Elemental Princes of Evil / Archomentals

[Alzrius]

besides Bwimb, we also have Ehkahk of Smoke and Chlimbia of Magma. (1E MotP page 53).

Chilimba is the aforementioned mephit (or maybe a para-elemental?) mentioned earlier. I think ditto for Ehkahk being mentioned in The Inner Planes.

 

[Shemeska]

Alright, I checked and looked them up. Here's the top beings in the various elemental planes outside of the cardinal 4. I excluded any of them that weren't elemental in origin, like the giant brine dragon in quasi-elemental salt, or the Greater Doomlords of the Doomguard in the negative quasiplanes.

Paraelemental Planes

Magma - Chilimba: The Searing Emperor, First General of the Cauldron, Master of All Mephits. He's a fire mephit.

Ooze - Bwimb II : Archomental of Ooze / Paraelemental Princess of Ooze. She's listed as a minor archomental, or as close to an archomental of Ooze as you'll likely find. Possibly allied with Juiblex, maybe having risen up from the corpse of her father Bwimb after he was plastered by Orcus/Tenebrous.

Smoke - Ehkahk: The Smouldering Duke. A powerful smoke mephit.

Ice - Cryonax. He's a legit archomental it seems. Unique form, and fathered by the Elder Elemental God supposedly, which is a common trait of the other evil cardinal archomentals.


Quasielemental Planes

Mineral - Crystalle : claims to be an archomental, appears to be a mineral quasielemental. Seems to be good aligned.

Radiance - none really. The enigmatic, birdlike beings of godlike power known as King Black and Queen White of the Refuge of Color are the closest to rulers of the plane, and they're largely unconcerned with non-natives, or anything beyond their subjects the Varisoh on the one spot of 'natural' solid ground in the plane.

Lightning - none

Steam - none ('cept Xanxost And Xanxost is a slaad and shouldn't be in the inner planes. Or so he says since he wrote that section of the book IC)

Ash - none

Dust - Alu Kahn Sang : High General of, or the Wind of Destruction. Powerful dust quasielemental.

Salt - none

Vacuum - maybe. Sun Sing is an unknown being of massive power living within a pocket of negative energy in the plane, somehow surviving. Rumored to be the last surviving Void Mephit, now of the power of an archomental. The other rumor is that he/she/it is a lich, demilich, or other massively powerful type of undead being. None know for certain.

 

[Alzrius]

Ooze - Bwimb II : Archomental of Ooze / Paraelemental Princess of Ooze. She's listed as a minor archomental

Really? I've got to look over my copy of The Inner Planes again...

Mineral - Crystalle : claims to be an archomental, appears to be a mineral quasielemental. Seems to be good aligned.

It shouldn't say he's good-aligned. The article with him in there has him listed as a firm Neutral. He is just concerned with keeping the Plane of Mineral somewhat pristine. He throws people he doesn't like (challengers, despoilers, etc.) into the Positive Energy Plane.

 

[Shemeska]

It shouldn't say he's good-aligned. The article with him in there has him listed as a firm Neutral. He is just concerned with keeping the Plane of Mineral somewhat pristine. He throws people he doesn't like (challengers, despoilers, etc.) into the Positive Energy Plane.

Granted, I've never read that article, and the Mineral section in 'Inner Planes' is written IC by a dwarf IIRC, and so the 'he's good' is likely just opinion or bias from him. He also says he claims to be 'king', though there's a note from the editor that adds, '[Actually, he claims to be an archomental - Editor]'

Now I'm just enjoying going back and reading the sections written in character by Xanxost.

 

[Erik Mona]

This is a great thread.

Dungeon #124, which features the first Age of Worms Adventure Path installment (by yours truly) features Easter egg references to two of these beings, Ogremoch (earth, evil) and Chan (air, good). A future adventure will refer to Bwimb, and there may yet be more references. The archomentals are one of my absolute favorite bits of D&D esoterica.

My current thinking is that many of these figures played an important role in the multiversal war between Law and Chaos in which the Wind Dukes of Aaqa vanquished Miska the Wolf-Spider with the Rod of Law, which subsequently became the Rod of Seven Parts. I imagine them as generals beholden to one side or the other in that great conflict.

