Ethereal Plane

The Ethereal Plane is a realm out of phase with the rest of the multiverse. In this way, it is similar in minor ways to the echo planes (Shadow, Faerie, and Dream), but the Ethereal Plane is more than a mirror of the Material Plane. Where it touches the Material Plane and the rest of the multiverse, in a region known as the Border Ethereal, the gray vapors, and swirling mists obscure the natural features of the Material Plane but do not offer substantial differences.

Savvy planar travelers view the Ethereal Plane as simply a means to an end, a plane to visit when you want to get somewhere else. In this way, it shares several traits with the Astral Plane, and these two are known as the transitive planes for this exact reason. However, the Ethereal Plane holds more than just a mode of planar travel.

The Border Ethereal can offer sanctuary to travelers seeking a quick escape from the Material Plane, but other creatures have adapted to use this tactic as well. The most common are ghosts, who exist in both the Border Ethereal and the Material Plane and can “manifest” in one or the other as a means of defense and attack. Ethereal filchers, thought eaters, xill, and all manner of other creatures call the Ethereal Plane home, and those that live off the flesh of living things learn to hunt in the Border Ethereal.

Beyond the region of the Border Ethereal, the plane becomes deeper, and here is where it earns its nickname as the “waveless sea.” The Deep Ethereal is a fathomless, endless region of dark gray misty tendrils, and it's there that the demiplanes of the multiverse reside. What creates them? Who creates them? Powerful wizards and clerics are known to create small demiplanes, but the bigger ones have more mysterious origins. Who created the Nightwalker Pit, the Demiplane of Chains, or the Engulfing Hunger? What sustains them?

Other regions in the Deep and Border Ethereal are just as mysterious, such as the Pyramid of the Lost, the Tower of Iron Will, and the ghostly metropolis known as Bleakmore. Travelers who find themselves lost in the waveless sea of the Ethereal Plane can encounter plenty of mysteries and dangers to keep them interested in the fog-shrouded plane.

Lay of the Land

In the larger view of the multiverse, the Ethereal Plane surrounds the Material Plane and Inner Planes and provides a link between them all. Some planar scholars theorize that the only reason the Material Plane exists at all is because of the Ethereal Plane, which transfers the raw elemental building blocks of the Inner Planes to the worlds that make up the Material Plane. In fact, it is thought that the demiplanes in the Deep Ethereal could one day become fully fledged Material Planes, they just need some sort of “push” to get them out of the deep region.

Border Ethereal

The region of the Ethereal Plane that overlaps with the Material and Inner Planes is known as the Border Ethereal, and this is the “shallow” end of the waveless sea. The Border Ethereal is like looking at the world through a smoky crystal – everything is distorted and gray, but most of the features can be made out. Swirling gray vapors fill the Border Ethereal, limiting vision. Weather events on the Material Plane or Inner Plane can be viewed from the Border Ethereal but do not affect creatures or travelers fully in the Ethereal Plane.

Distance is very relative in the Ethereal Plane, but beyond the Border Ethereal, the vapors grow thicker, and the Deep Ethereal starts. The Border and Deep Ethereal planes are separated by a strange colorful force known as an ethereal curtain. A traveler moving from the Border Ethereal into the Deep Ethereal passes through one of these curtains without realizing it, but the return trip requires locating the specific ethereal curtain that leads back to where they came from. The curtains are colored based on the plane that it leads to.

Deep Ethereal

Entering the Deep Ethereal, a traveler comes to the part of the plane without end, with globs of protomatter floating casually around. Vision is even more limited here due to the dark gray tendrils of thick fog that envelop everyone and everything. The Deep Ethereal is where the demiplanes are born, either by deliberate magic, accidental power, or through some other unknown force. Each one is unique, though many carry the aspects of one or more Inner Planes. Life often forms in a demi plane, usually nothing more intelligent than an elemental, but exceptions have occurred.

Each demi plane in the Deep Ethereal appears as a great mass of swirling protomatter, changing color wildly, but they are all unique. A traveler can study the patterns on a demi plane to help determine what elements may be more dominant, which function as ethereal curtains for all intents and purposes. Passing through one typically requires only the will to do so, and in doing so; the traveler feels as though they are walking through thick slime for a moment before they emerge on the other side into the demi-plane itself. Demiplanes have defined borders, unlike normal planes, but the size outside is not necessarily indicative of the size inside.

Cycle of Time

Time in the Border Ethereal passes the same as it does for the adjoining plane, which is normal for the most part. Creatures feel hunger and thirst at the normal rate while in the Border Ethereal, and rest provides the normal benefits. Similarly, in the Deep Ethereal, creatures age and grow hungry at the normal rate, though there is no mechanism on the plane to mark the passage of time.

