While the true nature of these creatures isn't known or fully understood, many wizards believe that Runic Elementals are your very runic soul come alive. For those not in the know, the runic soul is a Nor'Ovan's connection with their runic element. It is what gives them the ability to manipulate their element to cast magic. It is believed that Nor'Ovans have always had a runic soul, but many couldn't connect with it until after the Great Magic War that ended the First Era.

But what exactly is a Runic Elemental? A Runic Elemental can probably be best described as a golem, or artifical creation given life by the runic soul of the creator and the soul within an anima stone. A person's runic element decides what kind of Runic Element they would have while their runic affinity will determine the behavior and base powers of the runic elemental. A runic elemental is not invincible, it is a construct given life, and as such it can die. They are however ageless and immortal, unable to pass away by the simple passing of time.

The Different Types

As stated above, runic elementals have different types which all depend upon the creator's runic element. However they are also determined by the creators runic affinity. It is not enough to say that just because the creator is of the runic element of fire that the elemental is a fire elemental. The elemental would instead be either a flame elemental or a light elemental. Again, this matches the runic affinity of the elemental's creator.

A Runic Elemental's Appearance

The runic elemental starts life based on the designs of the construct its creator created. The differences are of course the very power of the elemental affinity shining forth. For example, the flame elemental could be an iron golem with flaming hair and firey eyes while the light elemental could be a dragon scale shield floating and shining brightly. As the elemental grows through its three stages it will look less what its base construct was.

A Runic Elemental's Personality

The runic elemental's personality greatly depends on the spirit within the anima stone. If the anima stone contains a beastly spirit, you can expect for the elemental to be very animalistic. However, if the anima stone contains a soul of someone passed, it will inherit that person's personality.

What You Need to Create Your Own Runic Elemental

In order to create a runic elemental you will need to meet very specific steps…

First of all you will need to have an Anima Stone and the ability to use it. The Anima Stone holds the soul that will power the runic elemental, so this must be a completed Anima Stone.

Second you need to have something to place the Anima Stone in to be your runic elemental. This could be various things, including something you make. More on that later.

Third you need to have the ability to awaken the elemental.

Fourth you need to create the elemental as if you were creating a character. More on this later.

Creating Your Runic Elemental

Here is where we will go into more detail on the specific actions needed to create a runic element.

Constructing A Body

You will need a body for your runic element. This body, or perhaps vessel is a better term, is what will hold the anima stone and anchor your elemental to the physical world. You have two choices here: find a vessel or create a vessel.

Finding a Vessel

Given Nor'Ova's turbulent past, it should come as no surprise that the world is littered with things that could act as vessels for your elemental. These could be discard robotic exoskeletons from before the war, rotting husks, or even small broken vehicles. The rules are simple here:

• It cannot be something alive or functioning
• It cannot be more than 50% larger or smaller than the mage creating the elemental
• It needs to have the four main parts - head, torso, something that acts as arms, and method of movement

If the object you are considering using as a vessel meets these criteria, then it should work. However, you should refer to your GM just to make sure.

Creating a Vessel

Creating a vessel is more difficult than finding one, but is very doable. This is especially true if you have some other skill set such as crafting. You must remember that the vessel you create needs to have something as a head, a torso, arms, and method of movement. The method of movement does not have to be legs, per say.

One example could be making a mud man (think snow man made of mud). This simple vessel could become your elemental. Or perhaps you craft some kind of limbs and legs on an old cut down tree? Really your limits here is your own creativity, just make sure to talk it over with your GM.

Giving the Vessel a Soul

Once you have the vessel, you need to give it a soul. This is done by embedding an Anima Stone within the torso or center of the vessel. In order to connect to you and develop a runic soul it must have some form of soul of its own, and this gives the vessel that. Of course the Anima Stone must have a soul within it. The soul of the Anima Stone will determine certain traits for the elemental.

• Blood Stone: Blood Stone is an Anima Stone that holds an ancestral spirit. These tend to be passed down through families. These are popular among dragon and dracokin tribes, with the most sought after blood stone being that of the Great Dragon. This would give the stone the personality of the old soul within, however it isn't likely that the soul will remember its past. This could be arranged however by embedding a past memories rune stone.
• Angelus Stone: These are Anima Stones that call forth angelic spirits, including angels of Elysium. Unlike Blood Stones or most Anima Stones, these don't hold the full spirit of an angelic being. Instead they hold a part of it that is just enough for the summoner to summon the angelic being when needed. Because of this, they cannot be used as a soul source for your elemental.
• Daemon Stone: As its name suggests, these are Anima Stones that call forth the demonic spirits of Xodod. Some Daemon Stones will contain a full fledge demonic spirit, which often is a lesser demonic spirit or demon. Demon Lords and Demon Princes though will sometimes provide Daemon Stones that contain a portion of their essence so that they can be summoned by the summoner. Only the Daemon Stone that holds an actual demonic soul can be used as a soul source, however you should take great care. This will create an elemental that could easily turn on you. Elementals created with daemon stones tend to be very dark creatures indeed.
• Bestia Stones: Bestia Stones contain the spirit of a beastly creature. These are the most common Anima Stones simply because they are the easiest to create. Being that they contain the souls of beasts, an elemental created with such a stone will have a very animal-like personality. Do not worry, they will be loyal to their creator, but they will be quick to anger and have a lower aptitude for growth.
• You will be unable to use Aduro Stones or Umbra Stones as soul sources for your elementals.

Bringing the Elemental to Life

Once you have embedded a soul source for the elemental, you need to bring it to life. This is done by using the Elemental Awakening skill. Once you use that skill you will actually get to create your elemental. This is done like creating a character, with a few differences of course. The differences will depend upon the soul source, the runic elemental affinity, and the level of elemental you are creating.

