Every story needs a beginning, so here is my suggestion for lore regarding the origination of the elements world:
"At the root of all things was the nous. It was before all was. It is with all that is. It will be after all is not. And time itself stretched out at the will of the nous and the aether extended at its call. And the nous ordained the spirit, delineating light from dark, and life from death.
About these were wrapped the material elements, the fire that burns, water that flows, the solid ground and capricious sky. And within these does the spirit dance, and it is within the cardinal elements, the time that beats, the aether that stretches, that the dance is measured. And thus there was the dance. And thus began the dance, the first state, the primal era.
And from the interplay of light and dark, life and death the elements began their dance. Their ebb and flow marked in time, their step and stance ensconced in the aether. And their leaps bounds are drawn closer by the primal gravitation yet kept distinct by entropy’s grace.
Thus did the elements dance in the first state. And then the nous declared, let the dance by known. And in the dance came an echo and by the will of the nous the dancers took their shape and dancers did know the dance. And to each element was given an echo, and in each echo was the resonance, the image of the nous. And thus began the second age. The age of the primal, first of the elementals. And these primals sired their decendants, the ancestors to the false gods, fore fathers to the demigods, heralds of the current age."