Sylph

I’ve already registered my complaint about oreads, and the same goes for sylphs.  I really, really wish Paizo had picked another name for these planetouched creatures, and let sylphs remain what they were in 1e and 2e: dragonfly-winged creatures that straddled the border between Air and Faerie.

That said, once we get past that substantial objection I’m a big fan.  Sylphs are evocative humanoids that could fit in easily among the societies of humans (especially those that traffic with djinn), elves, and even certain halflings.  They also make great PCs, and have pages of customizable options in the Advanced Race Guide, including the Sky Druid and Wind Listener archetypes.  All in all, they’re such great fun, I can even forgive them the name. Almost.

Siri Halfcloak is a 12-year-old urchin with elemental-tainted blood and a penchant for thievery.  She’s good at keeping her ear to the wind when eavesdropping on potential marks, and her ability to feather fall has helped her with more than one narrow escape.  She’s in trouble, though—she has caught the attention of an attic whisperer that wants to steal her voice, and the local sheriff will arrest anyone who shows her kindness on trumped-up charges of prostitution (all the while angling to have her put in his wicked care).

The griffons of Haddon Hall have been stolen!  The culprit is a sylph sky druid.  She in turn, has been egged on by an ifrit who secretly hates creatures of Air and wishes to see her riddled with Haddon Hall’s purple-fletched arrows.

Notable sylph-friendly communities include the cloud elves of the Skyborn Forest, many of whom are born as pointy-eared sylphs rather than elves; Arbijan, a djinn-filled city that currently sits stoppered in a bottle on Caliph Sorak’s desk; and Zephyr, the Dirigible Town.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 2 258

The sylph illustration in the Bestiary 2 is a bit much for my tastes (clearly her airy bloodline is strong), but the sylph on p. 157 of the Advanced Race Guide is a perfectly gorgeous example of the average sylph that PCs might encounter in the streets.