The first of the archomentals of good is Chan, the Princess of Good Air Creatures. She wages an endless information cold war with her rival Yan-C-Bin while wandering the Elemental Plane of Air and the Prime Material Plane engaging in subtle acts of goodness that lead to much larger long-term effects.
Chan (PDF Version)
(Princess of Good Air Creatures, the Archomental of Good Air, the Silent One)
Near Power of the Elemental Plane of Air, NG
Portfolio: Elemental air, wind, calm breezes, gentle sounds, tempests, fresh air
Aliases: None
Domain Name: Elemental Air/Palace of Unseen Contemplation
Superior: None
Allies: Aerdrie Faenya, Jazirian, Koriel, Krocaa, Remnis, Shu, Stillsong, Stronmaus, Sunnis, Syranita, Zaaman Rul, the Caliph of the Djinn
Foes: The Elder Elemental God, Pazrael, Yan-C-Bin
Symbol: Feminine lips in a cloud
Wor. Align.: LG, NG, CG
Like a gentle breeze, Chan (CHANN) is an invisible but calming presence whose voice is like leaves rustling in a light wind. She embodies fresh, clean air and gentle currents, although she can rage like a tempest when angered. Such force still carries with it a beneficent touch, as it can scour away dangers and enemies or bring much needed rain to parched lands or cooler temperatures to those suffering heat. She holds that air is the ultimate in life-bringing goodness, for without air of good quality, few creatures can survive long.
While Chan has not actively sought out a large following, her kind nature has drawn many winged and elemental creatures into her fold. She does not direct their actions, as her reputation is such that her followers act as they know she would want. These creatures congregate at her Palace of Unseen Contemplation, a floating manor made entirely of glass, and are invariably gracious to friendly visitors. Chan is not often at home; much of her time is spent wandering the Plane of Air and the Prime Material Plane, if rumors are to be believed, observing the activities for signs of evil. What she learns is passed on to her followers, who then act on their own to address what she has seen.
It is this watching that keeps her rival archomental Yan-C-Bin in check; he must be subtle in order to avoid Chan’s interference. However, the same holds true for Chan: Should she act in too obvious a fashion, the Master of Evil Air may feel forced to respond. This has led the pair into a quiet war of threats rather than one of bloody combat. It has been this way for as long as anyone can remember, and it seems likely to continue for some time yet. Legends say this standoff will end when the pair finally meet, and on that day only one will survive. Whether this is prophecy or fantasy, no one knows.
This rivalry of opposites occupies much of the Silent One’s attention, but she still maintains contact with her fellow archomentals of good Sunnis and Zaaman Rul. She has done little to aid them directly besides sharing information due to her preoccupation with the Master of Evil Air. Chan adamantly refuses to have anything to do with Ben-Hadar, the good archomental of water, due to his boorish and self-centered behavior, coupled with a number of insults he has leveled at her. Sunnis does what she can to smooth over this rough relation but has had little success so far. Chan has also found space to form alliances with other benevolent aerial powers, although she interacts with them only rarely. She has formed beneficial relations with avian deities such as Syranita, Remnis, and Krocaa, and in some communities of aarakocra and giant eagles, she has been welcomed as a minor member of their pantheons. Through them she has also reached an understanding with the winged elven deity Aerdrie Faenya. Chan has reached out to the kenku deity Quorlinn, but he has yet to respond to her entreaties. The Princess of Good Air Creatures has also established tentative relations with various other atmospheric powers with a kindly disposition, although it is yet to be seen if this translates into acceptance of her cult among those powers’ mortal followers.
Like most of the other archomentals, it is generally assumed that the Princess of Good Air Creatures is the offspring of the Elder Elemental God. Another popular theory is that the plane of air spawned her naturally as a counter to the evil of Yan-C-Bin; opponents of this theory point out that there is no counterbalance of Cryonax, for example. Some legends portray her as the offspring of Yan-C-Bin, who became disgusted by her father’s evil. Still other legends say she replaced another archomental in the distant past. Proponents of this theory tend to point to the enigmatic Stillsong as the replaced entity, but this is pure speculation on top of legend. Whatever her origin, she has little to say on the matter when questioned, indicating it is of no import.
The Princess of Good Air Creatures typically wanders the plane of Air and is only infrequently in her palace. It is said she also wanders the Prime Material Plane with some frequency, but whether she is using portals, is being summoned by mortals, or has an innate ability to access the plane is unknown. Chan never acts openly on these travels, but she is a strident agent for good, taking small and subtle actions that lead to substantial changes for good, but cannot easily be traced back to her.
