Scribbles:On Cognate Elements

Recent advances in both general thaumology and elemental studies have revealed unexpected nuances to the nature of elemental reality in the form of what have come to be known as cognate elements. While these cognate elements are associated with the traditional Aristotelian elements (i.e. the canonical elements of earth, air, fire, and water), experiments have shown that they exhibit characteristics normally associated with the 'quintessential' elements. This makes them fundamentally different from derivative elements such as para- and quasi-elemental materials.

Current theory on elemental nature provides two key tests to confirm the elemental nature of a material: the indivisibility of a 'pure' example, and the evocation of elementals.

A true element is indivisible in its fundamental manifestation, that is, it cannot be reduced and separated into constituent elements. Alchemical processes of separation fail to have any effect on true elements (Descartes 1649). Additionally, quintessential samples of a true element are completely resistant to thaumaturgical separation spells, such as Distill Substance and Sunder Amalgam (Gundersen 1923, Nyugen 1985). This first criteria is what delineates para- and quasi-elements from true elements, as they can be easily rendered down to their constituents.

The ability to evoke an elemental creature is another of the metaphysical aspects of an element. Many different forms of elemental have been recorded, but all exhibit rudimentary levels of sapience and/or sentience and zoological characteristics. However, scrying experiments have determined that elementals do not have the ephemeral aspects associated with animals such as spirit or totemic associations (Galaviz 2001). Rather, they are composed only of the element itself; their animal characteristics are the function of some expression of the element which is not currently understood. (Note that 'Greater Elementals' such as djinn do exhibit spiritual aspects - as would be expected in regards to fully sapient and sentient entities such as they are. Daher 2009)

The basics of elemental evocation rites have been well-established since the time of Solomon. The use of these standardized formulae to evoke an elemental of a particular composition is considered adequate proof of an elemental source, or sources in the case of para- and quasi-elementals (Jalal et.al. 2005).

In 2019, experiments at the School of Thaumics at M.I.T. have produced the aforementioned cognate elements from a number of modern objects through the use of advanced alchemical processes. The resulting materials showed detectable resonance with one (but not more than one) of the canonical elements. Specifically, cognates of earth as well as cognates of fire. However, banishing spells for that canonical element were unsuccessful at first, requiring an increase of mana infusion by an order of magnitude in order to banish the material as expected. However, modified elemental banishment spells tuned to the unique harmonies of the cognate substance required the standard levels of mana to succeed. The researchers concluded that these substances were related to the canonical element, but were not a simple expression of it - hence the term 'cognate element'. These experiments have been reproduced by the Fangshi Institute earlier this year.

Further exploration of these elements at M.I.T (in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University) found them as resistant to separation processes as canonical elements, even at high levels of mana infusion. (Testing included up to multiple orders of magnitude of mana. More energetic testing was deemed too dangerous, though computer modeling done by researchers at Leibniz University Hannover suggest higher levels would also have been unsuccessful.) The conclusion was that cognate elements were indivisible as canonical elements are.

Finally, thaumaturges at the University of KwaZulu Natal's College of Parapsychology have been able to adapt Solomonic formulae to manifest elementals of cognate elements. Kirlian photography confirmed no spiritual aspects to the manifestations, suggesting that they were, in fact, true elementals and thus confirming cognate elements as true elements.

What has been even more potentially groundbreaking is their experiments in gathering and distilling more cognate elements of a more intangible nature, such as from sound energy, EM radiation, and even psionic resonances. While these experiments have yet to be reproduced, the researchers' papers on the subject have been well-received in several peer-reviewed journals. As all of these elements have been gathered from cities and seem to be attached to human activity, they have been named the 'urban' elements. Debate on whether this connection to civilization is a necessary attribute of cognate elements is underway.

Up to this point, a total of 13 cognate elements have been identified, though two are controversial by other researchers.

Earth:

• Metal
• Glass
• Plastic
• Concrete

Water:

• Traffic
• Capital
• Sewage (controversial)

Air:

• Noise
• Signal
• Illumination

Fire:

• Electricity
• Fuel (originally Petrol)
• Outrage (controversial)