The Subtle Bodies

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The Animus model of the physical and subtle bodies says that there are five components of being. Most cultures have at some time embraced the logic that we are not one, but the sum of multiple subtle bodies with one physical form. The diversity of the universe and the application of magic has expanded the possibilities but still uses the same five.

by Royal Frazier

Soul - The soul is eternal, living many lives through reincarnation. It is ethereal and native to that plane, also known as the ghost plane, the haunting, the afterlife. The soul is the source of emotions, creativity, epiphanies, and even spontaneous desires. The mind can come to the conclusion that you have been wronged and you should be angry. But the mind cannot drive those sudden flushes of anger, attraction, fear, or indescribable worry. Emotions are not choices we make. They happen to us, from outside of our conscious mind. These come from the soul. Souls have a personality of sorts. They have a temperament, attitudes, and ways of belief. Souls do not perceive the normal passage of time, nor do they remember things in terms of the physical world. Within the soul are echoes of what it experienced. The soul is affected by the mind, and the mind is influenced by the soul. The mind remembers the specific time and place of a great event, the people involved, what was said, the look on their faces, what was done, the consequences, etc. The soul would recall feeling betrayed by family. If there were many such feelings caused by life's experiences, the soul might turn bitter, untrustworthy. Future reincarnations would be affected as the soul would produce feelings of distrust and doubt into the mind. After the physical death, the mind must be released, accepting the death of that life, that being. Without a mind, the soul may return to the material plane with a newly born mind and begin a new life--with no memories of the past ones because the mind had all the memories from perceiving time's passage.

by Royal Frazier

Spirit - This is an energy that is specific to the plane of creation. This energy flows between the mind and the body. This would be the life force, ki, manna, or other similarly named concepts. The mind can cultivate its control over these spiritual energies. Through it, we can access magic, perform physical feats, and enhance our bodies. Spirit energies are different on each plane. This planar signature allows the detection of when a being is from a plane outside of the Prime Material (spell: Detect Good or Evil, Protection from Good or Evil). All beings from a plane are not universally evil or good, but they do have the signature energy of where they were created. Because of the many outer planes, the detection of a single specific plane is too subtle. But the celestial planes are distinct enough from the planes of the fiends to differentiate between the two. The many planes that lie between those extremes can not be discerned. Magic can cloak this signature.

by Royal Frazier

Mind - The mental entity, which perceives the passage of time, interprets the senses, remembers, thinks, dreams, reasons, learns, forms opinions, basic creativity, but not the emotions that we are affected by. The mind is born from the Astral Plane. While it can be simple, it is what we know as consciousness and can be developed to higher levels. The mind is a life lived. It is who you know yourself to be.

by Royal Frazier

Form - The physical form of a living organism. This is likely to be a mushroom, chicken, dwarf, dragon, or god. However, inert material, inanimate forms or objects, and corpses are all forms that can be bound through an animus to minds, spirits, and souls. The actual matter of the thing would be specific to the plane of creation. An earth elemental from the elemental plane would be different from an earth elemental of the material plane.

by Royal Frazier

Animus - A binding force; the will to create life; it is capable of drawing to it the proto-matter of a plane and build a living form. The animus binds to all four of the other subtle bodies. Conjuring creatures is a manipulation of the power of the animus. The caster's mind supplies the base thoughts, commands, and the form desired. The animus brings it into being. Some magics are strong and stable enough that the creatures will persist. A conjured familiar is an example. Although the familiar has a mind of its own added.


There are other combinations than the straightforward model of one each of animus, body, spirit, mind, and soul.
Twins, Triplets, etc. - These siblings often have a sense of one another, an undetectable connection. The spirit of each is connected to both animuses. Through this link, they may be able to sense another's perceptions, senses, presence, and death.
Subtle Repositories - Gems have the particular capability of storing and holding the subtle bodies. These can be used in spells to imprison them. Resurrection spells use the diamond to hold the mind and soul that must be drawn back from the other planes, which is then instilled into the recreated body. Other examples: phylacteries, clones, soul jars, the vampire's grave, etc.

