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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9067620" data-attributes="member: 58172">In the European Animistic cultures, the Bard is spot on. But in some of the Asian Animistic traditions the Daoist elementalism and alchemy can be a significant feature, so the Druid class elementalism can be a better fit. Popculture probably thinks of "transmuting led into gold" when thinking about alchemy. But actually, alchemy is interested in all kinds of things, including medicine, even medical treatments that make a human free from sickness and death, whence methods of immortality and so on. The Druid being both elemental and healing is excellent here.Both the European Hellenist elementalism and the Asian Daoist elemenalism have five elements.<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Daoist Elements</td><td>Hellenist Elements</td><td>Medieval Elements</td></tr><tr><td>Metal ≈ Crystal</td><td>Earth</td><td>Solid</td></tr><tr><td>Tree ≈ Air</td><td>Air</td><td>Gas</td></tr><tr><td>Water</td><td>Water</td><td>Liquid</td></tr><tr><td>Fire</td><td>Fire</td><td>Plasma ("heavenly fire" of sun, etc.)</td></tr><tr><td>Soil ≈ Space (Fifth Element)</td><td>Ether (Fifth Element)</td><td>Force (gravity, substance that lacks matter)</td></tr></table>The main difference between the Daoist elements and the Hellenist elements is, the Daoist describes elemental ways of moving, while the Hellenist describes elemental particles of substance. But by the Medieval Period, protoscientists (such as Maimonides) interpret the Hellenistic elements as referring to states of matter (solid, gas, and liquid) rather than kinds of atoms. Thus the Hellenistic system too ends up describing elemental ways of moving, much like the Daoist system does. (The medieval descriptions of "heavenly fire", namely plasma, including the sun and the "dark fire" cold plasmosphere around the Earth, plus the descriptions of the immaterial "force" that keeps the planets in orbit, are amazingly modern.)Both Tree and Air are ways of moving that expand and encompass other elements within it, thus are understood as the same element, the same elemental way of moving. For example, the Tree element correlates oracles about winds in the I Ching.Similarly, both Soil and Space are understood as the same element, being motionless, where the other elements are able to have place and exist.Originally, in the Greek language, Air (aēr) refers to the atmospheric haze of the clouds and below corresponding to weather patterns, while the Ether (aithēr) is the purity above clouds without weather or debris. As such, the Ether came to associate with the stuff that immortals are made out of as well as the stuff of the heavens generally. Explanations for what ether is range from the proto-matter that preexists the other four elements that form from it within it, to the stuff that the soul, spirit, and consciousness are made out of, to invisible immaterial force that keeps the planets in orbit. In some alchemical formulas, the alchemist adds "ether" as an ingredient by focusing their mental intention on the alchemical process. In other words, the spirit of the alchemist is the stuff of ether.The D&D Druid class can handle all of this elementalism.Both the Druid and the Wizard exhibit elemental themes. In contexts where the traditions focus on nature, healing, body and soul, the Druid can be a better fit.</blockquote>

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