was under extreme circumstances and his electrical pattern could not be imprinted on her again, so he was trapped in his elemental state. Fortunately, his great nephew, William, was physically identical to him with the exception of the eyes. By using a specific item to essentially scan his nephew, Light was able to work out how to regain his humanoid form. From then on, he was capable of what a natural elemental could do and given time, he surpassed both his mentor, Mars, and his partner, Poseidon and Hook.

Currently The Second Captain is the only verified awakened elemental, but as the story progresses, there will be others that fall into this category.

The third sub-category of the elemental classification system only recently was added. The reasoning behind the sudden addition is due to a specific Order within the Prism Guard known as the Sekirei Order. This group is based off of the anime called Sekirei and in order to provide a rational explanation for their inclusion, the Creationary category was added. Creationary is a loose reference to Fairy Tail's First Guildmaster, Mavis Vermilion and her Creationary magic. She had been able to utilize the magical energy produced by the bonds of friendship to create a powerful barrier known as Fairy Sphere.

Poseidon's son, Silver Jones

Seeing as how the Sekirei within the anime grew more powerful from their bonds of love, I decided to combine that concept with the awakening aspect. Certain individuals do fall into two or more categories. One of which is Silver Jones. He is a water elemental by birth, a gift granted to him from his father's side. This initially placed him in the natural category; however, his powers were not known to him and remained asleep within him until after a certain event occurred. This placed him in the awakened category, but due to the circumstances of his awakening, a power was accidentally granted to him by the Star Child which also placed him into the third category as well. Silver was later known as a Child of the Sea and Snow, his powers being that of water and ice.

The Sekirei Order is a group of individuals that were granted a specific kind of ability. Usually this gift was a reflection of that person's inner self, but some of the Sekirei were granted a power that actually redefined who they were at a fundamental level. The twin birds of flame, Homura and his sister, Kagari, are excellent examples of this. Homura possessed a fiery disposition to start with, mainly due to his fierce desire to protect others. Meanwhile, his twin sister has a much calmer inner core and would have been a good match with the element of water; however, Kagari had requested a similar power to her brother's which resulted in a gift known as the Healing Flame.

Given Homura's pension for burning pretty much everything, Kagari's healing flame was the perfect complimentary power. Her power could still inflict damage but only to those deemed as threats or if an external source of power caused her flames to surge beyond her control temporarily. The twin birds of flame are often partnered with the bird of water, Tsukimi of the Waves. She is able to contain Homura's destructive tendencies and she augments Kagari's healing flame with her own healing abilities.

Most, if not all, of the Order of Birds...a title they chose after listening to the Star Child's stories about the Sekirei from her world...fall into this Creationary category. This category also umbrellas many of the other members of the Guard that were granted powers of a non-elemental nature. Further information will be provided in future postings.

Now that we have the classifications out of the way, it's time to move on to some of the specifics. I have already discussed the bestial elementals; however, there is a few things left to cover before moving on to the humanoid elementals. When it comes to bestial elementals, most are sentient but lack any true form of intelligence. There are some that do, in fact, have intelligence and these elemental beasts are usually found within another living creature. An example of this is John Druitt aka The Bladed Reaper.

His name within the Guard is Black British, but he wasn't always a member of the Guard. During his early years, he was a member of The Five, a group of five scientists conducting experiments with the blood of the sanguine vampiras... basically ancient vampire blood. A serum was created from this blood and was injected into the members of The Five: Helen Magnus, John Druitt, Sir James Watson, Nigel Griffin, and Nikola Tesla.

Helen Magnus

John Druitt

Sir James Watson

Nigel Griffin

Nikola Tesla

More about The Five as a whole will be posted later along with their separate profiles. Each member of The Five eventually becomes a part of the Guard; the only one without a special name is Watson. He's tricky. Helen is known as Epsilon, John is Black British, Nigel is known as Jester, and the absolutely scrumptious Nikola Tesla is known as King...yes, I am completely biased in regards to the Father of Electricity and the Inventor of Radio Waves. Watch the tv series, Sanctuary, and you might understand why i like him so much.

*clears throat* Anyways...how does ancient vampire blood tie in to bestial elementals? It's a glorified wake up call. John is perfectly sane after the injection of the serum. It was when Helen gave her blood to him as a means to prolong his life...it awakened an elemental beast that laid dormant within the bloodline of his family. Even dormant, it does somewhat effect a person's personality, specifically the need for violence, the thrill of the hunt, and their bloodlust. Normally this kind of creature passes on to the next generation once they are born; however, due to its awakening within John, the majority of its essence remained with him.

During this time period, there is a notorious and infamous serial killer lurking about. This killer is known as Jack the Ripper. John himself is not the Ripper, but the elemental beast within him is. In the universe of the Blood Guard, John is a prisoner in his own mind. He has no control over his actions. He struggled against the creature, sometimes breaking through and temporarily regaining control of himself, only to be shoved back inside. Eventually this creature is removed from him and a few years later, he joins the Guard and takes his daughter, Ashley Magnus, on as an apprentice blade. More on them at a later date.

I haven't decided which name to use with which creature. Raiju, Kaiju, and Sanju are names of specific beasts within the story. It's just a matter of picking the one that best suits them. Moving along, certain types of elemental beasts can be absorbed or assimilated by humanoid elementals, but when the beast is a mixture of elements, it makes it extremely difficult to contain it. Mars, a phoenix and fire elemental, attempts to absorb one but due to its sound base core, she is unable to fully absorb it and becomes trapped in her elemental state. Once a certain individual with the gift of sound manipulation shows up, she is freed from the creature and able to return to her human form. More on her in her future profile.

The last thing I will cover in this post, since it is getting incredibly long, is the longevity of the humanoid elementals. Humanoid elementals do not age like normal humans. Given their connection to nature itself, they have a consistent flow of life energy. That's not to say that they can't be killed. While in their human form, they can die as easily as everyone else. They do have a tiny bit of a loophole, sort of a way of cheating death, and that is the spark of life often referred to as a vessel of power. Should even the smallest amount of their original essence/element exists, humanoid elementals can come back. The circumstances of their death and how much of their essence remains determines how long it will take for them to eventually reform.

And that's it. I'm done on this one, but not to worry, dearies. I will be typing up another post shortly because there is simply so much to cover and a lot of people involved. I'm not sure what the topic will be next time, but it will be another piece of the puzzle that is The Realm and oh what a puzzle it is. *giggles* Good night, everyone, and seeya next time!