Surviving

Perhaps owing to its nature as the primordial soup of the planes, creatures that breathe air or water have no difficulty breathing in the vapors of the Ethereal Plane.

Getting There

The most straightforward way to travel to the Ethereal Plane is through the casting of the Etherealness spell, which transports the spellcaster (and others, if the spell is cast at a higher level) directly into the Border Ethereal. Magical items also exist that allow users to transport themselves into the Border Ethereal.

Portals and gates exist scattered about the Material Plane and Inner Planes that lead into the Ethereal Plane. Some of these portals require specific actions or items to open, while others act as cracks between the planes that allow some of the ethereal to bleed out. Such areas usually have a gray pallor to them, choked with strange thick mists, and are often found at the site of horrendous magical accidents involving transmutation magic.

Traveling Around

Movement in the Ethereal Plane, both Border and Deep, is unrestricted by gravity or physical objects on the mirroring plane. Flying or swimming speeds have no special effect on the Ethereal Plane, though a creature can use its fastest movement speed regardless of the mode while traveling.

In the Border Ethereal, the mists are thick and swirling, limiting vision. Traveling within the Border Ethereal is otherwise unrestricted by the physical objects or terrain of the adjoining plane, though notable exceptions exist. Spells or effects that create or manipulate force magic, such as the wall of force spell, can affect creatures in the Border Ethereal. The wealthiest and most paranoid of residents in the Material and Inner Planes have paid alchemists large sums of gold to mix gorgon’s blood into traditional mortar and built rooms or even whole castles using the mixture, which also stops ethereal travel.

Gravity does exist in the Border Ethereal, so inanimate objects fall at regular rates and seem affected by physical objects and barriers as if they were on the adjoining plane. Planar scholars agree that the presence of life in the Ethereal Plane is what supersedes the object permanence of the adjoining plane, though exactly how or why is still a hotly debated topic.

Powerful & Mighty

Though the Ethereal Plane appears empty save for some wandering monsters, great and powerful beings still work behind the scenes. Most of them are located in the Deep Ethereal, creating a space for an advanced creature to rule a section in the Border Ethereal.

Etherfarer Society

Few organizations have studied the Ethereal Plane and its mysteries as well as the Etherfarer Society, and few libraries across the multiverse are as complete on the nature of demiplanes and other wondrous sites in both the Border and Deep Ethereal. The society was founded several hundred years ago by a Halfling wizard, Erskin Figfallow, who traveled into the Ethereal Plane searching for the Seed of Creation, a legendary item that is said to give its possessor untold command over protomatter. Erskin did not find it, but he did find a semisolid chunk of ethereal matter in the Deep Ethereal that seemed unique. He explored it, found it to be benign, and then worked with his industrious family to construct a home there.

Eager to learn as much as he could about the Ethereal Plane, Erskin called upon scholars to join him in the plane, and some did, adding their knowledge to that of Figfallow. They formed the Etherfarer Society as a joint venture in scholarly learning and adventurous pursuits in the Ethereal Plane, and Erskin’s small home grew considerably. The grandest building became known as the Motherhouse, containing the library of the society and the private residences of its most esteemed members, but the rest of the community grew up quickly around it. It gained the name Freehold after a band of radical priests seeking divine enlightenment arrived, having been banished from their own Material Plane for unpopular beliefs in the nature of ghosts and the Ethereal Plane.

Today, Erskin Figfallow still functions as Member First of the Etherfarer Society, but many others have joined over the years. Induction into the Etherfarer Society requires approval by two-thirds of the members, and they are all ranked according to the order in which they joined. Membership is for life, and they have to date never re-ordered – Member Third and Member Fourth both died while cataloging an unknown demi plane in the Deep Ethereal, and others have fallen in the line of duty. The Etherfarer Society believes in the free transfer and sharing of information as long as it is between society members, who all must agree to document their findings and writings of the Ethereal Plane in the Motherhouse of Freehold.

Royal Court of Bleakmore

Across the width and breadth of the Ethereal Plane, no greater bastion of civilization exists than Bleakmore, Castle of Ghosts. It hovers at the ephemeral edge between the Border and Deep Ethereal regions, allowing it to exist just outside of every Border Ethereal in some strange and unknown way. The sprawling castle is ruled by members of the royal court, including a king, queen, and several princes and princesses. They bicker, argue, fight, and maneuver politically against one another, but their ghost forms and strange nature of Bleakmore keeps them from ever truly dying.

