Air genasi are fast and free-willed. Because the traits that identify an air genasi are subtle, many go unrecognized for what they are for many years and are sometimes mistaken for sorcerers. Those who are overtly different quickly learn to disguise their nature from common folk, at least until they are able to protect themselves and strike out on their own.
Air genasi are descended from outsiders native to the Elemental Plane of Air and humans. Most air genasi in Faerûn come from bloodlines established over nine thousand years ago by the djinn who founded what is now Calimshan. A few rare air genasi derive from djinn summoned in other parts of the world, and some are said to be born of a line founded by a powerful air mephit sorcerer who lived on the Great Glacier hundreds of years ago. The numbers descended from the servants of air deities such as Akadi, Auril and Shaundakul are unknown, but likely to be very small. Legends tell of elves similar to air genasi, possibly descended from followers of the elven goddess Aerdrie Faenya, but it is likely that these legends are just confused reports of the avariels.
Air genasi look human except for one or two distinguishing features related to their elemental ancestor. Some examples of these features are:
Air genasi revel in their unusual nature, although few ever try to locate the being who founded their bloodline, since most are long dead or banished back the Elemental Plane of Air. Because the Calimshan djinn bloodlines are so old and have suffered many cross-breedings, it is almost impossible to tell by normal means if two air genasi are from the same bloodline. As a result, all air genasi treat each other as “cousins”, although in an arrogant and competitive way.
Air genasi have the same life expectancy and age categories as a human.
History: With only a few exceptions, air genasi native to Faerûn are descended from the djinn who once ruled Calimshan. The djinn and djinn nobles often had human concubines, and from these unions were born half-elementals. The half-elementals gained status by serving in the djinn’s armies, and their own children inherited some of their elemental nature. When the djinn masters were overthrown, many djinn, half-djinn and air genasi were slain, driven to another plane, or bound in magic items such as iron flasks. The surviving air genasi went into hiding or fled to nearby lands. Now air genasi are most common in the Lands of Intrigue, Sword Coast and the Western Heartlands. They have intermixed enough with the local populations that at least half of them do not resemble the people of Calimshan.
Outlook: Air genasi, like all the elemental planetouched, are proud of their heritage, regardless of others’ opinion of them. They know they are descended from powerful beings, even nobles of their kind. Outside Calimshan most people look upon such things with awe instead of fear, so the air genasi are used to being flamboyant with their abilities and expect a certain amount of deference from normal folk. Because they consider themselves children of the sky, air genasi move about a lot over the course of their lives. Air genasi want to see and taste the air in radically different places and consider settling in one place for any length of time to be confining.
Air genasi view air elementals as dumb brutes but see djinn and other intelligent air-outsiders as potential rivals for attention and power.
Characters: Because they may be of any alignment, air genasi have entered all walks of life, from paladin to necromancer to cleric. Many develop skills as rogues or wizards, balancing their weaknesses with spells or special skills. By their nature, air genasi make poor bards, divine spellcasters or sorcerers. Those who do practice magic favour spells involving air and electricity.
Favoured Class: Fighter. Because of their excellent Dexterity and Intelligence scores, many air genasi go the route of the agile, rapier-wielding fighter rather than the full plate-and-battleaxe variety.
Prestige Classes: Air genasi display no particular affinity for any particular prestige class, but are scattered among them in more or less equal degree.
Society: Although rarely is more than one air genasi born to any particular couple, these planetouched see each other as members in an extended family, and their tendency to wander means that they are more likely than not to find another of their kind at some point in their travels. Air genasi use these times to exchange news of other air genasi, usually in the form of bragging about their own deeds compared to others. Unlike the bonds that aasimar share, air genasi feel no need to defend other air genasi, and in fact see another air genasi’s weakness as an affirmation of their own strength.
In a few rare cases, particularly charismatic air genasi have gathered a few dozen of their own kind to form a mercenary company, cabal of mages or mercantile group. These individuals sometimes take air genasi children away from human parents so they may be raised by their own kind. However, air genasi rarely stay together for longer than a year, so these fosterlings usually end up being raised by one or two air genasi who stick together after the group dissolves. Still, these young genasi gain some sense of community and often go on to start their own temporary groups.
Language: Air genasi have no common language, although most learn Auran if only to feel elitist and to share secrets with each other when within earshot of non-genasi. An air genasi usually learns the language of his parents and may pick up other languages appropriate to his region.
