Windshapers

Air elementals are fast, flying creatures made of living air. Primitive and territorial, they resent being summoned or doing the bidding of mortals, and much prefer to spend their time on the Plane of Air, swooping and racing through the endless skies. Although all air elementals of a similar size have identical statistics, the exact appearance of an air elemental can vary wildly between individuals. One might be an animated vortex of wind and smoke, while another might be a smoky bird-like creature with glowing eyes and wind for wings. An air elemental prefers to attack flying or otherwise airborne targets, not only because its mastery over flight gives it a slight advantage, but also because it detests the thought of having to touch the ground. An air elemental can move underwater, and although it is an elemental and thus runs no risk of drowning, it has no ranks in Swim and loses much of its speed and mobility when underwater.

Though most think of the Plane of Air as a vast expanse of clear sky, that plane also holds the power of the storm, including monstrous hurricanes larger than entire worlds and thunderstorms whose peals and claps can shatter stone. Whether lightning elementals are the by-product of common air elementals spending too much time near these electrically charged storms or are merely calved off like forgotten flurries, they are aggressive and almost suicidal in their willingness to leap into battle. They particularly enjoy attacking creatures that are made of metal and creatures that wear metal armor or wield metal weapons. Many lightning elementals have a roughly humanoid shape, but some prefer animalistic shapes (particularly birds and dragons), and a few appear to be nothing more than large disembodied heads made of dark clouds with flickering lightning tongues. Regardless of the shape a lightning elemental takes, the air around the creature hums and throbs with the promise of electrocution and the tangy stink of ozone.

Wysps are five races of tiny elemental beings. Aether wysps were the first wysps, born of the same convergence between ethereal and elemental that spawned the aether element. For a time, the first wysps roamed the Ethereal and Elemental Planes freely in symphonies led by exuberant wysp conductors, playing out the otherworldly music of their resonances, but soon the elemental lords discovered the value of wysps as minions, and bred them into new races to support their forces in battle. Today, most wysps do their best to support allies, even giving their lives for their masters. Free symphonies of wysps still exist on their home planes and the Material Plane, though the enslavement of their kind has made them shy.  Even in the harshest servitude, wysps retain their curious nature and intelligence. When free to act as they please, they are playful and carefree, with mild differences in personality between the elements. Air wisps are flighty and capricious. Wysps happily offer their services to kind allies, though generally only elementally attuned creatures, kineticists, and spellcasters who summon elementals can make much use of a wysp’s assistance. A 7th-level spellcaster who has the Improved Familiar feat can gain a wysp as a familiar.

WYSP CONDUCTOR  
These free-spirited leaders of wysp symphonies often have either the advanced simple template (with ranks in Perform) or levels in bard. Their resonance doesn’t stack with inspire courage, so wysp conductors often take archetypes that trade out inspire courage or grant elemental-themed powers. A few wysp conductors have class levels in kineticist, elemental bloodline sorcerer, or other elemental-themed classes.  

Mephits are the servants of powerful elemental creatures. Key sites and locations on the elemental planes are full of mephits scurrying about on important errands or duties. Air mephits are commonly found on the Plane of Air. These mephits are whimsical and prone to distraction.

Mephits are the servants of powerful elemental creatures. Key sites and locations on the elemental planes are full of mephits scurrying about on important errands or duties. Dust mephits are commonly found on the Plane of Air. These mephits are irritating and persistent.

Mephits are the servants of powerful elemental creatures. Key sites and locations on the elemental planes are full of mephits scurrying about on important errands or duties. Ice mephits are commonly found on the Plane of Air. These mephits are cruel and aloof.

The djinn (singular djinni) are genies from the Plane of Air. They are said to be made of the stuff of clouds, with the strength of the mightiest storms. A djinni is about 10 feet tall and weighs about 1,000 pounds. Djinn disdain physical combat, preferring to use their magical powers and aerial abilities against foes. A djinni overmatched in combat usually takes flight and becomes a whirlwind to harass those who follow. When faced with no other option than melee combat, most djinn prefer to wield masterwork scimitars two-handed. Among other genies, djinn get along well with jann and marids. They are frequently at odds with the shaitans, and are sworn enemies of the efreet, despising these fiery genies more than any other genie race. So legendary is the conflict between the efreet and the djinn that many spellcasters attempt (to varying degrees of success) to secure a djinni’s servitude by promising to aid the cause against their hated enemies.
A small percentage of djinn are noble. Noble djinn, often called viziers, have 10 Hit Dice, Strength 23, and Charisma 17, and can grant three wishes to any being (non-genies only) who captures them. Djinn nobles are CR 8.

