Hello everybody Jordan here the PH is silent.
Today we’re going to discuss the two transitive planes, the Astral and Ethereal Planes.
In 4th edition the Ethereal Plane was destroyed by the elemental chaos, and the Astral Plane
was transformed into an Astral Sea.
The Astral Sea replaced the Ethereal Plane as the gateway to the other planes.
Currently as of 5th edition the Ethereal Plane and the Astral Plane are back, being their
transitive plane selves.
Happily carrying characters from one plane of existence to the other.
So let’s take a jaunt into the Ethereal plane.
It’s a mostly featureless realm that serves as travel from one plane to another.
The Ethereal is a misty, fog-bound dimension that has been described as a great ocean.
It’s shores would then be the Border Ethereal which overlap the Material and Inner Planes,
and the ocean itself would then be the Deep Ethereal.
Visibility in the Border Ethereal is limited to 60 feet, and 30 feet in the Deep Ethereal.
You can enter into the Ethereal Plane through a variety of spells and abilities.
Ethereal Jaunt, or a plane shift spell allows teleportation to the Border Ethereal.
If you want to go to the Deep Ethereal though you’re going to need a stronger spells such
as Plane Shift, or a Gate Spell.
From the Border Ethereal a character can see whatever the plane overlaps, but it appears
fuzzy and muted.
That character is also invisible and incorporeal to the physical world, however they can be
seen via spells such as true sight.
There isn’t gravity but a general sense of up and down exists, therefore characters
are able to move in all directions freely.
Coupled with the ability to pass through matter the Ethereal Plane is excellent for spying
and reconnaissance.
The only thing you can’t pass through is living matter, which prevents you from placing
your sword in someone and then coming out of the Ethereal Plane.
This includes plants so a vine covered cottage would be immune to ethereal visitors.
In older editions you were prevented from passing through Gold or Lead, but I think
that’s not longer the case.
I could be wrong, let me know in the comments below!
The 1st edition Manual of the Planes states that the Ethereal is the cosmic “glue”
that binds the Prime Material Plane with the rest of the inner planes.
I like this.
It makes total sense as the Ethereal really is the “inbetween.”
It’s a means of travel from the Material Plane to the inner planes, which include the
elemental, and positive and negative energy planes.
Thinking about this it reminds me of the upside down from stranger things, but really that’s
more of the shadowfell instead of the Ethereal Plane.
Now i’m upset I made a whole shadowfell video without one stanger thing reference….
damn.
The Ethereal plane isn’t home to a lot of creatures, Ghosts can exist there and cause
trouble for adventurers.
Such creatures have a deep and abiding hatred for the living, and no love for those travelers
who show up in their realm.
Phase Spiders use the ethereal plane to hunt prey, phasing in and out of it at will.
Other dangers though are Ether Cyclones, pressure centers of magical force that roll through
the Ethereal.
Like a temporary thunderstorm an ether cyclone is an incredibly strong wind on the Ethereal
Plane.
Uprooting travelers and spinning them through the air.
An Ether Cyclone isn’t really that dangerous and probably the greatest threat is it’s
ability to scatter adventurers.
There isn’t any food and water on the ethereal plane, other than what you bring in.
So anyone stuck there could die of starvation or dehydration if they can’t find a way
out.
Overall though not really a scary place.
The Ethereal plane connects the Material Plane to the other inner planes, which include the
elemental planes, the feywild, and the shadowfell.
The Astral Plane connects the Material Plain to the outer plains, like the Nine Hells,
Limo, etc.
Which brings us to our second transitive plane, The Astral Plane!
The Astral Plane, the space between everything, the road that goes everywhere.
It’s where you are when you aren’t anywhere else.
It is a place of little substance, a gray void with chunks of matter broken off from
other planes.
Since 1st edition the Astral Plane has undergone some changes, which stems from how the planes
are organized in various editions.
In 1st and 2nd edition the Astral Plane was a transitive plane, part of the great wheel
cosmology.
In 3rd edition that changed with the world tree model, and the Astral Plane became a
sort of cloud that interconnected the planes.
So traveling from plane to plane you would have to eventually navigate back to the “trunk”
of this tree to find the correct path that led to the Outer Plane of your choice.
Then 4th edition came along and the Astral Plane was changed into an Astral Sea.
The Spellplague destroyed the world tree and set the outer planes free floating in the
Astral Plane, which condensed into a silvery sea.
Now in 5th edition it has become kind of a merger of the Astral Sea and earlier versions.
The Astral Plane is the realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied
souls to reach the Outer Planes.
It is described as a great silvery sea, with swirling wisps of white and gray streaking
among motes of light.
The astral plane is mostly empty space, but visitors can stumble upon various chunks of
other planes that have made their way here.
Creatures that are on the Astral Plane don’t suffer hunger or thirst, or age at all.
Which is odd for creatures who live here and because of that natives to the Astral Plane,
like the Githyanki, have outposts on other planes so their children are able to grow
up.
Certain spells touch the Astral Plane briefly, such as dimension door, making a quick shortcut
on the material plane.
But the main way of travel to the Astral Plane is via Astral Projection.
This is a spell that sends your consciousness to the Astral Plane while leaving your body
safe at home.
When traversing in this way you have a silver cord that comes out of your astral projected
body that links back to your physical body.
If this cord is ever severed, either by psychic winds or the silver sword of a githyanki you
and your body will die.
However if your Astral form is killed (i.e. reduced to zero Hit points) your consciousness
simply returns to your body.
It is possible to travel to the Astral Plane with your physical body, via a Plane Shift
spell or a rare portal that leads there.
Then you’d have no silver cord and would physically be able to traverse the Astral
Sea to one of the outer planes.
Gateways in the Astral Plane lead to the outer planes.
They appear as pools of color, with each color representing a different outer plane.
Finding the right color gateway is set up by chance, in the 5th edition Dungeon Master's
Guide there is a d20 chart indicating the Pool Color and corresponding plane of existence..
and you're supposed to roll on that randomly
I suppose we should talk about the githyanki.
The Githyanki were originally slaves of the Mind flayers.
They rebelled and made their way to the Astral Plane.
They are the pirates of the Astral Sea, war is the ultimate expression of githyanki culture
and their eyes show no mercy.
They are dangerous foes in the Astral Sea because of their Silver Swords, which have
psychic powers to cut a creature free from their Astral Projected body.
Mentioned earlier they have outposts in the material plane to raise and train their young.
Once a Githyanki warrior is ready they must kill a mind flayer and only then are able
to join the rest of the githyanki in the Astral Plane.
Now that we’re in the Astral Plane we can travel to any of the outer planes.
I already went into detail about the Abyss and the Nine Hells but my next set of videos
will cover the rest of the outer planes.
So stay tuned!
Thanks again for watching everyone, if you enjoyed this video please give a like and
think about subscribing.
New Videos every wed.
Until then take care and safe travels on the Astral Sea.