Ethereal Plane

The Ethereal Plane, like the Astral Plane, is considered a Transitive Plane. It is notable among all other planes for its unique capacity that allows creatures to exist simultaneously in both the Ethereal Plane and the Prime Material Plane. The area where this is possible is known as the Border Ethereal. The Border Ethereal lies adjacent to the Prime Material Plane at all points of space and time. In many ways, it is the cosmic glue that binds the material to the Inner Planes.

This plane is reached easily by magic and magical items, and many monsters that roam the surface of Rolara can easily pass between the planes at will.

Geography

From the Border, a traveler can see into whatever plane it currently overlaps, but that plane appears muted and indistinct, its colors blurring into each other and its edges becoming hazy. Ethereal denizens watch the plane as though peering through distorted and frosted glass, and can’t see anything beyond 30 feet into the other plane. Interaction can be limited, depending on their connection to a physical body and the nature of the item with which they intereact. The Ethereal Plane is usually invisible to those on the overlapped planes, except with the aid of magic.

Since this is the case, creatures on the material plane are typically unaware of creatures nearby waiting in the ether; this makes it ideal for magical spying. Creatures in the Ether aren't affected by gravity either, and can will themselves to float through objects on the material plane or deeper into the Mysterious Ether. A traveler may pass from the Border through a curtain of vaporous color into the the Deep Ethereal.

The Deep Ethereal surrounds visitors in unfathomable clouds of gray vapour, and all movement, speed and time are all irrelevant from the perspective of a traveler there. Directly passing from the Ethereal Plane to the Astral Plane, or vice-versa, isn't possible without the spell Plane Shift or another spell or magic item that allows that particular path to be forced, or via a particularly powerful Ether Cyclone.

Ecosystem

Survival in the Ethereal Plane

Breathing: In the Ethereal Plane materials are converted to their Ethereal Equivalents, for instance adamantine becomes ethereal adamantine, and air becomes ethereal air, and so on. As such, a traveler in the Ethereal Plane (regardless of whether it straddles the Border Ethereal or its whole body is contained within the Plane) can breathe the air of the plane normally without issue. As such, other gas or vapour clouds can affect the ethereal body as they would normally.

Time: In combat, creatures are considered to move at their normal speeds. Travel across the Deep Ethereal is unlike traveling anywhere else; distance is literally meaningless. Regardless of destination or origins, travel in the Deep Ethereal takes 1d10 x 10 hours, unless the traveler were to encounter an Ether Cyclone. Altogether, this makes distance and time very difficult to track, and can create situations where spells last longer than intended or fizzle out too quickly.

Food & Drink: A purely ethereal body still requires sustenance as normally required, however, there is a noticeable reduction in the total nutrional value needed. Indeed, creatures hunger and thirst for only one tenth (1/10th) of their normal appetites and are adequately sustained by a congruent amount of food and drink. As such, travelers leave caches of food and supplies as well as Demiplane oases roughly ten days apart in the Deep Ethereal.

Gravity: Unlike the Astral Plane, the the Ethereal Plane has a distinct "up" and "down" direction, though the ethereal body can move in any direction spatially with little restriction. Additionally, since both the ground and the ethereal body are made of ethereal material, it is impossible to fall.

Direction: The Border Ethereal follows the rules of the border plane regarding directions such as north, south, up, down, left, and right. Within the Deep Ethereal, the only directions are towards and away from the curtains of vaporous color, and after some time and distance that becomes impossible to gauge.

Vision: Clear vision extends 300 feet. Beyond that is lightly obscured for an additional 50 feet, and beyond that it is all heavily obscured.

Localized Phenomena

Within the Ethereal Plane a traveler can observe curtains of vaporous color, through which they will discover connected plane, ether cyclones that storm at random and upset the best laid plans, and shadowy avatars of death hard at work.

Curtains of Vaporous Color

Unless flung directly (physical body included) into the Deep Ethereal, travelers who come to the Ethereal Plane begin their journey near vaporous curtain of colored clouds. These curtains separate the Border Ethereal from the Deep Ether. The color of these curtains can reveal their target destination.

Ether Cyclones

Ethereal Cyclones are unsual events that break a lot of known rules of the Ethereal Plane. Cyclones appear at random and if they rip close enough to a traveler it can unintentionally send people to random connected planes, cause them to become temporarily lost in the Ether, or even send them directly to the Astral Plane. Without the spell Plane Shift or an itme such as the Robe of Stars, a cyclone is the only way directly from the Ethereal plane to the Astral plane.

In the Deep Ethereal, the concept of location in space is irrelevant, but in the Border Ethereal, these cyclones can displace known curtains of vaporous color.

Alternative Name(s)

The Mysterious Ether

Type

Plane of Existence