The Astral Sea

The Astral Sea is a barren place of other-dimensional nothingness extending in all directions. What little solid substance that floated in the bright, gray void was typically chunks of matter broken off from their original plane. The Astral had no gravity but objects did retain their mass so you could throw small items or push off from large objects to move in the weightless environment. The sea is also home to countless unstable stars constantly undergoing death and rebirth, flooding the sky with gorgeous whirls of light and colour as supernova and black holes grow and shrink in the light-years of space.
Entering the Astral plane could be accomplished in one of two ways: projecting your astral form into the plane via the astral projection spell, or by physically entering the plane. Astral projection was the safest way to travel but still involved risk because you left your physical body behind on the traveller's plane of origin. The astral body would be accompanied by the astral forms of any items and clothing that were magical or radiated a magic aura. While projecting, your astral self was connected to your physical body by a silver cord that stretched out behind you for about 10 feet, and then became invisible and intangible. Very few things could sever this silver cord: a powerful psychic wind, a githyanki silver sword, or the will of gods. The physical body left behind appeared alive but did not require food, water, or air and did not age. It could be moved and was vulnerable to damage and death. If the traveller's physical body was slain, death followed the projection some minutes later. If the astral self was slain, the traveller then returned to his or her physical body in a coma. Physically entering the Astral plane required a spell such as plane shift and brought the traveller wholly into the Astral with no silver cord to anchor them to their plane of origin.
In this plane, time, space and matter are unrestricted and non-linear, with consciousness being the key determinant to reality. Life exists within this sea, largely of the eldritch and abomination variety, with creatures of all sizes - some said to be larger than planets - known to be found floating amongst the chaotic crashing and weaving of matter. Time does not flow equal to that in the prime material plane, and is able to stretch and contract depending on the chaotic magics of the space and proximity to the large gravity wells found across the plane.
Deep in the Astral Sea, pockets of extreme elemental power could be found amongst large concentrations of raw matter, which could act as gateways into varying regions of the Elemental Chaos. Few of these pockets were aligned with particular elements, such as large magma wells or continent wide cyclones, which provided direct access to specific elemental planes. These were the primary gateways for non-native creatures to enter the plane, allowing for the strongest elemental creatures such as Leviathans or Titans to enter the sea.
The few most stable regions of the Astral sea are anchored points, portals and planes tethered to aspects of reality. These are the sixteen outer planes, the regions of Beomis in which Anum banished his children to before the Awakening. Surrounding these anchors, the aspect aligned with the plane is found strongest. Wastelands of undead are found surrounding the uppermost layer of Carceri, or asteroids teeming with alien plant-life and beasts of all flavours are found floating around the portal to Arvandor. These outer planes are the homes of the Prime deities and those who serve them, as well as the origin of all divine power in the universe. The darkest and most sinister Eldritch creatures usually flock to the lower planes, creating nests within the dark planes of pandemonium, the abyss or Gehenna, though more malevolent and intelligent creatures occasionally find their way to more peaceful planes to wreak havoc or challenge the gods.
The Astral Plane was the graveyard of the gods. If a deity, which could be considered among the greatest of concepts, died, its remnant were cast into this realm of thought. Here it remained as a floating "god-isle", a piece of solid matter within the endless empty void, with only a fraction of residual energy left. Vast cities and civilisations are told to have been found within large skulls of long dead deities, and it is said that Amaunator's sacrificed cast billions of stars into this endless expanse.

Known Locations

     ✦  CONCORDANT OPPOSITION
     ✦  YGGDRASIL
     ✦  TU'NARATH
     ✦  THRONE OF BLOOD
     ✦  THE RUBY PALACE

Outer Planes