Elemental

Elementals are supernatural creatures from Medieval thought that became a popular part of the belief systems of demonology, alchemy and ritual magic in the Renaissance era. They were incorporated into the Cthulhu Mythos by August Derleth and other writers.

Traditional Beliefs

Elementals are living beings composed of one of the Classical Elements. The Classical Elements were theorised by the Ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles and defined as being Air, Earth, Water and Fire.

Each of the four Empedoclean Elements has a corresponding type of Elemental: Sylphs for Air, Gnomes for Earth, Undines for Water and Salamanders for Fire.

Paracelsus in particular popularised them and wrote about them in the 16th Century. Paracelsus wrote A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits, in which mythological creatures and beings were assigned a classification based on one of the four Elements. This meant that all mythological or supernatural beings fell into one of the Elemental categories.

A later addition to the belief system of Elementals was the concept of Aether. This Element was one of the void or space, and as such was a fifth element. Various other fifth elements were "deduced" or adduced to explain inconsistencies caused by trying to force the four element classification system on to beings and creatures which did not fit.

In Lovecraft's Fiction

Lovecraft discussed the concept of elementals in a letter to Willis Conover, reprinted in the book Lovecraft at Last:

[T]he best definition is “a kind of semi-material embodiment of the four supposed principles of nature — earth, water, air, and fire — as recognised in ancient and mediaeval times.” Concepts of these beings vary greatly, some regarding them as shapeless horrors, while others have conceived them as legions of delicate sometimes beautiful beings more or less like mankind....

Lovecraft occasionally made reference to such being in his fiction. At one point in The Whisperer in Darkness, Albert Wilmarth describes the Vermont woods as "luxuriant masses of forest among whose primal trees whole armies of elemental spirits might well lurk".

The Nemesis of Flame from Lovecraft's "The Last Test" is likely a reference to the Algernon Blackwood story "The Nemesis of Fire", which is part of Blackwood's John Silence stories that Lovecraft reviewed favourably in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. In Blackwood's story, the creature is identified by John Silence as a Fire Elemental. Silence also claims that Elementals can be summoned by blood, a claim that George Rogers repeats in Lovecraft's "The Horror in the Museum".

In The Dunwich Horror, Wilbur Whateley writes in his journal that "they from the air" told him it would be years before he could clear off the earth. In the same passage, he says that he dislikes "the Aklo for the Sabaoth," because it is "answerable from the hill and not from the air."

Other Mythos Writers

August Derleth's contribution to the Mythos in large part was the imposition of a Paracelsian system of Elementals on to the various Outer Gods and Great Old Ones. The fit is often a poor one; the conceptualisation of Mythos entities in Elemental terms has now fallen largely out of favour.

In Derleth's works, unlike in traditional philosophy, the element of Air seems to oppose Water, while Fire opposes Earth. As a result, Air Elementals are inimical towards Water Elementals and vice-versa (AWD: "The Return of Hastur", The Trail of Cthulhu), while Fire Elementals are inimical towards Earth Elementals (AWD: "The Dweller in Darkness"). Conversely, "The Scroll of Morloc", by Lin Carter, portrays a bitter enmity between the Earth Elementals, such as Tsathoggua, and the Air Elementals, such as Rhan-Tegoth.

Elementals are sometimes referenced in the works of other Mythos writers as well, such as Clark Ashton Smith. In "The Hunters from Beyond", Cyprian Sincaul assumes that the extradimensional creatures he makes contact with are "what the occultists would call elementals". Said creatures include Lamias, Satyrs, Vampires, etc.

In Smith's Zothique, the wizard Sarcand employed Elementals as guardians. When a rival wizard, Mior Lumivix, used a form of astral projection to spy into Sarcand's chamber, the Elementals were aware of his presence, and Mior Lumivix recalls that "they gathered about me in shapes of fire and shadow, menacing me unspeakably", before successfully expelling him. Sarcand's supernatural guardians are also identified as being "of a kind that cannot cross water, being entirely earthbound". (CIRCLE: "The Master of the Crabs")

In "The Scourge of B'Moth", by Bertram Russell, the titular entity is identified as a Water Elemental, and is capable of manifesting itself in water, rain and fog. The Call of Cthulhu role-playing game presents B'Moth as an avatar of Cthulhu.

In Other Media

Mythos-influenced works such as Dungeons & Dragons make frequent use of Elementals as a category of monster.