Earth (element)

The element of earth was one of the four fundamental building blocks of matter: solid, stable, and unyielding in character. It encompassed all kinds of stone and rock, but also soil, metal ores and sand.

Cosmology
Earth manifested its position in the cosmos as the Elemental Plane of Earth, one of the Inner Planes. The element was also represented there in living form as earth elementals.

The ruler over the portfolio of earth in Faerûn and Zakhara was the elemental lord Grumbar, while it was held by Geb in the Mulhorandi pantheon and Plutoq in the Maztican pantheon. Among demihuman deities, Segojan Earthcaller of the gnomes, Urogalan of the halflings, and Dumathoin of the dwarves held dominion over earth, but Garl Glittergold, Callarduran Smoothhands, Laduguer, and all other dwarven deities were concerned with the element, too. The evil archomental Ogrémoch also sought to rule the element of earth, but was secretly thwarted by the much more powerful Grumbar.

School of elemental earth
Many magical spells utilized the element of earth. Elemental earth was recognized as a "school of effect" (rather than one of the eight traditional schools of magic). Wizards specializing in this school were called earth elementalists. Earth was opposed to the element of air, both as a school of magic and as a worldview.

Magic-users in Zakhara had a similar but not identical notion of earth magic in the form of the province of sand.

Likewise, the wu jen of Kara-Tur divided spells into five elemental groups, including earth. In some traditions, earth was considered the same group as metal, whereas, in other traditions, the two elemental groups were distinct.

Divine earth magic
A number of deities granted divine spells that relied on the element, either in the form of the elemental earth sphere, or the earth domain.

Celestial bodies
Spacefarers also used the four elements to distinguish different types of celestial bodies present in the crystal spheres. Earth bodies often were the most common celestial objects, and commonly featured the largest population.

Major earth bodies in Realmspace were:
 * Anadia
 * Toril
 * Glyth
 * Garden