Hello people of Youtube, Jordan here the PH is silent and today we’re talking about
the Elemental Planes.
They are as follows:
Earth
Fire
Wind
Water
Positive and Negative Energy
In the Great wheel cosmology of 2nd edition the elemental planes were the 4 elements plus
the positive and negative energy planes.
Those planes were part of the inner planes.
However in 5th edition the positive and negative planes were pushed to the farthest reaches
of the great wheel, encapsulating all the planes.
They appear to define the energies of the upper and lower planes, having the evil planes
residing on the negative energy side and the good planes on the positive energy side.
The 4 elemental planes exist as separate planes yet are all part of the elemental chaos in
5th edition.
They seem to bleed from one another creating paraelemental planes, or paraplanes of Smoke,
Magma, Ooze, and Ice.
These planes also mix with the positive and negative energy planes creating quasielemental
planes of Lightning, Radiance, Mineral, and Steam on the positive side.
And Vacuum, Ash, Dust and Salt on the negative side.
Each plane contains elementals and other elemental type beings that live there in relation to
their specific….Element
So starting off let’s talk about the elemental plane of earth.
It is a place of hidden riches, it is a wall against all foes, and it’s a grave for the
greedy.
The elemental plane of earth is a solid place made of rock, soil, and stone.
Various gems can be found here which interest creatures like dwarves attempting to figure
out a way to mine the Elemental Plane of Earth.
These operations rarely succeed as the plane is unstable, riddled with earthquakes, mining
tunnels quickly are destroyed.
Not to mention natives of this plane feel extremely attached to their home and dislike
anyone removing sections of it.
It is a place of heavy gravity and movement is limited.
Digging and walking through tunnels and caverns can be a tiring activity.
Only certain creatures like the Xorn who are able to move through solid rock have come
to call this place home.
The Dao have several outposts here and are continually vigilant against the natural hazards
that abide.
Dwarves and some dragons also live on the elemental plane of earth.
The greatest danger of the elemental plane of earth is being accidently caught and suffocated
within the rock.
This plane may seem stagnant but is actually constantly in motion.
It’s a slow grinding process but occasionally an earthquake occurs and the motion is sudden
and dangerous.
The elemental Plane of fire is a place continually ablaze.
It is flame incarnate.
The ground is nothing more than great, ever shifting plates of compressed flame.
The air ripples with heat of continual firestorms, and the most common liquid is magma, not water.
What makes the plane of fire truly interesting is that fire exists here without fuel, just
constantly burning but not necessarily consuming.
That’s not to say that items you bring here, or you yourself won’t burn.
The fires will naturally consume what you bring to it.
So protection must be worn in the form of magical armors or spells.
Fire elementals live here, but also efreet, azers, and salamanders have created more organized
societies.
The best known is the efreeti City of Brass.
Certain devils also visit the plane of fire and there is regular traffic of information,
goods, and prisoners between the City of Brass and the Nine Hells.
The City of Brass also blocks much of the destructive nature of the plane of fire, making
it hospitable for travelers from the Prime Material Plane.
It’s a slightly evil aligned city, mainly due to the abundance of devils from the Nine
Hells.
The elemental plane of air is as open as the eternal sky.
It is as solid as a child’s breath and it is falling forever.
Weather is the primary hazard in this plane.
The winds are normally light to moderately strong but could intensify into tornadoes
and hurricanes with powerful lightning.
Other elements can get caught up in these storms creating rain, snow, choking smoke,
biting sand, or burning ash.
However the elemental plane of air is the most comfortable and survivable of the inner
planes and is home to all manner of airborne creatures.
There are air elementals, obviously, and the Djinn live here as well.
But also dust, air, and ice mephits can be found here.
Any creature from the prime material plane that flies could also potentially be here.
Hippogriffs, pegasi, beholders, sphinxes.
Common birds and more unintelligent creatures don’t last long in the plane of air, there
is no ground and they are easily picked off by other creatures.
The Djinn make strongholds in the plane of air, settling larger chunks of physical earth
or rock ranging from a 1,000 feet to several miles across.
Sometimes the djinn will raise livestock under the care of their elemental slaves.
There’s no gravity here, one must simply choose a down and it becomes down.
However creatures unknowing of this have plummeted to their deaths if a solid object crosses
the path of their descent.
Much like the other planes the elemental plane of air is constantly in motion.
Ranging from gentle breezes to mighty tornados.
Clouds appear plentiful here, and can be large enough to appear as a thick fog rather than
a cloud.
Wizards and sorcerers who want uninterrupted time for long-term studies might make a home
on the elemental plane of air.
So it’s not totally strange to see a flying castle.
All you need is a small chunk of rock large enough to support a foundation for a castle
or tower.
The subjective nature of gravity can be enough to keep the castle from flying apart.
The elemental plane of water is an ocean without a surface.
It is a domain of current and wave, it’s a sea without a floor or surface.
An entirely fluid environment lit by a diffuse glow.
Always in motion the entire plane is wracked by currents and tides.
Any water-breathing outsider can make their home on the elemental plane of water.
The Marid genies are one, but as well fish, crustaceans and other sea-dwellers.
But since there is no surface you won’t see air-breathing ocean dwellers such as whales
and dolphins.
Tritons the amphibious race from Volo’s guide to monsters can live here as well.
The Marids have built a collection of large strongholds throughout the plane of water.
A typical marid stronghold is tied to some type of jetsam, some piece of solid matter
or even a seaweed bed.
The greatest of these communities is known as the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls and
is home to the seat of the Coral Throne.
This area is home to all manner of towers and halls carved from living shell and ringed
with luminous glowing pearls.
Marids are arrogant creatures each claiming nobility in some form, around 200 marids live
here each with an individual set of servants.
If a city full of Marid are not to your liking you may search for the city of glass.
The entire city is encased in a ball of unbreakable glass half filled with water and half filled
with air.
It’s home to many aquatic races from the Material Plane including merfolk, kuo-toas,
lizardfolk and sahuagin and ruled by a council of residents.
It’s a merchant freeport and active in trade.
Unlike the depths of the ocean there isn’t any excessive water pressure in the Plane
of Water.
The pressure here is no worse than just a few feet of water.
Most of the plane is at a comfortable temperature but certain areas can boil or freeze.
Finally, and quickly we’ll discuss the Negative and Positive energy planes.
These two are very similar in nature but opposite effects.
Both are a seemingly empty void or vacuum with little to no life or substance.
The negative energy plane seems to pull life and energy out of anything exposed to it where
the positive energy plane pushed energy into creatures there.
The negative energy plane is inky black and eats light, the positive energy plane light
is everywhere, like being on the inside of a churning star.
And we’re done with the inner planes.
Tune in next week where I’ll start discussion on the outer planes.
There are so many that it’ll take a few videos to get through.
So stay tuned!
Thanks again for watching please give a like if you enjoyed this video and I’ll see you
next Wednesday