Overview
Elementals are living phenomena — beings of pure elemental essence native to the elemental planes. They are not made; they occur, the way a storm occurs. A fire elemental is a shaped conflagration with intent; a water elemental is a river that decided to have opinions.
Habitat
They do not live in one place. Their home is The Elemental Planes, the eight raw planes of fire, water, earth, air, poison, venom, dark, and light, where the element is the only law and the plane the only clock. In the material world they occur where the Veil thins — a sudden concentration of elemental activity is a sign that someone is opening a Veil, or that one is opening on its own.
Appearance
The elemental silhouette is the shape of the element itself — a fire elemental is a column of orange-gold flame with a face that is only a suggestion, a water elemental is a river given shoulders and a slow, deliberate turn, and the seeing of them is not a choice. A wisp is a flicker, no taller than 91 cm, a pulse of colored light — ember-orange for fire, deep sea-green for water, grey-brown for earth, pale sky-blue for air — with no body at all, only the intent. A mighty elemental stands 2.44 m to 3.66 m, a formed body of its element with a single drive — burn, drown, crush, scatter — and a face that is the element's own face, if the element had one. An avatar is the plane's voice, 9.14 m to 18.29 m of pure element, with a silhouette that reads as a person at a distance and as a landscape up close. The eyes, when the element allows them, are the only true color — a white-hot core in a fire elemental's face, a deep, patient blue in a water elemental's. Elders are marked by a shape that has stopped trying to be one — an old elemental is a weather system with opinions, and the weather is the point. They wear nothing, because the element is the body and the body is the law.
Behavior
Disposition: solitary, territorial, aggressive — in the way a storm is aggressive, not in the way a person is. Elementals do not think in words; they think in forces, and a force does not negotiate with the ground it is covering. A wisp is curious and often a message. A mighty is a single drive, and the drive does not stop because the obstacle does. An avatar is a voice, and a voice can be bargained with — or, in Uaellaen's case, commanded. Strangers are not strangers; they are the shape the element is about to take. Two signature quirks: an elemental does not hate, and an elemental does not forgive — it is simply where the wind is going. And a bound elemental will keep its binding word for a lifetime, because the word is the only thing that is not a force.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
Natural weapons: the element itself — a fire elemental burns what it touches the way a forest burns, a water elemental drowns what it surrounds the way a river surrounds, an earth elemental crushes what it holds the way a mountain holds, and the striking is not a choice. Defenses: there is no armor the element is not already wearing; a fire elemental cannot be burned, a water elemental cannot be drowned, and a wisp cannot be hit, because a wisp is a flicker and a flicker is already gone.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: fire-storm for the fire, air, and lightning lines; the other lines take their own — water is the current, earth is the stone, poison and venom are the becoming, dark and light are the absence and the presence. Secondaries: none, because the element is the whole of the school. Named inborns: Element-Sense (an elemental can feel the Veil thinning a day before it opens, and the feeling is not a choice), Shape-Hold (an elemental can hold its shape against the wind, the water, and the doubt), Plane-Walk (an elemental can cross the Veil the way a river crosses a border — without asking). Signature power: the Avatar Voice — an avatar can speak in the voice of its plane, and the voice is the law, and the law does not argue. Limitation: an elemental cannot be owned, only persuaded, bargained with, or — in Uaellaen's case — commanded; his Court of Ash is bound by blood-pact, the only known method that works on avatars.
Society
The elemental keeps no society — an elemental is a force, and the force is the whole of the line, because the plane measures an elemental in the drive, not in the company, and an elemental who has not kept a drive in a season is called "the one who forgot the element," and the forgetting is the only kind the plane remembers. The wisp is the only kin the plane counts — the wisp is the message, and the message is the whole of the rank, because a mighty does not measure a wisp in the size, it measures it in the intent, and a wisp that has carried a word the mighty forgot is the one the plane calls the oldest. The avatar is above the counting — it is the plane's voice, and the voice is the whole of the kin. A bound elemental keeps its binding word for a lifetime, and the keeping is the whole of the society, because the word is the only thing that is not a force. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the plane does not send the elemental — it occurs it, and the occurring is the whole of the sending, and a mortal who is covered is a mortal who is going, and the going is the only kind the element keeps.
Culture & Lore
The elemental's only art is the holding — an elemental can hold its shape against the wind, the water, and the doubt, and the holding is a form of patience that mortal races find terrifying. The holding is not a rite, it is a fact: an elemental that has held a shape is not the same elemental that has not, and the not-same is the whole of the drive, because the element measures itself in the holding, not in the moving. The elemental's only word is the one it keeps — a bound elemental will keep its binding word for a lifetime, and the keeping is the whole of the culture, because the plane keeps its word, and the word is the only thing that is not a force. The elemental's only record is the weather — an old elemental is a weather system with opinions, and the weather is the whole of the record, because the plane does not write, it occurs, and the occurring is the whole of the lore. The bound elemental is the only kind the surface has learned to read, and the reading is the whole of the treaty — the Dragons of The Elemental Roost are the ones the plane regards as the shaped element, and the regarding is the whole of the kin, because the dragon keeps the element the way the elemental keeps the drive, and a dragon who has kept a word the plane forgot is the one the roost calls the oldest.
Relations
Elementals are the raw voice of the elemental planes, and the kinship is the whole of the distance — the Dragons of The Elemental Roost are the shaped kin of the elemental, and the shaping is the whole of the law, because the dragon keeps the element the way the elemental keeps the drive, and a dragon that has kept a word the plane forgot is the one the roost calls the oldest. Uaellaen of the camp is the only mortal the plane has learned to bargain with, and the bargaining is the whole of the bond — the Court of Ash is bound by blood-pact, the only known method that works on avatars, and the binding is the whole of the word. The Vampires and the Liches of the surface regard the elemental the way the ground regards the wind — with distance, and with the understanding that the distance is the whole of the warning, because a bound elemental is a word the surface has learned to read, and a loose one is a force it has not. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the plane takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the drive, because the forgotten are the ones the wind keeps going to, and the going is the whole of the promise.
Home
They do not live in one place. Their home is The Elemental Planes, the eight raw planes of fire, water, earth, air, poison, venom, dark, and light, where the element is the only law and the plane the only clock.
In the Story
In the current story, the elementals are the weather around the camp — the planes Uaellaen writes about when the word is worth more than the force. The Forgotten keep their distance at the veil-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a wisp came up the thin Veil with a word that was not in the element — a word that is not in the drive, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the plane keeps its word, and the word has started to move. The Court of Ash is keeping the word, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
An elemental does not hate you. It does not love you. You are simply where the wind is going. — Uaellaen