Law of Summoned Elements

Alkeria was once a land of high magic, where magical beasts claimed the word as theirs, and the humanoids that lived there were temporarily holders of that domain. The magic that inundated the land permeated all aspects of life that lived close to the nods that pocketed the land.
One of the those aspects of that magic is summoning of elements. Magic has a life of its own. It's not something that is simply brought forth with the snap of a finger or the incantation of some long forgotten parchment. Magic is to be commanded. Weak or careless users find themselves in trouble to the very magic they sought to command more often than not.
magic isn't uite as troublesome in recent years, but there are still various aspects that users have to be wary of. In particular, the summoning of elemental magic; be it fire, ice, air, and earth (or to some extent their various mixture counter-parts). Elemental summoning is the closest a user will get to summoning pure magic, and the pure expression of the land is expressed through such conjurings.
A magical fire, for instance, is hot and needy, wanting to consume all within its path it will, against the laws of nature, jump to adjacent fuel sources in order to fuel, grow, and ultimately burn. All the elements will seek to pursue their own goals. And no two castings are ever the same; there's always a different time, location, and ebb and flow of magic. Just because a user is able to command the magic today, doesn't mean tomorrow won't be any easier.
Location of the casting in its approximation to a node will also determine the strength and nature of an elemental casting. A user successfully casting a fireball from on top of a node might toss a send a fiery group of butterflies into the intended target, while an ice storm might be a portrayed as a screeching banshee. Each casting is different dependent on the magic contained at that location at that time.
Reports of elemental castings have varied over the years, and long living species such as the elves and even the dwarves tell impossible tales of the elemental castings taking humanoid form and conversing with the caster prior to either completing the summoned casting, or, well, other not so other summoned tasks, usually to the detriment of the caster.