Quotes / Elemental Embodiment

ELEMENTALS fairly frequently adopt visible form and sometimes even show off to Tourists. A typical Elemental is seen as a whirling cloud of dust, in or just outside the DESERT. It is not clear whether this is an earth or an air Elemental. Perhaps it can be either. Elementals exist for many other things beside the earth, air, fire, and water that the Tourist will know from her/his own world, and in all categories are much more numerous. Ice Elementals are common, IRON not unknown, and Fog or MIST ones have been sighted. WIZARDS will often summon an Elemental to help in their work. The preferred, but most dangerous, kind are FIRE Elementals, which can take the form of a human or ANIMAL made of flames. These, like all Elementals, are mischievous and unreliable, and can easily set everything in sight ablaze if not carefully controlled. Most Elementals can take on quasi-human form, but Tourists are advised to refrain from chatting with them. You might put ideas into their quasi-heads that would be hard to dislodge. For instance, if you expressed pleasure in a cool breeze the Elemental would thereafter follow you around for weeks blowing half a gale.

—The Tough Guide to Fantasyland

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