The more I'd like to understand the 7 elements through the prism of science the more it doesn't fit to me and I'd actually prefer these to stick more to the fantasy way of creating a wholesome world.
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. That rather applies to Kemia then to the combat elemental reactions. Therefore we couldn't really try to understand the 7 elements system tho the chemical elements. Elemental Reactions are triggered by applying certain combinations of elemental effects on a target (enemies, players or objects)
In chemistry, an element is a pure substance consisting only of atoms that all have the same numbers of protons in their atomic nuclei.
Dictionary - an essential or characteristic part of something abstract.
So the seven elements are the very essense of the world of Teyvat, the very essense of the Seven ideals as well, of the Archon's character.
- Geo is presented throught crystalizing or the procces of creation of structures - form or cause to form crystals but also "when most liquids freeze they crystallize" and the crystalyzing sealing contracts, memories, knowledge that would lead to Liyue's prosperity. Liyue's people are also free in their own way tho because signing contracts is also a free will and the contracts bind the people to a moral state of mind where they are bind to hard work. It is the Geo Archon's way of guiding people.
- Electro - Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. There are two types of electric charge: positive and negative (commonly carried by protons and electrons respectively). Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. - so far electro is most compex to be presented through the story and character of the representing Archon, because of its duality. Thinking of the Thunder and Lightning people ignore the invisible electromagnetic force or attraction and repelling. I'd suggest that Shogun's metaphor is of to shelter its people either from Celestia or anything. Her electromagnetic force holding the world she created together and protecting it, overprotecting it. Are people in Inazuma free? This is very complex understanding and talking to many NPCs doesn't give answer. As in every country some are feeling free and some are not for different reasons. But in Inazuma this is most polar state which also relates with the nature of the electro.
- Dendro in it's meaning of tree is still far from us but expected to be complex in its forms, because it'd most likely cover more than wood. Generally it oposes to all the other elements as organic matter. It'd be the element that makes thing grow. If the wind carries the memories shaped as songs and the crystals hold them within, dendro shapes them in the tree circles. Those circles related to the change of the seasons that we don't have on Genshin Impact...
- Hydro - is rather easy to understand as an element because it is one of the basic elements we learn about. Water is life, water creates elemental reactions. Also water is said to hold memories too which slowly leads to my forming theory of why those 7 elements. What if what connects them is the memories. The memories that also flow through the ley lines. Maybe the seven elements are seven ways of convaying memories through in a endless cycle. How does this apply with electro, pyro and cryo hoever? In Raiden's character teaser we see the way she lose her allies one by one, all of inasuma represents how fragile life is and AND how solid the memories could be. Inazuma's people carry the will of their ancestors, Baal carries the memories, not letting them go is her eternity. Magnetic recording is a way we know to store information on tape which justifies electron on our memery elemental table. However it is related to human progress which is something that is part of Teyvat's taboo, because progress causes corruption. As mentioned if we look at the electro in its full electromagnetic skill the magnetic fields from the earths poles are crusial for the planet's life and for the animals, birds to always find their way home through the seasons even now having the memory of the way back. So with Inazuma and the electro Archon the memory is less obvious. It is there tho. And this is the never changing eternity in its essence tho. But something had changed.
Back to hydro tho, because it's hydro's part here! Water memory is the purported ability of water to retain a memory of substances previously dissolved in it even after an arbitrary number of serial dilutions. It has been claimed to be a mechanism by which homeopathic remedies work, even when they are diluted to the point that no molecule of the original substance remains. *coughs* Water is meant to always clear up, to give justice in its representative ideal. Easily clounded in elemental reactions but also always clearing up. Even with more obvious example water always craves its way though rocks, always finding its way.
- Pyro or fire could be taken more as the metaphor of burning the memories directly into one's soul. The Ideal is War and everything that we can connect to it is pain and lessons for humanity. However the pyro Archon rather created her ideal as battle for creathing a name, of gaining reputation, less or more for each of her people to become a worrior who'd leave a memory in this world by winning. The recent Fantom flow event mentioned boxing in Natlan which is making me believe that there they have turned the war more into sport, even like Olympic games (which would be just hillarious) Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Fire is rather a way to purify and to clear memories rather to contain them too (which is why I wanted to start with the positive part haha). When something is burning we actually see the flame, the visible part of the 'fire'. So pyro element we see duting our fights is literally representing the burning will of the character. As mentioned Pyro and Cryo as elements causing the better reactions in the game are kind of weird as elements from my perspective. Howeverrrrrr Fire is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with the qualities of energy, assertiveness, and passion. In one Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods to protect the otherwise helpless humans, but was punished for this charity Fire is changing everything it touches and therefore having dark assosiations with the devil however it represents passion. And it is bind to the understanding of the Sun as source of the heat that keeps life growing. In Indian tradition Agni is one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, yet he is also immortal. That rather gives me thoughts of eternity now...
