Plane of Air

The Elemental Plane of Air is the most hospitable to beings from the Primes because the substance of the plane is breathable and travel is fairly easy. The plane is filled essentially completely with air but has various impurities that tend to form pockets or bubbles in the otherwise pure atmosphere. Gaseous bubbles include clouds of every type, fog, steam, mist, smoke, poisonous clouds and acidic vapors; also the rare intrusion of elemental fire which is flame without fuel. Liquid impurities are usually water or water-based and tend to form floating spheres when not buffeted or frozen by the winds. Solid matter can be found here, from dust, ash, salt, or sand, to chunks of earth approaching the size of a large asteroid. The larger chunks were thought to be brought into the plane by intelligent beings and are very likely to be inhabited or formerly inhabited. As described by the cosmology model, a traveler with a guide could approach the boundaries with the para- and quasi-elemental planes: where the whiff of smoke eventually became hot, thick, and choking, or the tang of ozone soon lead to heavy storms with arcs of lightning in all directions, or the temperature dropped until flakes of snow, crystals of ice, and lumps of hail finally became a wall of ice, or the light faded to gray and the air thinned out until there was nothing.

The very substance of this plane seems to radiate the magnificent color gradient of a clear summer sky throughout the progress of the day. Visibility is twice what the best conditions on the Prime could allow, unless of course something obscured vision. Weather is the primary natural hazard in this plane. The winds are normally light to moderately strong throughout the plane but can intensify into tornadoes, maelstroms, and hurricanes with powerful lightning. These extreme weather events are common, and when other elements gez caught up in the storm it can produce pounding rain, blinding snow, pelting hail, freezing sleet, and storms of choking smoke, biting sand, burning ash, scalding steam, or searing fire. The worst of these is the maelstrom, a toroid-shaped tornado that could last for decades. Being caught in one is like being in a violent dust storm and death is only a matter of minutes away unless the victim is able to achieve great speed (escape velocity), perform an act of great strength or receive outside assistance. Spellcasting is impossible within a maelstrom. Elemental vortices to the Plane of Air can occur wherever a high concentration or nearly pure form of the element is found, in this case in great heights, for example atop the tallest mountains. Traveling through the Deep Ethereum or the Twilight, one could locate portals to the Plane of Air by their bright yellow color.