Ethereal Plane

The Ethereal Plane is a misty, shadowed dimension that borders the Material Plane and its echoes, acting as a subtle veil between the physical world and the deeper mysteries of existence. It is a realm of intangible substance and spectral presence—a place where the physical becomes insubstantial, and the boundaries of reality grow thin.

Often described as a ghostly mirror, the Ethereal Plane overlaps the Material Plane closely. In this overlapping region—known as the Border Ethereal—travelers can perceive the Material world in a hazy, translucent fashion. Structures, creatures, and terrain appear as silhouettes or shifting shadows, visible but unreachable, as if seen through fogged glass. Those in the Ethereal Plane can move through physical obstacles in the Material Plane, floating effortlessly through walls or across vast distances, unseen and unheard unless specific magic reveals their presence.

Beyond the Border lies the Deep Ethereal, a stranger, more abstract region where the plane becomes untethered from the Material and drifts into its own reality. Here, swirling mists thicken, and currents of essence flow like wind through fog. Travelers might encounter proto-realities, thought-forms, or echoes of dreams—places not yet born or long since forgotten.

The Ethereal Plane is deeply tied to spirits, memory, and transition. It is the space through which ghosts linger, where souls may drift before reaching their destination, and where magic tied to invisibility, illusion, and phasing draws its power. Time moves normally here, but the lack of physical anchors gives the experience a surreal, detached quality.

In essence, the Ethereal Plane is the unseen layer of existence—a liminal space of quiet passage, hidden movement, and lingering presence. It is not a void like the Astral Plane, nor a realm of reflection like the Shadowfell, but a soft and shifting in-between, where the edges of the real and unreal blur.