- Cryo is the oposite of pyro as a process. I'd always think that cryo is rather an elemental reaction itself and find it weird so let's see how I can justify it for myself. Obviously frost can preserve things and matter for ages. That easily puts it in my memory chart but it just can't be that simple just because we already have hints about the cryo Archon and he possible ideal that maybe changed which can give different shades to the element itself too. How cryo would be connected to Love? If you want to put yourself on crack I'd recommented you to read Stendhal 'On Love'. I'll briefly say that he describes the stages of romace and how love always burns out, runs out of fuel and generally end with .. crystalization. I wonder how many times a person can actually go through this haha or it is really just one time thing, that cannot repeat at least not as genuine as it has felt the first time. I don't want to know for myself. Maybe the Tsaritsa also doesn't want to know so she fell into sheercold mode. Raiden's current state is so much like this too tho. One is taking visions, one is givng delusions...
Freazing memories so deep cold to keep them even knowing that they might fade away when melted, even knowing that nothing will remain. Cryo holds the potential to preserve things for better times by putting them to stasis.
Worth mentioning the Dust, the Memory of Dust and Guizhong. Why is dust not an element? I bet there is a greek word for it.. Joke aside we read that Guizhong loses her life during the Archon war, not specifically knowing how does she die, who kills her. Dust in the Middle East has been a historic phenomenon. Recently, because of climate change and the escalating process of desertification, the problem has worsened dramatically. As a multi-factor phenomenon, there is not yet a clear consensus on the sources or potential solutions to the problem. Apparently Dust is more problematic than Fire but let's think of the phenomenon part, which explains why it was not meant to become part Teyvat as an Archon or element. We can say that there is dust everywhere however human don't really have use of dust... Then why did the Salt god also disappear? Zhongli says that Havria's fate served as a lesson for him during the Archon War. She was weak and too kind. And the strongest were selected to rule by going through a war.
Game mechanic wise Dust can be reaction between geo and anemo. If it was an actual thing i'd easily say that Dust god and element were not needed because they can be recreated by the main element. Probably this is the case but miHoYo why don't you give us more elemental reactions..
I got Zhongli on December 1st I wanted him I like him even without the drama and the buff and what i really like about him is the pertifying. Which could eacily be a reacion between two elements but miHoYo's desided to slap it as a result of a skill... I wish it was somehow related with dendro.. in geology, petrifaction or petrification (from Ancient Greek: πέτρα, romanized: pétra, lit. 'rock, stone') is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. The petrifying skill tho helps us understand the difference between earth element and geo. The 7 elements are enegry, that can be manifested by the character's will because it'd be too easy just to slap someone with a meteor and ... kill it... we do more than this!
Most interesting about the visions and elemental energy is that the characters collect it by interacting with the nature either in combat of by investigating a place where particals have been hiding. Do we convert energy into our coresponding element through our visions is that what visions are for? Since they are tools... the faculty or state of being able to see, to imagine... or to manifest your own ideals in elemental forms.
I never really believed that visions were given by the Archons. It makes no sense at all, it never had. It is rather a common believe of people who needed a way to explain visions. The Archons as we meet them don't directly interact with people's progress, the guide. Untill Baal who directly slays people.
Something that bothers me are the statues of the Seven in the way the represent the Archon and the image matches the character image. That makes me think of when were these statues creates since they appear to be older than the time of when the last cataclism happened. Yet Raiden Shogun is the second Electro Archon.. Therefore I assume that the statues might be not part of the original 7's plans but created later, maybe along with the visions. We'd confirm this with reaching Sumeru. If the Dendro archon died during the cataclism the representative statue would keep the image of the previous archon. And if not then the statues were added after Khaenri'ah fall.. That matters for us because if the statues gain energy not from the believers but directly from the lay lines beneath maybe the visions were also related with this system. Or not at all. I think that the elemental enery is different than the one that floats within the leylines.
All the realms within Teyvat just makes me believe that gods are the creatures that are able to reach higher dimensions and to use powers from beyond the 3d world can see. Probably visions are also tools for the people to reach this power. If 3d creatures don't have the senses to percept higher dimensional creatures they'd feel like gods. But if people somehow can use godlike powers would it be enough to become gods? Is even Teyvat's world natural...
Speaking with an NPC at Inazuma i got cofused about everything by now because he talks about how Seirai island is his hometown yet it was abandoned because of the disaster generations ago..
The Shogun seeks eternity yet whole Teyvat is into eternity of no cycle of seasons. Maybe it'd be too much if we asked for seasons with this amazing map we get but it still feels more like a choice. No lunar cycle, no solar cycle - no seasons. The rotation of earth causes the day and night and the revolution - the seasons. Which is enough evidense to suggest that Teyvat's world model is similar to an astrolabe. However in the game there are thoughts about seasons.. Our characters have known birthday dates tho which means that Teyvat has the concept of an year. It doesn't not seem possible for the Earth to stop orbiting around the sun, it could slow down on speed up. If it stopped rotating too it'd be lethal as well. So what is Teyvat's case? Did something so bad happen to the world that it needed to be saved, by gods or it was artificial world since the beginning.. Does it have solid physic laws or it is part of gods visions and it can be bent to their will so easily. Is Teyvat a fading memory?
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