All air genasi are literate except for barbarians.
Magıc: The air genasi have no unique spells of their own, but favour spells of air and lightning.
Spells and Spellcasting: Spell Focus (Evocation) and Spell Focus (Conjuration) are two common feats for air genasi spellcasters. Air genasi wizards often specialize in one of those two schools as well.
Religion: Air genasi have no common racial deity. Because air genasi clerics must choose deities who grant the Air domain, all air genasi clerics worship Aerdrie Faenya, Akadi, Auril, Set, Shaundakul, Sheela Peryroyl or Valkur. Those who are not devout enough to be clerics still worship those deities or a skythemed deity appropriate to their region. For example, air genasi in Calimshan often worship Bhaelros (their name for Talos, the god of storms) and those in Amn may worship Selûne (the goddess of moon, stars and wanderers). Surprisingly, Akadi is not the most common choice of deity for an air genasi, possibly because she associates with true elementals rather than the anthropomorphic elemental outsiders such as djinn. However, among the clergy of Akadi, air genasi are considered particularly blessed.
Aerdrie Faenya, the elven goddess of the skies, is normally only worshipped by air genasi with strong ties to elven communities, particularly communities of avariels. The air genasi of Aerdrie’s faith act as protectors of avian creatures and encourage elves to explore other parts of the world, including human societies.
Auril, the Frost Maiden, is worshipped by air genasi who live in colder regions or enjoy cold magic. They tend to be zealots, inflicting pain upon others through the use of cold and wind to show supremacy of the air element and their own power. A disproportionate amount of Auril’s genasi worshippers have pale blue skin. Shaundakul is also popular among air genasi. With his worship on the upswing, this deity has attracted many air genasi followers both for his focus on wind and because he espouses frequent travel. It is said that centuries ago he took a human lover in Myth Drannor, and from that line a handful of white-bearded male air genasi have sprung.
Air genasi who enjoy destruction, violence or simple chaos are often drawn to Talos. Evil druids and rangers sometimes worship him, as do mages with a talent for large-scale battle magic. These beings do much to sully the name of air genasi across Faerûn, for they loudly proclaim their elemental heritage and their faith, causing many ignorant folk to assume that all this race are of similar temperament.
Relations: Although they are arrogant about their own abilities, air genasi are smart enough to recognize the talents of the elven race (including half-elves), and they share a similar enjoyment of open natural spaces. They consider dwarves home-bound and closed-minded, enjoying far too much the stony comfort of a cavern roof overhead. Gnomes are regarded much as dwarves, but the air genasi know that some gnomes love the open sky as much as the elves do, and these are tolerated.
Halflings wander as much as air genasi do, and so the hin are welcome traveling companions to the planetouched. Half-orcs are considered clumsy and brutish, but valuable allies in a fight, and so even the haughty air genasi choose their words carefully around these large half-breeds. Humans are accepted, although air genasi consider a typical human’s readiness to settle on an unclaimed plot of land annoying and pointless.
Aasimar, tieflings and other kinds of genasi are in the same boat as far as air genasi are concerned. All are touched by something out of this world, but since no other “taint” is truly as awesome and inspiring as the element of air, air genasi tend to treat these beings as limited but interesting distant relations.
Equipment: Air genasi have no weapon or piece of equipment that is common to their race, because they usually lack a common background or training. However, because every air genasi has the innate ability to levitate, they are less likely to carry rope or similar climbing equipment, and most would pass over a ring of feather falling for a different piece of treasure.
Animals and Pets: Air genasi prefer birds and other flying creatures as animal companions or pets. Some of the stranger air genasi acquire unusual animals such as flying squirrels, winged snakes or oversized insects for this purpose. Rumor speaks of air genasi mages with arrowhawks as familiars, but this remains unproven.
Regions: Calimshan, Thay
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 114), Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Page 19), Player’s Guide to Faerûn (Page 191)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 years | +1d4 (16—19) years | +1d6 (16—21) years | +2d6 (17—27) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 years | 53 years | 70 years | +2d20 years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 10" | +2d10 (5’ 0"—6’ 6") | 120 lbs. | ×2d4 (124—280 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d10 (4’ 7"—6’ 1") | 85 lbs. | ×2d4 (89—245 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109)