Weird, True — Air

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

Weird, True — Air

Oracular weird

DESCRIPTION: What came first, the vortex or the weird? No cutter, it’s not the start of a joke—the elemental weirds are no laughing matter, despite their strange-sounding name. The true weirds are paragons of their species, in whom the inherent energy of the elemental plane reaches higher potential. These intelligent elementals can assume a humanoid form, speak all the languages of the Primes, and most importantly for the aforementioned mortals, the so-called true weirds can foretell the future.

True air weirds are prophetic oracles of the wind, who manifest as a translucent, beautiful feminine upper body rising from a spiraling column of mist that anchors into an invisible “air pool” of billowing vapours. Weirds themselves don’t seem to have a concept of gender.

Their eyes are the deep blue of stormlight. They speak in layered whispers audible to whichever listeners they wish, while remaining inaudible to all others, for their command over breath and sound is complete. Their nebulous forms refract light like heat-shimmer, although they are composed of cool air with the crisp scent you get before heavy rain. Their fingers trail condensation that sketches symbols in the air, and when they hyperfocus on a vision, the surrounding breeze suddenly stills—before returning with a thunderous susurrus when the weird speaks. The mere presence of a true air weird stirs causes flames to dance, clothes and hair to billow, and kicks up dust devils.

PREFERRED HABITAT: True air weirds typically dwell in secluded, open-air sites. On the Prime and across the Great Ring, these might be spectacular aeries, wind-carved arches, and high towers where crosswinds never cease, and mountain passes where the sky never seems to end. Their home plane is Elemental Air however, particularly regions near the Vault of the Sky and its border tracts that lead toward Lightning. Here they inhabit sky bridges on floating earthmotes, the places where storms linger: the eyes of cyclones, the lee of sky-citadels

Each true air weird keeps an elemental pool of breathable mist affixed to a floor or wall—sometimes even a ceiling—whose depth descends to a vortex into purest Air. The weird is able to rise a short height above (or below) their pool but never stray far from its tether.

PHILOSOPHY / SOCIETY: Their philosophy is weirdly fatalistic. Air weirds see Fate in terms of currents—inescapable and invisible trends that blow through the planes, unseen yet affecting everything they touch. A weird would point out that a skilled sailor knows how to trim their sails to ride the winds, and that they too know how to ride the currents of Fate. They speak in metaphors of routes and parables of weather. True air weirds prize change, movement, and the revelation of hidden ways; to them, a “right answer” is a course that keeps options open, skirting the headwinds.

Though solitary by nature, true air weirds maintain a cryptic relationship with true weirds of other elements, referring omen-seekers onwards when another element’s insight might better reveal the breeze of destiny. In rare circumstances, multiple weirds might moor their elemental pools in proximity, forming a ley-line of oracles whose auguries knit together a bewildering vision of fate. Their counsel is never free of course: Planewalkers seeking augury should expect to promise a service in return for their visions. That might be to deliver a message somewhere the wind cannot reach, to bring the weird a rare incense, or to defeat a creature despoiling the air. While they are tied to their pools, true weirds will hold mortals to bargains with the implacable patience of the elements.

ECOLOGY: True air weirds require neither food nor sleep, for they are sustained by the ceaseless motion of air, and the information contained in sound itself. Graybeard sages reckon that it’s from the whispers on the wind that the air weirds get their powers of prophecy; they hear all voices within tens of miles of themselves as a continuous stream of whispers.

True weird pools are often attended by a storm cell of lesser air weirds, who might attend to the true weird like a lord, learn from them like a classroom, venerate them like a prophet, or protect them like bodyguards.

COMBAT: True air weirds avoid direct conflict, using divinations like true seeing, detect thoughts, and foresight to foresee opponents’ intentions and likely lines of attack. They use their ability to control winds, or create a wind wall or solid fog to confuse or separate attackers and misdirect missiles. They will try to summon or seize control of nearby elementals. If pressed, they lash out with a vapour-whip attack.

A warning to planewalkers going up against a weird. If a berk enters a weird’s pool without their permission, they risk being transformed into an elemental themselves! Finally, an air true weird has the option of retreating back to the Plane of Air through the vortex at the centre of its pool. This is a one-way trip, however, shutting the vortex down. It’s thought the weird then merges back with their home plane to share what it has learned—so this is very much an option of last resort.

VARIANTS: Immature members of this species are called lesser air weirds, and they have a very different outlook on life. It seems as they mature, the weird becomes much more serious, and if anything, more out of touch with reality.

Sources

Full Statistics For: [ D&D 3e ]

Canonical Sources: Dragon Magazine #347 p66-69 (the ecology of the elemental weird); Monster Manual II [3e] p90-93 (elemental weird)

Source: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: These creatures are based on the elemental weirds from D&D 3e. They were called “true weirds” briefly in the text there, while the ambushing weird of 2e was renamed the “lesser weird”, and also changed from CE to N alignment. However, since in other editions and in fandom as a whole elemental weirds are associated with a sneaky elemental rather than with a prophetic lady, we chose to swap some terms around.