In name at least, the royal court is ruled by King Tristan Whitlock, a bitter and miserly old man who lost his crown long before Bleakmore was pulled into the Ethereal Plane. His wife, Queen Geraldine Whitlock, has a face like a prune and an attitude like a snake. In life, on the Material Plane, the king and queen had two sons and a daughter, but their eldest son was killed in battle under mysterious circumstances. His betrothed, Lady Zola Nisbett, is filled with vitriolic rage at the circumstances of being denied rulership of Bleakmore, which passed to Prince Foster and his wife Sibyl. Foster is a hollow shell of a man controlled completely by his wife, who gloats over Lady Zola at every opportunity. The feuding between Lady Zola and Lady Sibyl is the most acrid in the castle.

The youngest daughter of the king and queen is Mable Whitlock who is possessed by some outside power and is wracked by fits of powerful and chaotic magic. Other times, she is the most lucid of the royal court, and it is through her intervention that she keeps the worst of her family at bay. The royal court keeps ghostly soldiers in defense of the castle and a small number of dukes and duchesses that dwell in the outlying sections of Bleakmore, but these are just pawns in the petty efforts of the Whitlock royal family.

As splintered as they are, the ghosts of the royal court of Bleakmore have some control over lesser ghosts, and since the time that their castle was pulled into the Ethereal Plane, they have mounted assaults on outside regions. The nature and purpose of those assaults have varied over the centuries as one member of the royal court gains influence. For example, for a period, King Tristan held sway, and during that time, ghostly warriors were sent out to conquer a neighboring kingdom he was convinced was moving against him. This “neighboring kingdom” turned out to be an unassuming nation in the Material Plane that found itself under attack by phalanxes of ghost warriors!

The Splintersoul

In the Deep Ethereal, it is widely known that the protomatter floating around forms the basis for the demiplanes that spawn there. Most of the demiplanes are landscapes filled with wildly varying environments, but occasionally something else is born in the ethereal mists. The Splintersoul is one such anomaly.

It is a massive crystalline structure composed of irregular diamond-like towers and spires floating in the Deep Ethereal, and it has a singular intelligence. It can communicate telepathically with beings that stand upon its surface as well as anyone holding a shard of it, which tends to break off naturally and float through the mists. In this way, shards of the Splintersoul have reached across the multiverse, and those who pick them up hear a faint voice telling them what to do. Some shards wield mental powers that allow them to control weaker willed targets, but most are simply the voice of the Splintersoul.

What does the Splintersoul want? This has been difficult to determine. Some of the shards seek to return home and bring as many intelligent creatures with them, which has led some planar scholars to believe the entity feeds on intelligence somehow. Other shards sow chaos and dissent without a need for reunification with the whole, and others seem benign and offer genuinely helpful advice to their holder. Most Splintersoul shards do have the ability to create humanoid shapes made up of ethereal mists, creatures known as Splintersoul slaves, that obey the will of the shard.

In the Deep Ethereal, the Splintersoul itself is just as maddening to deal with, but there is some effect that leeches intelligence from creatures that remain in contact with the structure for periods of time. Splintersoul slaves are common on the structure, moving around to correct fractures in the structure or to reunite lost shards back into the collective.

One consistent quirk of the Splintersoul is its reference to itself as a group. It uses “we” and “us” when speaking of itself, leading most to believe there is perhaps a group intelligence at work. So far, the Splintersoul has remained an enigmatic mystery with tendrils across the multiverse, with plans and plots that have yet to reveal themselves on a smaller scale.

Tatha'Nalla, the Spinner of Secrets

Secrets are a precious commodity across the planes, and there are numerous brokers and traders of them in the major planar metropolises, including the City of Brass, the City of Glass, Dylath-Leen, and the Sevenfold Mazework. The demiplane known as the Web of Worlds, bobbing in the Deep Ethereal, is the home to a powerful figure in the secret business. She is Tatha’Nalla, the Spinner of Secrets, and she is a phase spider of tremendous size, age, and power. Tatha’Nalla uses her powers to spin portals across the multiverse from the Web of Worlds, and has an army of informants and a network of spies in every major place.

Tatha’Nalla is a selfish and cowardly creature at heart, however, and she has made sure that certain protections keep her from harm should the wrong secret pass into the wrong hands. Demon lords, devil princes, elemental kings, celestial guards, and more have learned to trust the Spinner of Secrets only so far as they must, but her information is reliable, and she tends to have the right piece of data at the right moment to squeeze the most out of a needy person. Tatha’Nalla isn’t interested in gold or jewels, though certain magical items and relics have caught her attention. Her main commodity is in favors, and she uses her well-placed network of spies, assassins, and informants to work for her when she needs to call in a favor. Few resist, and the Web of Worlds has special pits for those who dare cross the Spinner of Secrets.

Xill High Clans

The xill are a strange species, and one of the few intelligent native species of the Ethereal Plane. They are divided into two types. The low clans are the barbaric, savage marauders of the plane, using their powers to shift into and out of the Border Ethereal in order to steal humanoid creatures to use as living incubators for their egg sacs.

