I've looked into this, a bit. Here's what I've found out, as far as differences go (beyond the expected visuals, memory consumption, etc) between Elemental and Master of Magic.
1) Dynasties. Yes, you can actually found a dynasty, presumably passing along your artifacts as you age (and I imagine, die) to your kids, who have their own set of skills.
2) Spell books. I'm not sure about this, but it looks as though each magic type has one book, rather than a group that provide access in numbers to higher level spells, and more of them. Too bad, if that's the case.
3) Visual customization. Plenty of that. Pure fluff, but pleasant.
4) Lots more diplomatic options than MoM. But that's to be expected from Stardock.
5) Heroes are less powered up, but that, too, was to be expected. Some were frankly way over-powered in MoM (especially with the random jackpot coming through), though I got a kick out of each.
6) More involved in the actual construction of buildings than just putting them up. These take time.
7) Research is general, rather than specific.
A lot of what's left seems to be very much like the older game, including the general mechanics.
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