Sometime ago, I wrote a series of articles about creatures meant to replace elementals. I have nothing against elementals, it was just a thought experiment more than anything. Unaware of the Forgotten Realms for 4e, I called them primordials. Not wishing to interfere with Mr. Greenwood, et al, I'll thought I'd call them astrals for right now. That, of course, creates issues with Wartune.

Right.

Externals? No. Cruxals? No. Outsiders? Six categories of no. Planars? Maybe.

For now, we'll call them Samatalans.

The first one I wrote about were reskinned elementals with details added to explain how they could survive on our world. From there, they became more abstract. Here's a handy list of the traditional elements:

Here's a list of the non-traditional elements:

I didn't include the ice cream elemental, nor the creatures from the plane of letters, but you get the idea.

My favorite from the first list, is the Fire Samatalans. I always like Fire Elementals and would enjoy using these sugar-fearing creatures in any future campaign.

My favorites from the second list of non-traditional elementals, are either to Men of Iron and Stone or the Manus and Pria.

The Men of Iron and Stone, or Menois, are fun visually. They have these floating plates of metal that they can control to their advantage. These plates float on their bodies as if they lay on a sea of stone that appears to be solid and liquid at the same time.

The Manus and Pria are like a Cleric Elemental or something. Creatures make their own children using alchemy in the name of their god. The alchemical creation is not an aberration, but an aim at perfection. The children do not curse their creators, nor do they worship them. I guess they present existential ideas more than anything else.

Hopefully, I'm back on the bandwagon. See you tomorrow.