Soul Source Guidelines

As stated above, the type of soul will determine certain aspects in creating your elemental.

• Blood Stone: Starting stats will match that of a runic mage and race maximums are the same as yours.
• Daemon Stone: 10 for each stat as starting stat, 100 for race maximum for every stat except Luck and Will, which are at 50.
• Bestia Stones: Use beasts race maximum, no starting stats.

Runic Elemental Affinity

Apply double the bonuses for the runic element for stats and race maximums.

Level of Elemental

Depending on your level of mastery in Elemental Awakening, you could be awakening your elemental as either a Elemental, Construct, or Avatar.

• Level 1 - Elemental: No changes, base level
• Level 2 - Construct: Applies Runic Element stat bonuses and race maximums again, +50 modifier to Vitality, Soul, and Mental.
• Level 3 - Avatar: Applies Runic Element stat bonuses and race maximums again, +100 modifier to Vitality, Soul, and Mental. Double Runic Energy, Runic Spirit, and Runic Soul. +2 to Runic Speed.

The above is not only if you create your elemental at that level. If you only have the skill level to create at level 1, when you get the skill level to level 2 you can use that skill again to increase your already created elemental's level applying those bonuses.

Creating the Elemental

With all of that in mind, follow the standard character creation process. There are some exceptions.

• Cannot Use Origins: You are creating your elemental, it doesn't have a past.
• You can only choose Runic Mage, Warrior, or Guard as professions.
• No Currency Rolls
• No Talents, Mutations, or Alterations
• Your Elemental's Runic Element and Affinity will be the same as yours.

Equipping Your Elemental

Runic Elementals cannot be equipped in the normal sense. They will not wear armor nor wield weapons, at least not the traditional type. Instead, you can equip them with rune stones.

A runic elemental can have one rune stone equipped per following body parts: head, arms (2 total), torso, legs (2 total). This means that a runic elemental can have equipped 6 rune stones, and you can of course swap out these rune stones as needed. So lets say you want to add armor or protection to your elemental, you would equip a rune stone with an armor effect to the elemental's torso, head, or legs - depending on the armor effect. Want to give your elemental a weapon of sorts, maybe equip a rune stone that has a weapon effect to one or both of its arms.

An Elemental's Offensive and Defensive Power

You might be wondering how can the elemental survive if it cannot wear armor. Worry not, elementals have a built in defense, with the amount of defense depending upon their level.

• Level 1 - Elemental: immune to 25% of physical attacks and magic attacks except magic they are weak against, 35% against magic they are strong against.
• Level 2 - Construct: immune to 45% of physical attacks and magic attacks except magic they are weak against, 55% against magic they are strong against.
• Level 3 - Avatar: immune to 65% of physical attacks and magic attacks except magic they are weak against, 75% against magic they are strong against.

An elemental also can hit decently hard, depending on its level.

• Level 1 - Elemental: double melee power, add runic energy and runic soul to physical attack
• Level 2 - Construct: double melee power, add double runic energy and (not double) runic soul to physical attack
• Level 3 - Avatar: double melee power, add double runic energy and double runic soul to physical attack, all attacks are critical.

Using and Improving Your Runic Elemental

Once you have brought your elemental to life, it travels with you like an additional character. It has its own initiative, its own stats, and so forth. While an elemental will never have the potential an actual character has, they can be a great asset to any runic mage.

Runic Elementals learn and improve in the same way that your character does. It uses skills or spells, it gets character points, and it can gain new skills or spells. What limits the runic elemental is its level.

• Level 1 - Elemental: can only access level 1 spells and skills
• Level 2 - Construct: can only access up to level 3 spells and skills
• Level 3 - Avatar: can access all levels

 Furthermore, elementals cannot create things. An elemental cannot create another elemental, nor can it create or recharge rune stones or anima stones. A runic elemental cannot create equipment, nor could it repair equipment except with magic.

In order to improve a runic elemental's level, you will need to use the Elemental Awakening skill on the elemental again, once you have increased the Elemental Awakening skill's level. Just using it at level 1 will not increase the elemental's level. Instead, if you want the elemental to increase to level 2, you need to increase Elemental Awakening to level 2 and use it on the elemental. If you want to increase the elemental to level 3, increase the skill to level 3 and use it on the elemental.

There is another set of restrictions you need to know about, magic.

By default, your runic elemental can only learn magic of your runic element and affinity. That means a fire elemental with flame affinity can only naturally learn flame magic. It will however learn it at the stated cost.

Your elemental can learn other spells of its element outside of its affinity through the use of rune stones. If you want your flame elemental to learn light magic, you can by equipping a light magic rune stone to it. The elemental will have access to the spells within like you, based on the stone's purity and the elemental's level. Once the spell is mastered, the elemental will keep the spell even if the rune stone is removed. The elemental cannot learn magic outside of its element, even with a rune stone.

If you want to provide elemental effects to the element, you can do this with a rune stone. As long as you have mastered the spells in the stone up to and including the spell that provides the elemental effect, the elemental will acquire that affect. This is true even if the effect is outside of the elemental's element.

Elemental Death

An elemental is dead when it is out of Mortality, much like you. You can use methods that revive an elemental as long as there is mortality left. You can also use spells to heal an elemental. Elementals can only be recovered by spells however, not by potions or other skills.

Should your elemental lose all mortality, the vessel will be lifeless. It will then need a new anima stone and be brought back in the same method creating an elemental.

Should you die beyond any means of resurrection, your elemental will leave. Your next character might even encounter your old elemental in the wild.