Airtouched

Airtouched is one of the sub-types of the Elemental seeming. They are the Elementals of wind, cloud, smoke, and sky, who can be as healthy as a fresh breeze or as pestilent as the miasma that surrounds the dead. Theirs is the blessing of the Velocity of the Zephyr.

Overview
Among their mismatched memories of Arcadia, the Airtouched’s clearest and most vibrant are those of the Faerie skies. Storm clouds that roiled into angry faces, winds as wild as they were free, weather that could form cages of mist and rain. To this day, a few still flinch at the sound of thunder, remembering storms that were far worse than any mundane equivalent.

And yet just as other Elementals, the Airtouched often find some level of joy in their reshaped nature. This joy is magnified by exposure to the skies of the mortal world; while an Airtouched may dislike urban smog, there’s something exulting about being even closer to the weather of the world they’d missed so much. It’s no accident that an Airtouched’s mood is often greatly affected by the weather. When a rainstorm has swept the sky clean or the winds bring the smell of flowers or the sea, the air Elemental is happiest.

The Airtouched walk, move and dance as though they are only partly chained by gravity. Their hair may billow around them in invisible breezes, or may even be partly translucent as if made of mist. Their skin or hair may be the color of a Faerie sky, from stormy grays and blues to the peculiar purplish of an alien sunset. Lightning may crackle in the  eyes  of  an  Airtouched,  particularly  when  she  invokes the kith blessing to move as swiftly as the wind.

Durance
How does a prisoner develop an affinity with the wind? It depends on the prison. Even the skies of Faerie can be oppressive if their masters so will it. Some Airtouched  were  literally kept in castles of cold, damp cloud far above  the  Arcadian  ground. Others, similar to Rapunzel, were shut up in impossibly tall towers with only the wind as their companion.

Some were  deliberately infused with the essence of air to suit their Keepers’ whims, of course — called on to fan the air through a stagnant pleasure den,  to  fill  the  sails  of  an  Arcadian  barge  or  to  act  as  a  living bellows  in  a  Fae  forge. But other Airtouched associate the development of their aerial affinity as the first step toward winning their freedom.

Folklore
The Airtouched can draw from specific legends about faeries of the sky and wind, such as the Greek sylphs. The Airtouched are also close to entities of rain, wind and cloud, storm spirits of tempestuous nature. Some have a little more lightning in their nature than others, matching the violent storm-gods of human legend.

Frailties
Cannot step on chalk, must sleep outdoors, cannot resist an offer of wind-fallen fruit, must wear the color yellow, repelled by burning hair, freshly turned earth is a bane.