The high clans, however, are civilized and dwell in caves made of random protomatter across the Deep Ethereal. The largest is a region known as the Scarlet Caves, so named because of the extensive tunnels carved into the red clay, and it goes on for several miles. The xill high clans communicate with one another telepathically, across any distance, and they coordinate their actions like a highly efficient single organism. The low clan xill serve the high clans as workers, soldiers, and slaves, allowing the more advanced creatures to plan for grander scale movements. What is their ultimate goal? Some say it is a total takeover of all Material Planes, while others say they are searching for something more tangible across the multiverse.

High clan xill are easily recognized from their low clan brethren because of their radically different skin color. Low clan xill have a deep crimson skin color, while high clan xill can have nearly any other color. Midnight blue, dull yellow, mottled green, pale white, and more have been documented. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious hierarchy to the coloration, and it seems as though no high clan xill is more in charge than any other. Psychically attuned adventurers that have probed into the mind of a high clan xill have uncovered a vast mental array where all the minds of all high clan xill are linked, but the intruder was detected almost immediately. In the city of Freehold in the Deep Ethereal, there is a tavern called the Thirsty Pagan that now serves as the home of this brain-fried adventurer.

Creatures & Denizens

The Ethereal Plane is populated by monsters that can affect both the Material Plane and their native plane, so they can strike unsuspecting creatures from positions of surprise. From the massive dharculus to the smaller but no less deadly ethereal marauders, attacks from monsters dwelling in the Border Ethereal keep many paranoid warriors up at night.

Aberrations

There are strange creatures that dwell in the Border and Deep Ethereal Planes, lurking and waiting for their moment to strike. The dharculus is one of the largest and most feared, with a mass of tentacles that draws in victims to satiate its never-ending hunger. Spectral lurkers are invisible predators that wait in the misty, shadowed halls of forgotten castles on the Border Ethereal before reaching out to suck in victims, draining them of their nimbleness and leaving nothing but a dried up husk behind.

Perhaps the strangest inhabitant of the Ethereal Plane is the thought eater. It can exist only in the Ethereal Plane, and it feeds off magic on the Material and Inner Plane. It appears as a skeletal platypus, sickly gray in color, with a cowardly tendency and a voracious appetite.

Monstrosities

The monsters that stalk through the Ethereal Plane are well-adapted to the strange and somewhat spiritual nature of the realm. Ethereal marauders are aggressive triangular-shaped creatures that can leap in and out of the Ethereal Plane to ambush prey and drag them into the Border Ethereal to feast away from any of the victim’s allies. Similarly, phase spiders are adept at injecting victims with a paralytic poison before dragging them into the Border Ethereal.

Xill

One of the most fearsome foes in the Ethereal Plane are four-armed, reptilian xill. They are dangerous monsters exhibiting features of both reptiles and insects. They are renowned across the Material Plane for leaping suddenly out of the Ethereal Plane and implanting their eggs into unwilling victims. It isn’t commonly known that the xill actually divide themselves into two castes, high and low xill.

The low xill are the common savage marauders with little more thought than survival. High xill are much rarer and possess a level of culture and civilization on par with most humanoid cities. They remain dangerous monsters, but a high xill often has larger ulterior motives behind its atrocities.

Undead

Most scholars and adventurers associate the Ethereal Plane with its best-known inhabitants – ghosts. If a living creature dies with powerful emotions left unattended, it’s possible their spirit gets trapped in the adjacent Ethereal Plane and remains there as a ghost, an undead apparition caught between the land of the living and that of the spiritual dead. Regular ghosts can come from any source, but the more powerful ancient ghost have used their undead state to increase their own personal power and can live for centuries on end. Hunger ghosts are savage undead spirits that can take the form of a skeletal humanoid or a great black mastiff, but they are always hungry for life and brutal in their methods.

Hazards & Phenomena

Some planar travelers claim the Ethereal Plane is a barren wasteland, devoid of real hazards, but these travelers are simply wrong. From ether cyclones to elemental gashes, the realms of the Ethereal Plane are filled with strange phenomena and hazards capable of challenging any who would sail its waveless sea.

Deadwave

The Positive and Negative Energy Planes stand adjacent to the Ethereal like the rest of the Inner Planes, but their connection is unique and not fully understood. Ghosts and other spiritual beings are both a part of the Ethereal Plane and have strong ties to the Negative Energy Plane, but other undead creatures do not share this trait. And occasionally, deadwaves rock out from the Deep Ethereal, which are powerful currents of necrotic energy that originate from some rippling of the border between the Negative Energy and Ethereal Planes.