Possession - Additional minds or souls could bind to another whole person to perform an act of possession. Here two of the same compete for control. The spirit energy may be accessed by both minds. The mind could be influenced by two souls, experiencing feelings generated by either. A soul possession can be worse than a mind. A second soul does not have the identity and memories of any specific life. Consequently, the possessed person receives the emotions, spontaneous thoughts, and desires of that second soul. If it is a Lower Soul, this would be akin to an emotional poisoning of the mind. A second mind would have a full identity, name, memories, and would compete to be the person in a single body.
Astral Projection - The special Astral bodies that this spell projects into the Astral Sea are another form that is attached to the animus. Note that the form is actually thought into existence by the mind as the Astral Plane is pure thought. The Astral cord is the tether of the animus back to the physical form, soul, and spirit. Breaking the cord removes all bindings and all four parts scatter to their respective planes.
Sentient Objects - Sentient objects have a mind bound to them. They usually have an identity, self, knowledge, memories, etc. So a mind is present. It may be a mind that lived a previous life. The object is infused with spirit, similar to a body, although much less complex. If the object was created on an outer plane, or from an outer planar being, the spirit of that plane would be used. A sentient sword made in Hell would have the corrupted spirit of the lower planes and might be detected as 'evil' from the lower planes. Although not needed, it is possible for a soul to be present.
Conjured Creatures and Animated Objects - The animus of conjured creatures and animated objects are bound to the creator's mind. The theory says a temporary conjuration is the creature's animus bound to your mind. More permanent, lasting conjurations, like the familiar or steed that can be dismissed and re-created, have the creature's spirit bound to your animus like a twin would be. The more sophisticated familiar and steed have minds that have been imprinted with an echo of the caster's mind. This assures the creatures to always recognize their master.
Golems - Golems are form and animus with a spirit bolted onto it through magic. This magic actually draws proto spirit from the elemental plane. Proto spirit is likely the first form of spirit to exist and it can be used on other planes as a locomotive force. The proto spirit changes to match the plane of this creation. The golem becomes animus, form, spirit. These constructs are mindless, but recognize a master and completely understand the verbal commands of a master. Such creatures are mentally imprinted upon. They don't have the metaphysical link to allow the creator to see through their eyes, command telepathically from afar, or know when they died. They recognize the master, and the master's command is all the golem can act upon. Pneumists say the animus contains all the basic instincts for a physical form to live. So no mind is needed. Other theories say there are primitive minds, and the caster's imprint is an echo of their own primitive mind. That binds to the animus and it can always recognize the master from which its mind came from.
Constructs - Constructs vary and are largely dependant upon the magic used to create one. A construct needs an engine to power its locomotion. Spiritual energy must be infused into it, this is needed to operate the material form. A mind is needed and typically ranges from simple beast to complex consciousness. Golems are constructs, although one with a specific creation process. Constructs can have souls, although the majority do not.

Of Death and Dying

Before we die of old age, our body knows it is coming and prepares. Some can consciously sense this. It could be minutes or several years before the time of death. Upon a natural death, the mind, body, and spirit all release immediately. The soul remains attached to the animus and is drawn to the creation of a new life within seconds. Through the natural process of reincarnation the soul is bound to a new life.
Specters of the reincarnated dead may sometimes appear to people. This is a reflection of the mind that was released, not the eternal soul that has moved on. People with some supernatural talents may see and communicate with the thoughts of those who are dead and have returned to the astral plane.
For unnatural or violent deaths, the animus detaches from the body and spirit energy within the first minute after death. Magic or someone of strong will can delay this separation. The divine spell Revivification halts this short-lived process, repairing the bonds to the animus. Once released, stronger magics would be required.
Once the body is released, the soul, mind, and animus slip into the ethereal realm, the ghost realm of the dead. Death is a difficult experience. People don't deal well. The soul and mind will take shape for a short while. During this brief period, they could be seen and spoken to by magic or supernatural skill. The form becomes faded and amorphous, usually just a faint cloud in the ether. This is from the confusion of the mind. The soul knows what its form should be, but the mind's confusion disrupts it. This can be beneficial as ethereal hunters cannot attack such a form. And some stalk dangerous places looking for newly dead to feed on. This state usually lasts around ten days, but can several days more or less. During that time, this form still shows the clinging to the life that the mind is suffering. This manifests itself in motion. The form may follow its corpse, wherever it is moved to. Assuming it isn't eaten. It may obsess about its killer, following them, or become fixated on the location of its death. After the confusion fades an ethereal form that matches our prime material forms. We are officially in the afterlife at that point. Some magic can raise the dead during this period. Once the ethereal form is whole, again the magics will need to be stronger after that form exists.




