As Bartimaeus himself appoints he is constructed of Air and fire. He says in the first book that earth is heavening him and that he prefer the skies. Honorius said the the water of the Oceans weakened him greatly and that his essence almost Extinguished. As to old legends there are several types of jinnis: Ghul which is a night shade and can change shape. They are made of shadows. Jinni of air and fire. Ifrit of the smokeless fire and marid of water. Sila of earth and cannot change shape. However not all these are included but a resonable guess would be that these are the following:

Foliot=Sila=Essence of earth.
Djinn=Jinni=Essence of Air & fire (Preferaby mainly air as fire is Afrit)
Afrit=Ifrit=Essence of fire.
Marid=Essence of Water.

This might explain why Bartimaeus who is a Djinn prefer the skies and why Honorius is weakened by water. (Logically thinking a bird underground is not free and that a fire in water would extinguish.

Though Ghouls are also mentioned in the Prologue of Golem's Eye they are aswell shades hungering for human bodies to consume.

Hope this makes a lil' sense and that you can see the connection.

It states that djinni are air/fire spirits, afrits fire spirits, and marids are water spirits. However, it implies that there are no earth spirits, as golems are earth based and there aren't any spirits that aren't affected by it. I suspect foliots and imps are air.

There are Earth elementals, though, from elemental spheres. And shade/ smokeless fire aren't elements. ;)

You might be true that there are no earth spirit as that is a " limitation " to their essence and that's why the golems are rendered completely harmless to magical attacks but yes as Rubberchicken said the elemental spheres would'nt work then.

Elemental spheres contain elementals, not spirits. I get the impression they're a bit different.

I got that impression as well but then i had a thought- what if when you compress a spirit , it is just called an elemental then? Unlikely, however, so I'm not sure what could be different, though it's possible they're just stupid, or perhaps not sentient.

Why not just use grenades?

Magic nades work better
And both can blow up in your face
:D

It implied elementals were stupid but powerful, and they didn't seem to be controllable in the same way spirits are. Looked like the summoning/binding system was different too, because they didn't seem to need dismissing after their elemental sphere was detonated, and I doubt magicians would let powerful, stupid, angry spirits run around causing havoc after every elemental sphere detonation.

Very true (look at what happened to Atlantis)

Do you think it's an Definite confinement spell?
This means- Only released for a certain(Magicians Discretion?) word
Then they wreak havok for a few short seconds, then by the terms of the Confinement spell, they automatically go.
Sounds iffih to me...

i get the feeling they are a different, higher class that is compressed.... idk

I don't think they're a higher class, just a diffrent class all together. Someone think up an example for me.

No, I doubt that it's a new class. Though it might be... I do hope a Bartimaeus guide is coming out, then all questions would be answered.
Sorry if I didn't come an example up.

I reckon that elemental spheres are just any spirits that are made up of different elements that have been bound in the same container.

Just because Barti is a Fire/Air spirit, I don't think all djiini are. There could easily be a water element djinni.

No, it's definitely stated that djinni are air/fire, afrits are fire, and marids are "powerful water spirits".

It seems that imps, foliots and anything lower really aren't of any natural essance. But then, I don't know what they are made of...trash and rot molded together? ;) :o

Dansariki wrote: I got that impression as well but then i had a thought- what if when you compress a spirit , it is just called an elemental then? Unlikely, however, so I'm not sure what could be different, though it's possible they're just stupid, or perhaps not sentient.

You must mean sapient, not sentient. Sentience is possessing feeling, while sapience is possessing reasoning.

rubberchickenben wrote: You must mean sapient, not sentient. Sentience is possessing feeling, while sapience is possessing reasoning.

Sentient also means "the concious mind." It's an older meaning, but still a valid one. ...yeah.

Further on the issue of imps: what differences in essense might there be among Golbin-Imps, Natterjack Implings and Stygian Implets?

They all have differences in uses, appearances and power. Stygian Implets have spikes and probably is only used for such, natterjack implings are mentioned in A of S as unadventurous. Not sure about goblin-imps.

Nero wrote: Not sure about goblin-imps.

I'm having a difficult time finding a reference to them that just goes beyond metioning the name. (Of course, my copies of the books are in our vaca house, so I'm stuck using just the internets, and they isn't helping very much!)

Do you ever get the feeling that sometimes Stroud just sort of went "I think I'll just throw in a different demon name here. I don't want to use (blank) again, that would be boring," without really putting together a full background or classification? The nitpicker in me recoils in horror from the very thought!