I'd love to hear your comments...
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They vowed never to set foot again on that scarred earth which will forever be the burial place of their ancestral home and now keep their contact with land-bound races to a minimum. (This helps explain why scarcely anyone knows about the Sky Realms.)
First of all: I don't know the avariel elves from the FR setting (never really read into it, I was more into the old Greyhawk and Mystara stuff). From the description, the Sky Elves once were just elves bored with the forest existance and looking for a change, basically. Finally the elf god Laelus (wind and storms) took pity and made for them to live among the skies. All in all they are more practical thinking than their ground-dwelling brethren and physically somewhat larger.Are these sky elves from the Aerial guide anything like the avariel elves from the Forgotten Realms?
Concerning the cloud giants - I love the idea; especially since I really dig the Aeshotal story and those of giants in general. So I would almost certainly involve them. It could be them through whom the characters would learn about the sky realms... maybe the cloud giants are the only caretakers "in the know" of the lofty lands, having vowed to defend the sky if ever there should be ground-dwelling races trying to seize them?I'd think the cloud giants would know about them, but cloud giants keep their own secrets.
Sphinxes are also such great creatures that hardly get an interesting treatment in most settings or adventures, so you got my sympathy on that topic as well. And I just love their part in the history of Áereth as described in the GM's Manual. Since the Aerial setting already features "winged lions" its not hard to imagine sphinxes instead or alongside them. And following your suggestion, I read the Xa Deshret entry and immediately conjured up an idea... imagine a sky ship with or in the service of, sphinxes would crash land in the lands of the nalvor by sheer accident? It could lead to potentially devastating effects - the nalvor might take the ship and its crew as a divine omen: their long lost masters are finally returning! Maybe the downed sphinxes would recognize the signs of their once great empire - and start acting as "returned gods" who would then command the nalvor into building a new empire which could eventually affect larger parts of Áereth?If you do involve the Lostlands, then you've got to bring in the sphinxes! They once had a great exodus from the lands, after the fall of the Sphinx Queen, but what if part of your epic campaign involved their return?
This could also generate some cool, in-game riddles or prophecies. Something elemental sounding, involving air and water.looking to the sky... but also beneath the waves