It is important to point out the elements which remain attached to the animus continue to exist, to live.. Without the animus attached the other parts are lost to their native planes. If the soul stays attached and chooses to shed the mind, the mind is lost to the Astral Sea. If the mind stayed attached to the animus and the soul released, the soul would be lost in the Ethereal realm. Detachment from the animus is always a form of death--that is the cease of a form of living. The corpse still exists after death, but the life lived through that body has ceased to exist. Parts that remain connected to the animus, begin a different kind of life.
In this afterlife, you are still you, as you have the whole of your mind with your soul. You can decide what to do. There are no brochures welcoming you to the afterlife, so many will wander. Since the ethereal can see a short distance into the material existence, they may follow around those they knew in life or those that killed or wronged them. They might tour the many places of the life they no longer have. Which can have negative consequences. The mind must accept and move on. Reincarnation is a natural path that any soul may follow. The mind must be released, letting go of the ended life and all its memories. Then the soul is free to find the opportunity to create a new life. While a natural death reincarnates immediately, this does not happen immediately.
Many religions and gods teach and promise a place in the outer planes for the faithful. The outer planes are all astral and the home of the mind and thought. So it isn't the soul that needs to travel there, as much as the person whose life their destination reflects. However, finding your way there can be difficult. Ancient ways had guides that would escort souls to their destinations, known back then as psychopomps. Such guides seem to be far rarer now. Those who have worked in life to align themselves with a specific plane will feel a pull. This pull, typically sideways will lead them to that plane eventually. Sometimes these pulls can be sounds, smells, color, or light. Getting there is a journey of the mind as well as the distance traveled. This pull is noticeable while the mind is present, as the mind is the one that has consciously aligned itself with the ideology of a plane. So the path to an outer plane is a trip meant for a mind and soul. When they reach their destination, their form their has the spirit energy of that plane. At some point, it is the ethereal soul that is surrendered to the plane to become a higher or lower soul. This is the acceptance of the final fate.
The ethereal is said to have portals to the outer planes in the Deep Ethereal reaches. However, this is more of a mental concept, not so much a physical one. The Outer Planes are all within the Astral Sea. They are planes of pure thought, regardless of what you might see, touch, hear, and walk on there. The Astral realms are everywhere and nowhere. It is accessible everywhere and specifically nowhere. When a soul is walking the path to a plane, it will reach a point mentally, emotionally, and physically where the ethereal realm will shift and a portal to that plane will present itself. This is the ethereal changing to reflect the soul, not vice versa. It helps many souls to leave the overlap of the Border Ethereal where you can see into material worlds and enter the Deep Ethereal where there is nothing to see.
The ethereal form will experience two other sensations of gravity, one up, one down. The one up is towards the Ember, the source of all existence and that is the path to reincarnation. They cannot feel this if they haven't shed the remnant of their mortal life. The pull at your feet is towards the Void. This is the end. The tenets of gravitas state that value exists only once it does not exist. We truly see a thing's worth, when we no longer have it. Souls can reincarnate for thousands of years, but if they achieve a heightened state of enlightenment, an understanding of the worth of all life, then they have no more need for future lives. That enlightenment is achieved only by entering the Void. While most conceive the Void (called the Negative plane by some texts) as evil and destructive, it is the other side of the coin from the Ember. What the Ember releases, eventually falls into the Void. What falls into the Void is released, in some way, from the Ember. To enter or near the Void without reaching this state would be a horrible experience, likely nightmarish and beyond our conceptions.
A soul, or a soul and mind, could wander the ethereal forever. Usually not the healthiest of choices. There are stories from the dead, that a sound is heard when a soul has been dead for a hundred years. They hear it for some time leading up to that moment. Then silence. The source of this magical cadence is unknown. But every 100 years, there is a shift in the weave around a soul or mind on the anniversary of their untimely death. This is assuming they have not found a new home, reincarnated, or vanished into the Void. There are scrolls that say that rituals exist that can bring them back to the living on that anniversary. While when this might have succeeded in the past is unknown, we cannot ignore that the spell Resurrection is not powerful enough to bring someone back after that 100th anniversary. And True Ressurection, the most powerful necromancy known, cannot pierce the veil past 200 years.

