Air

Assignments: wind and storm, constant movement, fleetingness, illusion, impermanence, restlessness, swiftness, clairvoyance

Counter Element: Ore

Attribute: Dexterity

Colors: yellow and colorless

Associated Deities: Aves, Brazoragh, Chrysir, Efferd, Rondra

Wanderstars and Constellations: Planet Aves, Elven Star, Arrow Constellation, northern lights

Seasons: Tsa month, Windsday

Hesindian Art: Vocal Art

Minerals and Metals: pumice, lapis lazuli, lamprey hair, opal, quartz, mercury, windkanter

Associated Substances: ambergris, scented and incense wood, flying seeds, sylph hair, parts of flying creatures (especially feathers, wings, butterfly dust), incense

Special Locations: Citadel of Air, Elf City of Vayavinda, Council Chamber of the Thirteen Winds, Tower of Invisibility

Major Elementalists: grandmasters Rovena von Shamaham and Fayrieke ay Revennis, Sultan Hasrabal von Gorien, the Nivese Shaman Kailäkinnen, Mherech ben Tuleyman ben Haschabnah

Air is everywhere and surrounds everything and everyone. It is invisible and yet essential to life. The air is familiar to people and yet hard to grasp. Due to its nature, it eludes any analysis, has neither a fixed place nor a clear, but a changeable nature. It is always in motion and is subject to constant change itself. Not surprisingly, the element is associated with the qualities of lightness, freedom and dexterity, the downside of which is inconstancy, restlessness and volatility.

Air also carries smells and noises, stands for music, singing and clever words - as well as for stench, noise and false promises. As breath it is life, as storm the element brings death. The element owes its special role to this constant contrast, which it plays in the Tulamidian dualism and the Rur-and-Gror beliefs of the people of Maraskan.

Due to its vagueness and lightness, the air harmonises with the other elements more than it conflicts with them: as a gust that awakens the waves in the sea, as a draft that fuels the fire in the forge or as a wind that spreads the seeds over the earth distributed. The bronze mountain does not even bother the storm, but tickles it as it passes. And his howling urges the clumsy cousin to do the same and finally go out into the world. It is not for nothing that the famous magician Ambareth emphasizes that the heptessence is strongest in the air, while some scholars even equate it with the force. It is not without reason that rumors circulate that Sultan Hasrabal learned his knowledge of the harmony of the elements from an elemental master of the air.

In general, the theory of magic connects the Magica Clarobservantia, Magica Phantasmagorica and Magica Moventia with the element of air. Alchemy attributes to it translucent materials such as opals and quartz, but also the fragile pumice and lamprey hair, or the sky-colored lapis lazuli, as well as the amorphous mercury. By using butterfly wings, various flying seeds, and sylph hair, some alchemists hope to gain the ability to fly themselves. More widespread and lucrative is the game with different fragrances, the basic substance of which is mostly ambergris obtained from the belly of the whale. But myrrh, cinnamon bark, calamus, galangal or various resins are also often used when it comes to binding the graceful essence of the element in noble aromas. Although air no longer has its own deity, Chrysir, as it did in the 4th age, and is now primarily associated with stormy Rondra and adventurous Aves, many twelve-divine temples are filled with the scent of incense, which is also a symbol of the volatile element.

It remains questionable whether there can be a place that is a home for the element that is always and constantly in motion. While Aventurian scholars speculate about a cloud fortress at an impossibly high altitude, ancient elven chants refer to the citadel of air as the cloud spear, perhaps describing the massive pinnacle atop the highest peaks of the Brazen Sword where the elf hero Lemiran, the giant slayer, held the key to the air more than 5,000 years ago was entrusted. What is undisputed, however, is that the non-element of air is subject to the arch-demonic rule of Agrimoth, the defiler of the elements, whose temptation has noticeably succumbed to many jinns of the air.