I didn't get a whole backstory, but it sounds like they have... creative differences? I guess they're not a fan of hotheads....

[Phoenix gives Apollo's hand an idle glance.]

They associate each of us with one of the elements, and from there they think that we 'belong' to the matching elemental being. I don't exactly understand it myself, but... it seems like there's something to it. Back when the city flooded and two of those elemental beings appeared, a number of us started having some odd phenomenons happen to us that seemed to match our elements.