Elementals¶
"Elementals literally create and form matter upon which all other creation rests." — the Cosmology Revision (S001)
Elementals are, with the Eldritch, "the only true natives of Terrun" (S001). They are beings of raw elemental energy that make up an intelligence, soulless in the way other creatures have souls, bound to the matter they shape; to scatter one is only to send its energy home to the Elemental Planes, where it will in time reform. The Einar subjugated them in the Primordial War and bound them under the Throne of Law to the Titans, and in the Fifth Age many have found new masters or fight elemental wars of their own. Their greatest, the Primordials, have a page of their own.
The nature of elementals¶
"Almost all living things in the Elemental planes are some form of Elemental. Lifeforms from the other material planes struggle with its harsh conditions and a lack of food sources for consumption. Elementals are different from most other lifeforms in that they draw energy/sustenance directly from their plane and in the process of using/consuming it, release it back into the plane as part of an infinite cycle (see Djarstrom's Treatise on the Elemental Cycle for more details). It is also for this reason that the Elementals generally stay on their plane as to be away from it is to be cut off from sustenance. Elementals do not have a soul and are bound to a set of elemental energy that belongs to them. To truly destroy this energy is to destroy all matter associated with it on the other material planes. Generally killing an elemental is just scattering their energies back to the elemental plane. It will eventually reform. Very few of the elementals can be considered conscious beings. Instead most are driven entirely on instinct in an almost mechanical fashion" (S001, S013).
The treatise on souls says the same from the other side: "Elementals do not have souls in the way other beings do. They are beings of raw elemental energies which make up an intelligence. Their form may be destroyed, but it always rebuilds itself. When their form on the Elemental Plane is destroyed, they lose their memory, but they still reform. It is possible to permanently destroy an elemental, but only by destroying the inanimate material they are connected to (known as sovereign matter) on the Material Plane (You can think of the sovereign matter they are tied to on the material planes as their Soul). If all elementals were destroyed in this way, the Material Plane would cease to exist" (S018, S421). Their elemental essence is a connection to the Inner Planes, not to the Outside (S018). In the Fae scheme of things an "Elemental" is also a stage: beings of "high order animal levels of intelligence. Capable of shaping fae energy around them... They are the workhorses and heavy infantry. Many are powerful animal forms or pure energy forms" (S279); see Fae.
"Almost all manipulation of the physical non-living world in the Material Plane happens in conjunction with the Elemental Planes" (S001). Elementals are hungry for energy and can be bargained with: "Elementals are energy hungry and many will do your bidding for relatively small amounts of energy. Note that Elementals prefer Mithis or Ethereal energies. (They are forced into submission by Astral Shards/energies)", and an elemental compelled by astral power may rebel "when in a zone friendly to them. Fire elementals near a volcano, Water elementals at sea, on a ship or near a river" (S421). The alchemists harvest pure elemental reagents "directly from manifested Air Elementals" (S210).
History¶
Before the Einar, "the Material plane was an Elemental battlefield, with the elements in a state of constant conflict. The Einar claimed dominion and sought to bring order to the Inner Planes. The Elementals resisted and began the Primordial War. In the end, the Elementals were defeated and subjugated" (S386). "When the Elementals were imprisoned on their plane at the end of the Primordial War, the Fae and Material planes were built on top" (S001). "The Throne of Law was formed to bind the elementals in eternal servitude and into its jailkeepers, the Titans. Each Titan was bound to a host of elemental subjects which were imprisoned on the Elemental Planes" (S208).
In the Fifth Age the order has broken. "Many elementals have been similarly affected, embracing new masters or fighting savage elemental wars on the Elemental Plane, leading to many cataclysmic events on the Material" (S014). "Conflicts are now common across the Elemental Planes as a new balance of power is being established. It is also rumored that a portion at the center of the Elemental Plane has reverted into a raw maelstrom of energies: a new Elemental Chaos" (S001). In the Underdark of the Fifth Age, "Fire Elementals + Fire Giants control the Great Magma Sea and the Firelands" (S199).
