Elemental Plane of Water
It is an ocean without a surface. It is domain of current and wave. It is a bottomless depth.The Elemental Plane of Water is an Inner Plane or Elemental Plane. Water is one of the four elements and two energies that make up the known universe and therefore of great interest to cosmologists. This plane is 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 can survive after being sucked through a vortex from their plane of origin. The Elemental Plane of Water can be reached via the Ethereal Plane, an adjacent elemental plane, or by an elemental vortex. The Pale River vortex on the Elemental Plane of Earth has its source here, and there is a vortex to the Plane of Air called the Bubble Net. If traveling through the Deep Ethereal, a green curtain of vaporous color indicates the boundary of the Plane of Water's Border Ethereal region. Once in the Border Ethereal, a traveler can observe the Plane of Water and be detected by its denizens. Using the spherical model, this plane is adjacent to the para-elemental planes of Ice and Ooze and the quasi-elemental planes of Steam and Salt. Elemental vortices can occur wherever a high concentration or nearly pure form of an element is found, and can be temporary or permanent. Vortices to the Plane of Water could often be found in the deepest parts of the seas and oceans, in clear underground lakes, or as surface whirlpools in any large body of water. Temporary gates can be created by the plane shift spell or the abilities of high level druids. There is no deep or shallow, no dark depths nor wavy surface, just an endless ocean that felt as if you are submerged several feet (say a couple meters) in any body of water on the Prime Material Plane. There is no sun, yet the water itself seemed to glow dimly with a bluish green luminescence. Volumes of water at any temperature and salinity can be found if you know where to look or had a guide. This is 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. Life that depends 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 can 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. Supporting the teeming life of this plane are the corals and plants that made their way here and found purchase. Huge drifting three-dimensional reefs and loose spheres of freshwater grasses, kelp, and seaweed are home to myriad species and were fertile fishing spots. Travelers have to keep in mind that large predators knew of these fishing grounds also, or else they may discover just how bite-sized they actually were. Just like a Prime ocean, the Elemental Plane of Water seemed to have no limit on how large some creatures could be as giant squid, aboleth, and kraken are known to prowl the plane. Small creatures can be deadly too, with poisonous spines or barbed tails. The smallest of them all is perhaps the deadliest: algae that formed the infamous "red tide". Exposure of the eyes or lungs to the red tide cause a blinding sickness as virulent as any disease. If the Plane of Water has any weather, it is the currents, whirlpools, tidal bores, and flows of ice, steam, or silt that could inconvenience a traveler or be a deadly surprise. Usually invisible, currents can be strong enough to pull visitors off in some direction for long distances before they are able to exit the current. Tidal bores are the most dangerous currents, hitting like a thrown boulder and carrying the unlucky creature away for miles (kilometers). Whirlpools are caused by countervailing currents that sucked everything in a tightening spiral, some of which lead to vortices to other planes. Ice and silt flows are fairly easy to spot before encountering, but steam flows are nearly undetectable and can cause nasty burns or boil the flesh from your bones.
Inhabitants
It is difficult to determine what type of creatures are the most numerous in the Elemental Plane of Water but presumably the water elementals have the upper hand because they are manifestations of the plane itself. They can take on any shape their fluid bodies could form but they are extremely hard to see, similar to the effect of a robe of blending, and therefore are often described as blurry versions of Prime Material Plane animals and monsters typically of the aquatic variety. Water weirds, an intelligent life form that can possess water elementals, are also thought to be native to this plane. All other peoples and creatures are interlopers or inadvertent immigrants by way of being sucked through an elemental vortex. Those that make a home here and thrived included some jann, the marids, the nereids, and the tritons. Besides almost every species of salt- and fresh-water marine life, there are reports of sightings or encounters with many creatures including aboleth, charonadaemons, black and bronze dragons, eyes of the deep, mephits of the ice, ooze, steam, and water varieties, mud-men, sea hags, tojanida, varrdig, and will-o'-wisps. Trade also brings many different races to the Elemental Plane of Water. Merchants that traded with the dao and the marids include aquatic elves, humans, kuo-toans, lizardfolk, locathah, mercanes, and sahuagin. Natives of the Elemental Plane of Water speak Aquan, a flowing, subtle language filled with double meanings and hidden puns. Those dealing with other planes speak other languages to facilitate their dealings: Common, Infernal, Abyssal, and Celestial are frequent choices
Alternative Name(s)
The Boundless Sea
Type
Dimensional plane
Included Locations
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