Golems and elementals...

Ahhhh y'learn something every day huh?

I say they return to their respective planes. It's sort of like a summoning but with a permanent (until dispelled) binding. But really, I kind of agree with weishan. You're not binding an Efreet or other individual being, you're binding an elemental. Elementals, while they can be intelligent, remain non-unique pieces of their plane of origin. When they die, they become part of the plane. So, if you the purpose of your question is whether or not at some later point in time you would meet a very pissed of elemental that remembers you binding it, then the answer is probably no.

Countering the SRD's own description, though, it is to be subtly noted that the construction of a flesh golem requires animate dead... not to say that this actually animates the golem with an undead spirit rather than an elemental, but little quirks in the rules like that always make you think. :^)

That's still the case -- 3.5 SRD gives a cumulative 1% chance per round of combat that a golem goes berserk, and thereafter is no longer controlled by its creator.

Personally, I've always been a fan of wacky, variant golems. What about an iron golem... of cold iron? A stone golem... of voidstone? Consider the stressed-out life of the gem golem from the Plane of Mineral, or what utility there might be in creating an ice golem or salt golem, animated by a water elemental. Perhaps an obsidian golem could contain a fire elemental; a golem of amethyst or other crystal, a being from Radiance. Since golems do have abilities that would seem to arise from their elemental nature -- clay golems heal when acid damage is applied, for instance, while stone golems can cast slow -- there might be advantages to binding such unusual spirits as golems.

...hee. I wonder what would happen if you tried to make a flesh golem out of the flesh of one of the dead gods on the Astral...

However, according to the article Monsters of the Lost City there are exceptions.

Golem Remnant

What's really strange is that these elemental spirits become type: undead. So that also answers the question, "Are there undead elementals?" I guess.

-420

Nope. They're beings of pure spirit. They're just connected to elements.

A fire elemental isn't made out of fire; it's made out of the spirit of fire, and as such it has the ability to turn the fire that surrounds it into a corporeal body.

The Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III was very clear on this point.

From page 4:

"An elemental in the strictest sense of the word is a spiritual creature found only on the planes of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water that inhabits its respective element. It flows freely throughout its plane, and when it wants to interact with its environment, it can assume a material form by wrapping a portion of elemental force around itself. (This resultant 'body" isn't really the elemental at all.) And the same is true of paraelementals and quasielementals. Both are free-willed spirits that shape bodies for themselves out of their environments."

I've mostly thought of the flesh of dead gods on the Astral as metallic, considering that this is the source of the githyanki silver swords.
A Guide to the Astral describes them as rocky (p36), though.

Despite what A Guide to the Astral Plane said, I'm inclined to think they're actually made from the silvery substance of Astral conduits, since conduits seem to be essentially the same thing as the silver cords githyanki swords are designed to sever, only on a larger scale, connecting the Outer Planes to the Material rather than connecting astral projections to their material bodies.

The description of a silver sword in the current edition as "a column of silvery liquid" also suggests to me something that's essentially immaterial in origin, like a conduit, rather than a true metal. Not even a divine metal forged from the remnants of dead belief.

If the silver used to make the swords is mined from dead gods, it's an extremely rare substance, an exotic mineral found only within the dead bones or flesh of certain gods, or gods of a certain pantheon, or even one god in particular (for example, perhaps githyanki have only found it within the corpse of Aoskar). I seriously doubt that you'll find an entire god made of it, let alone every dead god entirely made of the substance of githyanki swords. That'd make the element too common.

Of course, astral conduits are pretty common, but I imagine the technique used to turn that stuff into a usable alloy is extremely difficult.

That's an interesting idea. I like it.