#undertale elementals

Associations

Being creatures either inspired by classical myths or that inspired them, monsters and elementals alike tend to vary a bit based off of their local culture. In a way, we see this the best in what I imagine what River calls 'conceptual' monsters (such as Temmies, Tsunderplanes, and other 'meme' based monsters). How they function and what they look or act like changes based off of how they are thought to function or act (which ties into a completely separate theory about how human SOULs influence their surroundings but I'll likely write more on that later).

Fire is generally considered hot and dry, but some cultures associate it with destruction whereas others consider it to be the opposite, creation. Or sometimes even change, wisdom, passion, or kinship.

Earth is thought to be heavy, stable, and solid. The ancient Greeks also considered it cold. Some others think of it as sheltering, loyal, or strong.

Air is associated with freedom and breath and sometimes also communication, intellect, or energy.

Finally, Water is wet, obviously. Ice and snow for some, the warm tropical waters to others. Emotion and intuition, sometimes even fertility.

All of them have an association with life in one culture or another, which makes sense considering that elemental monsters are indeed alive and not simply their element animated.

Types of Monsters in the Underground

Which brings me to the point: most elementals likely have needs that are a bit different from the common, everyday monster. Have you noticed the kinds of monsters you see in the Underground? Fire monsters? Everywhere, practically. Makes sense, considering the mountain is a volcano. Earth monsters? A few yup, with a lot of mixing with the fire elementals. Also makes sense.

Water? Yeah sure there are plenty, but they're mostly fish or other more biological creatures instead of more elemental type monsters and almost all of them live in Waterfall or Snowden.

And Air? I couldn't find any, could you? Just a few birds, which is a bit of a stretch in my opinion when we're talking about elementals.

Elemental Starvation

My aforementioned statement about elementals probably having different needs from your average monsters? That all is what spawned the idea.

I posit that most elementals probably need their element to be around. That association earlier I mentioned, that air is sometimes called wind in some cultures? The Underground doesn't really have wind, does it? The air that it has is probably fairly stale, and I'm certainly not seeing much in the way of freedom down there.

This means most air elementals would be missing both a core feature of their element itself and a very common cultural association. Any air elementals that did make it to the Underground probably didn't last long, and the ones that did likely didn't have to worry about that sort of thing, but clearly there's something going on.

It isn't even that elementals themselves are uncommon because again, fire elementals are practically everywhere. Mount Ebbot is a volcano. Fire elementals? Doing fine. Earth, not as common but seem to be doing alright. Water, restricted to mostly one or two spaces and not very many monsters one could call an actual elemental. Air? Nope.

So what if most elementals had a basic need to be near their element, like how us humans need oxygen? You see this a bit in the show Avatar: the Last Airbender in how firebenders who are locked in the 'Coolers', away from their element, are unable to firebend (except for Zuko who knew a secret, but that's beside the point). What if elementals sort of starved without it?

Obviously this doesn't apply to all of them because Grillby stands as a rather strong counterexample, living surrounded by snow and ice, but one or two outliers are possible. This brings me to my last bit of rambling regarding this headcanon.

Elemental Magic and the SOUL

So, assuming all of the above stands true this takes us in an interesting direction: how does this affect their magic? Well first off I imagine they likely recover much more quickly when surrounded by their element and probably expend more magic than usual with away from it. Likely with some, but not all, elementals even suffering crippling effects when without their element or effectively slowly 'starving' without it.

I also imagine each elemental has a teeny bit of what they consider their 'home' elemental source all tied up in their magic. Maybe even in their SOUL. This probably influences what their magic or they themselves look like.

River's grandmother, for example, was from the deeper, bottom waters of the Sporades basin in the north Aegean Sea. As a water elemental of dark, deep waters she tended to be a bit shadowy and strange herself. River actually takes after her a bit.

One's 'home source' would probably be important to them. Of course one can survive without it, but it would be more compatible with their natural magic. Something their SOUL is more used to, which could have all sorts of minor influences on them.

I had some other ideas, though I’m undecided now that she’s drawn out.  I’m thinking she might have been summoned after Gehenna by someone who thought ‘that’s it, we need more fire elementals.’ I might also fit some version of her in my own wartime concept (with the hooded gaster and Perpetua). Idk. She was fun to draw.