Elemental Princes

The Elemental Princes were a quartet of ascendant elemental deities. Their origins are unclear, but they are believed to have been among the first elementals formed from the coalescent Elemental Planes, after the coming of the Colossi and the departure of the Old Gods. Some believe that their genesis was triggered by that departure, as the elemental realms sought to fill the void left by the Old Gods' absence, and perhaps that is at least connected to their obsessive drive to take the place of the Old Gods.
From the moment of their manifestation, the Princes desired the restoration of harmony, and conceived that they were created to bring about that goal. To that end, they gathered armies of lesser elementals from their home planes and sought to render the complexity of Aiaos down to the simple harmony of their own element. When elementals proved too limited, and genies too intractable, the Princes instead invested elemental power into mortal lineages to create the Genasi. These nimble, clever servants were able to find that which their masters most desired, the divine sparks which allowed them to attain true godhood. It was, however, these same servants who, recognising the madness of their gods, imprisoned them in the depths of the elemental planes and destroyed all records of the sacred acts which gave them power.
There were and are four Elemental Princes, who continued to be worshipped by certain misguided cults, and by failing genasi bloodlines who believe that they can restore their elemental power.

• Apyris the Dark Flame, Elemental Prince of Fire and Kindler of the Auroral Gen stands for the uncontrolled, all-consuming nature of fire. Seeking the harmony of annihilation, it saw the path to restoration in the utter destruction and immolation of all disruptive things, including all life upon the dome of Aiaos. The fire genasi weakened their Prince by denying it sacrifices and other sacred acts, then tricked it into entering the crushing depths of the plane of water. There, its flame was all-but extinguished, but its malice still polluted the waters and created the dark terrors of the Trench.
• Namis the Crushing Wave, Elemental Prince of Water and Wellspring of the Tidal Gen was born of the coldest, deepest waters, where light dared not go. Representing the cold, unrelenting pressure of the depths, Namis sought the harmony of entrpy. It desired to gather all things into a single, undifferentiated current. To trap it, the water genasi led it deep into the plane of earth, where it strained hopelessly to shift the foundations of Terraria, and succeeding only in creating its own prison by carving the haunted passages of Charybdin.
• Sessaris the Howling Vortex, Elemental Prince of Air and Exhaler of the Tempest Gen is the reckless, driving wind, and the eradicating fury of air in motion, that scatters grain, freezes lakes and topples trees. It sees all form as disharmony, but rather than the uniform motion of the Crushing Wave, they seek complete, undifferentiated chaos, with meaning as the ultimate enemy of harmony. The air genasi throttled its power sources, then tricked it into the heart of the Brazen Lands, where it whipped the slow flames of the plane into the ragin Firestorm.
• Gravis the Smothering Ground, Elemental Prince of Earth and Carver of the Lithic Gen is the remorseless, crushing weight of earth, that gives neither warning nor clemency. They despise all motion, all direction, and seek to restore a universal harmony of stasis by petrifying all of Existence in a single, frozen moment of perfection. The earth genasi deceived their god and trapped it in the ever-shifting currentls of the Aerosphere. Sinking down, it broke through the barriers to the Abyss, creating the dark and roiling tempest of the Maelstrom.