Overview
The Plane-Walk Elemental is the shape of the element itself — a river given shoulders and a slow, deliberate turn, a deep sea-green column with a face that is only a suggestion. It is the truest foot of the elemental line: the being that crosses the Veil the way a river crosses a border, without asking, and the crossing is not a choice. There is no will in it beyond the element and no drive beyond the drown, but the crossing arrives anyway, and the crossing is not a choice. Where the other elementals feel the Veil by the thinning, the Plane-Walk walks it by the border.
Habitat
It lives on 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. It keeps the border-stone, because that is where the current is easiest to walk, and because an elemental that leaves the border-stone is an elemental that has forgotten the water. The mighty keep the deep planes and the wisps keep the openings, but the Plane-Walk keeps the border-stone and does not stop walking. It is settled on the plane, and the settling is the whole of the territory, because the current does not leave the plane.
Appearance
A Plane-Walk reads 2.59 m tall and carries 168 kg of shaped water, built broad through the column and cold through the current. The body is a deep, patient sea-green to a grey-brown at the base where the water meets the stone, with a faint, almost imperceptible pulse to the edges. The mark is the pale sky-blue light at the crest, which runs brighter when the being is roused or crossing the Veil — the light is the whole of the warning, and the not-running is the whole of the peace.
Behaviour
It moves at 11.3 m/s across the stone, deliberate, because the current does not hurry and the being has nothing to do but walk. It does not hunt by the mouth; it hunts by the border — the Veil is crossed the way a river crosses a border, without asking, and the drive is taken the way a current takes the bank, inch by inch. When the border thins — a day before it opens, never a moment after — the pale sky-blue crest runs bright and the being walks a degree harder, the way a hand holds a blade.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
The drown is the whole of the weapon — a current walked across the border that lands on the being and keeps the plane's faith for a lifetime. There is no strike beyond the drown and no defense beyond the element: the body is a deep, patient sea-green to a grey-brown, as hard as the water that keeps it, and the pale sky-blue crest holds the word the way the stone holds the debt. A Plane-Walk that is harmed does not break in the way the plane does not recognize — the harm simply stops being a harm, and the stopping is the whole of the healing.
Magic Alignment
Its line belongs to water-current, the drive, the patient, precise holding of the element across the plane. The Plane-Walk carries the line's truest named inborn, Plane-Walk — it can cross the Veil the way a river crosses a border, without asking. It also carries Shape-Hold, the line's body, which is not a choice either, because an elemental that could not hold its shape against the wind, the water, and the doubt would not be an elemental of the plane. Its signature power is the Avatar Voice: the plane's voice, spoken in a current that keeps the word.
Society
There is no society in it, and the not-having is the whole of the shape. The elementals of the plane speak in parallel the way the water speaks — each one its own force, all of them the same drive. The mighty keep the deep planes, the wisps keep the openings, and the border-stone keep the walking, and the three have learned that a force that is not walked is a force that is not a drive, and the not-walking is the whole of the peace.
Culture & Lore
The element is the only honest conversation the plane has ever trusted, and the lore of the line is the element. An elemental that walks its Veil a day past the opening is an elemental that has kept the plane, and the keeping is the whole of its reputation. The pale sky-blue crest is the mark the line keeps — the fine, deliberate light that shows when the Veil is crossed — and a Plane-Walk whose crest runs true is a being the plane will trust with the border-stone. The The Forgotten are the only ones who have ever kept a drive the plane had already forgotten, and the keeping is the whole of the legend.
Home
It lives on The Elemental Planes, the eight raw planes where the element is the only law and the plane the only clock. The being keeps the border-stone, and the border-stone is the whole of its home, because the home is the element and the element is the home. The Dragons of The Elemental Roost do not come down the border, and the not-coming is the whole of the kinship. The plane gives the line its current, its shape, its one honest conversation, and its one true foot, and the line keeps all four the way it keeps the word — until the Veil is done.
Relations
The Dragons of The Elemental Roost are the shaped kin of the elemental, and the kinship is the whole of the distance — 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.
In the Story
The six who arrived through the The Threshold never came down to the plane, but the plane has been walking since the oaths were sworn below, and the border-stone's elementals have been crossing a day earlier than they should. 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 Plane-Walk walks the border the element is keeping, and the border is the whole of the story's edge.