Magi-Tech, Elemental Bindings

Utility

Elemental Binding, is used in all sorts of devices; mainly used to power them mechanically, but also incorporating the elemental's properties in their workings. In magic it takes its basis in conjuration, for summoning, enchantment to control the elemental and abjuration as a means to create enclosures to hold the elementals for more complicated works.

Elemental binding becomes more interesting once mortal technology began advancing more and more. The first sailor to get air elementals to drag their ship around must have thought themselves quite clever, but nowadays wizards, engineers and alchemists are always trying to one up each other in what they can get the elemental to do. In practice this is getting the basic behaviors and properties of the elemental to run more and more complex machinery as living engines. The first steamships came about when the dwarven kingdom of Arstrav first expended their holdings to the seas and became feed up with the dealings of merchant guilds. Seeing how their kingdom had only experience with the dealings of earth and fire elemental they made due with what they had.

Boiler systems, and steam engines were just one of the applications found to harness the destructive forces of fire elementals, as constant sources of heat. Soon inquisitive types, like your average arcanist began experimenting with not just the locomotive power of a moving mass of semi-sentient stuffs but also with their reactions with the everyday mechanics of the world around them.

There is the question of how ethical it is to ensnare elementals for use as power sources. Where the analogy of animal husbandry pops up a lot, due to how elementals are much like animals on their home planes; living and acting for their own survival and ineffectual to the machinations of any bigger picture. Many druids take a stance either against the use of elemental binding as enslaving of elementals akin to tainting and taking from nature or ambivalence not caring one way or another, much like how people have domesticated animals. The opinions of religious institutions vary from faith to faith, while more nature worshiping religions have views akin to druids, faiths of artificing gods and those of knowledge generally take great interest in the research and development of these technologies, they generally frown upon methods that completely stripe away the autonomy of the elemental. The method of how one controls the elemental is also another level of scrutiny. The most preferred method is to maintain the elemental as though it were a respected pet, or livestock; to be well groomed, fed and kept in good health. This ensures it is cooperative and in the event of a critical structural failure of magitech device, that the elemental does not go on a rampage, cause collateral damage, or run back to its native plane. Methods of mental influence have varying results, where uses of enchantments to calm and mentally nudge the elemental are far less dubious or frowned upon than those that would completely dominate or mentally trap it.

Another question that comes up a lot is; why not just make golems to do the work? Golems run a similar prinicple of using elemental spirits to power their movements. However golems take a lot of resources to construct for even the simplest of golems and a powerful spellcaster and skilled craftsman to boot. The result is ultimately more expensive than the average person to afford its services. The time since the Thumergian Collapse has bred many a culture that are quite wary of overly complex and powerful magics. The simplicity of getting an elemental to run in circles to run machinery was very appealing and put the more superstitious at ease.

Inventor(s)

No one inventor can lay claim to elemental bindings, but many can lay claim to be the first to apply it to make a new invention.

Access & Availability

The basic use of elemental binding is available practically worldwide. Only areas where the use of arcane magic is stigmatized and banned is it not use. Although in practice other types of magics can be used to bind elementals, the more advanced principles and applications are not researched, or practiced due to the cultures surrounding druidism, the spiritual beliefs of most faiths, and other cultural and memetic boundaries around different magical disciples.

Complexity

In concept elemental binding is very basic. The casting of summoning spells to bring an elemental onto the material plane, or one can simply find a wandering elemental or go to the right part of Eshtravan at the right time of year. Then an enchantment to lull it or for the more forceful command it to do ones bidding. An earth elemental can be used to dig ditchs, water and air elementals for running mills, and fire elementals for providing heat in cold weather or for a forge.

Discovery

The basis of Elemental Binding was discovered like how many other things were discovered, given the availability of a resource and some innovative thinking, new applications for those resources come into being. Unfortunately those resources were an abundant number of free roaming elementals unleashed upon the world be the Thurmergia Collapse and those innovative thinkers, the panic populace immediately after said collapse. Decades after the initial upheaval and when arcane magics began functioning as it should; the world was flooded with creatures from the inner elemental planes and people desperate to get them under control. Eventually people across Eshtravan figured out it was easier to not just slay an elemental and then go home to work the fields, but instead make that elemental work their fields for them. within the first century after the collapse societies around the globe that trusted their local arcanist enough to not run them out of town were able to take advantage of this basic premise and turn the hazards spewed out at them from other dimensions into a workable resources.