Reimagining the elemental planes

The elemental planes are generally presented as infinite featureless expanses of their element. The plane of fire is the sun, water the ocean, earth the compost, and air the sky. These portrayals are quite boring and do nothing to make players want to actually visit these planes. Which makes sense because the elemental planes were originally meant to explain where spells drew material from and not places to visit until the Manual of the Planes fleshed them out. I, on the other hand, would prefer an approach similar to that of The Traveler's Guide to the Elemental Plane of Fire...

Elemental Plane of Water, Re-Imagined

The BECMI clone Dark Dungeons takes a very simple approach to making the elemental planes less boring: portraying the elemental planes as reflections of the material composed of their element. The plane of air has all the same geography as the material, but the landscapes are semi-solid cloud, the rivers and seas are breathable liquid air, and the suns are giant balls of lightning. These are comparable to the various realms in the cartoons Adventure Time or Mon Colle Knights or the video game Rift: Planes of Tellara.

I would go a step further and add what I term the "Elemental Flux." The Flux is divided into several zones based on its proximity to the other nearby planes. The inner zone borders the Elemental Planes and is identical to the Elemental Chaos from D&D 4e, serving as the go-to for elemental adventures. The outer zone borders the outer plane of chaos (natch!) and is identical to the Elemental Chaos from D&D 5e, where the elements display bizarre and impossible properties and the landscape becomes increasingly hostile.

Reinventing the elemental planes into warped mirror images of the material plane with similar geography is all well and good, but there are a few lingering questions.

Elemental Flux, Inner Zone

What separates the oceans of the material plane from those of the plane of water? The underworld of the material plane from that of the plane of earth?

Nothing. Having these redundant locations serves no purpose, so I merged them.

Water takes the path of least resistance, and in this case that means the two planes share the same ocean and this is the most common means of traveling between them. Likewise, the material plane and the plane of earth share the same underworld, and this is a common trade route between them. The plane of air shares the material plane's sky and the plane of fire shares the volcanic wastelands. (Yes, this means drow are technically native to the plane of earth.)

Adventurers may reach the plane of water by swimming or sailing, the plane of earth by tunneling or spelunking, and the plane of air by climbing a beanstalk or flying on a cloud or countless other ways. You don't need to be a high level wizard to go adventuring on the planes anymore.

What happened to the para- and quasi-elements?

These have been folded into the expanded elemental planes to provide more color.  The elemental planes are now described as having geographies which mirror the material plane. Where the material plane of composed of air, earth, fire and water, each elemental plane is composed of one of the lesser elements. Likewise for all the lesser elementals: they live on the four planes like everyone else.

The various paraplanes and quasiplanes of other editions are treated as landmark demiplanes within the Flux. All the contradictory interpretations are simultaneously true due to the odd behavior of the flux. The demiplane of Salt borders the planes of Water and Negative Energy at one end and Earth at the other, transitioning across briny seas, salt flats and salt mines.

Sky whales used for transportation

What kinds of creatures inhabit the elemental planes if not just animated masses of elemental material?

The Last Airbender? Pokemon? Ben 10?

The inhabitants of the elemental planes are not limited to animated masses of elemental material, but are just as diverse--if not more so--as those of the material. On the plane of air you can find fish, sharks and whales flying through the clouds and visit a peaceful kingdom of winged humans. On the plane of earth you can find manta rays flying through the deserts, giant sand worms burrowing through the dunes, and the gaping maws of hungry sarlacs lying in wait under the sand.

Don't feel straight-jacketed to living statues and amorphous blobs. Take anything from the material planes and give it some elemental flavor or make up your own. Try to think of some kind of ecology based on the unusual environments. Build civilizations native to the plane with unique survival strategies. If the gods created life on the material planes, why not on the elemental planes? Slayers Guide to Elementals, Legends & Lairs: Elemental Lore and the Tome of Horrors series have a few interesting elemental creatures.

The only limit is your imagination, which I why I am so disappointed there is so little attention paid to the elemental planes.