Elemental Ancestry

Exandria’s lands are rife with elemental power. Primordial energy constantly flows into the world from elemental rifts, and such primal power inevitably alters its surroundings. This is also true of peoples who spend long years in proximity to such sources of power, and of those who travel the planes long enough to find the seed of elemental power take root within their blood. Such folk are the beginning of an elemental ancestry, harboring the potential to give birth to children who are suffused with latent magic.
Children of an elemental ancestry bear the features of their parents’ ancestry, but have clearly become something new. Their appearance is altered by their power, granting them skin that shines like the sun on the surface of the sea, hair that crackles like flame, or eyes that glitter like gemstones. Then comes the manifestation of elemental powers, which can make a child the envy of their peers—or someone to be feared.
While people of elemental ancestry are rare in Tal’Dorei, they are most common among the Ashari due to the elemental affinity of that folk. Some possessed of elemental power enjoy the attention their uniqueness garners them. But for others, even the most benign interest draws painful attention to their otherness.
Belonging. People with an elemental bloodline are often raised by parents in a regular community, and so grow up with all the aspirations and prejudices inherent to their culture. For many such people, the traits that make them unique also make them a pillar of their community—for example, a baker who instinctually understands the will of her oven’s fire. Within superstitious lands and cultures, however, a person’s elemental powers might make them the target of scrutiny, fearmongering, or jealousy, eventually driving them to strike out into the world to seek a place where they truly belong.
Called to the Ashari. Those elemental-touched people who leave their communities often seek out the Ashari, the isolated keepers of rifts to the Elemental Planes. Elementally attuned children are born with great frequency to the Ashari, who understand the utmost importance of giving those children the education and training that will let them understand their gifts.
All people of elemental ancestry are welcome among the Ashari, including the Air Ashari and Earth Ashari found in Tal’Dorei. However, even those whose elemental ancestry connects them to water or fire can seek out Tal’Dorei’s Ashari peoples to help them on their journeys of discovery. In time, such a journey might lead them to the Fire Ashari on the continent of Issylra, to the Water Ashari on the Islands of Anamn in the Ozmit Sea, or to Ashari who have journeyed from those lands to Tal’Dorei.
Elementally attuned folk who don’t seek or can’t find the Ashari might instead find their way to the reclusive giants of Tal’Dorei. Though the giants do their best to keep their distance from the lives and problems of humanoids, they have been known to take a shine to people whose shared elemental affinities give them common ground.