That sounds very 4Eish to me (not that that's inherently a problem, though I do hate 4E's flavor). I fail to see what is "earthen" about a hundred-handed godslaying abomination or what is "fiery and earthen" about an ancient cosmic being that predates gods. Maybe I'm missing some key point here?
Probably. I have a tendency to spout out random ideas that pop into my head as I'm writing posts, so sometimes my posts sound a little disjointed. The idea I got here relates to the metasetting of Project Phoenix, which I've since refined a bit. See, I'm big into "the elements" - it's a theme that keeps recurring in my work: spells, PrCs (have a few of those), classes (both the druid and sorcerer have elemental paths), etc.
So, the background I'm considering is more from Greek mythology than 4E:
In the beginning, there was nothing but Elemental Chaos - Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, crashing, smashing, colliding, combining into various forms then splitting apart again.
After a time (who knows how long; time can't be measured if there's no one to keep track and no standard), all four elements collided and combined at once, forming a new element - Spirit. Spirit was different that the other elements, in that it held the spark of life. It could also combined with any other elements and remain that way.
In this way, the first life forms came to be. The very first beings to have knowledge and self-awareness were barely recognizable as living creatures by our standards - huge, amorphous blobs of matter like the hagumemnon. Over time, though, the forms became more refined and more intelligent, until they reached their height - the Titans.
The Titans were tied to all four elements, some in greater measure than others - for instance, one titan could be a creature of Fire, while another could be a creature of Earth. All of them, however, had the ability to manipulate matter (what we now call "magic"), which they used to form planets, planes, stars, and moons. They separated the four elements into their own planes, the better to access and draw upon them, and to make more comfortable habitations for themselves.
After all this was complete, they turned their attention to finer, more complicated pursuits - creating life. Their first attempts were clumsy, hideous beings ill-suited to living (indeed, many died or were destroyed), though they did have some succeses - elementals, for instance (pure elemental essence powered by Spirit). Over time, they grew more proficient and began to create many more elemental beings, things we now know as creatures of the Elemental Planes. Dragons represent the pinnacle of their craft.
(Cutting this short a bit): Elves, humans and dwarves were created as slave races, though they're not the same races we know today. Elves are creatures of Air, fine and flighty, created for entertainment (including music, which they invented and which pleased the Titans greatly); dwarves, obviously, are creatures of Earth, created to mine and forge metal; the humans were primarily creatures of Fire, unpredictable and chaotic, used to satiate the Titans' lust for battle and blood. The humans would be formed into armies and sent into battle against other Titans' humans, garnering the winner greater prestige among his peers.
This went on for awhile until one of them slaves somehow got access to a divine spark. [I'm not really sure on the particulars just yet, and I'm not sure that it's truly important in any case.] He discovered that he was nearly as powerful as a Titan himself - he could use magic and manipulate the elements. He bided his time, working in secret, empowering other slaves and gathering allies among the other elemental creatures, and when the time was right, they went to war against their masters, along with the dwarves and elves. The massed forces of the slave races and their allies caught the Titans by surprise and overthrew them, though the losses were catastrophic and the slave races were nearly wiped out. In the end, though, the human with the divine spark was alive.
He became the first god, and learned how to bestow his spark upon others, raising them to godhood as well. This is how we got the first elven, dwarven, and human gods, who created in turn the modern races.
See I keep thinking you have Ascension.
No, I just got the Bestiary.
Well the Hekatonkeres would be matter twisted by the Far Realm, they wouldn't need to be linked to a single specific element.
Mythology says they're
creatures of Earth and Water. Abominations, to be sure, but still tied to the elements.
In a sense yes, in that there is a Far Realm element to them. Although the Cthulhu entities are primarily Far Realm unfettered by other planes/dimensions.
*nodnod*
I presume you don't own 4th Edition either? As this is now how the Giants/Titans are detailed.
No, I don't, but I recall seeing something about that in one of the previews.
Been doing a lot of pondering about this while setting up my 4E Giant/Titan ideas. For instance Anakim are now a type of Giant rather than an Abomination. I have sort of settled on them being 'Thunder' Giants, but I have been using the term Mountain Giants for now, which is sort of at odds with the theme-ology of Giants. Would a Mountain Giant be an Earth based being?
I'd say yes. Much the same as (3.5) dragons have elemental subtypes, giants could easily be elementally-based as well. Cloud and storm giants are Air (storm are also Water); hill and stone giants are Earth; fire giants are (duh) Fire. Cyclops (cyclopes) are primordial beings (effectively abominations), if you follow the Greek lore, born of Earth and Fire (they created the gods' weapons.
