Primordial

Primordial

Rank: 

Extreme (2 ticks per harm; inflicts 4 harm)

Features:

• Personification of the natural world
• Turbulent, changing visage
• Vaguely human-like or animal-like form

Drives:

• Embody chaos
• Cling to vestiges of power

Tactics:

• Control the elements
• Destroy with primal rage

The primordials, said to be the vestigial spirits of long-forgotten gods, are the most ancient of the firstborn. Each embodies some aspect of the natural world, bound in a crude mimicry of a human or large animal. A river primordial is a mass of rock, gravel, and flowing water. A forest primordial is formed of wood, earth, rocks, and plants. A mountain primordial is a lumbering being of glacier stone and ice. A fire primordial, depending on its mood, might take form as embers, ash, and smoke—or as a raging pyre. 

They range in size from the height of an Ironlander to half-again as tall as a giant. Rumors persist of primordials who dwell in the deepest parts of the Wilds, or high in the ranges of the Veiled Mountains, who are as tall as an ancient tree. Beyond, some suggest, in the Shattered Wastes, live primordials who tower into the clouds. Is the sound of distant thunder sometimes the footfalls of mountain-sized primordials who dwell beyond the edge of the known world? 

Primordials are solitary beings as unpredictable as the natural forces they personify. They might ignore you. They might lurk at a distance, as if observing you. Or, they might attack. They do not speak in any language we can understand. Some suggest they have no intelligence, and are merely a manifestation of the natural world, no different than a winter storm.

How do you kill a primordial? Most scoff at the idea. You are just as likely to kill the rain or the sea. A mystic might tell you to use a weapon imbued with elemental power. Don’t trust them. If you see a primordial, keep your distance. Better yet, run. 

Quest Starter: In the dead of winter, a fire primordial is razing homes and burning a nearby wood. At night, orange flames light the sky. What can be done to stop this destruction?