Because there isn't actually an full Elementdex yet (and by that I mean one with a page for every Element with heaps of awesome descriptions), and because most visitors are probably wondering what this whole thing about redoing the type list is all about if they haven't seen the same thing on other fake Pokémon sites, here's a page explaining it all.
So, to start, here's a current official list of all the Pokémon types. There are seventeen so far: (for those wondering about the order, I took it from the very first Type-rap on the 2.B.A Master CD and added the later-released Gold and Silver types at the end)
And now to cut to the chase, here's a list of the Minami Elements. They've been cut down quite a bit. I learned about the classification of the spheres in Biology and this has formed some of my arguments as to why things could be changed.
We have also come up with things we named 'Sub-Elements':
And here's how we managed to get the list... (For your benefit; I'm not trying to convince anyone that our way of changing things is the only way... it just sounds like that when I'm describing the process for some reason *guilty smile*...)
(Firstly; a reiteration... when describing the Minami categories; we will always use the word 'Element', never 'Type'. Type is only used when referring to the official games.)
Whilst 'Grass' is pretty suitable, it's a little too specific. After all - the Grass type Pokémon not only have blades of grass, they have flowers (some even are flowers!), trees, vines, leaves, moss, etc. The name Flora is by far descriptive and all-encompassing of the whole living world of plants - one half of the Biosphere.
Fire has not been changed, due to the fact that the word 'Fire' is pretty much descriptive. Sometimes the word 'Flame' can be used instead (if only because it sounds cool; and the silly people who made the first English Pokémon CD added it even though they'd already listed Fire, so we might as well). (there's no Pyrosphere, but it would be a cool idea...)
Previously, the whole geosphere of the Pokémon world has been divided up in half; Ground and Rock. We combined the two in an unanimous decision and created the Earth Element. It may interest you to know, on a related point, that the webmasters of Pokémon Neuto went the opposite way and created the 'Sand' type.) (Lithosphere - the outermost crust of the 'earth' doesn't make these distinctions between the different types of earth.)
Poison seemed to not quite fit in terms of what I consider an Element to be (*guilty smile no. 2*) because it relies on the fact that a Poison Pokémon has poison in its system somewhere. But this means that every creature with poison must be classified as such - and that makes for the annoying fact that most Grass types are also Poison.
Electric has been kept. (No individual sphere for it though, apart from the fact it appears in the atmosphere.)
So has Water. Recently we had a discussion about this Element in particular and the fact Ice is Water though in frozen solid form; thus Ice has been shifted into a Sub-Element.
Rock: Combined with another Element and renamed. See Ground for a full explanation.
Flying was kept, but renamed (like Grass to Flora). We ended up generalising again, and called it Air; to encompass everything above the earth and water. The Pokémon with this Element have to do with the atmosphere; basically.
Ice has stayed but as a Sub-Element because of its link to Water. Cryosphere-ness!
Normal. I've always had a big problem with the Normal category... it's not like I don't love the cuddly Clefairy or anything (how could one dislike a Pokémon which shares your nickname?!), it just seemed to me that this was a type created to put all the monsters without any visible type, hence that's why the group is so big. So now we have combined Normal and Bug and put them into the general Element of 'Fauna' (animal life), keeping in with the whole 'Flora and Fauna' thing. (the second half of the Biosphere)
Ghost we definitely wanted to keep. It's a weird one though. We decided that it meant the Pokémon which fall under this category aren't solid in their forms. So now this Element is at a direct opposite to Fauna (p.k.a Normal) because as Fauna concentrates on body, Ghost, or Spirit as we renamed it, concentrates on Spirit (Body and Spirit).
Psychic and Fighting. These have been kept as Sub-Elements and renamed to Passive and Combat.
Dragon has been kept.
Dark has been kept.
Steel, we both agreed, was a stupid name considering there are so many different types of metals to be considered, not only steel. It's now called Metal.
Say hello to Light! Light is, of course, the opposite of Dark, and we both agreed that it was only obvious that it be added. Many other faker sites have also done so, so we're really only just jumping on the bandwagon here, but let it be known that we didn't need prompting from them to argue that this Element should exist out of logic's sake.
Omni: The rare ocurrence of a Pokémon having more than three Elements is grouped under this category. The only Pokémon known to be Omni at this stage is Karda.