Earlier accounts¶
The older cosmology has the Material and Elemental Planes both predating the Einar and most elementals "exiled to their home planes" after the war (S013, S421), where the revision has only the Elemental Chaos predate them (S001); the difference is an open question of the Cosmology domain.
Elemental kinds seen in play¶
Fire. A Greater Fire Elemental, Afflion, guarded the temple vault of the fire cult in the Illuri Fold, and "a strong minion of Ambusthene... a Fire Elemental" the vault's entrance (S010). The pyromancers' schools summon fire, magma, radiant and wildfire elementals, and at their height a phoenix (S307). The phoenix is otherwise the sign of fire gods: the Elder Goddess Lha'nott "Appears as a phoenix headed humanoid" with a Great Phoenix form, and the phoenix is a symbol of Pyri, whose Order of Vyranc bears its name (S101, S429, S469).
Mephits. "Mephits are common bird-like Aphits", the short-lived expressions of Fae energy (S279). Magma mephits, "small winged humanoid fire elemental[s]", keep "normally very near the volcano cores/magma" of the Drakkani Wastes (S469). A pyromancer can make one: "You construct a magma mephit from a fae magma spirit you draw from the magma. This requires a considerable magma source; lava fountain or natural volcano will work... You may also release it at any time and it will collapse into a small pool of magma" (S307).
Water and air. A gnomish settlement on Whitestill lake "use[s] summoned water elementals to protect themselves", and "Water weirds will likely capture" those who come by the river (S328). Air elementals are named as a source of reagents and in the spheres of the old wizards (S210, S371).
Gap
Radiant and wildfire elementals are names in a spell list. No source describes an air, water, earth or fire elemental's appearance in Terrun's own terms.
Elemental beasts of the Drakkani Wastes¶
The volcanic Drakkani Wastes are the one region whose elemental fauna the sources catalogue (S469, S546):
- Fire wolves, "elemental dire wolves", run in "at least a dozen different packs. each pack consists of 8-12 wolves". The monks of the temple of Pyri keep "several tamed Fire Wolves as guardians", and a pack dens "near a lava flow in the bowels" of the ruined dwarven fortress Thorm'Mald.
- Salamanders hold two rival colonies, "magmins as servants": the Salamanders of the ruins of Isha'Goel under Uphenozur, allied with the orcs, and the break-away Salamanders of the ruins of Ptolemaris under Eisozach. Salamanders are also named among the simple animal forms that are often Aphits (S279).
- Azer serve as the household of the Fire Giant lord Jotnar and his dozen Fire Giants in the volcano Naur'pilust.
Gap
Azer and magmins are named only as servants; the sources do not describe them.
The Trollfather and the rockworms¶
In the Rock Troll warrens of the Urok'gar borderlands lives an Aeten'Daru, a Trollfather, named Irek. "As a Trollfather, he can merge with stone at will and pass through stone. His 'children' are the Rock Trolls and their lifeforce is bound to him. He is an Elemental Earth Archon and can manipulate earth with unprecedented power. He may reference that he has two 'brothers'... but that there were once many Trollfathers living here in peace before the orcs came and destroyed or enslaved many of his kind." He has no love for dwarves, "which in his experience care little for others and are obsessed with possessing the mineral wealth of the earth", but counts them better than the orcs. "He has pets, 2 Greater Rockworms, which are Aeten'Thoqqua, which can melt, tunnel or phase through rock" (S059).
Elder elementals¶
The rarest stage of the natural Fae is the Elder: "very rare pure energy form, moderate intelligence. Most of these have been reformed into Faeries. Only primordials can form them. Many of the remaining elder elementals serve Titans" (S279).
In Play¶
An elemental is seldom killed, only sent home; the thing to look for is the sovereign matter it is tied to, or the master it serves. Elementals summoned by astral power may turn on the summoner in their own element, and those bargained with want energy, not gold (S421). The old wizards' Protection from Outsiders "hedges out elementals & outsiders" alike (S371).