Character Motivation: Fleshing out a Personality

[Thomas Long 175]

So, I'm currently playing in a campaign where our gm had us all pick races from the savage species book. I ended up choosing an earth elemental cause, what can I say, I'm a fan.

I've run into a problem though fleshing out the personality. I originally intended him to be stoic but here's the thing. What would cause an earth elemental to leave their plane? Summoning spell gone amok? I've given him sort of a pride in his element sort of thing, and i already know he's not that fond of humans (no one in our party is at this point it seems).

I could flesh out his personality more and actually give him a background if I can just figure out "Why did he migrate from the outer to the material plane?" It has to be something big in my mind, because its no low level spell to be doing inter-dimensional travel. You have to be a 9th level wizard to my knowledge at least.

Thanks all and I hope for some pretty epic ideas! :)

[pendothrax]

A secret the high dwarven clans are unlikely to tell outsiders is that some mines are valuable not for thier raw ores, but for thier affinity with the plane of earth. Deep within these mines, affinity portals to the earth plane are used to mine the rare minirals that dwarven clans are famed for far and wide. A young elemental swa a pack of strange fleshly creatures taking boring rocks with a great deal of avarice back to thier home. after watching this entertainment for some time , the yound elemental decided to follow the fleshy things to thier home for fun. the young elemental came to where he could see this strange thing the fleshies called "sky". convinced that this was just one of the famed large vault caverns, the young elemantal wandered for an uncounted time, until finding the cave he arrived in became quite impossible. then he was convinced to join with som other flesh creatures as they promised exciting adventures to dull his boredom and lonelyness.

[Thomas Long 175]

I do like the idea of lost and the portal within the depths of the earth. The boredom and searching for adventure might not fit with an elemental of earth (they're traditionally described as slow and ponderous of thought) but i could go as slightly of an outcast because he's a good deal more intelligent than most earth elementals (i rolled well)

[Little Skylark]

Either he can't come back or doesn't want to go back. For both options there are of course a lot of possibilities.

My first thought is:
He has made a really big mistake while beining on his home plane and has basicly been exiled. I have no idea what that could have been, since I have no idea what is illegal on that plane. Maybe he had a love affair with a fire elemental :p.
For general mostly silly ideas: 100 reasons to leave town
They might not be the ideas you're looking for but they could give you inspiration.

[Thomas Long 175]

Right now, through the help of my Pendothrax and another friend on fb I've come to (in short):

He migrated through the portals of the deep earth one day, fascinated by the dwarves as they mined and shaped the rocks deep below. In short he was eventually found by the dwarves and taken and bound by several mages and carried far away for study.

One apprentice discovered him, and had heard of earth elementals' ability to sense the rock in the earth and traverse through it, and in his greed concocted a plan to use him for the purpose of mining these precious gems without actually having to do any of the digging. The young dwarf botched the alteration of the binding however, freeing the earth elemental, and he fled the dwarven cities in the mountains. Upon reaching the surface, well away from the dwarven caverns that ran deep through the mountains, cue meeting party where i met them in the high mountains in the forests.

I'm not sure its fully fleshed out yet, but it seems to be a start.

[HowFortuitous]

Your character made an enemy. An enemy with a lot of resources. Maybe it was a fight with a random stranger taken too far. Maybe a friendly childhood rivalry turned into something more, until that childhood enemy became somebody with a good bit of power and a reputation for taking out threats in a very direct manner.

Either way, he has an enemy. He moves. Suddenly enemies show up on his doorstep. He gets away. Moves again, they show up. Now he knows he's got to get FAR away. He hears about a portal that opens up on occasion, tosses somebody to another plane. He heads out.

[Movin]

botched reincarnate, druid got a bit too much earth in with his wind and fire. So botched that you are now an earth elemental with a mortal soul and concept of self but no real clue who you were.
Of course when soldiers from the next kingdom over start offering large buckets of gold for information on a rogue earth elemental and the rumors of the missing heir come to mind trouble might come knocking. After all to free this person that you once were they would need to erase the one you are now, death doesn't sound too appeasing so you think perhaps you shall journey elsewhere for now.