Incidentally, my view of D&D "prehistory" suggests that, at the time of this war, the Material Plane was largely a frontier for empire by elemental beings like genies and the Wind Dukes, and that Aaqa was perhaps the greatest of these empires, consisting of several Material Plane worlds. This would in some fashion be so long ago that it predates the rise of mortal creatures on the Material Plane. You were pretty much either a god or an elemental or an outsider in these days. The Elemental Lords thus seem to fit into this landscape, and I think grounding at least some of them into this conflict is a good "hook" for the characters.

That said, I'm not intimately familiar with the Guide to the Inner Planes, so it's possible that existing material conflicts with this in some way.

Did I mention that sometimes I love my job?

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon

 

[Soel]

Incidentally, my view of D&D "prehistory" suggests that, at the time of this war, the Material Plane was largely a frontier for empire by elemental beings like genies and the Wind Dukes, and that Aaqa was perhaps the greatest of these empires, consisting of several Material Plane worlds. This would in some fashion be so long ago that it predates the rise of mortal creatures on the Material Plane. You were pretty much either a god or an elemental or an outsider in these days. The Elemental Lords thus seem to fit into this landscape, and I think grounding at least some of them into this conflict is a good "hook" for the characters.

Wow! Great premise, and makes me wanna see this as a setting...Before the Mortals (would make a nice adv title too!)

 

[Shemeska]

I'd still love to get something printed in Dragon one day. *wink*

My current thinking is that many of these figures played an important role in the multiversal war between Law and Chaos in which the Wind Dukes of Aaqa vanquished Miska the Wolf-Spider with the Rod of Law, which subsequently became the Rod of Seven Parts. I imagine them as generals beholden to one side or the other in that great conflict.

Incidentally, my view of D&D "prehistory" suggests that, at the time of this war, the Material Plane was largely a frontier for empire by elemental beings like genies and the Wind Dukes, and that Aaqa was perhaps the greatest of these empires, consisting of several Material Plane worlds. This would in some fashion be so long ago that it predates the rise of mortal creatures on the Material Plane. You were pretty much either a god or an elemental or an outsider in these days. The Elemental Lords thus seem to fit into this landscape, and I think grounding at least some of them into this conflict is a good "hook" for the characters.

That said, I'm not intimately familiar with the Guide to the Inner Planes, so it's possible that existing material conflicts with this in some way.

Likewise, I'm more familiar with the Planescape material than the Greyhawk exclusive material on the subject.

It conflicts with stuff. The whole mythos of the Wind Dukes versus the Queen of Chaos etc seems to have been restricted to a number (though perhaps a large number) of prime material worlds and overall it was but a fragment of or an extension of the Blood War. The Queen of Chaos would appear to be an otherwise run of the mill Abyssal Lord since neither she, nor her war with the Wind Dukes is worthy of so much as a footnote in the grand scope of the timeline of the Blood War and the lower planes. (see Hellbound and other sources)

It probably happened at some point between the first arrival of mortal larvae on the lower planes, after the creation of the Tanar'ri and Baatezu and after those two had set upon one another in evil's self obliteration over law and chaos. It may have happened either before or after the withdrawl of true deities from the War Eternal, maybe not.

Though it's nteresting to speculate on how the aligned archomentals of evil (and good) might have latched onto that conflict in the outer planes and either emulated it amongst themselves, or on the prime, or even made alliances with those outsiders embroiled in the conflict.

 

[DaveMage]

Ogremoch is also mentioned in one of Salvatore's books, along with his "good" counterpart, whose name was, I believe, Entemoch (or something like that)...

...but I can't remember which one!

 

[Arnwyn]

It conflicts with stuff.

Does it? Not based on what you just said in your post (but maybe you weren't very clear).

 

[BOZ]

This is a great thread.

i suspect you have a pretty good idea why i started it.

I'm not intimately familiar with the Guide to the Inner Planes, so it's possible that existing material conflicts with this in some way.

i'm going to be doing some research in that book, if you have any questions...