Alright I guess I can come up with a bit of brainstorming... Please don’t take this as things I think you should do... rather it is a collection of ideas in which you can draw inspiration or ideas from according to your needs.
Elemental Sources and contradiction!
-Elemental Source: A source is events, creatures, or meteological phenomena that change your tiles to that element. You can of course manually attempt to receive land that way.
--Note: Elements tend to leak their element into surrounding squares.
-Contradiction: These are elements that cannot stand eachother. Not only do they resist each other’s growth but creatures of these lands tend to dislike the other. Land that contradict each other may come with their own sets of problems but they also come with other benefits (which Ill brainstorm on fully later). For example if you want a large volcanic wasteland on your otherwise serene countryside you may need some lakes if you don’t want the fire-element spreading.
Note on Teraforming Creatures: Some creatures are so powerfully aligned with their element that they are able to keep their lands within their stable element or even cause others to conform to their element
-Note: Creatures don’t have to have maximum element as what they will transform lands into. A Fire Nymph probably wouldn’t want a land of pure fire.
--Note 2: An alternative is that in order to get a land to have a stable elemental rating is to attract/create/transform creatures of that elemental rating.
Meteo and Land?: Meteo is a nickname I’ve given masses moving through the air, these are usually moving weather events that can change a land’s element. Land is generally a fixed locations on the earth that affect your element as you pass over them. Meteos are not random as they tend to be in locations that make sense, but have much greater range and can appear in non-standard locations.
The Prime Elements:
Fire: The Element of heat and fury. Creates Lavalands, Lavapools, and Volcanoes
Sources:
-Events: Forest fire caused by civil strife or lightning strikes. (Not reliable source of fire)
-Meteo: Firestorms
-Land: Volcanos
Contradicts: Ice, Water
Ice:
Sources:
-Events: Ice Age?
-Meteo: Hailstorms, Snow
Stone:
Sources: -Stone has no elemental source so to speak but is rather a base. A Land drained of all elemental alignment becomes Stone. Powerfully Stone aligned locations become Barren Wastelands.
-Alternative source: Sand
Contradicts: Wind
Wind: An oddity, lands with powerful wind alignment tend to be empty pockets of air or broken ground
Sources:
-Meteo: Tornados, Hurricanes, Jet stream
-Land: Thermal Locations
Contradicts: Earth
Uhhh This is taking a bit too long and is too huge... Ill speed it up
The Complementary Forces:
Radiance: Eternal Sunlight, Jeweled lands
Darkness: Eternal Shadow
Misery: Black and Grey rainbow. Can be caused by unhappy populations (Risky)
Joy: Rainbow, Whimsical locations. Can be caused by overwhelmingly happy populations
Uhhh that is all Ill do... I think I messed up for some reason...
Holy and Evil seem odd to me... like something you would have to try to get...
Perhaps lands could have two elemental bars...
1) Land Elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Growth, Decay
2) Alignment Elements (Affect creatures and aura): Holy, Joy, Misery, Radiance
Edit addition: Actually calling it Physical Element and Spiritual Element... Or Soul Element...
Or possibly 3... Ill stop... Tell me if you see something interesting XD
I somehow seriously lost my track of thought while writing this up... I don't know what happened