Astral Plane
The Astral Plane, also known as the Astral Sea, was one of the planes of existence in various models of cosmology.
“Halisstra opened her eyes and found herself drifting in an endless silver sea. Soft gray clouds moved slowly in the distance, while strange dark streaks twisted violently through the sky, anchored in ends so distant she couldn't perceive them, their middle parts revolving angrily like pieces of string rolled between a child's fingertips. She glanced down, wondering what supported her, and saw nothing but more of the strange pearly sky beneath her feet and all around her. She drew in a sudden breath, surprised by the sight, and felt her lungs fill with something sweeter and perhaps a little more solid than air, but instead of gagging or drowning on the stuff she seemed perfectly acclimated to it. An electric thrill raced through her limbs as she found herself mesmerized by the simple act of respiration.” — Richard Baker, CondemnationThe Astral Plane is the realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied souls to reach the Outer Planes. It is a great silvery sea, the same above and below, with swirling wisps of white and gray streaking among motes of light like distant stars. Most of the Astral Sea is a vast, empty expanse. Visitors occasionally stumble upon the petrified corpse of a dead god or other chunks of rock drifting forever in the silvery void. Much more commonplace are color pools—magical pools of colored light that flicker like radiant, spinning coins. Creatures on the Astral Plane don't age or suffer from hunger or thirst. For this reason, humanoids that live on the Astral Plane (such as the githyanki) establish outposts on other planes, often the Material Plane, so their children can grow to maturity. A traveler in the Astral Plane can move by simply thinking about moving, but distance has little meaning. In combat, though, a creature's walking speed (in feet) is equal to 3 × its Intelligence score. The smarter a creature is, the easier it can control its movement by act of will.
Geography
“Time. Or rather the absence of it. In the Astral Plane, everything is eternal.”The Astral could be reached from almost any point in a Prime Material plane or first layer of any Outer plane by spell, psionic ability, or device. It was described as a barren place of other-dimensional nothingness extending in all directions. What little solid substance that floated in the bright, gray void was typically chunks of matter broken off from their original plane. The Astral had no gravity but objects did retain their mass so you could throw small items or push off from large objects to move in the weightless environment. Time in the Astral flowed at the same rate on a Prime Material plane but the effects of time were slowed almost to a stop―a thousand years in the Astral plane felt like only a day to the traveler. Hence, it was sometimes considered effectively timeless. Creatures did not go hungry or age while in the Astral plane. For that reason, its mortal inhabitants needed to return to the Material Plane in order to have children or to reach adulthood. Entering the Astral plane could be accomplished in one of two ways: projecting your astral form into the plane via the astral projection spell, or by physically entering the plane. Astral projection was the safest way to travel but still involved risk because you left your physical body behind on the traveler's plane of origin. The astral body would be accompanied by the astral forms of any items and clothing that were magical or radiated a magic aura. While projecting, your astral self was connected to your physical body by a silver cord that stretched out behind you for about 10 feet (3 meters), or 1 foot (30 centimeters) depending on the version of the spell, and then became invisible and intangible. Very few things could sever this silver cord: a powerful psychic wind, a Githyanki silver sword, or the will of gods. The physical body left behind appeared alive but did not require food, water, or air and did not age. It could be moved and was vulnerable to damage and death. If the traveler's physical body was slain, death followed the projection some minutes later. If the astral self was slain, the traveler then returned to his or her physical body in a coma. Physically entering the Astral plane required a spell such as plane shift and brought travelers wholly into the Astral with no silver cord to anchor them to their plane of origin.
— Gale, on his interest in the Astral Plane.
Geographical Features
Upon entering the Astral plane, travelers saw a silvery color pool nearby—a portal to the location on the Prime Material plane from which they originated. Astral projecting travelers saw their silver cord leading back to this pool. Color pools appeared as two-dimensional circles about 10‒60 ft (3‒18 m) in diameter and only visible from one side unless they had some way to detect invisible objects. Pools of different colors were portals to the different Outer planes. Each Outer plane had its own unique color, but the traveler's home portal was always a metallic silver, rippling like mercury in a pan. Color pools could be used to view the destination plane before stepping through by mentally concentrating on the nearby pool until it became transparent. A viewer could also move (with some limitations) the portal's viewpoint by concentration. Astral projecting travelers formed a new physical body (with silver cord attached) when they stepped through a color pool to their destination plane. The new body was formed out of local materials so the greater the similarity between one's home plane and the destination, the more one's new body looked like the original one. It was considered to be boundless.Localized Phenomena
According to the Great Wheel cosmology model, the Astral plane connected the Prime Material Planes to the first layers of the Outer planes.
In some versions of the Great Wheel cosmology held in the late 15th century DR, it was possible to travel to the Astral plane directly from Wildspace aboard a spelljammer. In this cosmology, wildspace was a region where the Prime and the Astral overlapped. Moreover, upon exiting a wildspace system such as Realmspace, a ship would leave this overlapping region and fully enter the Astral. The border between wildspace and the Astral Sea had the appearance of a silvery haze.
Once in the Astral, spelljamming captains could steer their ships in the direction of other wildspace systems or specific locations in the Astral in the same way that individuals would traverse the plane: by concentrating their thoughts on the destination.
This view was in contrast with the prevailing Great Wheel cosmology of the 14th and earlier centuries DR, according to which a ship would encounter a crystal sphere at the edge of its system and, if capable of traversing it, would enter the phlogiston.
Fauna & Flora
Inhabitants
On this plane of thought, the existence of true natives was doubtful. The Githyanki, however, had been a dominating presence for long ages, ruled from their great city of Tu'narath but mostly spread about innumerable fortresses. Astral searchers, astral streakers, astral whales, the mighty astral dragons, and the tiny kodragons inhabit the Silver Void. The dreaded astral dreadnoughts are believed by some to be a manifestation of the Astral Plane itself, while others point to their indefinitely long tails as an indicator for an origin elsewhere. Brain collectors, dhours, and foo creatures can all be found here. All manner of fiends, celestials, slaadi and other planars used the Astral as shortcuts to their business elsewhere, but both astral devas and shedu patrolled the plane regularly to keep evil in check. Despite their connection to The Abyss, bebiliths were thought to be at home on the Astral plane. Spectral hounds are usually found with githyanki communities as guard animals.Deities
The Astral Plane was the graveyard of the gods. If a deity, which could be considered among the greatest of concepts, died, its remnant were cast into this realm of thought. Here it remained as a floating "god-isle", a piece of solid matter within the endless empty void, with only a fraction of residual energy left. Sardior's Ruby Palace also rested in the Astral Plane between its travels through the planes. Known dead deities drifting in the Astral Plane (at least temporarily) were:
Alternative Name(s)
Silver Void, Astral Sea
Type
Plane of Existence
Included Locations
Comments