Chan’s Form (20-HD Air Elemental)
The archomental Chan is an invisible entity of softly churning winds that can blow with the force of a tornado if needed. If viewed with invisibility-piercing magic, a large pair of feminine lips can be seen in the winds. Full details of her physical form can be found in the Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III. Should Chan become a demipower or more powerful, she is likely to continue to use a modified version of this form for some time.
Other Manifestations
The Archomental of Good Air is unable to manifest strongly on the Prime Material Plane. In general, she tends to send omens and messages to her followers, guiding them towards evil works she has discovered and wishes them to address. The method of address she leaves up to her followers, rather than directly instructing them in how to handle it. On occasion, she has saved falling followers with feather fall effects, or used the same magic to render enemy archers harmless. Further, she favors blasts of air that match the gust of wind spell that help a follower stay aloft or bowls over their foes. It is also said that her desires can be understood by especially devout followers who listen to the wind blowing through trees, bushes, and grasses.
Chan is served primarily by air elementals and birds of all sorts, but also works through the actions of aerial servants, air fundamentals, air mephits, air plasms, atomies, djinn, griffons, hippogriffs, invisible stalkers, pegasi, pixies, spirits of the air, and sprites. The Silent One displays her favor through the soothing caress of gentle breezes, warm winds on a chilly day or cool winds on a warm day, gentle rains, the sound of wind blowing through leaves, and the sound of wind rustling grasses and branches. She displays her disfavor through sudden strong gusts that almost knock a creature over and the disconcerting creaking of trees that seem like they might be brought down by wind.
The Church
Clergy: Clerics, specialty priests, shamans, wizards
Clergy’s Align.: LG, NG, CG
Turn Undead: C: Yes, SP: No, Sha: No, W: No
Cmnd. Undead: C: No, SP: No, Sha: No, W: No
All clerics, specialty priests, and shamans of the Princess of Good Air receive religion (Chan) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. As Chan is only a near-power, she can only grant 3rd-level spells to her followers on the Prime; if she appears in person, or for those on the Elemental Plane of Air, she is able to grant 4th-level spells as well.
While disorganized, Chan’s faith has developed a small following among many of the avian races across the Prime Material Plane, although she has few priests as yet. In particular, she is seen as a minor deity among many tribes of aarakocra, and even some giant eagles. To those aware of her, the Princess of Good Air is seen as a benevolent natural force that counteracts the dangers of Yan-C-Bin and friend to most of the other avian deities. Chan is still seen as an outsider, however, and devout worship of her is seen as strange, but not outright discouraged. As such, the more organized avian races sometimes have shrines dedicated to the Princess of Good Air, especially avariel and aarakocra.
At this time the faithful of the Princess of Good Air have no standard design for temples, and what few exist follow local architectural styles. They typically have open walls to allow prevailing winds to blow through them, however. Shrines also vary, but they tend to share common aspects as they are frequently built in locations where constant soft breezes can be found, as these are considered sacred. Wind chimes, small pennant flags, or colorful ribbons are all found in shrines, so that the constant breezes can be visualized in their movements.
On the Prime Material Plane, Chan’s cults tend to be organized in a fashion similar to the priesthoods of Syranita or Aerdrie Faenya when found among aarakocra or avariel, with their own individual terms and titles, while those found in other races have highly unique hierarchies and styles. On her home plane, Chan has not organized her followers in any way, expecting them to work together based on shared good natures and good intentions. Perhaps surprisingly, this appears to be working, but consequently neither she nor her followers seem interested in organizing her Prime Material faithful into a cohesive force. As such specialty priests devoted to the Princess Good Air, known as zephyrs, are relatively rare on the Prime. Overall, specialty priests (4%), wizards (8%), and clerics (20%) are found in more organized cults, while the greater majority of shamans (68%) are found in tribal societies. The clergy is quite egalitarian, with females (54%) slightly edging out males (46%). Avians and avian humanoids are the most common members of Chan’s clergy, with aarakocra (38%), kenku (16%), and giant eagles (8%) making the most significant groups, followed by other races such as air genasi (5%), cloud, fog, and storm giants (4%), avariel (3%), sylphs (3%), pixies and other faerie folk (2%), djinn (1%), ravenkin (1%), wereravens (1%), other avians (talking owls, simurghs, etc.; 4%), other avian humanoids (dire corbies, tengu, etc., 3%), other planar folk (2%), and humans and demihumans (9%).
