| The fairy folk are made up of the element which they represent. Thus
true elementals, or fairy folk, usually remain in their corresponding planes,
with a few notable exceptions. Often the elements will interbreed or merge.
Thus, some elementals may have an affinity for another element. Magma,
volcanos and lava represent the union of earth and fire. With such molten
and explosive qualities they are equally at home on earth, but also in
Hades and Brimstone. Geysers are the descendants of fire and water and
also fall into this category. The fountains, springs and babbling brooks
are all the offspring of water and air.
Elementals have the ability to travel between planes --a trip normally fatal for man--within certain proscribed limitations. They can appear anywhere and anywhen they chose and are not restricted to the use of portals, which exist more to contain time within its continuum than as entry points to the earth plane. Elementals can create havoc in mortal realm. Their appearance can be disorienting for a human since their physical presence distorts the mortal time-frame continuum of past, present and future. True elementals, or fairy folk, should not be confused with elves or any other of their descendants on mortal earth . As noted, fairy folk are made up of the element which they represent and, in the planes beyond the first, they could best be described as two dimensional (or that would be the nearest human equivalent). It is this two-dimensional quality of the other planes that makes interplaner trips lethal for man. Furthermore, it is this 2D- shift that causes disturbances in mortal time. Fairy folk would most likely appear flat to a human, if they choose to appear at all. The fairy folk can if they so desire become three dimensional, blowing up like a balloon, but it requires the expenditure of a great deal of energy. Furthermore, in attaining mass--or in this case volume--they tend to lose substance. Due to its unique qualities, it is only on the earth plane that can they attain true mass, having three dimensions and being quite solid. This, though, is a matter of personal choice. Usually they don't, considering the whole procedure much too bothersome just so they can appear more "normal" to mortals. As a group, elementals are little understood. In modern times, they tend to avoid contact with man. Mixing with elementals can be hazardous to human health, and those they touch--assuming the hapless human survives--remain forever changed, making them `different' from the rest of mankind. EARTHBoth the plane and elementals are unique in a number of respects. First and foremost, it is anchored and it is solid. Being both, it is the most hospitable to man. To outside appearances (at least to man, it would seem that the earthy folk have abandoned their plane. However, this is not the case. It's just that they are never seen. Perhaps because they are staid and stolid creatures who maintain a policy of non- interference with the mortal inhabitants, or more plausibly because elemental earth moves so slowly that it cannot be distinguished from the background.The elementals are strange, rocklike creatures that come in all sizes and shapes, from the tiniest crystal to the mighty mountain. They move so slowly that it is said that it takes them an aeon to complete a thought. The old fable of the Slug and the Earth Elemental contains more than a metaphorical grain of truth. In this tale, it was told how the slug had made it halfway around the circumference of the earth plane before the earth elemental had managed to lift a lumpy, lithologic leg. Yet with the perversity of all the fairy folk they, if motivated, can shift from one location to another as swiftly as a mortal thought. This was not always the case. At one time the earth elemental more closely resembled its brethren. Soft pliant creatures that wandered the earth like mobile trees, but at the time of the portals accord, these original defenders of man where condemned to be rooted to earth. The Martyr's Bush is an example--a sort of sentient vegetable. The other earth elementals who had not got involved in the conflicted, learned from theirs leaders' mistakes becoming hardened and rigid. The mortal plane is peopled with earth's descendants, the brownie and the pixie. Of all the elements, earth was the most likely to intermarry with man, thus it boast the largest number (and the most genetically diverse) issue of any of the fairy folk on the earth plane. FIREElemental fire appears as flame in almost human form, with two arms and two legs and a feverish brow. They expand and contract according to mood--becoming small, and slightly bluish when they are content, and larger and red-hot when they are angry. Through no fault of their own, they burn anything they touch, whether they want to or not. The immortals can regenerate, of course, but for man such contact would be fatal. Hence, fire is the only elemental who is banned from earth. Only its reflection-- lacking in will and intelligence and therefore, easily controlled by man--can be found upon the mortal plane.Thus rejected, they often turn to Hades for guidance and feel more affinity with the demon than their elemental cousins. As a result, fire is much more regimented than earth, air or water. Their social structure follows a military model. Each elemental is rated, with a cheery fire much lower in status than a conflagration or a holocaust, and each burn is graded by degrees. AIRAir elementals are the intellectuals of the fairy folk. Representing pure thought, without the weight of earth, their contemplation is sadly lacking in practical applications. Air elementals are inclined to be flighty and have a poor memory. Besides earth, it has the most affinity to man, who like itself prizes and nurtures the ability to reason. Because of this proclivity, air was set up as the protectors of man and vicariously earth, in the same