Belkers are hateful elemental air creatures resembling fiends made of smoke. Xenophobic in the extreme, they see most non-elemental creatures as threats, and stalk and kill any such intruders in their territory. Among their elemental kin, they especially hate djinn and jann. They tolerate air mephits, dust mephits, steam mephits, air elementals, and fire elementals, but given the choice, prefer the company of their own kind. Belkers create no permanent lairs, but do claim and defend large territories from other living things, particularly areas ravaged by frequent storms, volcanic eruptions, hot springs, or forest fires. Some sages believe the belkers worship these dangerous natural phenomena; others speculate the elementals somehow feed on the unusual air from these sites. Still other scholars theorize that the reclusive beasts require the energy from these phenomena to feed or reproduce.

Capricious yet alluring, veelas are elemental spirits given shape. On the Elemental Planes, veelas revel in the unbridled energy of the elements from which they draw power. On the other planes, however, they lose some measure of the elemental energy saturating their forms. To compensate for this, they can siphon vitality from other living beings by engaging them in their ancient dances. Veelas typically do this with a creature’s permission, leaving partners exhilarated but exhausted. Only in the most dire circumstances does a veela use its dance as a weapon. Those few who can match these elemental spirits’ movements might earn a veela’s respect and compel it to share some of its beneficial magical powers.  A veela typically stands just under 6 feet tall and weighs approximately 140 pounds.

Very little is known about these enigmatic and mysterious creatures, as their very nature makes details of their true form difficult to discern. Brought to this world from the Plane of Air, these creatures fulfill tasks for those who conjure them. Invisible stalkers act as guardians, assassins, and trackers, occupations in which they excel. Their natural invisibility and skill at stealth allow them to follow their quarry without detection and give them the upper hand when it comes to exterminating a mark. Many invisible stalkers resent this and see these petty tasks as nothing more than chores dictated by mortals. When given a particularly complex or bothersome task, an invisible stalker seeks to find a loophole in a poorly worded instruction. For instance, wizards calling an invisible stalker into service with the instructions “protect me from danger” might find themselves escorted to a faraway hidden location, or even brought to the Plane of Air. Due to their constant summoning, many invisible stalkers harbor hostility for those dwelling on the Material Plane. Those invisible stalkers new to the mortal world only know the stories of their kind and tend to keep an open mind about the intentions of those who call them. Over time, or in the service of a particularly vile master, invisible stalkers form negative opinions of these creatures of flesh and bone, leading to their tendency to pervert their instructions and cause harm to their masters. For older and more experienced invisible stalkers, the only thing protecting those who summon them is the magic that binds them. These creatures automatically try to use inconsistencies in the wording of their tasks and literal twists on the intention to find a way to inconvenience, injure, or even kill the priest or arcanist that brought them to the plane.

The deadly mihstus hail from the Plane of Air. When they come to the Material Plane, they prefer to inhabit dank dungeon corridors, abandoned ruins, and the forgotten corridors of lost civilizations. Scholars dispute what drives the ambitions of these creatures, or even what they seek on the Material Plane, but all agree that they are deadly combatants and merciless hunters. Their semi-solid bodies appear to be composed of a strange, white smoke, and they can shape their vaporous bodies at will to seep through small cracks and openings in pursuit of prey. When attacking, they coalesce the tips of their misty tentacles into wickedly barbed talons, slashing at opponents with these razor-sharp appendages. Mihstus rely on their insubstantial nature to close with opponents quickly, engulfing the nearest threat while continuing to attack any who seek to deprive them of their chosen victim. When a mihstu manages to embrace a foe with its body, it drains away the creature’s vital fluids at an alarming rate. These fluids churn in the creature’s body for a few rounds before spattering against nearby walls or on the floor—the mihstu seems to gain no nourishment from these fluids, so this attack may be nothing more than a favorite method of cruelty. Mihstus are immortal unless slain by violence, and if properly bargained with, these deadly outsiders can actually be intriguing sources of information. Mihstus are normally interested in little more than stalking and consuming prey, and as a result only tend to provide reliable information or cooperate when supplied with intriguing victims to pursue and destroy. Nefarious creatures such as rakshasas and evil cloud giants often utilize mihstus as trackers and assassins, or sometimes employ them as guards in the forgotten corridors of their lairs.

Aerial servants are deadly hunters native to the Plane of Air, though they often wander through planar portals to the Ethereal Plane and sometimes roam the Astral Plane as well. They are generally called to the Material Plane as bounty hunters or assassins, using their natural invisibility and near-faultless tracking skills to pursue their quarry and then strike unseen. They typically scatter enemies with blasts of wind before closing in to strangle their prey. While an aerial servant is easy to confuse with an invisible stalker, the former is far more dangerous, and those who misidentify the creature may not live to regret underestimating it.  Those who call aerial servants must be careful to assign them tasks that are possible for them to complete, as the temperamental elementals occasionally track down and attack their callers if they fail at their assigned tasks.