The Trap of the ShadowFell

Some texts say the lack of psychopomps is why the Raven Queen came to the Shadowfell, to create a shared path for many souls to use. Others are more suspicious of her work due to the very nature of that plane. The shadow plane lies beneath the ethereal, between it and the Void. It is the shadow of the material plane created by the bright glow of the Ember. And it increases the magnitude of the pull on souls in the ethereal. This creates confusion, as the strongest pull comes from below. If a soul gives in to it, they will descend and be caught in the Shadowfell, like a fish in a net. Enlightened souls pass through the Shadowfell, supposedly they are seen as bright balls falling and disappearing into the ground, like a comet from a black sky. But unprepared souls become trapped there. Within the Shadowfell, you cannot slip into the Ethereal. An incorporeal become corporeal once they arrive, and cannot become incorporeal while on the plane. It is a trap to catch souls, not rescue them. The planes are too old to know when the Raven Queen truly came to the plane, or if she has been here from the start, or even one that created it.
The Shadowfell is a world hungry for souls. Spiritual energy can be treated as food or currency there. Creatures feed, not on the material form but the energies of the soul and spirit. When the living slips into the Shadowfell, they may cast a dim light around them, the glow of the material spirit energy they brought with them. This can be very dangerous as it draws the attention of the hungry.
Transitions from the shadow plane to the material exist. But these are not options for a soul and mind trapped here. This is an unnatural transition for them, unlike the path to reincarnation. If one forced their way through such a transition they would end up as some form of undead, a revenant, specter, ghost, wraith, or such. Sometimes others force their way through as a material person travels back to their home plane. These are usually a soul or mind separated from whatever form they had on the shadow plane. They can hijack a ride on a person, attaching to the animus and resulting in a style of possession. These transitions are used by the living to enter the shadows, and for the undead to enter the world of the living.
If a lost soul can't find a portal to a plane other than the material or ethereal, they would have to submit to the grace of the Raven Queen or choose to live forever in the ShadowFell.

The Broken and The Scattered

The subtle bodies of the mind and soul, by their nature, are deeply affected by thought, experience, and emotion. Tragic and violent events, catastrophes, and even magical damage can cause shards to break off of the bodies. These fall like litter and they can survive for many years, even centuries. Shards are scraps of the whole, echoes of individual extremes. Emotions of the moment, echoes of the thoughts, the memory of the event, can linger in shards of soul or mind. The presence of these can contribute to a sense or presence to the location. Shards do not move, so they normally remain fixed to a location. The unease of a graveyard, the dread when near evil, the fear when entering an area of violence, each of these can be due to shards of others in the past who experienced that there. Memories, thoughts, and sensory experiences can be experienced by shards of mind. The voice of someone from 20 years ago being heard by some, a momentary apparition, feeling someone one touch you that isn't there, sometimes even seeing a scene play out over and over. Shard effects can become very powerful when they become more numerous.
Shards can, if acted upon, by animus can become a physical entity. These are usually simple hauntings, poltergeists, ghosts trapped in a loop. Shard-based entities lack the personality and intelligence of others. Undead forms often have shards on them. This may create an obsession within the undead, that never-ending cycle that traps them, leaves them only capable of one emotion (rage, sorrow, hatred), or unable to rest due to a memory that they keep repeating. An animus with a whole soul could have shards or fragments of their former mind attached. And a mind and animus could have fragments of the departed soul.

