Plane of Air

From PathfinderWiki
Plane of Air
Landscape of the Plane of Air.
(Plane)
Air
Subjective Gravity

Titles
The Endless Sky
Endless Expanse1
The Firmament
Sphere
Gravity
Subjective
Time
Normal
Realm
Immeasurable
Structure
Lasting
Essence
Air
Alignment
Mildly neutral
Magic
Enhanced or impeded
Denizens
Divinities
Hshurha and other elemental lords of air
Description
Eternal open sky, dotted with occasional cloudbanks, floating palaces, and vast unknowable iron spheres
Source: Planar Adventures, pg(s). 124–129

The Plane of Air, the Endless Sky, is an elemental plane of the Inner Sphere, which in metaphysical terms is the closest to the Universe. It is a realm of unending skies, towering clouds and fierce storms.2

Ruler

The unholy symbol of Hshurha.

The ruler of the Elemental Plane of Air is Hshurha, Duchess of All Winds.3 The Jaathoom Empire also stretches across the majority of the Plane of Air giving them great political reach and clout across the entirety of the plane.4

Geography

The Elemental Plane of Air is a nearly unimaginably large expanse of open skies, filled with churning air current, drifting clouds, and towering thunderheads. Near the borders of the Plane of Water, tremendous storms of rain and snow lash massive globules of water hanging suspended like floating oceans.5 Solid matter is rare in this realm, much of it consisting of ice, magically solidified clouds or conjured rock.2

Despite the Plane of Air being dominated by vast expanses of open sky, several notable settlements exist within it. These include Armun Kelisk, the floating capital of the Jaathoom Empire;6 the Verglas Precessional, the nearly invisible palace of the elemental lord Hshurha; the smuggler haven of Port Eclipse; and the ice scamp7 kingdom of the Sparkling Principality of Hautansia.8

The spheres

One of the strangest occurrences of solid matter on the Elemental Plane of Air are the metal spheres. Hundreds or thousands of feet in diameter, these obviously ancient bronze or steel spheres were left ages ago by their unknown creators. They have been there so long, in fact, that numerous peoples from the Material Plane have colonized them, building entire communities there,5 though all such settlements have since vanished completely.9

Covered in unknown symbols or runes, the spheres are obviously hollow, but for ages nobody had determined how or when any could be opened,5 until at least one spontaneously cracked open at some point between 4718 AR and 4723 AR. The orb contained residences and kizidhars, typically native to the Plane of Wood, which had coincidentally reappeared alongside the Plane of Metal.10 The plane's native jaathooms11 strenuously avoid the spheres.59

Fire orbs

The plane is illuminated by fire orbs, distant spheres of intense light and heat that sit at fixed points far from the centre of the plane and are stationary enough that its inhabitants use them to navigate by. Some have speculated that these orbs must contain some sort of link to the Plane of Fire but no evidence has ever been found of this.12

Inhabitants

The Plane of Air is the least populated of the four elemental planes, with only a small fraction of the inhabitants of its neighbors. Some believe that this is due to the extreme scarcity of solid land, which takes the form of large chunks of ice or magically created earth or rock. It is, nevertheless, home to the jaathooms who have built enormous floating cities, air, dust and ice scamps, belkers, mihstus, air and lightning elementals, and an eternally feuding population of silver and white dragons that was once thought to be the only draconic presence on the plane, until the discovery of the native cloud dragons disproved this belief. The nephlei, or cloud nymphs, lead solitary lives in homes built within cloud formations. Invisible stalkers also inhabit the Plane of Air, serving jaathooms as scouts and assassins. Settlers from other planes, such as sylphs and thriae, can also be found where solid land is present.5813

References

Paizo published chapters about the Plane of Air in Planes of Power and Rage of Elements.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

  1. Jason Evans. Caught in the Eclipse, 9. Paizo Inc., 2017
  2. 2.0 2.1 Amber Stewart. “The Great Beyond” in The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse, 3. Paizo Inc., 2009
  3. Tim Akers, et al. Plane of Fire” in Blood of the Elements, 22. Paizo Inc., 2014
  4. John Compton, et al. Plane of Air” in Planes of Power, 12. Paizo Inc., 2016
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Erik Mona, et al. “Chapter 3: Religion” in Campaign Setting, 178–179. Paizo Inc., 2008
  6. John Compton, et al. Plane of Air” in Planes of Power, 17–19. Paizo Inc., 2016
  7. Paizo referred to elemental scamps as mephits until the publication of the Pathfinder Second Edition Bestiary, and began solely referring to them as scamps in Rage of Elements. See Bestiary pg. 150, Rage of Elements pg. 3, and Pathfinder Core Preview pgs. 2, 13.
  8. 8.0 8.1 John Compton, et al. Plane of Air” in Planes of Power, 12–17. Paizo Inc., 2016
  9. 9.0 9.1 John Compton, et al. Plane of Air” in Planes of Power, 17. Paizo Inc., 2016
  10. Logan Bonner, et al. “Air” in Rage of Elements, 65. Paizo Inc., 2023
  11. Paizo referred to jaathooms as djinn until the publication of Rage of Elements. See Rage of Elements pg. 3 and Pathfinder Core Preview pg. 2.
  12. John Compton, et al. Plane of Air” in Planes of Power, 14. Paizo Inc., 2016
  13. John Compton, et al. “Bestiary” in Planes of Power, 60. Paizo Inc., 2016