Elementals and Other Natives (TIP)

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Many among the Clueless think they know all there is to know about elementals. Truth is, they don't know anything until they've been to the home of the creatures. See, elementals-when summoned to the Prime-appear to be mindless brutes. On their home planes, though, they're intelligent beings with cultures, societies, and lives.
Elementals (and, for that matter, quasi- and paraelementals) usually organize into small bands led by one member chosen because of its strength and intelligence. This tribal organization varies greatly by plane and even by group. Although the members of an elemental band are sexless and don't reproduce, they function much like humanoid families, displaying fierce loyalty and affection for one another.
To figure the statistics for elementals in their home plane, the DM can start with the numbers from the MONSTROUS MANUAL and then increase the Intelligence score to Average to High (10-14) or better. The number of beings encountered can rise to td6 or more. Most elementals are true neutral in alignment, but once in a great while, a neutral good or neutral evil elemental will be encountered in its home plane (10% chance). These good or evil elementals usually serve an archomental-an elemental of great power, unique to each plane-and travel alone or in smaller groups ( I d4 individuals).
Elementals swayed toward chaos and law also exist, but they've actually become slightly different beings due to this influence. Eolians, erdeen, kryst, hydrax, and other creatures have been transformed into beings focused on order or chaos. Even in the Elemental Planes, they're quite rare, and no known quasi- or paraelemental examples exist.
Fundamentals are minor elemental creatures, virtually two-dimensional in nature, while elemental-kin are creatures close in nature to elementals, but which cannot truly take the name. Examples of elemental-kin include salamanders, sylphs, crysmals, water weirds, sandlings, aerial servants, and azer.
'Course, the Inner Planes are home to plenty of creatures that aren't elementals or even their kin. Frost salamanders (Ice), fire bats (Fire), thoqqua (Magma), vacuous (Vacuum), and bzastra (Water), for example, are all innerplanar natives. It comes as a surprise to many, but the Inner Planes teem with life, much like any prime-material world. Confusion sets in because narrow-minded bashers wouldn't recognize it as life at all-at least, not as they define the term. A listing of inner-planar inhabitants by plane can be found in the Index, beginning on page 126.
==Powers==
The Outer Planes serve as the stomping grounds of the gods. Powers that come to the Inner Planes to make a home are few in number and usually very specialized. Most are, unsurprisingly, gods of the elements.
In any case, few folks think of the Inner Planes as godly realms, and they're often surprised to find that any powers live here at all. Others can't really tell one earth god from another, and may even be surprised to learn that there's more than one. Such clueless don't last long in the Inner Planes, even if they're prepared for the elemental conditions. It's just as important for a body to know who lives where he'll be heading.
Mentioned briefly above, the archomentals-also known as the Elemental Princes of Good and Evil-aren't quite gods, but they are singular, powerful elemental beings that equal almost any Abyssal lord in sheer power. What they lack in worshipers, they make up for in influence among their kind. Simply put, every single creature native to the Elemental Planes fears the Elemental Princes of Evil. The Elemental Princes of Good struggle against their wicked counterparts, but they're not quite up to the challenge. Perhaps simply because they've been around longer, the masters of elemental Evil have greater strength and influence in their home planes, not to mention a greater reputation elsewhere in the multiverse. Most earth-related creatures on the Prime, for example, have heard the name Ogremoch spoken in hushed tones. 
When worshipers across the cosmos die, they go to the realm of their power. It's no different for those who pledge themselves to an elemental god. Petitioners in the Inner Planes usually take a form indistinguishable from the plane around them. For example, the spirits of fallen Fire worshipers might become inseparable parts of the flames crackling all around, a final fate that suits most of them just fine. Some addle-coves suggest that the petitioners actually become elementals, but that hardly seems likely. The elementals are too primal to be nothing more than dead folks.