Dogma: Air is the breath of life. Without it, life is extinguished and lands are left barren. Cool winds counter heat, while warm winds eliminate chills. Air feeds fires, brings nourishing rains, and spreads the pollen and seeds from earth’s plant life; without air, the cycle of life ends. Air blows away foul gases and scours evil from the land.
Day-to-Day Activities: The clergy of the Princess of Good Air focus on cleansing air in their community of foul and harmful gasses. Most are able to operate openly, seen at worst as strange eccentrics and at best a minor, beneficial cult. In areas and cultures that strongly disapprove or suppress Chan’s faith, they operate in secrecy, promoting causes of good and working to maintain health and cleanliness in their society. They oppose the machinations of priests of Yan-C-Bin at every opportunity.
Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: Only appearances of Chan become widespread holy days within the cult of the Princess of Good Air at this juncture; in general, each cult creates their own holy days and ceremonies that are unique to their own individual priesthood. Common holy days tend to involve weather or seasonal changes such as the arrival of spring or the start of a rainy season.
Major Centers of Worship: No widely known temples or holy sites are known to the church of the Princess of Good Air. However, locales that see constant winds are universally considered sacred, and multiple cults may be aware of such locations. In such cases, each cult will often fashion their own shrine at or near the location and sharing is only common among allied races, as is the case with aarakocra, avariel, and giant eagles.
Affiliated Orders: The church of Chan sponsors no martial or monastic orders on the Prime Material Plane. On the Elemental Plane of Air, an elite group of air genasi specialty priests and clerics have organized themselves into the Cerulean Guard and have tasked themselves with the defense of the Palace of Unseen Contemplation.
Priestly Vestments: While the garments worn by the clergy of the Princess of Good Air tend to vary from race to race, humans and demihumans favor hoodless robes of sky blue with fringes of white or silver. They are often woven with patterns that give the impression that the robes are rippling even when the air is still. The holy symbol used by the priesthood is a pair of feminine lips in a circle carved into a medallion.
Adventuring Garb: The Silent One’s priests favor loose traveling robes, cloaks, and other non-restrictive clothing when not performing official duties. They utilize light weapons and missiles over heavy weapons, and never wear armor heavier than mail, and shields are eschewed.
Specialty Priests (Zephyrs)
Requirements: Dexterity 12, Intelligence 11, Wisdom 12
Prime Req.: Dexterity, Wisdom
Alignment: NG
Weapons: All piercing and slashing (wholly type P, type S, or type P/S) weapons, plus all missile weapons
Armor: Padded, leather, studded leather, no shields
Major Spheres: All, animal (flying only), astral, creation, divination, elemental (air), healing, summoning, weather
Minor Spheres: Charm, elemental (fire, water), thought
Magical Items: Same as clerics
Req. Profs: Survival (mountains or plains) or singing
Bonus Profs: Direction sense
- Zephyrs can be of any race capable of becoming priests, although most are aarakocra, air genasi, avariel, or kenku. Until Chan becomes a true power, only those trained by another specialty priest or those who travel to the Elemental Plane of Air to train directly with her or her servants can become a specialty priest.
- Zephyrs are not allowed to multiclass.
- Zephyrs gain a +2 bonus to all wind and gas attacks, and can hold their breath twice as long as normal. Further, they are less affected by natural poor air quality, such as stale air underground, pockets of swamp gas, and fouled or deadly air on spelljamming vessels; they suffer only half normal penalties in such situations and make saving throws against such environments with a +2 bonus.
- Zephyrs leave no scent or smell in the air, good or bad. They cannot be tracked by smelling the air, although they still leave scents on objects they come in contact with. As such, any creature that tracks partially or wholly by smell suffers a −4 (or −20%) penalty to checks for tracking, and magic that would alter their scent, such as aromatic oils, fail to produce their effect if applied to a zephyr. They never smell offensive, no matter what they have been through, however.
- Zephyrs may use magic items related to wind and air regardless of class restrictions. Similarly, they are unable to use any items related to earth and stone.
- Zephyrs can cast wizard spells from the school of elemental air as described in the Limited Wizard Spellcasting section of “Appendix 1: Demihuman Priests” in Demihuman Deities.
- Zephyrs can cast feather fall or fog cloud (as the 1st-level wizard spells) once per day.
- At 3rd level, zephyrs can cast whispering wind or zephyr (as the 2nd-level wizard spells) once per day.
