Trash / Death Elemental
What is that horrible thing?! It's absolutely disgusting! Guards, dispatch it immediately! - last words of the Baroness Constance von Schulz as she passed through the slums on her way to a royal ball.
If it can be said that Plant Elementals are the very concept of the "life force" itself personified, then Trash Elementals are the exact opposite. Much like Water stands opposite to Fire and as Air stands opposite to Earth, Life stands opposite to Death. These are all fundamental forces. Fundamental truths of the universe.
Death, Decay, Entropy, Corruption, Poison... all of these concepts are rolled into the roving pile of literal debris made alive that is called a Trash Elemental.
While they are often reviled by other species due to the frightening concepts they embody (not to mention the SMELL...), any true scholar of Elementals would tell you that Trash Elementals are just as necessary in maintaining the balance of the Universe as any other.
If life grew exponentially, totally unchecked... If nothing ever died... There would be no resources left and immense, unending suffering. Imagine: millions in serious pain from injury or disease would never know the sweet end of their torture. Dangerous old customs and beliefs would never die out with the generations who believed them. Change in society would become nearly impossible in such a system.
Just as the vultures, coyotes, and flesh eating bugs of the deserts are necessary scavengers, so too are Trash Elementals.
This knowledge does little to lessen the fear and revulsion most others feel when they appear however.
The only groups that seem to truly understand the Trash Elementals are the philosophers who understand the precarious balance of everything and the witches and death cult acolytes who understand that indeed "Death is a journey" and not something to fear.
In battle, Trash Elementals can be very dangerous for several reasons:
1. They embody Death and are EXTREMELY good at finding ways to kill.
2. They are incredibly distracting due to both their smell and appearance.
3. While some simply see what they do as a necessary part of keeping balance in the universe, many others very much enjoy their "work" and gleefully end the lives of thousands, poisoning, and choking the land with debris along the way.
Types:
Their appearance really does warrant a description since few mortals have seen one and lived to tell the tale:
Those lucky few who have escaped a brush with Death at the hands of a Trash Elemental report that they often appear as a very strange collection of slime, broken objects, discarded bones, and strange materials that are seen nowhere else in all of Belegarth. The Trash Elementals call these materials "Plass-Ticcks" and say that since they exist out of time, they are made of all the trash and death that has been and will be.
While Trash Elementals tend to spend time mostly in the company of other Trash Elementals, (for the forementioned reasons of other creatures reasonably fearing and running from the sight of them), the odd Trash Elemental will sometimes make a deep connection to either members of other immortal races or, more rarely, with a mortal or that has outwitted them in battle multiple times. In such cases Trash Elementals have been known to let their prey live far longer than the mortal normally would, simply for the good company and respect of the mortal's fighting prowess.
However, eventually all that live must die, and a Trash Elemental will have to fulfill their duty, but usually by that time the mortal accepts the embrace of their centuries-long friend with gratitude for all the times shared.
(We say usually because there is a famous folk tale of one particular instance in which a Trash Elemental had to kill his mortal friend when he became too powerful a wizard over the centuries. The wizard tried to trick his Trash Elemental companion into being dismissed back to the plane of Death, and swiftly regretted his betrayal.)
Origins:
The origins of Trash Elementals are many. Some are risen by wizards, some drawn forth by some crisis in the natural world, some simply rising out of the puddles of spilled blood and piles of broken armor left after great battles seemingly for no reason at all, some so old they simply do not remember a time they did not exist. Each elemental has their own unique story and evolution from one part of their journey to another.
Known Trash Elementals
See also: Elementals