The World of Abadonya

Strangers Who Came with the Elementals

Elementborn are not native to this realm. They first came to Abadonya alongside the elementals during the Elemental War, arriving as part of the same upheaval that brought terrible destruction to the world.

Elementborn are not bound to a single elemental heritage. Their ancestry carries traces of several elemental forces at once, producing individuals capable of calling upon acid, cold, electricity, or fire. To many people of Abadonya, those powers are an uncomfortable reminder of the forces that once ravaged their lands.

Generations have passed since the Elemental War, but the memory has not disappeared. Elementborn descendants may have been born in Abadonya and may know no other home, yet they are still frequently treated as outsiders. Some settlements refuse them entry, others tolerate them only cautiously, and old families sometimes openly blame them for a war their present descendants did not personally fight.

Because no two bloodlines manifest in exactly the same way, Elementborn communities tend to judge one another by character, deeds, and control rather than by the precise form their elemental gifts take.

Subtle Signs of Four Forces

Elementborn generally resemble strongly built, striking humans, but their elemental heritage often leaves visible signs. Skin may carry a warm metallic sheen, a cool blue cast, stone-like mottling, or faint patterns that resemble wind-carved sand.

Eyes are especially distinctive. Some glow like embers, reflect like deep water, flash pale blue during moments of anger, or appear flecked with mineral colors. Hair may move slightly without wind, remain strangely dry after immersion, or give off a faint warmth in cold air.

These traits often intensify when an Elementborn uses elemental power. A calm traveler may suddenly show ember-bright veins, frost along the hands, sparks around the fingers, or dust and pebbles trembling near the feet.

Children of a Harsh Land

Petra contains the largest surviving concentration of Elementborn in Abadonya, but it is not their ancestral homeland. Their people came from beyond this realm during the Elemental War. Today, their strongest surviving communities reside within caves hidden throughout the Emberfall Scar. The Scar's dangerous terrain and elemental wounds provide isolation from settlements where Elementborn are unwelcome, allowing families to endure beyond the reach of those who would drive them away.

Life in Petra rewards resilience and adaptability. Elementborn caravan guards, guides, smiths, negotiators, scouts, and adventurers are valued because their mixed elemental heritage allows them to endure hazards that would trouble less adaptable travelers.

Older families sometimes maintain oral traditions describing ancestors who survived storms of flame, impossible cold, lightning-struck ruins, or regions where the earth itself seemed alive. Whether every such tale is literal history is difficult to prove, but the stories remain central to Elementborn identity.

Defined by Control, Not Restraint

Elementborn are often physically powerful and naturally forceful personalities. Their cultures tend to admire confidence, self-mastery, hospitality, and the ability to remain composed when circumstances turn dangerous.

Because their elemental gifts can appear suddenly during adolescence, young Elementborn are commonly taught breathing exercises, martial discipline, negotiation, or ritualized forms of elemental practice. The goal is not to suppress their nature, but to prevent emotion from deciding how that power is used.

Disputes inside Elementborn communities are frequently settled through mediation before violence. Someone capable of controlling fire or lightning is expected to understand the consequences of losing control.

The First Manifestation

An Elementborn's heritage usually becomes unmistakable in adolescence. The first manifestation may happen during fear, anger, competition, danger, or intense concentration.

One child may ignite a training blade without burning herself. Another may freeze water around a clenched hand, crack stone underfoot, or send a sudden spark across a room. Families treat this awakening as an important threshold between childhood and adult responsibility.

Some Elementborn develop a particularly strong affinity for one element, while others continue to shift freely among several forms of elemental energy.

The World Has Not Forgotten

The Elementborn are a harsh reminder of the Elemental War. Their appearance, supernatural resilience, and ability to call elemental energy into their weapons make the ancient conflict feel uncomfortably close even centuries later.

Across much of Abadonya, Elementborn encounter distrust before they are given any opportunity to prove themselves. Inns may refuse them rooms, settlements may watch them closely, and communities with strong memories of destruction caused by the elementals may drive them away entirely. This hostility is one reason many Petra Elementborn have withdrawn into the caves of the Emberfall Scar, where isolated communities can survive with limited contact with the wider world.