Demiplane

The Deep Ethereal is a primordial sea of protomatter that can form budding new realms of existence known as demiplanes. Demiplanes can form naturally or deliberately through powerful magic, though in theory, they follow the same basic principles. Demiplanes are distinct regions of semi-stable protomatter within the Deep Ethereal that exhibit unique traits. No two demiplanes are exactly alike as the forces that create them are unique as well, so even with two formed primarily of elemental fire, differences arise in the exact nature. Accessing a demiplane from the Deep Ethereal requires passing through a multicolored ethereal curtain with no easily discernible marks, though canny planar travelers have learned to pick up some of the elemental traits by observing the flow of the curtain for a period of time.

Beyond the curtain, the demi plane reveals itself. Some, like the Demiplane of Chains and Web of Worlds, are filled with strange terrain that makes moving around difficult or impossible. The Engulfing Hunger is a unique demi plane that is possessed of a supernatural intelligence craving living material, but its natural geography looks like an idyllic Material Plane region. The Nightwalker Pit is a bleak demi plane of howling darkness reminiscent of the Abyss or the Nine Hells.

Elemental Gash

Sometimes, catastrophic events in the Ethereal Plane or Inner Plane can cause fissures to open up, bleeding raw power from the neighboring plane into the ethereal. These elemental gashes can be dangerous when they occur, though the natural properties of the plane heal such planar wounds within an hour.

Ether Cyclone

Despite its nickname as the waveless sea, the mists of the Ethereal Plane hold energy in their twisting and moving that can surge suddenly and without warning. The result is an ether cyclone, birthed under unknown circumstances in the Deep Ethereal, that moves through the realm as a serpentine column of powerful force and energy.

Ethereal Curtain

The Border Ethereal regions of the various overlapping planes are separated from the Deep Ethereal by great barriers known as ethereal curtains. Ethereal curtains are colored based on their origin and are seen only by creatures in the Deep Ethereal; passing from the Border Ethereal deeper into the plane passes no clear markers, only a spectral darkening of the surrounding mists. From the Deep, however, the ethereal curtains are known as the Wall of Color, and they ebb and flow like the tidal waters of a massive ocean. However, owing to the vision limiting nature of the Deep Ethereal, creatures only see a small portion of the curtain at a time.

Passing through an ethereal curtain is like moving through breathable gelatinous material for a few rounds. The planar boundary's material resistance pushes against the traveler for a moment before ultimately yielding.

Light Fall

Deadwaves are the result of the Negative Energy Plane affecting the Ethereal Plane, while light fall is the result of the Positive Energy Plane’s influence. A light fall is a harmless event where drops of luminous white and yellow drops of pure light streak down in a cloud roughly 1d4 miles in diameter. The light fall lights up the Ethereal Plane and increases vision to 120 feet in both the Border and Deep regions. Light falls last for 1d4 hours before fading away.

Protomatter

The raw building blocks of demiplanes are the hunks of protomatter drifting through the Deep Ethereal. They appear as multicolored globules of jelly-like substance with little mass and almost no weight, and they range in size from fist-sized to as large as a continent. Sometimes, when a chunk of protomatter drifts too close to an ethereal curtain leading to one of the Inner Planes, it stabilizes and forms a solid landmass, and it’s upon this that some structures can be built or anchored. The city of Freehold is built on one such mass of protomatter, and the Scarlet Caves of the High Clan xill are carved into another. To date, no one has successfully transported protomatter out of the Deep Ethereal – the small samples that have been taken out simply collapse into liquid form as soon as they enter another plane of existence.

Sites & Treasures

The Ethereal Plane is filled with sites of adventure waiting for parties of heroes to explore and catalog, along with numerous relics unique to this strange transitive plane.

Bleakmore, Castle of Ghosts.

Floating in a strange realm between the Border and Deep Ethereal is an extensive castle, towers, and battlements known now as Bleakmore, the Castle of Ghosts. It is a hauntingly beautiful site now as the stones that make up the structures have become faded white from the swirling mists. The castle and towers were ripped from the Material Plane hundreds of years ago by some unknown force, and it pulled the residents with it. Nothing living lives in Bleakmore now – only the ghosts of the Whitlock family occupy it.

On the Material Plane, the site was known as Bluemore Castle, and it had been the seat of the Whitlock royal family for generations. Over the years, infighting and squabbling overtook the members of the family, and, in the current generation, the corruption and petty malevolence ran the deepest. How did Bluemore get pulled into the Ethereal Plane? The prevailing theory is a ritual gone awry that was likely meant to kill or incapacitate one or more members of the Whitlock family, though none of the ghostly courts now remember any of the details. They are each consumed with ruling Bleakmore at the expense of everything else.

