Elements - it's time to modernize them!

The elements are a very important part of many fantastic productions and almost always include fire, water, earth and air, and sometimes some other, e.g. metal. They seem obvious, but it's not that simple. First, we must understand where the idea for the elements came from.

In the olden days philosophers wondered what the world was made of and how it works. They observed nature and noticed that it is possible to isolate components that differ in properties and activity. They recognized that the world is made of them and the interactions between them cause various phenomena. Depending on the part of the world, other elemental sets were created, although most overlap, e.g. in Greece they were fire, water, earth, air and ether, the indestructible element of gods and space, in China there was no air, but there was metal and wood, instead of ether in India there was sound, and in Japan the elements were the same as in Greece, although the equivalent of ether was heaven.

In later times, alchemists appeared and they not only wanted to understand the world, but also used knowledge to create new things. They noticed that the four Greek elements were not enough for this, so they added two new ones, namely sulfur and mercury.

Currently, games, animations, movies, etc. are almost always assumed a very old division of the elements, despite the fact that we now have a much higher level of knowledge about the world.

That's why I decided to create a new elemental division for the needs of my worlds, comics and games, which I will present to you in points. There are nine, the first six are more scientific, and the last three fantastic:

1. Ground - everything here is related to land, rocks, sand, metal, crystals, tectonic movements.

2. Temperature - these are phenomena associated with heat, cold and changes under the influence of temperature, fire and ice.

3 Fluid - an element connecting liquids and gases, because liquid and gaseous physical state have most of common features. Includes e.g. water, air, clouds, tornadoes.

4. Lightning - is a combination of phenomena related to electricity, sound and light.

5. Nature - the element of life and everything related to it, including plants, bones, poisons, tar.

6. Cosmos - here are phenomena related to modern science, dimensions, time, portals, atomic and cosmic phenomena.

7. Chaos - manifests itself as destruction, decay and uncontrolled transformation, considered a representation of evil, although it is really necessary for the good functioning of the universe.

8. Shadow - is an element that I came up with to translate unusual phenomena. Its main function is to connect dimensions and other elements. It enables summoning, quick teleportation, dematerialization and explains the existence of ghosts.

9. Magic - is represented mainly by crystallized energy and allows breaking the laws of nature and physics. Includes e.g. draconite that is a crystal found according to legends in the skulls of dragons, philosophers stones and fairy power.

As you can see, each of my elements covers many phenomena, which, however, connects a lot. It is also possible to mix the elements to get something new, e.g. a combination of temperature and ground can give us lava.

I also made an illustration of the rock titan Randura that matches the elemental theme. She is a very friendly character and will periodically organize races on levitating stones, which will definitely be in my role-playing board game.