This does not mean every individual in Abadonya hates the Elementborn, nor does it make the Elementborn inherently hostile. They exist in the world despite the prejudice surrounding them, building families, protecting their communities, trading, traveling, and sometimes becoming heroes. Their struggle is that Abadonya has never fully separated them from the elementals who arrived beside their ancestors.

The Elements Are Older Than Kingdoms

Elementborn spiritual traditions often emphasize that elemental power is neither benevolent nor cruel. Fire can destroy or warm. Water can sustain or drown. Earth can shelter or bury. Air can carry life or become a killing storm.

Namir is respected by many fire- and forge-minded Elementborn, while Rivera attracts those drawn toward water and endurance. Others turn toward Trentula, Rashtala, or regional Petra traditions concerned with the natural and magical forces that shape the desert.

Elementborn may follow any alignment or deity. Their ancestry gives them power, not destiny.

Standard Pathfinder 1e Racial Traits

Ability Score Modifiers: Elementborn gain +2 Strength, +2 Charisma, and –2 Intelligence.

Type: Elementborn are outsiders with the native subtype.

Size: Elementborn are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.

Base Speed: Elementborn have a base speed of 30 feet.

Languages: Elementborn begin play speaking Common and one elemental language: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, or Terran. Elementborn with high Intelligence scores can choose Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Ignan, and Terran as bonus languages.

Energy Resistance: Elementborn have acid resistance 5, cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.

Negotiator: Elementborn gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks.

Elemental Assault (Su): Once per day as a swift action, an Elementborn can shroud her arms in acid, cold, electricity, or fire. This lasts for 1 round per character level and can be dismissed as a free action. Unarmed strikes made with the arms or hands, and attacks with weapons held in those hands, deal an additional 1d6 points of damage of the chosen energy type.

Low-Light Vision: Elementborn can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Race Points: 16 RP.

These Pathfinder 1e mechanics use the standard Suli rules as the mechanical basis for Elementborn characters in Abadonya.

Alternate Racial Traits

Energy Strike: Choose acid, cold, electricity, or fire. Elemental Assault can deal only that type, and the Elementborn retains resistance 5 only to that energy type. While Elemental Assault is active, the character also gains the corresponding benefit below. This replaces Elemental Assault.

Earthfoot (Acid): Each round, move through 5 feet of earth- or stone-related difficult terrain as though it were normal terrain.

Firehand (Fire): Instead of adding fire damage to a melee attack, hurl flame as a ranged touch attack dealing 1d6 fire damage with a 10-foot range increment.

Icewalk (Cold): Walk across water-based liquids by creating temporary ice beneath your feet. The ice melts after you move away.

Shockshield (Electricity): Once per round as an immediate action, deal 1d6 electricity damage to a creature that touches you or attacks you with a natural attack, unarmed strike, or metal melee weapon.

Mostly Human: Count as both humanoid (human) and outsider (native) for relevant effects. This also alters the character's automatic elemental language.

Trusted Mediator: Gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects. This replaces Energy Resistance and Low-Light Vision.

Favored Class Options

Magus: Add +1/4 point to the magus's arcane pool.

Monk: Add +1/2 point of damage to Elemental Assault.

Ranger: Add +1 to acid resistance, cold resistance, electricity resistance, or fire resistance.

Archetype & Racial Feats

Elemental Knight (Magus): A racial magus archetype focused on combining arcane combat with Elemental Assault.

Extra Elemental Assault: Allows additional uses of Elemental Assault.

Incremental Elemental Assault: Allows Elemental Assault to be used in 1-round increments rather than expending the entire daily duration at once.

Beyond the Desert Roads

Elementborn often become adventurers because dangerous work gives them a place to turn unusual power into something useful. Many are drawn toward martial or magical paths that reward physical confidence and decisive action.

Magus, monk, ranger, fighter, paladin, bloodrager, sorcerer, kineticist, and similar classes all fit naturally, though an Elementborn can pursue any class.

A Petra Elementborn might guard caravans crossing hostile country, investigate an elemental disturbance beneath an ancient ruin, search for the origin of a family bloodline, or leave Petra after discovering that their awakening is connected to something far older than their community understands.

Return to the Races of Abadonya index to browse other ancestries.