Bleakmore is composed of a magnificent castle around which stand a dozen smaller towers. The courtyards are filled with dead trees and plants now sustained by the same hate and loathing that keeps the ghosts from moving on, and since their arrival in the Ethereal Plane, the Whitlock family has been busy at creating new and terrible ways to maim each other. Little that they do affects each other in their ghostly forms, but for any mortal trespassers a host of traps, dungeons, and mazes await.

The City That Waits

Few know anything about the unusual cityscape floating in the Deep Ethereal. It’s not a demiplane, but it appears as if an entire city was pulled up from its roots and tossed into the ethereal mists. The scale is broader than Bleakmore, but the City That Waits, as it is referred to now, is not occupied by ghosts. Its population is neither living nor undead, but instead, construct-like beings frozen in their last moments before being pulled into the Ethereal Plane. The cobblestone streets are filled with residents going about their normal day; each one stopped in mid-action.

It is rumored that one of the demon lords of the Abyss stole this city and placed it into the Deep Ethereal for some unknown reason. Perhaps it was meant to be a sacrifice, or perhaps as a secret storehouse away from prying eyes. The frozen occupants of the City That Waits do not respond to pain or any other external stimuli, though they can be killed. Adventurers that have stumbled upon the eerie site claim a dangerous ephemeral monster lurks amid the waiting citizens, a vestige of some powerful entity – or perhaps the collected anger and resentment of the population itself.

Demiplane of Chains

Outside of the prison plane of Carceri, the Demiplane of Chains is one of the most secure prison sites in the multiverse. It is a demi plane in the Deep Ethereal, only about 6 miles in diameter, but filled completely with intelligent but non-verbal links of chain. It is widely believed the demi plane is alive, similar to the Engulfing Hunger, and that each chain link acts towards the central will of the plane itself. For all intents and purposes, that central will seems dominated with holding prisoner anyone or thing that enters its ethereal curtain. Angels, devils, sorcerers, warlords, and more have become trapped in the Demiplane of Chains.

Is there a way out? A legendary thief now hiding out in the City of Brass claims to know a way and he has the link of chain from the demiplane to prove it. Getting someone out of the Demiplane of Chains would prove a monumental task as the sentient links move like great metal serpents to ensnare and imprison anyone who enters.

Engulfing Hunger

Few demiplanes are as alive as the Engulfing Hunger. This massive, 50-mile diameter demi plane in the Deep Ethereal is controlled by a single primitive intelligence that seeks to devour anything and everything living that comes within its borders. It has the intellect of a canny predator, and those travelers who have escaped the Engulfing Hunger with their lives claim the demi plane enjoys toying with its victims. Beyond its ethereal curtain, visitors are greeted with a lush landscape of tropical jungle, but no birds or natural critters can be seen or heard.

When Engulfing Hunger moves to strike, it uses the trees and even ground to swallow victims, pulling them down into the heart of the demiplane and crushing them with stones and digestive acids. The demiplane can manifest extensions of itself to chase and drive targets into specific areas, all the while the sky darkens above and the face of the alien entity can be seen looming like a god. Why would anyone visit the Engulfing Hunger? Some are pushed into it by an ether cyclone or stumble upon it by mistake, but others seek it out deliberately. Rumors persist that a rare and potent flower grows in the Engulfing Hunger’s jungle interior with powerful restorative capabilities. The exact nature of those capabilities hasn’t been documented, but they seem to respond to the needs of the person who eats them.

Is this a lure by the Engulfing Hunger to draw fresh victims into its mass? Or is it a natural byproduct of the demiplane’s existence? For those who need the flower in the heart of the Engulfing Hunger, the answer is irrelevant.

Freehold

The city of Freehold is built on a floating mass of protomatter in the Deep Ethereal and serves as one of the only havens for scholarly learning in the plane. It is the home of the Etherfarer Society, a group dedicated to studying and cataloging the wonders of the Ethereal Plane, but they have a very casual attitude towards travelers. The society runs the Motherhouse in Freehold, the largest and oldest structure in the settlement, but other smaller buildings have been built or conjured around it to serve various needs. The Gallant Ghost Tavern serves exotic wines and beers from around the multiverse, and the Freehold Market holds numerous merchants that cater to travelers and explorers.

Goblet of Ether

Crafted at the behest of a powerful king on the Material Plane, the Goblet of Ether is a magnificent silver cup adorned with opals and white diamonds along its rim. The handle is smooth and supports the oversized cup by balancing the weight with a polished platinum base. Overall the relic gives the impression of opulence and simplicity, but its real value comes from its magical properties. The king who ordered its construction used it as his personal wine vessel for many years, but when his queen died the king sought a way to conquer death so that he could see his lost queen. An enigmatic wizard offered to enchant the king’s goblet to give him such a power, and so the Goblet of Ether was born.

