Hydaelyn and Elementals

[Anonymoose]

tl;dr Nope.

We know the elementals pre-date Amdapor, but not much else. One of the core world-setting features of Gridania is that they believe the elementals to be fragments of Nophica Herself. This belief only exists in the Twelveswood even though elementals have been seen elsewhere in the past.

The original White Mage scenario in 1.x was about a great spirit of the wood named Oha-sok (the elemental of nihility) that took responsibility for bringing the Sixth Umbral Calamity by causing the keening of the elementals (crying out in wrath until they all are doing so) which brought the rains and floods.

My way of reconciling this has been to assume that the elementals are a sort of anomaly in the Lifestream itself, (perhaps accidental, perhaps not) coalescences of living aether that share a connection and a bond to both the land and the stream; that they're aether experiencing itself subjectively.

This would explain all of the inconsistencies between historical records and the elementals' point of view. The rampant use of magicks would "shackle" the elementals (weaving too much aether into spellwork and hurting the land and environmental balance), and their "keening" (aetherial instability) would lead to them them to "causing" (giving way to) the Calamity. It explains their instability, inability to control themselves when imbalanced, and why they go out of control and lash out when put under pressure or isolation (much like a bound primal). It explains why they can use magicks themselves and how they have so much control over forest growth and ability to interfere with living organisms, either leaving tainted traces upon them that cause forest-born entities to seek vengeance (greenwrath) to punish them for violations of the forest's health and stability (woodsin) or outright altering their being to screw with their memories and prevent them from leaving the wood (wildlings).