Elemental

Elementals are spirits of elements and nature, considered the most basic types of spirit<ref>“Elementals. Most basic kind of spirits you get, dealing with nature. Rain, sun, fire, harvest…” - excerpt from Collateral 4.10 </ref> and sometimes listed seperately from other spirits<ref name=":1">Some think dragons are what happens when something feeds into itself. Every dragon is different, and some are more elemental, or mostly elemental, or spirit, or deific. Something like a lesser god that worships itself, or an elemental that takes in more than it puts out.
[...]
There’s no polar opposite. Most are amalgams of elemental and spirit and animal and nightmares, on top of whatever else. You have to beat them at their own game. You get the dragons that are all poison, to the

point that one drop of venom can clear out a lake.  Then you have to

just out-poison them. You get the dragons in some areas of the

East that are more spirit and elemental, like dragons of the mountains

and… it’s like you have to destroy a mountain by hitting it with a bigger mountain. - excerpt from Sine Die 14.3 </ref><ref>“Try it. Try to move every spirit, elemental and Other to another forest. I would like to see it.”
Rose said, “To move the spirits, you’d have to move every single one of the trees and animals here, that the spirits are attached to. You’d lose ground if the animals returned to their old habitats or if trees started sprouting from the ground. I don’t even know you’d begin to move the elementals. You’d probably have to bargain with the Others on a

one-on-one basis… it would be a lifetime of work, if it was even

possible.” - excerpt from Breach 3.2 </ref> - they are the point where the spiritual meets the material and enacts physical law.<ref>Some say elementals are indistinguishable from spirits, but this isn’t correct. Elementals and elemental practices are the work the spiritual does, channeled through strict physical laws, making contact, sometimes violent contact with our world. Spirits govern, but elementals are the doers. - excerpt from Vanishing Points 8.4</ref> They are manipulated by Elementalists and Shamans.

Types

There are presumably are many breeds of elemental as there are elements.

Elementals have changed over time, they used to resemble animals, now more likely to be human. The types of element have also changed, electricity is more common, as is polluted water, radiation and acid rain.<ref>Vanishing Points 8.4</ref> <references />

Lesser Elementals

Blake Thorburn encountered a lesser elemental that resembled a racoon made of debris, mostly sticks and leaves bit with some trash, stones, teeth, and a beak where it's mouth should be. It was able to sense the connections formed by people looking and dart out of sight before it was clearly seen, but by focusing his Sight, he was able to examine it briefly before it fled.<ref>“Look to your three o’clock without turning your head,” she said.
I did.
Something that might have been a raccoon scampered down from the top of the garage to the far side. It probably wasn’t a raccoon.
“It’s gone,” I said.
“It’s there, it’s just out of sight. Keep looking.”
[...]
I caught it a second or two faster than I might have if I wasn’t already focused on the area. It looked like the slop that you dug out of a gutter after a rain. Leaves, branches, twigs, and a bit or two of trash. There were only shadows where eyes were supposed to be, and a few pieces of stone, some teeth, and a bird’s beak where it was supposed

to have teeth.

It stopped in its tracks, seemingly startled, as if my vision had transfixed it.
A moment later, it bolted, disappearing around the corner at edge of Hillsglade House.
“You looked too hard,” she said. “You made a connection, and it noticed. A lesser elemental. Now keep looking. Softer. Relax, and try to see where the longest lines are. If you don’t focus too hard, it’s easier to see them.” - excerpt from Damages 2.4 </ref>

Intermediate Elementals

The Sisters of the Torch employed an intermediate flame spirit in most of their rituals as their go-to power source.<ref name=":0">“Apparently the sisters have this elemental they all use in their rituals. An intermediate flame spirit, the eponymous ‘torch’ of the group, their go-to power source. J.P. went for a walk, came back, and the elemental decided it wanted to set up shop in one of the Astrologer’s pieces of equipment, rather than the housing they’d prepared for it. Apparently there’s a lot of power flowing through her systems at the moment, enough to bait an Elemental closer.” - excerpt from Void 7.4</ref>

