The Sites - Water (TIP)

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Some of the splendidly impressive places of the Elemental Plane of Water stand upon drifting fragments of elemental Earth or Ice, but most are free-floating or built atop coral masses. Normally, a coral reef is built up over the years with a foundation on the ocean floor (or something resting upon the floor). Although there's no floor to be found in Elemental Water, masses of unsecured coral stretch through the plane, often extending miles in length. Most often, they take on a winding, snaky appearance, with their length twenty or more times their width.
All manner of creatures from noble tritons to ordinary fish make their homes in these coral spans. Whole cities lie atop or within these natural living islands. Sea kings and watery lords use them as anchors for their citadels and courts. Sometimes, an air-breather with potent magic holes up inside a coral mass, hollowing it out, sealing it up, and filling it with air. One such place, the Undinerealm, has become a gigantic city for sea elves who enjoy both watery and air-filled environments. Other amphibious races, from bullywugs to yuan-ti, are rumored to have similar habitats throughout the plane.
==The Avenger==
Although not actually a site, no description of this plane would be complete without mention of the Avenger. This mechanical creation is shaped more or less like a giant, dark gray manta ray. It was supposedly built by a great artificer, possibly a mysterious individual known as Lum the Mad.
The Avenger measures roughly 30 yards long (not counting its "tail") and twice that across. It can travel very swiftly thanks to a battery of rotating screws along the trailing edge of its vast "wings." The long whiplike tail that trails behind it appears to serve as a rudder.
Folks who speculate about the Avenger offer two possible theories. The first states that the thing is an automaton that wanders about the Bottomless Deep on some unguessedat mission. Another possibility, however, is that the Avenger is actually some manner of craft. If this is the case, no one has ever seen its crew or home base (if it has one).
If attacked, the Avenger defends itself with powerful bolts of lightning. Rumors abound that it has other weapons at its disposal as well, although no two reports seem to agree about their nature.
==The Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls==
The splendid palace of the marid Padisha is built atop a circular, free-floating coral reef that spreads over several dozen miles. This buildings of the city are a collection of domes, most of which have scalloped roofs and resemble great clamshells. Others curl in lines that look very much like elegant snail-shells. Air-fountains, curtains and carpets of kelp, and carefully selected schools of fish all serve as decoration in the citadel, creating a multicolored rhapsody of movement and fluidity. The entire citadel's brightly lit by strings of glowing orbs some 12 inches across. These gleaming spheres, as well as the bountiful beds of giant oysters, give the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls its name.
The citadel provides a home for about two hundred marids and one thousand servants. 'Course, most people discount all of the fish that swim in and out of the chambers of the citadel, but that's to their peril. The fish serve as watchmen and even guards (in the case of barracuda, piranha, and eels).
I can only advise visitors to the Citadel to use extreme care in all actions. The marid tolerate outsiders, but only as long as they behave themselves. Even the slightest misstep or social gaffe might offend the aquatic genies-and offending a marid is a capital offense.
The Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls holds the court of Kalbari al-Durrat al-Amwaj ibn Jari, Great Padishah of the Marids, the Keeper of the Empire, the Pearl of the Sea, the Mother of Foam, the Maharaja of the Oceans, Emir of All Currents, etcetera, etcetera. She loves elaborate spectacles and maintains a vast repertoire of displays to impress and intimidate visitors, including schools of fish that move about her in incomprehensible (but carefully choreographed) patterns, delicate but powerful manipulations of the currents within the citadel, and winding mazes of multicolored coral. She appears to govern by whim, but those who watch her carefully see that she's as skillful as a baatezu in her political maneuvering and manipulation.
One of the most interesting places in the citadel is its vast library/theater complex. This immense structure is shaped like a giant sea urchin, with spines jutting out over the surrounding structures. Inside, one finds countless ways to pass the hours. The marid are masterful storytellers and have assembled a collection of entertainers from around the multiverse. Most are even here by choice.
In addition, every manner of story can be found on the shelves of this great library. In fact, a planewalker can earn the tolerance of the marids by contributing a tome to their library. Of course, offering them a book that already adorns the shelves is highly insulting, and the penalty for insulting a marid is far worse than that for offending one.
Chant has it that at certain seasons, the marids all leave their citadel and travel elsewhere, perhaps to another location in the plane or perhaps to the prime worlds where they are revered. In their absence, a water mage named Haitm alRakal sometimes seizes the place for his own with an army of water creatures at his command. Occasionally, this basher even uses illusions to pose as the Padishah herself. When the marids return, they oust the usurper and banish him from the realm. Chant has it, though, that the marid ruler is actually quite amused by this prime wizard and allows him to live, knowing that he'll return the next time she and her people take leave of the citadel.
==The City of Glass==
Though communities abound in the Inner Planes, few reach the scale of cities on the Prime. Without a doubt, the greatest metropolis to be found among the elements is the City of Glass. Anyone who wants to brush shoulders with marids, tritons, nereids, kuo-toa, sahuagin, and sea elves finds them here. Indeed, so many different races coexist within the City of Glass that it's impossible to say which is actually the most numerous. The point would be moot anyway, because an elected assembly of fifteen individuals, no two of whom can be of the same race, rules the city.
Although its name might imply otherwise, the City of Glass is not built of that gleaming substance. The city earned its name from the majestic dome that covers it This dome, which the inhabitants cleverly call "the Dome," stands atop a giant disc of eternal ice (as described in
the chapter on the Paraelemental Plane of Ice). Trapped between the glass shell and its frozen base is an immense air bubble. Thus, the City of Glass an ideal place for air breathers who wish to explore the plane.
Not only is this cosmopolitan city a haven for those wishing to immerse themselves in the cultures of other races, it's a great place to shop. So many merchants have established themselves around the City of Glass that a body would be hard-pressed not to find something that demands he own it, immediately.
The City of Glass serves as an important nexus for inner-planar travel. The dozens of gates and vortices that a body finds in this sprawling burg has earned it the nickname "Sigil of the Elements." Indeed, it is said that body can reach any of the Inner Planes from this city.