Archomental

[ Archomental ] [ Air | Earth | Fire | Metal | Para-Elemental | Quasi-Elemental | Water | Wood ]

Archomental

Elemental Lords †

So what is an archomental anyway? Well cutter, it’s one of those flexible terms, like ‘Abyssal Lord‘, or ‘honest tout’. Fundamentally though, an archomental is to elementals as an archmage is to mages—a more powerful blood who gets to order their inferiors around.

Indeed, some archomentals are ancient and mighty primordials, those impossibly ancient creatures spawned at the beginning of the cosmos. Primordials were a generation of divine beings that predated even the powers, let alone mortals. Many of them were dragged into the Dawn War—a plane-spanning conflict between primordials and powers that gives the Blood War a run for its money. The Dawn War resulted in the death of countless divine combatants, the apocalyptic creation of the volatile not-quite-a-plane called the Elemental Chaos, and the imprisonment of most surviving primordials when the powers eventually emerged victorious. Primordials who escaped this fate did so because they remained neutral or switched sides during the conflict. Some of them have since become powers themselves—primal forces of nature and the elements. These were the first of the so-called archomentals, like Akadi, or Kossuth. Others primordials were tricked or tempted into becoming Abyssal Lords, but that’s a messy story for another time.

Another kind of archomentals are not particularly ancient or divine, but they are certainly not short of strength and influence. Sometimes, an elemental grows to such an enormous size—perhaps organically, or perhaps from engulfing smaller elementals—that they come to be viewed as archomentals themselves. There’s no set process for this, but it tends to happen on Inner Planes that don’t already have an ancient primordial pulling the strings.

And the final kind of archomentals are the pretenders: elementals who’ve fooled their peers into believing they’re something special, or horror of horrors, even mephits. These berks have used bribery, trickery or out-and-out intimidation to rise to the top of the pile locally. So then, the term ‘archomental’ can mean anything from an impossibly ancient being that predated the gods, to a conniving mephit fooling its peers.

Here is a summary of the known archomental lords, be they primordials, powers, ‘mere’ mighty elementals, or imposters who archomentals only in the sense that they claim to be.

Archomentals of the True Elemental Planes

Get the chant on elemental archomentals here… [ Air | Earth | Fire | Metal | Water | Wood ]

Element	Archomental	Summary
Air	Akadi Chan Hshurha † Ranginori † [freed] Yan-C-Bin	Air and freedom (N) Benevolent winds (NG) Last breaths (NE) Welcome breezes (NG) Hurricanes (NE)
Earth	Ayrzul † Grumbar Ogrémoch [freed] Sunnis Tziphal [bound]	Buried secrets, radiation (NE) Unchanging stability (N) Crushing earthquakes (NE) Underdark (NG) Petrification (NE)
Fire	Atreia † Bristia Pel [dead] Imix Kossuth Vorsheen [bound] Ymeri † Zaaman Rul	Purification (NG) — Dominating fire (NE) Heat (N) Bluefire (CE) Destructive flame (CE) Creative fire (NG)
Metal	Atherael ‡ Ferrumnestra † Kalizorn ‡ Laudinmio † [sleeping] Zurtharak [dead]	Alloys, cooperation, symbiosis (CN) Rusting, entropy (N) Forges, weapons, labour (LN) Alchemy (N) Ore
Water	Ben-Hadar Istishia Kelizandri † Lysianassa † Olhydra [freed] Shax [dead] Solkara [bound]	Benevolent seas (NG) Water (N) Drowning (NE) Tides (NG) Rain (NE) — Seamonsters (NE)
Wood	Corbicula ‡ Hederax ‡ Murgremir Shumunue † Verilorn †	Flowers, pollen, frenzy (CN) Sap, subtlety, poison (CN) Rot, soil (N) Camouflage, carpentry (NG) Cultivation (N)

Archomentals of the Para-Elemental Planes

Get the chant on para-elemental archomentals here…

Para-Element	Archomental(s)	Summary
Ice	Cryonax Sisanthak [bound] Umboras [bound]	Cold (NE) Winter (NE) Rimefire (N)
Magma	Chilimba Vezzuvu [bound]	Lava (NE) Volcanoes (NE)
Ooze	Alyolvoy Bwimb II Gwond ‡ Murgremir Uzrith	Deadly currents (NE) Liquefaction (NE) Good ooze (NG) Decay (NE) Mud (CE)
Smoke	Ehkahk	Smouldering (NE)

Archomentals of the Quasi-Elemental Planes

Get the chant on quasi-elemental archomentals here…

Quasi-Element	Archomental(s)	Summary
Ash	Gazra	Extinguishing (NE)
Dust	Alu Kahn Sang [bound] Jeriayn ‡	Erosion (CE) Disintegration (CN)
Lightning	Castanamir [bound] Heur-Ket [bound] Mual-tar [bound] Seiyhock ‡ Ty-h’kadi	Storm giants (CE) Storms (CE) Thunder (CE) Polarity (CN) Thunder & lightning
Mineral	Crystalle Dvelrei ‡ Sairazul †	Mineral riches (N) Avarice (NE) Bounty of the earth (NG)
Radiance	Brilostyr ‡ Shangar [bound]	Colours Dawn
Salt	Epshion ‡ Unguliustûk	Mummification Dehydration
Steam	Vapiax ‡ Venies ‡	Scalding Drizzle
Vacuum	Iktha-Lau Sun Sing	Nonexistence (CN) Emptiness

Source: Jon Winter-Holt. The longlist of Primordials was inspired by the work of Mentat55 (on enworld) and Medivh (on the RPGnet forum). Most are from 4e D&D lore, although some particularly ancient archomentals were first intruduced in 1e. More sources can be found on the individual archomental pages. † Denotes an origin in Pathfinder lore. ‡ Denotes homebrew. If you spot anything I’ve missed, please do let me know!