Cloud dragons stay out of the complicated political schemes and obsessions of other dragons (especially the chromatic dragons), preferring to live their lives freely and as the whim to travel strikes them. Exploration and viewing new lands from far above are the cloud dragon’s greatest joy, rivaled only by speaking with new creatures and gaining exotic treasures from them. They keep lairs on high mountain peaks, but are often away on journeys of discovery, returning home only when they’ve claimed a new treasure that needs to be placed in safekeeping back home.

Anemoi are godlike beings from the Plane of Air, masters of the storm and sky. While an anemos appears humanoid in shape, even a cursory glance reveals that its humanlike appearance is a complete facade, for its 6-foot-tall body is composed of solidified air, has no vital organs, and is nearly weightless. The winds themselves obey an anemos, and greater sky deities often task four anemoi with controlling the wind patterns for an entire world on the Material Plane.  Implacable but not malevolent, an anemos guides its winds along the paths dictated by nature, heedless of how the weather patterns help or harm the creatures in their paths, whether through drought, flood, tornadoes, or hurricanes. Mighty heroes sometimes trap an anemos in earth and force it to protect the heroes’ allies or destroy their enemies in exchange for its freedom. While an anemos always honors such agreements, such heroes may find the weather turning against them at a crucial moment many years later.  Anemoi generally have little to do with their own kind, though they may hold court with a plethora of lesser air creatures. Councils of anemoi occur perhaps once every millennium, when the four anemoi who oversee a particular world assemble to confer and debate. Their personalities take on aspects of the winds they guide, and such councils often end in duels of winds, though such duels are always nonlethal due to the anemoi’s regeneration.  Anemoi are particularly fond of music, particularly that of wind instruments, and each can perform as a full wind ensemble with its own winds simultaneously. They appreciate musical talent in their followers, allowing sirens and other creatures with musical skills to join their courts. Despite anemoi’s aloofness, skilled mortal musicians can earn their way into the creatures’ good graces, and romance between anemoi and mortals, while extraordinarily rare, is not impossible.  Though they are beings of air, anemoi usually choose to appear in humanoid form. Many sylphs, sorcerers with an air elemental bloodline, and aerokineticists make grandiose claims about anemos descent, but only a handful have the pedigree to support those claims, and they tend to become notable heroes and villains in their own right.  

ELDER ANEMOI  
While all anemoi are ancient beings with incredible abilities, elder anemoi are closer in power to true gods. Rather than serving as members of councils that control the winds on a world in the Material Plane, the elder anemoi each control notable regions on the Elemental Plane of Air with powerful wind features, such as the Living Hurricane and the Foreverstorm.  Anemoi typically become elder anemoi only after tending a world’s winds from that world’s infancy to its destruction, which would make elder anemoi older than most mortals can fathom. Elder anemoi possess all the powers of a typical anemos as well as 10 mythic ranks and several powerful abilities unique to each individual elder anemos.

CARDINAL WIND ABILITIES
An anemos who is assigned to guide one of a world’s winds gains an additional special ability tied to that wind. Austral: Once per day, as a swift action, an anemos who guides the south winds can whip them into a frenzied dust storm. The storm encompasses a cylinder with a 30- foot radius centered on the anemos, and is 60 feet high. It deals 20d6 points of fire damage to other creatures within the cylinder, blinds them for 1d4 rounds, and knocks them prone. A successful DC 31 Fortitude save halves the damages and negates the other effects.  
Boreal: Once per day, as a swift action, an anemos who guides the north winds can send forth a blast of ice slivers from its hand in a 30-foot line. This shredding blast deals 20d6 points of cold damage to anything in its path, as well as 2d4 points of Dexterity damage, and a damaged creature moves at half speed for 1d4 rounds as the ice infuses its limbs. A successful DC 31 Ref lex save halves the cold damage and negates the other effects.  
Eural: Once per day, an anemos who guides the eastern winds can use them to bring misfortune to any creatures they touch. Creatures within 60 feet of the anemos must attempt a DC 31 Will save to avoid suffering bad luck. If a creature succeeds, its close brush with disaster leaves it shaken for 1d6 rounds. If it fails, for the next 6 rounds, anytime it attempts an ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or skill check, it must roll twice and take the worse result.  
Zephyr: Once per day, an anemos who guides the western winds can soothe the spirits of any creature touched by its gentle breezes. For 1 minute, creatures within 60 feet of the anemos must attempt DC 31 Will saves each time they attempt to attack or take aggressive actions toward another creature. If a creature succeeds, it can attack as normal. If it fails, it can’t attack and is staggered for 1 minute.