Elementals and the Philosopher’s Stone

“Elementals and the Philosopher’s Stone” by Jeff Swycaffer was published in The Dragon #27 (July, 1979), in which Aristotelian concepts were drawn upon in order to expand the types of elementals in the OD&D game.

A brief video excerpt of Jeff Swycaffer's article "Elementals and the Philosopher's Stone" viewable here

The article includes a pattern for a 26-sided polyhedron, comprised of 18 square sides and 8 triangular ones, which can be cut out and assembled.  (I printed the page using a color printer, cut out the pattern, and folded it together using a glue stick.)

Swycaffer incorporates the four sensible properties relating to each of the four classical elements, as described in Aristotle's "On Generation and Corruption"

The classical elements and their sensible qualities, as described by Aristotle in his treatise "On Generation and Corruption".

In Swycaffer's scheme, the elemental axis is oriented perpendicular to the opposite poles of "good" and "evil", giving rise to eight qualities ("pleasure", "fertility", "beginning", and "light" adjacent to "good"; and "pain", "barren", "ending", and "darkness" adjacent to "evil").

The demons in "Eldritch Wizardry" are considered the elementals of evil, while angels as described in the article "Messengers of God: Angels in D&D" by Stephen H. Dorneman, published in The Dragon #17 (August, 1978) are considered the elementals of good.

In addition, statistics for twelve new and imaginative types of elementals are given, such as dryness elementals (appearing as a shimmering in the air, sucking moisture) or barren elementals (appearing as a normal human, blighting fields and spreading plagues).

Alchemical symbols for Earth and the seven classical planets

As an extra touch, the eight triangular sides of Swycaffer's polyhedron bear alchemical symbols for Earth and the seven classical planets (see also "The Seven Magical Planets" by Tom Moldvay, published in The Dragon #38)

Swycaffer wrote several articles for The Dragon between 1978 and 1988 (see the author index on Dragondex), and also became a writer of science fiction.

"Elementals and the Philosopher's Stone" was later mentioned by Gary Gygax in his column "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" in The Dragon #32 (December, 1979):

It is of interest to relate that just prior to the appearance of the excellent article “Elementals and the Philosopher’s Stone,” by Jeff Swycaffer (THE DRAGON #27, Vol. IV, No. 1, July 1979), Dave Sutherland and I were discussing the various Elemental Planes, concentrating on the borderland areas between them, i.e. where Water touches Air and Earth and where Fire touches Air and Earth.  Mr. Swycaffer’s ideas were good indeed, and if vapor is substituted for “moist” and dust is used to replace the term “dry/dryness,” you will have a good idea as to how the borderlands between Elemental Planes will be treated.  Naturally, the denizens of these regions, “paraelementals” (not to be confused with Fritz Leiber’s “paramentals”) and other things, will also add to the overall scope of the game.

The ethical/moral concepts of good and evil do not, I believe, properly belong to any treatment of the elemental area, per se.  But while there will be no “good” or “evil” elemental type, there certainly must be elementals of good or evil disposition to complement those of neutral bent.  Similarly, the attributes of barrenness and fertility, the conditions of pleasure and pain, and the states of beginning and end are not elemental in the sense of the term used in AD&D.  The presence or absence of light isn’t necessarily tied to the elemental principle either, although it is a very nice touch with respect to the polarity of the “Philosopher’s Stone.”

While certain of the precepts of Mr. Swycaffer’s article will be evident in treatments of the various Elemental Planes, the whole-will not be there.  This is mentioned so that Dungeon masters reading this article will be able to peruse these modules with the aim of understanding the methods by which rules and an overall scheme were selected and tied together to arrive at something similar, yet different, in AD&D.  If you have opinions which you wish to share with us, please drop me a line.  Better still, if you have what you believe is an outstanding treatment of one of the planes, why not submit it to TSR’s design department?*

Gary Gygax "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" in The Dragon #32 (December 1979)

*a letter by Steven Kienle was later published as part of the article "Elementary ideas for elemental adventuring" in Dragon #47 (March 1981)

Swycaffer's ideas would inform the concept of para-elemental planes as described in "Deities & Demigods" (1980), with "ice", "dust", "heat", and "vapour" substituted for "cold", "dryness", "heat", and "moisture".

Torus illustrating the relationship between the Elemental to the Paraelemental Planes, from Deities & Demigods (1980)

Later still, Gygax would describe the quasi-elemental planes of  "lightning", "mineral", "radiance", and "steam" adjacent to the positive material plane; and "ash", "dust", "salts", and "vacuum" adjacent to the negative material plane, in his article "The Inner Planes" in Dragon #73 (May, 1983).