(Beyond the following preface is an excerpt from a thing that’s part of a side project of mine on the Kirin Tor Network Discord server. You can learn more about the server in the following thread:
Though no longer a resident of Dalaran herself, Astrea Evermoon has been known to give lessons and lectures within the city, promoting and making use of her own books as supplementary material. Two such books are ‘Combining the Elements’ and ‘Understanding Elemental Emulation’, each intended to teach learning Arcanists about the capabilities of elemental arcane spell-work. While several copies of each can be found upon the shelves of Dalaran’s libraries they often go ignored my many; perhaps it’s how the author seems to talk down to the reader in some chapters, a bias towards particular trends in education, or something else entirely. Whatever the case a curious reader may be able to gain interesting insights about the school of Conjuration, or at least the mind of an ancient Highborne Sorceress:
…By its own nature arcane energy possesses different limits when in use. Its limitations fall less upon itself and more upon its wielder. Arcane energy is infinitely malleable, capable of achieving things few other forms of magic can; especially through the emulation of what already is. At the theoretical zenith of elemental emulation arcane energy can be visually identical to the natural elements while surpassing their effective limits. Fire can burn hotter than the brightest suns, ice can be colder than the least hospitable glacier. They can combine and bestow a mix of sensation incomprehensible to the average mind. It is this that sets apart the elemental feats of Mages and those of Shaman; a subtle but potentially severe dichotomy.