Earth Elemental

Earth Elementals vary in size, shape and texture, often depending on how deep from within the Plane of Earth they were spawned. Some Elementals have even been rumored to be comprised of the base material for the hardest magical metals, but these creatures are said to be so ancient and powerful that not even a god could command them. Common Earth Elementals are made of brown or gray stone. Earth Elementals appear most often as featureless apelike structures walking on large front limbs, supported by smaller hind legs. They speak in low, rumbling tones that seem to shift the terrain around them, and conversations between these creatures are said to take hours at a time. Earth Elementals attack with their massive stone forms, attempting to crush their opponents with their bodies. Some have also been seen commanding the earth around them to move and damage surrounding creatures in objects, and in rare cases of an exceptionally large and powerful Elemental, open up the earth itself and swallow its opponents whole.

Elemental Characteristics

Elementals are creatures comprised almost entirely of a singular raw element of nature, the most common being Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Elementals come in various shapes and sizes, and most rarely maintain a singular, stable form. Instead, they are constantly shifting masses of their element, often appearing in a vaguely humanoid form. Elementals can be as tiny as a pebble, or as large as a hurricane, their power in most cases appears directly proportional to their size. The larger the elemental, the more destructive capabilities it has.

History

Elementals have been controlled by many powerful magic users in the past. Their typically weak minds, coupled with their inherently destructive magical nature make them ideal candidates for arcane bondage. Elementals have also been known to occasionally wander the physical realms on their own, sometimes congregating in places comfortable to them. One great tragedy in time recalls a wealthy noble who built his retirement home next to a lake of the clearest and sweetest water in the country, only to be set upon a week later by a large herd of water Elementals drawn to the same location. In most cases, Elementals avoid the physical realms, as they prefer their own planes of existence to others.

Culture

Elementals are typically a neutral race of creatures, and their desires are typically aligned with the tendencies of the element that they are comprised of. Fire Elementals, for example, always seek substances to burn, and to avoid the element of water at all costs. Their homelands tend to be planes of existence that suit their characteristics, as well as the elemental planes themselves. Other than the need to be among their element, Elementals do not seem to have any understanding of society, social interaction, or belief. It was at one time believed that Elementals simply formed into existence out of areas of high magical concentration. However, a powerful and somewhat arrogant wizard of some notoriety had reportedly survived a recent trip to the Plane of Fire, where he claimed he saw two Elementals change shape, color and speed in a synchronous pattern, intertwining and releasing a third, smaller creature of the same kind in a fantastical display. The mage had just enough time to relate this story before dying due to horrible burns covering his body from head to toe. Whether he had actually seen such an occurrence, or he was simply delirious from the pain is still open to debate, but many wizards today believe his story is a plausible one, although the greater magical community has yet to come to a consensus on the matter due to its source.