When any amount of liquid is poured into the goblet, it evaporates into ethereal mists that can be consumed by the person holding the goblet. Doing so allows the drinker to see and interact with creatures and objects in the Border Ethereal as if they were on the Material Plane. Unfortunately for the king, his deceased queen was plotting against him and had returned as a ghost, so when he drank from the Goblet of Ether he found himself at the mercy of her fury. The Goblet of Ether passed away from the king’s hands and fell into the lap of a trader, who take it faraway without realizing its power. Where it is now is anyone’s guess.

Mask of the Faceless One

This evil item was found originally by a member of the Etherfarer Society cataloging a new demi plane in the Deep Ethereal. It appears as a wooden mask meant to fit over the face of a regular humanoid creature, but it has no eyes or mouth holes. The wood is colored purple and gives off a slight electrical hum when held by a living creature. Wearing the mask bombards the holder with visions of cyclopean cities, ancient pyramids of timeless stone, and a deep-seated loathing for all living creatures. The mask typically takes over its wearer in an instant and drives them to commit horrendous acts of violence on as grand a scale as it can muster.

The society member that found it put it on in the Motherhouse in Freehold, and the subsequent attacks killed a dozen individuals and bystanders before the wearer could be subdued. The Mask of the Faceless One, as it became known, gave its wearer supernatural strength and endurance. It was taken into the vaults below the Motherhouse of the Etherfarer Society for further study, but it has thus far given no concrete clues as to who made it or where it came from. A rare few have been able to put on the mask for a short time and resist the murderous urges brought on by its psychic control, and those that have done so believe it is linked somehow to the Pyramid of the Lost located in the Deep Ethereal.

Nightwalker Pit

Few darker demiplanes exist in the Deep Ethereal than the Nightwalker Pit, both figuratively and literally. This isolated realm is 12 miles deep, but it’s not shaped like a typical demi plane. Instead, the opening through the ethereal curtain leads into a pitch black tubular realm about 1 mile in diameter. It extends into nightmarish darkness for 12 miles which is filled with horrible monsters culled from the most shadowed corners of the Abyss and other lightless regions of the multiverse. Does some malevolence draw these creatures to the Nightwalker Pit? Or are they spawned naturally? What lies at the bottom? None have found out and returned.

The Nightwalker Pit is also the best example the members of the Etherfarer Society have given, showing the Ethereal Plane can spawn demiplanes on its own that are just as deep and varied as any created by a powerful wizard or priest on the Material Plane. Nothing seems to lay claim over the Nightwalker Pit, and the horrors inside have no desire beyond tearing travelers limb from limb that stumble into its feared ethereal curtain. Others say that such an evil-tainted demi plane must have been created by some external force, such as a devil prince or Yugoloth warlord, as no other demi plane of such pure evil has been found since. Is there a strong connection to the Negative Energy Plane in the Nightwalker Pit? Such a presence would be suggested but has not yet been proven.

Pyramid of the Lost

It’s not uncommon to come across bizarre sites in the Deep Ethereal, but the massive structure known as the Pyramid of the Lost is one of the most compelling and mysterious. It is a truly enormous stepped pyramid with its pyramidal nature reflected back on itself at its base, creating a structure with a distinct pinnacle at the top and the bottom. The “top” half is made of an unknown bluishgray stone, while the “bottom” half is a reddish-brown color. It floats among the ethereal mists without resting on any protomatter, and in fact, the natural protomatter of the Deep Ethereal seems repelled by it somehow. Four doors are set on its exterior, one on each side along its center where the blue and red stones meet, and the doors have no discernable top or bottom. They are made up of an unknown golden metal and are marked with raised symbols that have defied identification.

The Etherfarer Society believes the Pyramid of the Lost was built by beings called the ethergaunts in the time before the Material Plane existed. Other smaller structures have been found across the Deep Ethereal, and even in some Border Ethereal regions of the Inner Planes, that show these creatures to be vaguely humanoid with stooped shoulders and long, thin arms and legs. Their heads were set on skinny necks that rested in their chest rather than atop them. The Mask of the Faceless One has been linked to the ethergaunts and seems somehow connected to the Pyramid of the Lost, though scholars in Freehold are baffled as to how or why.

What happened to the ethergaunts? Are any still alive in the Pyramid of the Lost? No one to date has been able to open any of its doors, but it radiates powerful necromantic and enchantment magic under sorcerous scrutiny.

