Astral Plane
The sprawling star ocean that links the inner and outer realms
Description
The Astral Plane is the space between the Inner and Outer Planes, and coterminous with all of the planes. When a character moves through a portal or projects her spirit to a different plane of existence, she travels through the Astral Plane. Even spells that allow instantaneous movement across a plane briefly touch the Astral Plane. The Astral Plane is a great, endless expanse of clear silvery sky, both above and below. Occasional bits of solid matter can be found here, but most of the Astral Plane is an endless, open domain. The Astral Plane is the great silvery sky that connects all planes to one another, the realm of pure thought and expanded consciousness created by the last great remnant of the body of Atlas, The Ineffable's great body, formed of his undying thoughts and consciousness given planar form. Occasional islands of solid matter float in astral space, but most of the plane is an enormous, seemingly eternal void of silver radiance. As a gateway between the Inner and Outer Spheres, the Astral Plane teems with travelers, from entities venturing between planes to explorers searching for one of the numerous demiplanes secreted here or looking for the one of the countless marooned spirits that dwell within the expanse. Its nature as a crossroads makes the Astral Plane very dangerous. Although it’s possible to visit the plane bodily via plane shift or by using an item such as a robe of stars, most travelers prefer to play it safe by manifesting their souls in an astral body created by spells such as astral projection.Beyond mortal understanding
The Astral Plane is a place that serves as the last great remnant and reminder of the origins of the universe, and a glimpse into the consciousness of the Overdeity Atlas, The Ineffable...the entire silvery void of the Astral Plane is a thing beyond mortal understanding, and to comprehend it in its true form would be to invite nothing less than destruction of one's body, mind, and soul...so instead, the Astral Plane, more commonly called The Astral Sea by the laypersons who travel it frequently, appears to many mortals as a massive, expansive ocean within a field of infinite stars that links all things together - a vast, infinitely expansive ocean of water of gleaming silver that twinkles with the light of every star that has shined since the beginning of all things, the memories and experiences of all who have ever passed through it, and that links the inner and outer realms. So in this way, the Astral Sea appears to all but the most powerful demigods and demigoddesses as a sprawling Star Ocean, the water made up of the nascent consciousness of Atlas, The Ineffable where all those who sail its ethereal waters do so with the power of thought alone, whether by drifting through it alone if they be powerful enough, or through ships, boats, or other vessels designed to make travel easier or more understandable. One must be similarly strong of mind to travel within the Astral Sea - for it is the psychic remains and the last vestiges of the thoughts of the great Overdeity Atlas, The Ineffable, so does the very nature of the plane hearken to this. Whispers and echoes from ages past can be seen, heard, and felt constantly, and time itself here loses all meaning, as glimpses of the future, past, and present can be seen all around, felt nearby, and glimpsed and heard within the starry "waters" of the endless Astral Ocean. Remnants of gods both dead and alive dwell within the starry waters, and here the events of yesteryear echo throughout eternity and forever, faint vestiges of what once was playing on repeat thanks to the nascent consciousness of Atlas, The Ineffable that formed the Astral Plane.Creatures within the Astral Sea
A creature’s astral body looks like a translucent version of its physical form, usually limned with a soft nimbus of blue or violet light. A slim tether of resilient incorporeal energy known as a silver cord connects a creature’s astral body to its unconscious physical body. If the astral body dies, the silver cord retracts into the physical body, returning the soul to its familiar seat (albeit at the cost of two permanent negative levels due to the resultant trauma). A silver cord resists most attempts to damage it, but if it somehow manages to break, the creature immediately dies, and the astral form housing its soul is cast adrift on the astral currents, pulled inexorably toward the enormous spire of Purgatory, which extends up into the Astral Plane from the surface of the Outer Sphere. As a realm of thought, the Astral Plane is home to entities that represent concepts, myths, and legends spawned from mortal thoughtforms. Mediums open their consciousness to these denizens of the Astral Plane, inviting them to reside in a physical form and spread their influence on the Material Plane. Other inhabitants of the Astral Plane include enormous astral leviathans that float through the silvery seas, sometimes with passengers or even semi-permanent settlements upon their backs; strange caulborn who harvest knowledge and psychic energy from astral travelers; formless nirmanakaya manasaputras who seek to guide Material Plane adepts through telepathy; and the lean humanoid outsiders known as the shulsaga, multiplanar hunters who ride magical disks and view intruders to their astral realm with xenophobic disdain. Countless other creatures dwell here, all with different means of locomotion within the waters of the Astral Sea, be it ships built on the backs of titanic cephalapods taken from the waters of the Astral Sea, conventional wooden sailing vessels of the mortal realms, or other celestial, infernal, or countless other means of transportation. In times of desperation, creatures simply grab hands, using collective willpower to drift and float above the waters to their destination.The River of Souls
The untethered astral bodies of the dead flow toward Purgatory and the Timeless Boneyard, domain of the God of Death Molt, The Shadow along the River of Souls, a massive sprawling silver river of such titanic proportions that to merely lay eyes upon it can be painful for mortal minds...and unlike the conventional waters of the Astral Sea, none can or dare to sail upon the River of Souls - to do so is to sail into death itself, as even the undying lose themselves and succumb to entropy within its embrace. Instead, it is a massive river mapped and followed as a central "spine" that defines the plane - a constant way to measure one's location and direction relative to other things. During this process, the dross of mortality is shed, leaving behind only the soul’s core self, its memories, and the refined character of its prior life. The gods of the Outer Sphere consider the River of Souls inviolate, often sending celestial and infernal outsiders to help steward wayward souls toward judgment and eventual delivery to their afterlife of reward or punishment. Soul-collecting or soul-devouring predators such as night hags and astradaemons prey on the dead of the Astral Plane, usually limiting themselves to picking off isolated incorporeal undead but all too often raiding parties of disembodied souls as they make their way toward eternity. The God of the dead, Molt, The Shadow, hates this perversion of the natural order of the multiverse, and the entities known as psychopomps often act as guides to deliver souls safely to their final destinations.
Alternative Name(s)
The Astral Sea, The Atlas Ocean
Type
Dimensional plane
Included Locations
Travel through the Astral Sea
Travel through the Astral Plane is a strange affair, as the plane’s makeup as being a realm of pure thought lends itself strangely to conventional travel. While the most powerful and mighty creatures can make their way through this realm alone, using the power of thought to simply propel themselves in a given direction, the vast majority of creatures move through the Astral Plane by the power of Communal Thought - by utilizing various vessels both recognizable and indescribably alien, they combine their mental power and collectively "push" their vessel in a given direction to accomplish together what they could not do alone. While more psychically powerful races may be better suited and more capable of travel through the Astral Sea, it is rare for creatures to do so alone and unaided - to do so is to invite doom upon the terrible things that sail the Starry Seas, and that dwell within its depths. Creatures of at least 15HD or more can move normally in any direction by imagining “down” near their feet and “falling” in that direction. In this way a creature “falls” 150 feet the first round and 300 feet on each successive round. Movement is straight-line only. A character can attempt a DC 16 Wisdom check to set a new direction of gravity or stop as a free action; this check can be attempted once per round. Any character who fails this Wisdom check on successive rounds receives a +6 bonus on subsequent checks until he succeeds. When moving in this manner, the traveler does not have the sensation of physical movement. Rather, the landscape of the Astral Plane (such as it is) seems to come toward, through, and past him. Scintillations of light are thrown off by the astral body as it moves along at great speed. Creatures less than 15HD must band together to communally move themselves or a vehicle they dwell upon at a much slower rate proportional to the mental strength and number of creatures participating(GM Discretion).
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