Elementals

Origins
The entities known as Elementals are surprisingly simple in composition, and yet they date back from as early as the Cataclysm and exemplify like no other the wondrous and destructive power of magic. Inorganic materials that are exposed to intense concentrations of magic sometimes have such energies bond within the very matter that composes them, and this leads to the formation of a new form of life, congealed cores of magic given physical shape by the elements they grew on. It is said that Elementals were beyond counting upon the death of the Old World, but also that after such explosion of new and terrible life their numbers balanced, having destroyed each other in fierce battles or collapsing under the unstability of their own raging energies

Elementals continue to thrive and spawn in the present U'rth, and while they aren't a common sight they are all very powerful and potentially dangerous to come across. Thought they are savage and instinctive upon "birth", they quickly develop an intelligent mind, and really ancient specimens are exceptionally wise

Types of Elementals
Elementals greatly vary in size, shape and form, but depending on the matter they are composed of they can be identified in several classes:

Telchines: Earth elementals. Extremely destructive and strong-willed, they are however passive and spend most of their time in inactivity

Surtr: Fire elementals. Energetic, voracious and quick to anger. The shortest-lived of all elementals, they are driven by the need to consume and burn as much as they can to prolong their existences

Undines: Water elementals. Usually gentle-natured, but fickle. Can go from calm to furious in the blink of an eye

Anemoi: Air elementals. Flighty, distant and hard to read in comparison to other elementals. Not particularly violent, but can be terrifying if sufficiently roused

Aetherspirits: Elementals born  from concentrations of ambient magic that also use it to craft their own bodies,  rather than physical matter. Considered the rarest and most powerful of all elementals, and looked upon by others of their kind as leaders and/or progenitors.

The Elemental Cycle
Nothing lasts forever, but energy and matter are never lost, just transformed. So it is with elementals. When an elemental's body is destroyed, the elemental dies. But the magic that formed them remains. This magic often forms new elementals after months, years or decades.

There are many examples of the cycle. For some it is short; others, it is very long as the magic goes through many different forms. Air elementals, as clouds, might eventually pour themselves out on the earth as rain, forming pools of magical water. Depending on where they land, water elementals could seep into the earth, saturating the earth beneath. Traveling down into caverns far beneath the surface, an earth elemental might burrow itself into a river of magma. It returns to the surface as a magma elemental, bursting out of a volcano. Then, when the magma elemental meets water, it cools and its magic is carried away by the resulting steam, into the air where a new cloud elemental is born.

Personalities from each different type of elemental carry over from to another, but some who've remained as one type of elemental for too long tend to have that particular personality deeply rooted. For example, an elemental who has remained as a Surtr will retain their fiery, passionate personality even as they come a water or air elemental.

Elementals in Alchemy
Alchemists world-wide prize elementals, namely for the specific magical energy source that is contained within their bodies. Veteran hunters seek and kill elementals for these special “arcanas”; however this is no easy task. Each elemental has a particular bane and it will only give up its arcana if it is killed with such. This is a closely guarded secret.

Arcanas are used in all alchemical practices, namely to accelerate a process that might take days or even years at a time. The typical use is to change lead into gold.