Ch14 23

Chapter 14 Page 23 - http://bit.ly/1BUMaja

So, Elementals... I've encountered them in fantasy most often appearing as humanoids that are made out of whatever element they represent. I find that to be kind of boring, personally. I'd much rather see elementals as linked to animals or monsters, or like summons from the Final Fantasy series where different elements have a creature that represents it.

In Spellcross, there are dimensions of pure elements called the Planes. There's one for each of the four cardinal elements, so a Plane of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Fire elementals resemble canines, water elementals resemble birds, air elementals resemble lizards, and earth elementals resemble bovines. I wanted to go with different animals than what classically represent the elements (i.e. salamander for fire), and I'm happy with the designs I've ended up with. The elementals lie on the same Arcana Rank scale as other monsters and their bodies change drastically between lower to higher ranked ones, with Elemental Gods sitting at the highest rank. If you want a brief look at a Fire Elemental, check the Tales from Spellcross page where a summoner calls one to battle.