ELEMENT POWER

•     Lightning/Electricity is sometimes paired with air or fire, but more often is considered a separate form of power. In most games, it forms the basic trio of available powers. Lightning usually carries the same connotations as fire, but may also include speed (i.e.: "moves like lightning") or mild insanity (from having fried his brain too many times), or even more. Like fire it's sometimes an ability of The Smart Guy as controlling and conducting electricity is integral to modern day gadgets. Usually depicted as either very yellow or very blue, although in real life it's actually more often white.
•     Ice/Snow: may or may not be combined with water or air. As a separate element, it carries connotations of coolness, detachment, harshness, and even death. As a foil to fire they tend to be The Lancer or villains, and play Blue Oni to anyone's Red. Like the rest of its trio it can be The Smart Guy, likely because old monasteries, libraries and places of learning are known for being cold inside. They'll be scholarly, by the book smart guys however instead of techies or curious types. Snow is almost the same as Ice generally but carries connotations of fun, softness, cheerfulness, and even love.
•     Light/Holy: Light can be for healing or destruction. Commonly used by angels, priests, and the forces of heaven (even if they're not the good guys). Light is, however, usually associated with absolute good. Sometimes mixed with Lightning or Fire. May also be portrayed as Sunlight.
•     Darkness/Shadow: Even if Dark Is Not Evil, the vast majority of bad guys will use this. Often causes Standard Status Effects or Instant Death. Usually the opposite of and weak to Light. Occasionally manifests as gravity-based powers (as in black hole).
•     Life/Nature/Wood: May or may not be combined with Light, or may be concerned more with healing and/or Plant life. Also tends to cause Standard Status Effects, usually positive ones or poison. Often combined with Wind in Asian settings or Earth in Western settings. Also manifests as Petal Power attacks.
•     Animals: May be combined with Life/Nature/Wood, or be fueled by Heart. Sometimes limited to specific types of animals (land, sea, sky) or all animals. A character with this power can likely talk to animals, possess animals, fuel themselves with the power of animals up to and including transforming, or summon creatures to their aid. Often Closer to Earth. Stands opposed to Metal, Technology, Poison and Death.
•     Machines: Similar to the above but with machines instead of living creatures. Often related to Lightning and Metal. Usually a Gadgeteer Genius will have this power.
•     Crystal: Sometimes combined with Light (via Power Crystal), but usually lumped with Earth since crystals are from earth. An even weirder category for this is Ice, but often, it is a standalone element that works as Non-Elemental. Often associated with piercing or cutting attacks.
•     Death: Just as Life may get combined with Light in some settings, Death often gets lumped in with Darkness (or occasionally Void). As its own element, death magic is usually focused on destruction, defilement, and summoning spirits from the less-than-pleasant parts of the afterlife. Sometimes overlaps with Time (via Rapid Aging and You Can't Fight Fate) or Poison. Expect practitioners of Death magic to have made some sort of infernal pact or sacrifice in order to obtain their power. High-end Death attacks tend to have permanent effects that are difficult to remove. Ironically, it can sometimes be used to revive someone just like Life magic, as long as you're not concerned about them coming back intact. That said, if Dark Is Not Evil, then Death doesn't have to be, either. After all, natural death is just as much a part of life as anything else.
•     Heart/Love: The element of emotions and spirit. May involve empathic abilities, The Power of Friendship and/or love, or healing. On the other hand, it may involve focusing that power into a coherent beam of destruction (in which case it may be conflated with Light or Life). Usually turns out to be either the most powerful element of all, or the most useless. Sometimes the claim it's the former when it's really the latter. Heart is also more often than not used as a sort of glue for combining powers together, so this is often the power of the leader, even if they aren't very strong themselves.
•     Metal/Steel: Either a subset of Earth (including metals and non-metals) or contrasted against Earth (metal alloys as opposed to non-metal rocks). Metal is used for either ridiculously high defensive capabilities (clang) or offensive capabilities (stabby). It has associations with strength, technology, civilization, rigidity, craftsmanship, and determination. Even though it's like a stronger version of Earth, it's also sterile, inflexible, cold, and can't bear life like Earth can. Often opposed by Nature or Wood. The easiest of the elemental powers to produce Magitek from. Metal is rarely seen as a classical element or power outside of Asia (and China in particular).
•     Soul/Spirit/Aura: The ability to manipulate spiritual energy, or spirits themselves. This is occasionally involved with religion, too. People possessing this power can probably talk to the dead, as well. Sometimes related to necromancy, Psychic Powers, Faux Flame, and especially Ki Attacks. This can be either a villainous or heroic power, depending on how it's portrayed.
•     (Pure) Energy/Magic: Pure magical power or energy as Non-Elemental power. Might involve runes or glyphs. Thematically relates to either the mind or wisdom, or to the primal form of energy you get when you stick all the others together. Generally of neutral alignment to other elemental types, sort of a Jack of All Stats of elemental powers. If it is opposed, expect it to be against Heart (rationalism vs emotionalism). May be functionally interchangeable with Psychic Powers or a dumping ground for a setting's magical effects which can't be tied into any standard element.
•     Poison: Powers relating to poison, acid, disease and sometimes garbage and pollution. Can be classified as an element and/or status effect depending on the work. Sometimes folded into Death, though it can also be a more sinister application of Life (by supercharging the micro-organisms that cause disease).
•     Lava: May overlap with fire due to both being hot substances, even though it's molten rock, so if anything it should be part of earth. Usually stresses the more negative connotations of fire, and may be considered "hellish".
•     Sol/Sun: Power relating to the sun. It's usually something of a mix of Fire and Light. May involve gravity, as well.
•     Luna/Moon: Power relating to the moon. Can be considered evil, but not always. Usually relates to werewolves, and by extension insanity or confusion. May involve power in exchange for sanity. It may also involve water, since the moon's gravity controls the ocean's tides.
•     Star: Power relating to the stars and celestial bodies. Most commonly associated with divination and manipulating fate, but it also has some elemental properties. Most commonly, this takes the form of calling forth shooting stars to hit people with. It's not unheard of for Star to eat the Sun and/or Moon elements, and/or to overlap with Space, Ice or Void elements.
•     Sound: Using sound as a method of attacking and/or battling with an instrument falls under this section.
•     Radiation: Generally of the gamma kind, the kind related to reactors, bombs, and fallout. You're probably not going to see this very often at all, for obvious reasons, and when you do it'll generally be either Bad Powers, Bad People or serious Blessed with Suck. Has the potential to be Darker and Edgier than dark. May overlap with light, if portrayed negatively, since radiation is often associated with light (i.e. the Sun itself, that gives us light and skin cancer).
•     Time: Controlling the flow of time. The ability to stop time, slow time down, speed up time, etc.
•     Space/Gravity: The ability to control the fabric of space. Teleportation, causing objects to phase in and out, or the ability to control gravity is usually included.
•     Void: This is generally considered to be even Darker and Edgier than Darkness. Generally involves erasing things from existence, whether via black hole, draining Life Energy, or simply causing a Cessation of Existence. Rarely has an opposing element.

Source: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ElementalPowers