#Undertale Elementals

[theriverperson]

Headcanon: Elemental Biology

Some headcanons I had about how elementals work. Open to adjusting this, and obviously not every elemental will fit in such neat boxes. There will always be variations or unique monsters or even groups of monsters that do not conform to these things.

Introduction

There are many different types and subtypes of elementals, the main categories of which change depending on the local cultures and mythologies. The four basic categories most will be familiar with, known as the classical elements, are fire, earth, air, and water. Some cultures added void or aether to this list. Some classified air instead as wind. Some cultures did not have this sort of concept at all.

China's Five Phases system, for example, had a generative cycle and a destructive cycle using wood, fire, earth, metal, and water that they used to explain how various interactions and other things occurred instead of as a means to describe the makeup of various substances.

For the sake of simplicity, I will be confining myself to the four commonly agreed upon classical elements.

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 wonder what that would mean for elementals born in the Underground?

[steampoweredwerehog]

…

That one room in True Lab has haunted me for 8 years

[bigfan1811]

if your color coded group of personality traits doesn’t have a person with a cowboy hat, is it even worth talking about

[dseval]

Relaxation doodle with Outertale Color Sans

Color Sans by Superyoumna, Outertale by 2mi127

[contamination-zone]

heh.... can i rewuestce.... fresh n cross ... (open 2 interpretation like the prev drawing /nf) tannmk you..

ouww I like when fresh is weird and touchy. the grabberrrr

[angelpointe]

Drew Mira with absolutely no reference ,

Might have subconsciously started to draw my wife since she identifies so heavily with her

[royalelemental]

Who’s that Pokemon? It’s THE GREAT PAPYRUS!

I have quite a few drawings of Sans and Papyrus interacting as well, but I’ll upload them in a different post. For now all our focus is on the GREATEST skelebro!

Sans

Design Notes

- This design has definitely been the hardest to do, seeing as Papyrus is the most humanoid of all the characters. It was hard to find a balance between keeping Papyrus himself but also making him more creature.

- Like Sans, he’s a ghost type! Besides that, I figured normal type has always represented potential in a lot of ways, so Papbitty is normal :) Fighting also just feels right, as I wanted him to share a typing with Undyne.

- Name origins! Papbitty is just Papyrus + bitty, which I kinda love. Pightrus on the other hand is a combo of Papyrus and Knight, cus I feel like that fits him.

- Part of me is still debating giving him a middle evolution… I have a bunch of ideas for a middle but part of me also feels like he fits better as a 2 stage evo Pokémon. Let’s see.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Girlypop I just realized one of the funniest things ever, or saddest depends on how you look at it, NO ONE WANTS TO JOIN THE STAR SANSES, like, ever.. literally everytime someone makes an OC they always go after joining the bad Sanses, without fail, star Sanses are like begging people to join them and no one does, I guess it would be fun to make that another thing that probably frustrates dream a lot, how the creators always go after the bad sanses to make their stories more exciting, instead of going after the star Sanses to do something, probably because you kind of need to have matching energy to go along side them, it would be fun to have someone that doesn't necessarily match their energy but is still something and they would take anything by now.

*Looks at the direction of conveniently placed blank slate OC that i coincidentally have* hmmmmmmmmm...

People go after the bad sanses too much because they either romanticize the violence these types of terrorist groups inflict on others and their own members, or prefer think “but they love eachother. They’d never do that to eachother. They wouldn’t do that to my oc. They’re just hurt, and traumatized, and that makes this understandable, and they’re different on eachother, really. They’re just misunderstood.”

Very few actually make ocs with the intent on exploring what it’s like to be apart of a trafficking Multiversal terrorist gang that can easily potentially be read as a cult.

[howlonomy]

What would a species swap of the cast look like? Like we already go Monster Clover, but how about Human Ceroba, Starlo, and Marlet? Possibly a Human Kanako (Would she still be an Amalgamate??)

a fun lil exercise :3

[theriverperson]

Headcanon: Primordial Elementals

(For more of my ramblings about elementals, see here.)

So we've established the basics on how I see elementals working, which brings me to a different type of elemental altogether, one we don't really see represented in the Underground at all.

That is, the idea of what I call primordial elementals. By necessity, every one of them would be a boss monster but that still leaves the question of what are they?

Simply put, they are elementals who are their home source. Not an elemental who simply has their home source wrapped up in their magic or even their SOUL a bit, because even they can still leave. It might suck for those elementals with source connections, but still. They could leave. Go somewhere else and then come back to recharge.

Primordial elementals can't leave like that because they are their own source. We're talking places like Mt. Fuji or Krakatoa, who probably have pretty damn impressive fire elementals inside them, or the Black Sea, which would probably have a hell of a water elemental associated with it.

A primordial elemental need not be related to so impressive a location though, or even an entire sea for example. River's grandmother mentioned before is one of these. She is the deep sea waters of the Sporades Basin in the Aegean Sea. Is she powerful there? Certainly, but she'll never be able to leave it because you can't simply relocate an entire sea basin.

I imagine this comes with its perks and downsides. I mentioned one downside already, but perks? Elementals of this type are likely extremely long lived. A primordial volcano elemental will not die until their volcano does. A primordial river elemental will live until their river dries up.

This also means primordial elementals are far more sensitive than usual to negative things happening to their homes, and what they see as negative might not be the same as what humans do, or even what another elemental does. Pollution obviously would be one, but while a mountain pool might see a powerful storm that refills it as a good thing, the mountain itself (who just got hit with numerous bolts of lightning) might be a bit annoyed.

[sotiredmostnights]

catgirl gang rise up

[gl4kiro]

Elemental anatomy and Core stuff

I'm a nerd hehe

[3nergyspirit]

Nightmare so far

I know someone i know who's gonna enjoy this, specifically COUGHS

[premamelody]

the passed down asgore hug is inescapable

[youtube-fucker]

Yeah I think I'll just make a separate blog for this stuff now... but in the meantime!

Look! It's a kid! They're having fun! They have their tongue out! They're winking! They're being silly!

Surely nothing bad would happen to them, right?

...

You wouldn't hurt them, would you?

...

Would you?

Would you hurt them?

Are you sure you wouldn't?

W O U L D Y O U ?

W H Y ' D . . . Y O U . . . D O . . . I T . . . ?

Anyways! Credit to @howlonomy once again! I hope you enjoyed... whatever the fuck this is!

[a-whispering-echo]

have some little doodles of THE BOY - UE Dust <3 because ue was my FIRST au of anything EVER, and predates me doing digital art! in fact, i literally got INTO digital art to try different colour variants of literally HIS outfits, because i didnt want to redraw him over and over and over again traditionally, to see what i liked best! its also the reason i started posting on tumblr, because i needed a host site to put my images on <3 im literally not even joking THIS FUCKER HERE is the reason im here, posting stuff, to this very day <3

for anyone concerned with my health, im doing well now! back on my old meds, as well as a strong painkiller, and am waiting for more results still! but im doing much better than i was before! which means more drawing! yaaaaay!

these are just some differnt lighting experiments, really. same image, just with a little editing to change the lighting and stuff! :) elf mn go brr