The Painted Ways

The Painted Ways aren't a plane themselves, but rather a magically constructed series of pathways made by the same individual who created Genesis. Their entrances and exits are anchored in many locations within the Old World, but the Ways themselves are thought to arc out through the magical void of the Evernight; they seem to bend time and distance in a way that vastly shortens journeys between one point and another.
A marvel of magical construction, the Painted Ways sat empty for nearly a millennia before being rediscovered by mortals. while some find them beautiful and others eerie, they quickly become the primary way to travel between the Shards and are familiar, well-used routes in spite of their thoroughly otherworldly nature.

Physical Qualities

The Painted Ways were a creation of Wynn Khajib, the same Reaper responsible for the Shattering, and have an appearance in keeping with their origins; most people would consider them almost artwork made physical, though that appreciation can quickly turn to trepidation when actually passing through the Ways. As a whole they resemble paths of golden light, similar in appearance to the aurora borealis, bridging an endless twilight abyss; the many paths exist at different heights and typically vast distances apart, but it's often possible for a traveler to see other pathways arching through the void and sometimes even catch a glimpse of others on their own journeys through the Ways. The entire space is bathed in a perpetual soft half-light, a vast dreamlike expanse of color ranging from golds and oranges right through to pink and cool violets, and takes its name from the frequent description as looking like a wash of painted color.
Logic would suggest that the space existing between the pathways of the Painted Ways is actually the inner reaches of the free-magic expanse known as the Evernight, but if so it's a far more beautiful and benign part of the Evernight than is described anywhere else. Whatever the case, the area containing the Ways seems to be protected somehow; there are no beings that roam the empty space or malign those who travel through it. Walking the paths is a disorienting experience, with time and distance hard to keep track of and often blurring, but it transports its visitors across vast expanses of the Old World with very little time actually elapsing; the Painted Ways let the denizens of Genesis travel thousands of miles in a matter of minutes or hours, accelerated travel comparable to traveling through the Worldshadow without the limitations of accessing Lore’s realm.
While magic can be used while walking the Ways, it's not recommended. Travelers are kept to the paths and watched as they pass through by formidable magical guardians who are more than ready to step in at the first sign of behavior that's not to their liking; only those who act peacefully and respectfully are permitted to use the Ways.

Access

Wynn understood the inherent problems that travel would present when she made Genesis, and the Painted Ways were her solution. Anchored in many places throughout the Old World, entrances to the Ways were deliberately placed close to entrances to Genesis in order to facilitate their purpose in joining the shards together; restrictions of magic meant that Wynn couldn't directly link the shards, so she did the next best thing. While the gateways to Genesis are much more varied, reflecting the magical processes of those who laid the groundwork for each particular shard, the entrances to the Painted Ways are much more uniform and generally require the offering of a drop or smear of blood and a few ritualized words. The blood requirement is thought to be a countermeasure meant to keep the pathways safe and ensuring that they couldn't be used by Seraphs, vampires, or the humans of the Old World.
While most of the entrances and exits lead to the borders of Genesis, there are places that seem to exist entirely suspended from the rest of reality and only reachable through the Painted Ways; these locations are thought to have been naturally occurring byproducts of Genesis’s creation and do not have any particular purpose. Most are uninhabited, and discovered only by accident.

Rulers and Inhabitants

The only permanent figures of the Painted Ways are magical guardian-constructs, beings who exist as a part of the magical roads themselves and keep them safe against any intruders. The Ways were originally conceptualized by the Lion Reaper Jhayden Anurios to provide a safe passage for the magical races, but he died before making anything of his idea; when Wynn constructed the Ways decades later, she petitioned the Skinwalker to create the lionlike Guardians in memory of her predecessor.
The Guardians stand approximately eight to nine feet tall, and are animal-human hybrids who are lightly armored and armed with glaives. Enormously strong and so resistant to magic that it seems to have little if any effect on them, they tolerate no violence along the Ways and prevent travelers from trying to stray from the paths. They also exist as a safeguard against the ways being opened by coercion or force of an inhabitant of Genesis. Often unseen and materializing only as needed, it's understood the the Guardians' eyes are on travelers for every moment of their journey.

Quick Facts

Inner/Outer Spindle: transitional
Magic Saturation: high
Governed By: none
Reachable: yes