2d elemental depiction flawed

[Vyrerus]

When I think of the 3D elemental wheel I like to use the shape of a crystal in the game, an elongated hexagonal bipyramid. But for the sake of removing one more complication I just did a regular hexagonal bipyramid when I made this reference back when Shadowbringers inverted the polarities.

If I knew I'd be using it so long I would have proofed it better; that green line is going to haunt me for the rest of my days.

Nether elements below ground... Dirt/Earth > Molten Rock / Lava = Heat = Fire = what were those aetherologists smoking? They're on a planet with active volcanoes T_T! Ice is nowhere down there, being most common at the tops of mountains / when the sun/light is farther away.

[Iscah]

Nether elements below ground... Dirt/Earth > Molten Rock / Lava = Heat = Fire = what were those aetherologists smoking? They're on a planet with active volcanoes T_T! Ice is nowhere down there, being most common at the tops of mountains / when the sun/light is farther away.

When you say "fire" my mind doesn't jump to volcanoes, but flames rising into the air.

(Also lava is, as you say, rock. Logically part of earth rather than fire.)

Ice is on the ground. Glaciers and frozen lakes.

Water – in a large mass as an ocean or lake rather than as rain or cloud – is also ground-based.

Water/ice/earth are also more permanent and tangible objects compared to wind/fire/lightning.

[Vyrerus]

When you say "fire" my mind doesn't jump to volcanoes, but flames rising into the air.

(Also lava is, as you say, rock. Logically part of earth rather than fire.)

Ice is on the ground. Glaciers and frozen lakes.

Water – in a large mass as an ocean or lake rather than as rain or cloud – is also ground-based.

Water/ice/earth are also more permanent and tangible objects compared to wind/fire/lightning.

Lava is almost always described as fiery, even given that we know its true nature. Everything it touches bursts into flames, save for when it's earth or ash already. Eruptions cause wildfires where active volcanoes are near vegetation.

Snow and hale come from the sky, things must be covered in water/composed of water before they freeze. Ice being born of earth makes little sense. Glaciers are formed over many many years where snowfall exceeds the rate at which it melts. They generally form at the top of mountains and don't slide down until their weight causes them to move. Sea and Lake ice forms from water on top of water.

Water as an ocean or lake is the only one that fits these ideas. More overtly, underground water/springs fits quite nicely.

Water/Ice/Earth are all actually easier to change/observe change in. Fire/Lightning/Wind remain static, only varying in amount and intensity.

Suffice to say though, FFXIV elemental tomfoolery is a swing and miss for me.

Also, now that you mention it, don't think we have an example of an actual glacier anywhere in the game. Though Coerthas is probably gonna generate one in about another couple hundred years assuming its climate doesn't revert to 1.0.

[Iscah]

Lava is almost always described as fiery, even given that we know its true nature. Everything it touches bursts into flames, save for when it's earth or ash already. Eruptions cause wildfires where active volcanoes are near vegetation.

Okay, even treating lava as a symbol of fire, that doesn't make it the only symbol of fire – and if you're focusing on the particular description in the elemental wheel then "fire born of lightning, rendering all to ash" is clearly flame and not lava, which would be fire born of earth.

Snow and hale come from the sky, things must be covered in water/composed of water before they freeze. Ice being born of earth makes little sense.

Groundwater also freezes. Ice forms in caves. (Ice caves are a specific phenomenon where ice stays frozen year-round because the surrounding ground temperature is below zero.) The ice in glaciers might have originated in the sky but is now on the ground. Mountains are still part of the earth and not the sky.

It's a wobbly link compared to some of the others, but it's not nonsensical.

(Late edit to add: Frost is another type of "ice on the ground".)

Water/Ice/Earth are all actually easier to change/observe change in. Fire/Lightning/Wind remain static, only varying in amount and intensity.

I didn't say unchanging, I said permanent and tangible. (For a varying degree of permanency, certainly, but they don't just cease to exist.) They are objects. You can hold them and store them.

Wind, flame and lightning are not remotely static, but are in constant motion. They are forces and energies with no lasting existence beyond the effect they have on the objects around them.

Suffice to say though, FFXIV elemental tomfoolery is a swing and miss for me.

Also, now that you mention it, don't think we have an example of an actual glacier anywhere in the game. Though Coerthas is probably gonna generate one in about another couple hundred years assuming its climate doesn't revert to 1.0.

If this is "tomfoolery" then you're searching for an excuse to call them that. Just because you could interpret and represent the elements in another way doesn't make theirs incorrect. It seems to intended as symbolic rather than a literal depiction of how every single manifestation of that element might form.

And yes they do have a glacier – Snowcloak, which formed in a rush of minutes rather than centuries.

[Brandedblade]

Nether elements below ground... Dirt/Earth > Molten Rock / Lava = Heat = Fire = what were those aetherologists smoking? They're on a planet with active volcanoes T_T! Ice is nowhere down there, being most common at the tops of mountains / when the sun/light is farther away.

This is where the fact the elements are Astrally and Umbrally aligned come into play. You could argue that a flickering flame or wildfires are the astrally charged aspect of Fire, whereas magma could be argued as an umbrally aligned version of fire.