Unique Elementalist Concepts?

[WaitWut]

Considering that everyone has a character that controls the simple elements (fire, water, air and earth), I was wondering if there were any ways of adding to the concept of an elementalist to make them more unique.
Of course, you can always link a pyromancer to a demon, or give a water elementalist aspects of a Lovecraftian creature, or give an air elementalist angelic wings, but can you go further than that?
Any suggestions?

[Alphakoka]

Tie them to some kind of technology or materials or metals.

Example would be: Fire tied with iron, air with tin, earth with lead and water with copper. Tied as in, you need those metals (either pure or high purity) to use/create those elements.

[Kestrel]

Combine elements is a simple differentation. Earth+fire=lava, earth+water=mud/plants, earth+air=lightning. Alternatively elements lend their selves very well to summoning golems of their respective elements. Proper use can, aside outright offence, also create area control. Force someone to walk around the lava-pit, delaying an army or bottlenecking them. Or have a strong wind coming to alter the trajectory of incoming arrows. Or let vines grow across a bridge creating a makeshift bridge.

[WaitWut]

Alphakoka: How exactly would the materials be used to create the elements in the first place? I like how the elements have been tied to the materials, but I'm a wee bit confused.

Kestrel: I like the golem summoning idea; maybe the golems take on a different appearance depending on what element is used. Like, the air elementalist has a winged golem and the earth elementalist has a crab-like golem.

[Alphakoka]

Well, it could be a fuel instead of the usual, so an elementalist's ability to use the element is tied to how much metal he has with him. This would force the elementalist to be tactical with his use of the metal as there's a limit of how much he could carry and the metal itself would be hard to be stocked. Alternatively, it could be plants instead of metal. Basically, think of FMA (Full Metal Alchemist) but instead of converting one matter into another into another form, this one converts one matter into its respective elements. That said, it doesn't have to be limited into only one metal for each elements as you have around 45 listed materials in the periodic table that's not liquid or gas or radioactive in their single form not mentioning other metals you can make up. And other stuffs.

Or it could be a converter and the source of power is still the elementalist's own mana, so in order to use an element, the elementalist has to has a metal for that element. A metal of a certain size can only convert so many magic to the element at a single time.

Or it could act as tank (personally, I favor crystal/gemstones for this kind) if the elementalist can only have so many mana to burn on his own everyday and they're unable to "stockpile" mana within their own body. A suitable metal can store much more of an element compared to the others.

[WaitWut]

I really like this idea. I'm just wondering how the character would store the metals and link them directly to their mana source. Also, what properties of metals can be linked to different elements? I understand that earth and lead are heavy, and iron can be linked to fire as you need a blast furnace to separate it from its ore, but what about air and water? Maybe conductive metals could be linked to electricty...

[Alphakoka]

Accessories or a bag for the ingots where they store the ingots until usage. Either way, skin contact.

As for the relation, heck, it's up to you how you link them. The 4 I listed was linked to the 7 planetary metals and the Roman Gods and some shenanigans.

Iron dominated by Mars ♂, the Roman God of War, and using fire is one aspect of war, hence fire
Tin dominated by Jupiter ♃, the Roman God of the Sky, no need for any explanation, no?
Copper dominated by Venus ♀, the Roman God of Beauty, blah blah....mirror, before there's anything that functions as mirror, we use water.
Lead dominated by Saturn ♄, the Roman God of agriculture, therefore Earth.

So, yeah. Connect it however you like, shenanigans is an acceptable part of magic.

Heck, you can even use Magnesium, Phosporous, Sodium and Sulfur for the following reasons:

Mg: The free element is not found naturally on Earth. Not on Earth therefore it's Air.
P: It's essential for life. What's also essential for life? Water.
Na: 6th most abundant element in Earth. Earth (Or the other 4)
S: Referenced in the Bible as brimstone which meant burn stone. Burn = fire.

[WaitWut]

Thanks, that's actually really helpful. :3