The Eye was considered a moderate elemental.<ref name=":2">“I am the Elder Sister, Lord of Toronto. You should know who I am. These three women are elementalists in my employ. This is the Eye of the Storm, a moderate elemental.” - excerpt from Judgement 16.3</ref> Elementals like the Eye, fuelled by powerful traumas or resentments, are common during wars.<ref name="WoG">:Eyes Spirits like the Eye from the Toronto Fire are common-ish in wartime. They generally reflect lingering trauma and sentiment. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Greater Elementals

Some Dragons are elemental or mostly elemental in nature, thought to be formed from elementals that take in more than they put out in an endless feedback loop. Elemental dragons are particularly common in Asia. Most dragons incorporate elements of elemental, spirit, animal, nightmare, and other components, rendering them immune to attempts to counter them with their opposite.<ref name=":1" />

The greatest Elementals are found in elemental Storms, and can be on a par with deities, but manifest for only a brief time. Some speculate that they may survive after the Storm fades, travelling between different Storms, while others believe they are simply short-lived.<ref>Storms will keep going because they turn inward. Winds will loop inward instead of venting out, fires will focus toward the interior of a structure instead of spreading. They can cover wide areas, enough to occlude a small settlement, but they can be as small as a single building. It often requires something catastrophic. This is, at the most extreme end, the uppermost tier of elemental power. The things that live and are comfortable in storms are akin to deities, but as fleeting as their storm. We don’t know how many live for a few hours or a day, and how many recede into other territories or realms, waiting for another storm to wake them, before they emerge there. - excerpt from Vanishing Points 8.4</ref>

Uses

Elementals can be summoned just as any other creature could and used to that effect as minions.<ref name=":3">“Okay,” Ty said. He sprung to his feet, moving out of my field of vision. “Elemental? Ghosts?”
“Wind elemental,” Alexis said. “Anything else is going to be awfully hard to explain.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll get the supplies,” Tiff said. “Myrrh?”
“Myrrh works,” Ty replied.
“We’re low on myrrh,” Alexis said, adding her two cents. “Incense works too.”
“Got both,” Tiff said.
[...]
He finished drawing with chalk, and spoke, “Sylph Elatus.”
The air distorted, a slight fog, a movement of dust, tracing the vague outline of a young boy. The boy darted forward as Tiff opened the library door by hand. - excerpt from Malfeasance 11.8</ref> They can be used as a power source for rituals.<ref name=":2" /> Like a ghost, they can be bound into objects, which helps to stabilise them in the material world.<ref>I reached for my hatchet, touching the handle. “Bound spirit?” he asked. “Wraith? Ghost? Elemental? I’m actually

pretty good at dealing with those.  I’m kind of shit when it comes to

fighting, but if you try using that, then you’re going to be down one trinket, and that looks like pretty intricate work.” - excerpt from Breach 3.5 </ref><ref>Elementalism: The practice of those who deal with the forces of nature, from calling down lightning to creating fire at their fingertips. Conjure spirits of certain elements. Spirits are otherworldly and do not fit easily into the material world, and thus need vessels to be crafted and to operate from. While they become weak points of a sort, both strategically and as a target that can be sundered or stolen away on the battlefield, the vessels often offer minor benefits to those who bear them. - Pact Dice doc by Wildbow </ref> They can be used to animate a vessel, which is known as a Terracotta Soldier.

Notable Elementals

One seen is the wind elemental, Sylph Elatus, which resembled a slight distortion and cloud in the shape of a young boy. It was summonable using a chalk diagram, burning incense (especially myrrh), and saying its name.<ref name=":3" /> The Eye, a destructive elemental fueled by the lingering trauma of a great Fire, is one of the major players in the Toronto Council. The Eye was considered a moderate elemental.<ref name=":2" />

The Sisters of the Torch employed an intermediate flame elemental in most of their rituals as their go-to power source, the "torch" their group was named after, until J.P. Corvidae interfered.<ref name=":0" />

References