D&D General A Curated Cantina

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I'm putting together a homebrew world with a tight elemental theme, and want to have a limited number of humanoid species. These are to be the heritages for PCs and primary antagonists as well. They are presented with species name, poetic byname, and affinity. For example, Human - Childer of the Heavens - Wuji/Æther. The rest in alphabetical order:

Argyre - Childer of the Moon - Yin


Dwarf - Childer of the Lodes - Metal


Elf - Childer of the Arbors - Wood


Gnome - Childer of the Stones - Earth


Khryse - Childer of the Sun - Yang


Salamander - Childer of the Flames - Fire


Sylph - Childer of the Winds - Air


Undine - Childer of the Waves - Water

 

[Mind of tempest]

is yin and yang not closer to fundamental nature of processes or acceptance vs trying to push past it, so less elemental the psychological?
also stone should be yellow and water black, metal I have no idea for.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

is yin and yang not closer to fundamental nature of processes or acceptance vs trying to push past it, so less elemental the psychological?

They're usually expressed as a host of dualistic pairs representing "active energy" and "receptive energy", so while not elements per se, they are intrinsic to the cycle of transformations.

also stone should be yellow and water black, metal I have no idea for.

To give you an insight in to my thought process, I used neo-platonist categories to bridge the Chinese Wuxing and Greek Stoicheion...

 

[Mind of tempest]

no, I do get your position (I have considered remaking the elemental planes under a similar idea) but I have no idea how to have yin and yang separated into beings without them just failing to function as people, perhaps yin and yang spirits would be better? also, have you considered working in Wuji and Taiji?