This is a new card in my Trello for the Magic Elementals presenting feneral information about them in life and death brought about by conversations I’ve had with others.
It should be stated first and foremost that the Elemental is not entirely synonymous with another wild animal, simply imbued with some Magic for show. No, it is rather more accurate to say that they’re of their own cycle of life. One that more cloesly relates to the Magic Energy found in our skies and seas than the goings on of nature around them.
To further elaborate on my point, to kill an Elemental is a near-fruitless effort if one seeks a trophy from them, as the body has been found to dissipate into their Element moments after death (i.e. an Ink Hydra turning into a torrent of Ink after death) before then completely returning to Magic Energy to form another Elemental someday. However, as these beasts are actually naturally immortal, any shed souvenirs as feathers will last nearly an eternity while the Elemental from which it originated continues to live.
On the subject of hunting Elementals, I must warn you of its tedium, danger, and overall pointlessness. For one, these elusive beasts are near-impossible to find naturally, though there are certain hotspots littered with rather dangerous Elementals as well as more docile ones. To attract even one to you is something very few mages could hope to dream of, as there’s no consistency among doing so other than an apparent understanding of life’s cycles, however basic.
As for the danger, most Elementals are actually rather indifferent as opposed to aggressive. Still, the more locally-known Elementals are often the most dangerous, as found with tales of sleeping Wyverns near unsuspecting villages. Between the elusiveness of some and kill rate of others, it’s no wonder why many don’t believe Elementals to exist. But that’s beyond the point; any Elementals “famous” enough to be common knowledge in any village is bad news, likely being the cause of many deaths. Common Elementals subject to this are the Poison Basilisk, Ash Cockatrice, Ink Hydra, Gold Wyvern, and Iron Drake.
Moving to the aforementioned pointlessness, the number of Elementals is generally found to be consistent. Over my hundreds of years of dedication to studying them, the numbers have never varied more than 4-40 individuals from the least to most common of them. As their bodies return to their Element and then to pure Magic Energy, they faithfully return with time, though not immediately.
It has been asked of me if a mage were to absorb the energy emitted by an Elemental corpse would anything happen. They presented to me these options:
- The ability to summon an Elemental.
- The reforming of an Elemental inside you.
Death as a result of this. - Not being able to absorb it at all.
Each of these are under the presumption that there is something special of the Magic Energy given by an Elemental when such is not the case. So in short any mage can absorb it, however it matters little as the absorbed energy will be free upon the use if nearly any spell.
As I mentioned this, to my disappointment, the curious mage then said, “All we need to make the Elementals go extinct is just increase the population of wizards.” While I can understand the conclusion, such is found to be rather untrue. As previously stated, Elementals are naturally immortal, but along with that the currently existing ones will be unaffected as their Magic Energy has already been formed.
The difficulty, then, would be in both finding and killing all of them. And to do so you require the use of Magic Energy, as conventional weapons leave them unaffected. This would, in turn, emit free Magic Energy, allowing more Elementals to form. Though it has been mentioned that some kill one another, this is a rare case found almost exclusively between the Moonlight Rabbit and Shadow Owl. Even the most aggressive and territorial of Elementals (such as the Gold Wyvern and Ash Cockatrice) typically don’t fight to the death over territory as they seldom encounter one another.
It was then proposed to me that increasing the population of wizards would then make the amount of free Magic Energy lessen, thus preventing new Elementals from forming. As it would be, it seems as though the Elementals take priority in the distribution of Magic Energy, leading to fewer and fewer mages being born were the population to significantly increase (wizard origin or not). However, I believe a more effective way of going about this would be to increase the capacity of the common mage to absorb and store Magic Energy. Were all mages to wholly abide by a rule to never use their Magic, then perhaps they would go extinct but at that point Magic may as well cease to exist altogether.
Reminder that the deadline for my Community Prompt/Contest: Elemental Encounters is in three days! You will have until the end of the day to submit, but I thought I should let you know ahead of time. Good luck!