ELEMENTAL PLANE OF WATER

Inner Plane

Forgotten Realms

The Elemental Plane of Water was an Inner Plane or 'Elemental Plane' of the Great Wheel cosmology and the WORLD TREE cosmology models. After the SPELLPLAGUE, the Elemental Plane of Water collapsed into the ELEMENTAL CHAOS, mixing with all the other Inner Planes. Water is one of the four elements and two energies that make up THE UNIVERSE and therefore of great interest to cosmologists. This plane was abundant with life: native creatures born of the elemental nature of the plane itself, sentient water-breathing peoples, and most every species of aquatic life that could survive after being sucked through a vortex from their plane of origin.
"It is an ocean without a surface. It is domain of current and wave. It is a bottomless depth."
There was no deep or shallow, no dark depths nor wavy surface, just an endless ocean that felt as if you were submerged several feet (say a couple meters) in any body of water on the PRIME MATERIAL PLANE. There was no sun, yet the water itself seemed to glow dimly with a bluish green luminescence. Volumes of water at any temperature and salinity could be found if you knew where to look or had a guide. The Great Wheel cosmology model explained this by the proximity to the para- and quasi-elemental planes: water became cold and formed icebergs as you neared the Plane of Ice; water became brackish as you approached the @PLANE OF SALT; water became silty and slimy as you neared the @PLANE OF OOZE; water started to boil as you approached the @PLANE OF STEAM. The WORLD TREE cosmology described this plane as having all varieties of water constantly in motion, influenced by currents and tides. Life that depended on particular conditions flowed along with their preferred environment or suffered the consequences. Impurities such as bubbles of air, chunks of earth, and even short-lived balls of fire could be found floating about due to elemental vortices or the workings of powerful beings. Habitats and settlements typically formed near sources of food and shelter, or near portals and vortices to facilitate trade.