Known Types of Spirits

Spiritual energies are unique to their plane of origin. And we concretely can detect those differences for a number of planes. On the material plane, which we have the most experience with, we believe there may be a difference in the abilities of the spirit present in a blade of grass, vs. a turtle, vs. a humanoid, etc. This is the well of energies, which would be commonly called a life force. Some creatures can drain a person, temporarily sapping their health, strength, intellect, or years of life. Some of these can become a permanent loss. These attacks act on the psyki.

Material Plane Psyki - The spirit energy of a life form of the Material Worlds, arguably with a mind capable of consciousness. Psyki has many other names in cultures: ki or qi, life force, force, vitality, mana, orenda, prana, od, manitou, hanja, kanji, mahopa, iarenda, urente. It is called the breath of life. This energy is not believed to be individuating. Yours is not unique from mine, in composition. The development of the body or mind to access and manipulate it are a skill of each individual. But unlike the body, mind, or soul, the spirit is not an identifiable entity.


Material Plane Pneuma - The spirit energy of plants, insects, and possibly simple beasts of the Material Worlds. Pneumists say that such simple creatures lack minds and that the pneuma provides all the instinctual and simple functions that plants and lower animals need. There are metaphysical arguments against such a distinction. Those say that the energy of the plane is the same, no matter what form life takes. And the spirit holds no identity.

The Wild Spirit - Also know as the Wyld, pronounced either like willed, wheld, or wild, is the spirit energy from the Fey Wild. The Fey Wild is said to be a rainbow or reflective glare over the Material Realm created by the light of the Ember. Its closeness to the Ember creates a world where life explodes and overwhelms everything, creatures seem to never die, where time itself is slowed.
The Necrotic Heart - This is the corruption of the unliving, forceably attaching a form of life force that is not part of the natural world. This energy is present in all undead. It is related to the Void, synonymous with the end of life. It can carry negative energies and use its annihilative effects on others.

Shade - Shades are very rarely seen, except in the ShadowFell. A creature with a shade would become undead if they could pass through a portal to the material world. But shades in the ShadowFell do not have a Necrotic Heart. Shades on that plane are not detected as the same as undead.

Proto Spirit - This is the energy of the Elemental Plane. This is primordial energy and might be the original spirit in the Inner Planes before evolving to the others. All elementals contain this energy. The proto spirit can animate inert matter without any purpose, mind, or sense of being. Basic elementals are this, mephits are this simplistic. The proto spirit can also infuse into biological forms. The race of genies is an example of this. Genies can have a biological form, they have a soul, they give birth as mortals do. And when they die, their soul returns to the elemental plane and is reincarnated. Their proto spirit gives them bodily control over the elements. Often just one to absolute ability. And it can usually transform their biological form into their prime element.

[Higher or Radiant Spirit - This is the energy signature of many planes of existence that expound virtuous living and respect for the value of life. Celestials always carry this energy from their home plane. It is related to the radiant energy of the Ember, and is metaphysically positioned higher up and closer to the Ember. Spells and magic that detect such a spirit can not differentiate celestials from two different higher planes.

Corrupted Spirit - The corrupted spirit is present from the Lower Planes. These are those planes that fell to the Wurm of the First Evil. These were once celestial souls, but are still corrupted by the cadaver of the Wurm. These planes of evil are restricted from roaming the astral sea as easily as any other. This prevents them from leaving the lower planes, or using portals or gates to other worlds and realms.