Scarlet Caves

The largest home of the High Clan xill on the Ethereal Plane is a series of tunnels and towers carved out of a large red island of protomatter. Known as the Scarlet Caves, the xill here live in opulence, drifting in the Deep Ethereal and confident in their own mastery. They forge weapons and armor in one cave fed by elemental gashes to the Plane of Fire, and in other complexes, they greet guests with art and sculptures depicting the greatest in xill philosophy and aesthetic design. Each High Clan xill dwelling in the Scarlet Caves has a well-appointed home attended to by numerous slaves, such as umber hulks and other mindless beasts, but they do their best to pacify any visitors that come to trade.

As much as the xill in the Scarlet Caves like to pretend to play civil for the sake of appearances, they are not above abducting visitors with brute force and carrying them away to one of the many hatcheries across the Ethereal Plane. Sometimes the xill keep unique prisoners in elaborate dungeons within their cavern complex to be used as bartering tools when dealing with visiting dao or efreet from the Inner Planes. It’s worth noting that the High Clan xill do not employ or use Low Clan xill to do any of the work or defense of the Scarlet Caves – the two factions of the race barely acknowledge one another’s presence in the multiverse, and the High Clan xill seem perfectly content in letting their Low Clan brethren raid and scavenge in the Border Ethereal.

Seed of Creation

The Seed of Creation is the kind of artifact that drives regular explorers to travel to remote regions of the multiverse on just the hint of its location. Even its exact powers aren’t known, as tales vary wildly from one legend to the next. Most agree that it contains a divine spark normally reserved for the hands of gods, but exactly what it can do is more nebulous. One story tells of a peaceful monk who used the Seed of Creation to remove the fury from 10,000 raging barbarians intent on destroying a single monastery. Another legend claims a cleric used the relic to restore life to a dead god floating in the Astral Plane.

Even the description of the Seed of Creation is vague at best. Most stories claim it to be about the size of a watermelon, oval, and possessing an inner light that pierces any darkness. Holding it allows the possessor to shrink the side, or perhaps it is the possessor and the rest of the multiverse that grows in comparison? Perception becomes distorted around the artifact, though it doesn’t seem to possess an intelligence of its own.

The halfling wizard Erskin Figfallow followed stories about the Seed of Creation and believed it to have originated in the Ethereal Plane. And not just anywhere, but at the theoretical center of the Deep Ethereal from which everything in the plane spreads. Erskin founded the Etherfarer Society to help fund and shape his expeditions, all of which were focused on finding the center of the Ethereal Plane and its connection to the Seed of Creation. He never found it, but tantalizing rumors have kept him on the trail.

The Splintersoul and Shards

The Splintersoul is a complex crystalline structure free-floating in the Deep Ethereal. It has walkways, towers, arches, and paths made out of a pale blue crystal that curiously does not reflect light; it absorbs it. One of the most curious things about the Splintersoul is that it seems to have a psychic intelligence attached to it somehow, and it can speak telepathically to creatures both on it and within sight of it in the Ethereal Plane.

What it wants, however, is much more of a mystery. It refers to itself in the third person as “we” and “us” and claims to have no name for itself, though it uses Splintersoul as the title bestowed upon it by travelers. It was first discovered by a pair of Etherfarer Society members who got blown off course by an ether cyclone, and they were astonished at what they uncovered. The Splintersoul created humanoid representatives of itself, which the pair dubbed splinter slaves, and they used these to guide travelers around complex tunnels and mazes of blue crystal architecture. However, things took a dark turn when they reached a hub of some sort and the two society members tried to flee. One escaped, but the other was caught and kept by the splinter slaves. Her fate is still unknown.

One of the curious things about the Splintersoul is the large number of shards that have broken off from its main “body” and drifted into the Ethereal Plane and out into the multiverse. These shards are usually only fist sized, but they each contain a fragment of the Splintersoul’s personality and power. The shards can create splinter slaves away from the Ethereal Plane, and they each seem to want something else entirely.

Web of Worlds

Tatha’Nalla, the Spinner of Secrets, is a phase spider of enormous bulk that lives in the demiplane known as the Web of Worlds. She is a broker of information, and from her small realm in the Deep Ethereal, she has created secret portals to much of the rest of the multiverse. Exactly how is a mystery, and one that Tatha’Nalla has not divulged, but some planar scholars believe the webs of her demi plane interact with the mists of the Deep Ethereal in a unique way that allows her to “phase” into other planes of existence.

Inside, the Web of Worlds is a gray sticky mess, only about 6 miles in diameter, with Tatha’Nalla spinning more webs and plots from its center. She has a large number of phase spiders completely devoted to her and the Web of Worlds at her beck and call, but the information broker has, on occasion, invited guests into her demi plane home. Such guests report being ushered into rooms that resemble large cocoons of thick webbing, and that Tatha’Nalla was always guarded by protective armor made from the same webs.