| abstract | - Hello my name is Ursala and today I am speaking about a shaman’s relationship with the Elements. More specifically, the idea that a given shaman will have a primary affinity with one Element out of the Four. Not all shamans have a primary element. In fact, what all shaman ought to strive for is balance - balance between nature and civilisation, balance between life and death, and balance between all four elements. By definition, the shaman is a mid-point - an interpreter, or medium, if you like - between the physical world and the spiritual one, so she ought to walk the line between them without wobbling or falling off to one side. But every shaman starts somewhere, and most do not reach the ideal place where their balance is completely neutral. Even if they do, it can be very difficult to maintain, with each aspect of the shaman’s life trying to pull her in its own direction. And thus, most shaman have a preferred Element. There four traditional Elements (I will not cover the element of the Wilds today, because I have my own extensive headcanon on it) are Earth, Fire, Water and Wind. Each has its own individual properties, and they tend to cancel each other out when put into certain pairs – Earth is the diametric opposite of Air, and Fire is the diametric opposite of Water. (There is some writing in the World of Warcraft RPG that suggests the cancellation between Fire and Water is greater than that between Air and Fire – Fire elementals actually take damage when they visit the plane of Water, and vice-versa; whereas Earth elementals only feel uncomfortable in the plane of Air, and vice-versa.) One of these Elements will have spoken to a shaman first. Usually it is an Elemental communication which will alert a person to the fact she is a shaman in the first place, and as such she often has a primary Element before she has received any formal training. And depending on how long goes between that first communication and the start of formal training, that primary Element may begin to imprint itself on her personality. It’s unclear whether Elements form a shaman’s personality from much earlier on than their first communication or if Elements are drawn to people who are already similar to them. But there’s no doubt that the personality traits of an Element can become much more marked on a shaman after the first proper contact between her and the Element.
|