Ether - On the ethereal plane, the substance ether is universal. It is the energy of spirit, the composition of the soul, and the structure of ethereal bodies. If the Astral Sea is solely a realm of thought, then the ethereal is a realm solely of spirit. In the Astral Realm, the physical is thought. In the ethereal, the physical is ether.

Souls, Who Has Them?

Magic can and has bound souls to any and all creatures or forms. But generally speaking, plants, beasts, and oozes do not possess souls. Aberrations do not possess any kind of soul we could recognize. Simple elementals and constructs lack souls. Although we know that more advanced forms can bind to a soul, and reincarnate. The undead can retain a soul that they had when living or one that possessed that corpse but are inherently soulless being created most often from the already dead. Monstrosities may have them. Monstrosities cover so much, that there will not be a clear answer.
Many if not most humanoids do have souls, although humanoids cover so much, it will not always be true. Giants typically have souls. Lore says that giants are reincarnations of greedy and unsatisfied souls. Their place in the Ordning shows their level of enlightenment. The Hag Burneese wrote that giants grow with the size of their enlightenment. Those who fail, reincarnate to a lesser Ordning. Those who grow, reincarnate as a larger giant. The lost race of the Jigantay was said to have souls but they were born from elemental spirits with mastery over the earth.
All beings in the Astral Sea and the outer planes can have an Astral Soul. The deciding factor is very similar to the permutation within the inner planes. The Astral Sea is a realm of only thought. So like the Ethereal, there the physical is composed of astral waters, the mind is astral waters, the spirit is astral waters and an Astral Soul (if it exists) is made from astral waters. The actual outer planes also possess a primordial form called quintessence. This is what gives the gods of the outer planes such power. The planes and the souls of its gods are one. The soul of a god is a Quintessent Soul, sometimes referred to in ancient texts as a Planar Soul. Quintessent souls do not travel to other planes. Gods use a form of projection to travel the realms.
Most fiends seem to lack souls. They can have them with similar variations as here in the material world. But ethereal souls are a commodity, even a delicacy. A mind and ethereal soul sent to the lower planes will likely lose their ethereal soul to someone. A soul born to a fiend would be an astral soul. But staying within the lower planes it changes to a Corrupted Soul or Lower Soul.

The Minds of the Astral Plane

The mind is the center of a temporal life, where time's passage is experienced. Our mind is who we are, our memories, our attitudes, what we know, it interprets the world around us, taking in the senses of the body, it is how we reason and contemplate, it is where we dream. It is the whole of your life on Urth. And almost every creature greater and small may have a mind from the astral sea. In fact, theories state that that the animus builds a lifeform that a mind thinks of. So for every living thing, even blades of grass, there is a mind that came from the sea. That mind knew what that blade of grass should be, how to grow and live as a blade of grass. The thought is acted upon by the will to live of the animus.
The more interesting theories of mind say that minds grow, much like everything else in the universe. They start out small and very basic, physical properties, biologics, then instincts and sense memories. The mind is cultivated, it learns and expands. Eventually, it will be capable of tremendous conscious thought and knowledge. Hopefully, it will reach a level of enlightenment that brings peace and finality to the pursuit of living. Now you might be thinking of how a mind develops from infant to adult. But texts from ancient astral travelers hint that when a life is over, the mind returns to the astral, and continues growing, so that next time it might be a more complex creature. A weed becomes ant, becomes the mouse, becomes a dog, becomes eagle, becomes a humanoid.