- At 5th level, zephyrs can cast wind servant or zone of sweet air (as the 3rd-level priest spells) once per day.
- At 7th level, zephyrs can cast galegust or windborne (as the 4th-level priest spells) once per day. Currently, this power is limited to those zephyrs who operate on the Elemental Plane of Air; should Chan eventually become a demipower, this and the other powers listed hereafter will become available.
- At 9th level, zephyrs can hold their breath four times as long as normal. They can breathe normally in natural air of any quality, including naturally poisonous air and fouled or deadly air on a spelljamming vessel. The bonus to saving throws versus wind and gas attacks is increased to +4, and they suffer half damage or none with a successful save. However, they suffer an extra +1 point of damage per die from all earth-based attacks.
- At 10th level, zephyrs can summon 1d4 air mephits or 1 invisible stalker who serve faithfully, even laying down their lives, for 6 turns. The creatures appear anywhere designated within a 30-yard radius on the round after the summoning. This summoning can be performed once per week.
- At 16th level, zephyrs can summon a 16-HD air elemental once per week. The elemental is utterly loyal and control cannot be wrested by another spellcaster. The elemental serves for one turn per caster level, until dismissed by the caster, or until dispelled by the appropriate magic.
Chanite Spells
2nd Level
Breath of Chan (Pr 2; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere: Elemental Air
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 rd.
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: Path 10 ft. wide × 10 ft. high × 10 ft long/level
Saving Throw: None
By means of this spell, the caster exhales a powerful gust of wind that can move or dissipate fog or harmful gases. When breathed out, the caster can precisely alter the strength of the wind to blow a cloud of gas or fog away from them, to a maximum distance of 10 feet per caster level. If the breath is blown with maximum force, it causes fogs and gas clouds to dissipate within the area of effect; once the breath is exhausted, such clouds or fogs can return to the area the wind blew through, but the area of effect remains clear for one round per four levels of the caster at a minimum. If the caster gains initiative over a creature with a gaseous breath weapon, they can blow it back on the creature or dissipate it entirely. The breath lasts for the remainder of the round in which it is cast.
3rd Level
Insulating Wind (Pr 3; Alteration)
Sphere: Elemental Air
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 rd./level
Casting Time: 6
Area of Effect: The caster
Saving Throw: None
With this spell, the caster is able to surround themselves with a thin layer of swirling, gusting air. This air offers insulation from gases, missile attacks, and blasts of cold or heat. Clouds of gasses, such as cloudkill, stinking cloud, or a green dragon’s breath weapon, have their effects reduced such that the protected priest makes saving throws against their effects with a +2 bonus and any damage they cause is reduced by half. If a creature remains within such a cloud, the insulating wind fails at the end of the second round within the gas. When subjected to a cold-, fire-, or heat-based attack, the insulating wind also grants a +2 bonus to saves and halves damage like above, but is instantly dispersed by the energy of the attack. Finally, if subjected to attacks from normal or magical missiles including magic missile itself, magical stone, etc.), the attackers suffer a −2 penalty to their attack rolls and all damage is reduced by one per die, to a minimum of 1. Thus, the attack and damage penalties do not apply to large missiles, such as siege weapons or a giant’s boulder, nor does the damage penalty apply to attacks that cause damage from a secondary effect, such as a vial of acid or a Melf’s acid arrow spell. However, attacks that deal damage through two protected means have a cumulative effect; for example, a flame arrow would have the 1d6 missile damage reduced by 1 as well as the 4d6 fire damage halved.
The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a handful of dried leaves tossed into the air at the time of casting.
4th Level
Galegust (Pr 4; Alteration)
Sphere: Elemental Air
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 rd.
Casting Time: 7
Area of Effect: 10 ft. wide × 10 yds./level long
Saving Throw: Special
Similar to but stronger than the gust of wind spell, this spell produces a blast of air with twice the speed of that spell. It generally matches that spell, but it bowls over man-sized creatures that fail a saving throw versus paralyzation, while Large sized creatures that try to move against the wind are held immobile. Huge creatures or larger have their movement reduced by 50%. Flying creatures up to man-sized are blown out of the air and hit the ground with enough force to suffer 1d6 points of damage, plus one point per spell level of the caster. Large-sized flying creatures are blown back by 1d6 x 10 yards, and even larger flying creatures find their forward movement reduced by 50%. In all other respects it matches the gust of wind spell.
The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a pair of small red triangular pennant flags.