Weird, Lesser — Air

[ Bestiary | Elemental-Kin | Weirds ]
[ Lesser Weirds ] [ Air | Earth | Fire | Metal | Water | Wood ] [ True Weird ]

Weird, Lesser — Air

Lesser elemental weirds appear as strange, snake-like beings. Their bodies are composed entirely of a single element, and while their forms are somewhat malleable, they’re usually around five feet long. They lack the humanoid grace of the mysterious humanoid true weirds, instead resembling restless spirits that have been perpetually caught between states of being.

DESCRIPTION: Air elemental weirds appear as translucent cyclonic streams of vapour and mist, crackling with faint electrical discharges as they whirl, form and reform. Their eyes glow with flickering light. While they do not speak, the air around them perpetually stirs with static that makes a cutter’s hair stand on end, and an eerie whistling wind. They emit a clean, sharp scent like the air before a thunderstorm, tinged with the metallic tang of ozone.

HABITAT: Native of the Elemental Plane of Air, these weirds inhabit the vast open skies and floating earth motes scattered throughout the Deep Blue. They favour areas where atmospheric pressure creates natural wind tunnels and electrical storms, and they cluster around the border regions where Air mixes with other elemental planes. Air weirds occasionally manifest on the Prime near ancient elemental summoning circles, high up in mountain ranges, fog-choked valleys, or dense cloudscapes. Unlike true weirds who are bound to elemental pools, air elemental weirds can move freely but prefer to congregate in areas of significant atmospheric disturbance.

PHILOSOPHY / SOCIETY: Air elemental weirds possess a fractured understanding of fate compared to their true weird kin, but while they lack oracular abilities, they do have an instinct for the winds of change and the eddies of destiny. They view themselves as harbingers of transition and transformation, believing their purpose is to foreshadow coming change rather than provide prophecies. Their society is loosely organised around territories that are marked by the cloud patterns in the sky, with older individuals claiming the choicest winds and thickest clouds.

Weirds can be a xenophobic bunch, and don’t really like any cutters who aren’t air elementals—and this has led many planewalkers to believe all weirds are wicked. However there as the planes become more interconnected, some weirds have learned to put up with solidfolk begrudgingly, or even enjoy their company. These more benevolent creatures sometimes even align themselves with the Princes of Elemental Good. In any case, air weirds can have quite extreme views. Like the winds, they can also be quite changeable. Just because an air weird is friendly one time you meet them, you might be surprised to find the winds have changed the next time you meet them, and they are far less tolerant.

ECOLOGY: Air elemental weirds sustain themselves by absorbing energy from the exhaled breath of brings they encounter. This feeding is rarely even noticed by healthy creatures. Solitary weirds can scavenge enough breath from the air to sustain themselves in uninhabited places, although they cannot thrive and grow on such a meagre diet. Reproduction occurs during massive planar storms when multiple weirds are blown together by cyclonic winds, creating new merged individuals which, after the storm ends, then break apart into a larger number of weirds than originally merged. These new nascent weirds are small and insubstantial but gradually develop corporeal forms over years of exposure to breath. However, they also retain a share of the combined memories of the weirds who sired them, so while the original weirds effectively cease to exist, part of them lives on in the new weird too. Air weirds have a symbiotic relationship with air elementals and storm-based creatures, often serving as scouts or messengers in exchange for bottled breath. They may also act as a guide for solidfolk in return for payment in breath. Why weirds are typically resentful of solidfolk while the favourite food of the air weird is their breath is something that has puzzled planewalkers for a long time, and doubtless led to them being named ‘weird’ in the first place—there is a lot about the weird that seemingly makes no sense.

Graybeards believe that elemental weirds are the immature form of the true weird, although how long these creatures remains in this larval stage isn’t known. It is also strange how they reproduce as lesser weirds, only occasionally becoming true weirds, who do not themselves seem to spawn lesser weirds—which is partly the reason the question of how the two types of creatures are linked is not settled. As they age, lesser weirds seem to become less ethically fickle, and the current theory is that after many cycles of reproduction they eventually mature and settle down as true weirds.

Lesser air weirds tend to be solitary, unless in the company of a true weird. A cluster of lesser air weirds (called a ‘storm cell’) can often be found nearby true weird pools, where they gather to commune with the elder true weird, perhaps to learn from them, perhaps to defend them. They converse with each other through electrical discharges and gusts rather than speech, so solidfolk can only communicate with a lesser air weird using magic.

COMBAT: Air elemental weirds tend to employ hit-and-run tactics that capitalise on their exceptional mobility, and their ability to become invisible when motionless. Lesser air weirds can move freely through a battlefield, using their elemental glide ability to phase in and out of air currents and atmospheric disturbances with perfect stealth, and are tacticians in all three dimensions. They prefer to initiate surprise combat by turning invisible within swirling air or cloud, before striking with a crackling electrical blast. Another favoured attack is with a sonic boom. When forced into melee, they attempt to swirl the face of their opponent and suffocate them by depriving them of breathable air. Lesser weirds also have a strange power of control over elementals. In mixed company, weirds will attempt to dominate any elementals present and command them to attack on their behalf.

Sources

Full Statistics For: [ D&D 3e | 5e ]

Canonical Sources: Monstrous Compendium Volume 1, Annual 1994 (as elemental, earth weird, there was no air weird in AD&D 2e); Dragon Magazine #347 p66-69;70-71 ‘the ecology of the elemental weird’ (as lesser elemental weird); Monster Manual II [3e] p91-92 (lore on true weirds)

Source: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: These creatures are based on the elemental weirds from AD&D 2e. They weren’t called “lesser weirds” there, since the oracular weirds weren’t introduced until 3e. Since in other editions and in fandom as a whole elemental weirds are associated with a hiding elemental being rather than with a prophetic lady, we chose to swap some terms around. The 2e and 3e weirds have very different abilities and weaknesses; this writeup uses a mixture of both. I’ve attempted to make the weirds live up to their name by making their life cycle and philosophy strange and hard to explain.