The Ethereal Plane
The ethereal plane is split into the Border Ethereal, the region of the ethereal plane that is coexistent but phase shifted with the prime material plane and the inner planes and the Deep Ethereal. It is a region of ghosts and strange monsters, and the Border Ethereal allows its inhabitants to peer into the bordering regions.
The Deep Ethereal is the part of the ethereal plane that lies beyond the coexistent planes and houses strange and wonderous denizens.
Where the Border Ethereal exists phase shifted to the prime material and the inner planes, it acts as a medium for waves to travel in, called the ether. This allows for the dissipation of psychic energy, and thus complex magic.
The Ethereal is unique among the many planes in that an individual can exist in two planes simultaneously: the Border Ethereal and the adjacent plane.
When a traveler crosses into the Border Ethereal, she and all her possessions are converted to their Ethereal equivalents, metal becomes ethereal metal, flesh becomes ethereal flesh and so on, allowing free movement (in most cases) in any direction through the solid matter of the adjacent plane. Since everything is permeated with ethereality, an air-breathing creature can breathe ethereal air and cannot drown in an ethereal lake nor be crushed by an ethereal rock. However, not all in the adjacent plane is insubstantial. Living things larger than one-celled animals generate an aura that radiates around them and prevents passage to their interior, so an ethereal traveler cannot place a weapon inside a living creature where it will materialize and cause damage. A jungle would be an extremely torturous maze to navigate; it would be much easier to float above the vegetation or pass below its roots. Dense metals such as lead or gold also prevent passage of ethereal matter. And finally, some magic spells and alchemical mixtures can form an effective barrier.
Travel in the Ethereal and Border Ethereal is accomplished by force of will—you wish to go somewhere and you do so at your normal rate of movement. There is a sense of up and down but no real gravity exists. Objects released from possession will hover where they are dropped; it is impossible to fall in the Ethereal plane. To get to another plane, one has to pass through a curtain of vaporous color into the Deep Ethereal, then traverse that region until reaching the curtain that demarcates the Border Ethereal of the destination plane. Each Inner plane and demiplane has a curtain with a unique color. The Prime Material plane's curtain is turquoise. If the (usually magical) ethereal effect wears off while a traveler is in the Deep Ethereal, he is immediately forced through a random curtain at a random location in the Border Ethereal and deposited on the plane which it borders.
At the Border Ethereal demiplanes can form from out of the ether, and are sometimes persistent, and potentially huge. The largest of these persistent demiplanes is the The Plane of Shadows
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