That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for quite some time, and it feels especially relevant now that we’re about to visit the Dragon Isles. We know from Chronicles that every world has Elementals but only planets that are short on the fifth element (Spirit) see its Elementals take physical forms. In other words, they are supposed to be just water, air, fire and earth ; that they become something more is sort of an anomaly.
Yet they are sentient and they can talk. They have their own culture and political structures (as indicated by titles such as Countess, Prince, Duke…). They have their own factions (see the Elemental Lords) and subfactions (e.g. Hydraxian Waterlords). They can and will interact with and even join mortal races’ groups (like the Earthen Ring, and some are even Alliance-aligned on Azuremyst Isles where they teach shamanism to the Draenei, and now through the Dark Iron). They can and will have emotions and relationships of their own, as shown by Theradras. They even gave birth to several other well-known Azerothian races such as Dragons and Centaurs, and potentially others.
So my question is the following. Are Elementals still mere “primordial spirits” ? Or are they mostly just a regular race (with some specifities, kinda like Titanforged races such as the Tol’vir) ? Cause they definitely sound like it. They don’t feel “out of the world” at all.
I’m not sure if it’s ever been explicitly stated that they are just another race of Azeroth, but from my understanding is they are slightly above the ability of the standard Trevor the Troll or Kevin Kul Tiran out there.
Like you mentioned, they have typical racial structures, hierarchies and individualism but they exist on a more planar level as primordial spirits that can be called upon, befriended or enslaved. They aren’t quite ‘Gods’ but have a certain power element since they are a manifestation of one (or more) of the world’s building blocks (similar to how there are light, void and arcane entities) and can grant champions with a part of their power.
The cosmic map of Azeroth kind of puts it into perspective a little better, they exist within and outside of reality but aren’t quite to the level of life, death, light, void etc.
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I don’t think this is true. Draenor had lots of spirit yet we can see its elementals in a physical form. Even in AU Draenor. The lack of spirit drives the elementals “insane” to a degree. They become more hostile and confused. It is why the Elemental Lords fought each other before the Old Gods appeared on Azeroth while the ones on Draenor were really chill and just hanged out at the Throne of the Elements. Also a lack of spirit or anything that disrupts the natural balance can lead to mixed elementals. According to the Elemental Furies on AU Draenor. As mentioned in the quest, “A wrong of Earth and Fire” (https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/A_Wrong_of_Earth_and_Fire). So things like Molten Giants. Which have elements of both fire and earth are an example of this unbalance.
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I believe it was stated in Chronicles 2 that as Draenor had no World-Soul to tap into it, Spirit was overabundant on the planet, and that’s why Elementals were kept in check and remained without a physical envelope for a long time… And it’s only after the battle between Grond and the Genesaurs that Furies developed from the elemental power pools that the fight had created. Hence why there are Furies on AU Draenor too I guess
The implications they give seem to be that Elementals manifesting in a physical form is exceedingly rare across the wider cosmos. The World Soul’s presence disrupted the normal balance of Spirit energy which keeps them all in harmony and mostly ‘asleep’.
Azeroth being such a glutton is itself apparently uncommon even for world soul bearing planets—Argus apparently had no active elemental spirits as the idea of a shaman was alien for the Draenei and had to be introduced by Nobundo. In fact, despite all their thousands of years of planet hopping, it had never came to their attention as a practice before him. This makes sense, if most worlds simply do not have any active enough to commune with.
Draenor likewise had none active until Aggramar’s intervention caused them to manifest from Grond’s corpse, particularly in and around the The Throne of the Elements.
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