agreement that banned fire from the mortal plane. Like their cousins, water, air did not bother appear at the conference (air's queen the Lady Astra forgot about it), so both groups got stuck with the most onerous duties. Fire has never quite forgiven air who now guard the external gates to the mortal plane.Air elementals appear to man as ephemeral creatures -- Faint images or outlines of near-human shape who expand and contract on their own currents. The closest analogy, being smoke upon the breeze. WATERWater is only slightly more stable (and a lot wetter) than either of fire or air. Emotional creatures, water elementals get extremely bubbly and effervescent when they are happy and weepy when sad. Like their element, they are fluid beings, who can either take human-style shape or puddle, dribble and flow, as is their wish. They usually are green or blue, although a few may be black or brown, reflecting stagnant waters or mortal mere.Water's queen is not overly fond of her airy counterpart, considers her appearances intrusive, and there's a lot of squabbling and jealously between the two of them. As an element, however, water has a particular antipathy for fire and so has become the final ring of defense between mortal man and fire. A task again assigned in the Portals Accord, which they did not deign to attend. Their DescendantsBesides Earth, other elementals also have their descendants on earth. In times past before the accord, earth's realm was open to all. When the immortals closed the doors between the planes closed, some elementals chose to remain behind. Through the aeons that followed, their long-term descendants were irrevocably altered by their environment, achieving mortal mass and becoming mortal also, albeit long-lived. Their progeny having contracted has much more affinity to man than to their elemental forebears, although all the elements who can claim direct descent are known as "true bloods" and are not to be confused with man. This group includes the wood elves, the trolls, the goblins, pixies and dwarves (earth elementals), and the snow elves (air) and sea elves (water), and the jinn (fire).The jinn is unique to the southern continent of Daklha. Some say it is the fire's scion since it is only able to survive in the arid desert, and it lives, quite notably, in lamps. Totally irascible, it is a point of interest that none of the elementals, even the fire elementals, are willing to claim the jinn as one of their own. Although some believe that the explosive (and usually red-haired) Firthian has also been touched by flame. With few exceptions, dwarves, elves and such-like keep to themselves. The little people, brownies and pixies, have their adoptive families. The trolls guard their individual bridges and consume human flesh. The different groups usually stay in their separate enclaves. Goblins and dwarves inhabit the mountainous region in the north. Goblins make occasional forays into human settlements to harvest the more tender women and children, who will be taken to live in their caves and kept like cattle awaiting slaughter. The elves maintain their cities: the sea-elves along the Shalop coast; snow elves beyond the northern wastes; wood elves in the foothills east of the mountains. For most part, their presence is never felt. Their influence wanes and their homes are protected from human incursion by magic. The latter three groups, the snow-elves are the most reclusive, as a
result their blood thins and the continued survival of the species requires
a mating ritual where the priestess of Brigitta bond with mortals (similar
to the rite shared between air and man) to strengthen the bloodline. Ironically
despite their blood diluted by mortal man, they are referred to as the
High Elves. The sea-elves and the wood elves who interact more often with
their environment, are stronger and do not have to result to such practices.
A genealogical chart is included below. Elves Air Elementals Water Elementals Earth Elementals Snow elves Sea Elves Wood Elves (the cold environment (a mixture of chosen because it long-dead allowed them to tree spirits and slow metabolically, pure rock crystal) enough to survive in the earth plane) Earth elementals as the most adaptable upon their own plane have the greatest number of descendants. Other descendants of Earth Granite Gold/Other Slates, shale and clay Base Metals Precious Metals Trolls Dwarves & Gnomes Brownies and Pixies Goblins Descendents of Fire Jinn (?) Will' o'wisps Marshlights Direct Descendents Air and Fire Fire and water TimeTime is probably the biggest factor differentiating mortal from immortal. For all short-lived species, there must be a beginning, a middle and an end. Each a natural outgrowth of the previous.Not true with the immortal for whom the concept of linear time is truly incomprehensible. In the planes beyond the first, past, present and future do not form a straight line, with each contingent upon what transpired before and resulting in what we think of as cause and effect. Rather past, present and future exist simultaneously and could be likened to separate threads or skeins which float about the place, detached and dissociated from each other. And all times become one, happening concurrently. This gives the immortals an omnipotence, and what appears to be, a prescience. So the oracles of the gods can view the future or explain the past if they so desire. Elementals, the most likely of all the immortals to visit the mortal
plane, carry a bit of this timelessness wherever they go. Their appearance
of the mortal plane can be disorienting for a human since their physical
presence distorts the normal time-frame continuum. With continued exposure
to an elemental, the mortal quite literally doesn't know if he's coming
or going, and is just as likely to meet somewhere in between.
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| Renegades Email (Jessica Palmer) |