The Tangle and the Mordants

There is a fringe area of the astral realm called the Tangle Forest. When minds return after death, the simplest of them get caught in the branches of the forest. They fall to the forest floor. Within the forest are the archetypes. These are creatures of every type. Each is the ancestral archetype that defines that creature. Minds and archetypes connect, who chooses who is unknown, and the mind learns the ancestral knowledge of the archetype. This mind now has all the instinctual knowledge and skill that is inherent to that creature at birth and it returns to the material world to be born.
More complex minds pass over the Tangle Forest and land on the Mordant Shores where old minds get pushed and pulled by the ebbs of tides created by the astral currents. Astral currents are forever moving through the whole of the astral sea. They are churned by the very structure of the multiverse and by the dreams of the living. The currents pull minds off the shore, sending them through the seas. They will wash upon other shores repeatedly, back to sea, and washed upon shore after shore. It is said that every one hundred years, they return to the same exact spot where they first fell on the Mordant Shore. While in the currents they can be swept up with many other minds, like flotsam and jetsom. Within those currents are the dreams of the living. The dead can enter the dreams of the living, but usually only if they knew them in life. This is how past loved ones revisit us in our dreams.
There are regions of the astral, like barriers that we pass through when entering. The most important of these is the Dreamlands. This is where dreams are left. Landscapes and objects dreamt of drift here seemingly forgotten. However, dreamers will repeatedly return to their dreams over years of their life. While the mind sleeps for hours tossed in the astral currents, they visit the Dreamlands for only minutes. Within these lands are realms of nightmares, the dreams of the dying, the dreams of beasts and monstrosities. More than anyone could conceive of. All astral minds may sleep and dream. The mind's experience after death may very well just be a very long sleep, with small bouts of dreaming.
We don't know how long minds survive floating through the sea. Some have been known to have survived nearly a thousand years. But thoughts can die, forgotten, cast off. In rare cases, they result in a cadaver of sorts: a rocky structure floating through the sea. But more likely they dissolve back into the astral waters that they came from.

Planar Travel

When we cross a gate or portal to another plane of existence, the animus' ability to build a form is key. Our material form does not move through the surface of the gate, but it is translated through it. The materials and energies of another plane are radically different from our own. The elemental plane has no need for air for us or any of its inhabitants to breathe. There, fire does not need wood to burn or produce smoke. The astral plane is pure thought. The ethereal plane is ether and ectoplasm. When we enter these worlds our body is replaced by one made of the stuff of the other side. During Astral Projection, a silver cord can just barely be seen at the back of the head. In reality, the cord actually attaches to at least fourteen points on the body. These points are important to spiritual energies. But the cord itself is the animus. Cutting the cord destroys the animus, breaking all bonds simultaneously. The body is left on the material, dead. The mind returns to the astral sea, the soul to the ethereal realm. The spirit energies dissipate immediately from the body.

by Royal Frazier

The material world coexists or is coterminous with three other realms. Above is the fey wilderness. Below is the ethereal realm. And further down is the plane of shadows. Each of these overlay our world, every point here, exists in each of those. Consequently, planar travel to these can be subtle, sometimes as easy as just walking along. These movements can be called slips, since they are changes in realm, but not necessarily changes in space. The fey wild and the shadow plane are mirrors made from the prime material. So your material body needs little to no transformation slipping to these realms. The ethereal plane, while coterminous, is distinctly different. Scholars say this difference is a reflection that the fey and shadow plane came into being after the material and ethereal planes already existed.

Dragons are always a special case

Dragons of Urth are spectacular beings with biologies that collect aspects of many species and other unheard-of capabilities. And true dragons can live for 10,000 years or more. Dragons have a spirit of primordial energy. Dragons have a bond with Urth. The Dragon Song says that when the last dragon dies, so will Urth. The Primordial Spirit is tied to the Ley energies of the material universe. They may actually be one and the same. The lair of a dragon will have ley geometries passing through it. The dragon might have chosen the place because of the presence of the ley. More likely the ley bent to the location because of the dragon's long presence. The
It is certain that dragons possess an ethereal soul. But likely one more primordial and deeply connected. Tales say that when a dragon dies, its soul ascends into the stars above.
The mind of a dragon is believed to be similar to the mind of gods. Astral theorists call it a nexus. It is not one, but a web of many minds all bound to the animus. Enough to hold thousands of years of memories. Theoretically, it can always grow larger, having no limit to what they can know.
Dragons are always more complex, whether it is their biology, culture, reproduction, mind, spirit, and soul.

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