Sylph, Undine, Gnome, Salamander and the Swiss Doctor Who Invented Them

As a kid playing RPGs, I learned a lot of new words — some invented for a particular game’s fictional setting but others drawn from the real world. In a sense, the seeds for this blog were planted during the process of finding out if a given word existed outside the realm of video games. If it did, I always wanted to share — like, “Look, mom, a non-educational video game taught me something!” Indeed, this post began years ago with a trip to the dictionary that ultimately led me to Paracelsus, the sixteenth-century physician who also happens to be the creator of the four elementals: sylph, undine, gnome and salamander. Despite the considerable handicap of being a science guy, Paracelsus originated the elemental quartet that fiction and fantasy and RPGs in particular would revisit again and again.It was during my first playthrough of Final Fantasy IV that I learned the world sylph. In the game, the sylphs are a race of fairy-like creatures who reside in an underworld cave. They’re…