Delta Elementals - the Fine Mixture of Earth and Water

Elementals are an ancient, cardinal kind of monster in fantasy, and even science fiction. The old pillars of alchemy brought to life; air, earth, fire, and water. It's easy to imagine the great strides of immense stones tumbling from a towering form, or the world left sopping as a being made of twisting water washes through the city.

In my time covering monsters, I've made a series out of dragons, and my own creations, the Keepers. Those two series' aren't going anywhere, don't you worry about that. With everything written about true Elementals, Elemental type creatures, myrmidons, and elder elementals like the Phoenix, I notice something quite troubling: they're all just one element.

As I've ruled it in my own writing, elemental powers are quite rare and very confined. Thinking elementals would find hybrid elementals abominable. This makes them incredibly rare and fascinating to magical practitioners who study them.

Delta Elemental

This unlikely elemental is named after the many rocks that form when stones are washed down a river and meet the sea. Earth and water come together to lift those immense stones, worn smooth during their journey down the stream. The change is naturally slow, but magical. The energy which animates stone and surf could easily animate both in one entity.

The elemental blend of earth and water surges into action - Soul of the Rapids by Anthony Palumbo

Delta Elemental Stats generated on Homebrewery

The delta elemental resembles a humanoid shape made of twisting water. Their colours range from deep cascading blues of a high altitude, alpine river. Sometimes they can be found in an inner city river, giving them the murky brown of silt and pollution. Unlike true water elementals, they have stones of varying sizes deep inside their liquid bodies. Tiny stones fill in the extremities like fingers and toes. Immense stones line the inside of their bodies, giving them a rigid skeleton. Often, an immense stone, naturally carved and etched with other lines by the river's moving stones will find its way up to become a blank, expressionless face.

The delta elemental is naturally contemplative and thoughtful. It will sit on the banks of the river it was formed from for days on end and meditate as the sounds of its own body and the river below sloshes endlessly. Delta elementals staunchly defend natural places like this, keeping natural bodies of water safe for those who travel upon them. A delta elemental summoned or bound into service by a spellcaster is a relentless, determined sentinel.

The flexibility of water and the rigidity of stone makes the delta elemental a fierce fighter, able to twist and stay mobile but more hardy to attacks compared to other forces.

Water Shapes the Land

Delta elementals can be found anywhere the earth meets the water. They can make for an excellent wandering monster, dotting a brook or some other natural exploration scene, or perhaps an industrious city is polluting their river with refuse from magical experiments, which has drawn an elemental's ire.

Now we want to hear from you? How would you introduce a delta elemental to a game you're game mastering? How do you imagine elementals made from pairs of other elements behaving? Let us know in the comments below or on our discord server.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.