Ethereal Plane

“What is the purpose of the Ethereal Plane? The question has plagued scholars for countless generations, but the question helps to frame the discussion around the Ethereal Plane. Its comparison to a great waveless sea is not without merit, with the shallow or border sections touching the Material and Inner Planes while the Deep Ethereal holds undreamt of mysteries and dangers, and in this comparison we find a potential answer. Is the Ethereal Plane the breeding ground of existence itself? Certainly demiplanes spawn in the Deep Ethereal, giving us glimpses to the raw potential contained in those gray depths. Was the Material Plane once a demiplane like the others, adrift in the waveless sea? We may never know for sure, but the Ethereal Plane holds wonders and mysteries like none other.”

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. But 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 that 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.

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.

• Lunitari (Krynn)
• Nuitari (Krynn)
• Solinari (Krynn)

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 gnome 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-third 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 cataloguing an unknown demiplane 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 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 has 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 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 tend to break off naturally and float through the mists. In this way, shards of the Splintersoul have reached across the multiverse, and those that 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 the 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 that dared cross the Spinner of Secrets.

Xill High Clans

The xill are a strange race, 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 in to 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 reptile and insect, and are renown 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 inhabitant – 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 the 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.

A deadwave appears as a black ribbon of crackling energy, almost like lightning, that washes over creatures and objects with two effects. The first is a forceful push as strong as a hurricane. Parties traveling through the Border Ethereal are pushed back by the deadwave 1d6 x 500 feet, and in the Deep Ethereal the deadwave adds 1d6 hours to any travel time. The second effect is deadlier. Living creatures must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw, suffering 22 (4d10) necrotic damage on a failure, or half as much on a success

The deadwave has no effect on the adjoining planes, though creatures with connections to death may feel a wave of cold wash over them.

Demiplane

The Deep Ethereal is a primordial sea of protomatter which 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 demiplane 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 demiplane 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 demiplane of howling darkness reminiscent of the Abyss or the Nine Hells.

Demiplanes can be randomly generated using the below tables for inspiration. To randomly generate a demiplane, start with the planes of influence. You can roll on this table one or more times to help give the demiplane a basic outline. Once you’ve settled on the influential planes, roll 1d4+1 times on the demiplane characteristics table to guide the core idea of the demiplane. Many demiplanes are inhabited by creatures, which you can roll for in the demiplane inhabitants table. Generally only a single roll is required on that table. The final table determines the rough size of the demiplane, from 10 feet in diameter to 50 or more miles.

Some of the results may not make sense, but such is the nature of the Deep Ethereal. Trying to tie disparate elements from random tables together can yield surprisingly interesting results.

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 to. 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 just waiting for parties of heroes to explore and catalog, along with numerous relics that are 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 was the seat of the Whitlock royal family for generations. Over the years, infighting and squabbling overtook the members of the family and, 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 court 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 are 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 demiplane 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 demiplane 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 that enters.

Engulfing Hunger

Few demiplanes are as alive as the Engulfing Hunger. This massive, 50-mile diameter demiplane 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 that have escaped the Engulfing Hunger with their life claim the demiplane 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 the Engulfing Hunger moves to strike it uses the trees and even ground to swallow victims, pulling them down into the heart of the demiplane where it crushes 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 it seems to respond to the needs of the person who eats it.

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 that 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 cataloguing 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.

There is some friction among the older generations of Etherfarers and newcomes that creates interesting opportunities for adventurers of all types. The newer society members believe that the group’s works should be more accessible, and they work towards making their findings public and available across the multiverse. Older members believe that only Etherfarers should have access to the information, thus keeping it restricted and valuable for seekers of knowledge.

Freehold is not a refuge for regular open conflict or bare-knuckle fights, though an occasional stabbing or magical assassination has been known to occur. For the most part, the residents of Freehold keep up appearances as civil students devoted to the common good, though secretly all have some detail they wish changed about the settlement.

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.

Hatchery of Ul’lulaa’Mu

High Clan xill enjoy their civil societies and look down upon their Low Clan brethren as barbaric, savage, and backwards. However, all xill reproduce by laying eggs in a living humanoid host, but for the High Clan xill they have kept such unpleasantness contained within a number of secret locations. The largest is the Hatchery of Ul’lulaa’Mu, a word pulled from an ancient dialect of Elven that roughly translates as “place of life and tranquility.”

It is, however, far from that. The Hatchery of Ul’lulaa’Mu is a breeding ground for slaves of the High Clan xill. Rumors persist that it is located in the Border Ethereal of the Plane of Earth in a secluded cave cut off from the rest of the realm, but few have even heard of the hatchery let alone returned from it. The xill masters use all manner of guards and traps to keep the stock of breeding slaves docile and willing, going so far as to concocting powerful magical drugs to sedate them. Caves are dedicated to the hatching of eggs by powerful individual xill across the Ethereal Plane, most of whom come to visit to lay their eggs and perpetuate their species. The Hatchery of Ul’lulaa’Mu is a nightmarish place of suffering and subjugation that the High Clan xill do not openly admit to outsiders even exists.

Mask of the Faceless One

This evil item was found originally by a member of the Etherfarer Society cataloguing a new demiplane 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 as, 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 demiplane. 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 lays 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 demiplane must have been created by some external force, such as a devil prince or yugoloth warlord, as no other demiplane 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 so far 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 bluish-gray 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 a race of being 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 it. 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 are 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 complex 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 at playing 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 that 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 gnome 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 theoretically 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, all made out of a pale blue crystal that curiously does not reflect light – it absorbs it. One of the most curious thing about the Splintersoul is 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 it used these to guide the travelers around the 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 are 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. Some want to reunite with the Splintersoul, others seek to bring peace and harmony, while others are interested only in warfare and bloodshed.

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 demiplane interact with the mists of the Deep Ethereal in a unique way that allow 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 demiplane 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.

Creatures of the Plane

Dharculus

A dharculus is a rare monster that dwells in the Border Ethereal, lurking around the edges of towns and cities in the swirling gray mists. It is believed to originate from the Far Realm, a place of alien proportions and unearthly madness-inducing behemoths, and it certainly seems to share no known lineage with other denizens of the Ethereal Plane. It appears as a globular mass, sickly yellowish-gray in color, with one massive mouth dominating its circular body. Six long tentacles extend from its bulk, each ending in a sucking mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth. Six smaller tentacles also protrude from its body, each of these ending in large inhuman eyeballs that it uses to detect creatures with an otherworldly sense. It can extend its tentacle maws into the Material Plane, pulling victims into the Border Ethereal so that it can feast on them.

Insatiable Hunger. If a dharculus reproduces naturally, it has not been recorded or witnessed by any known sage or hunter. The creature seems utterly driven by an insatiable hunger, and it devours victims completely, leaving no scraps behind. In fact, it leaves no trace of a meal at all, leading some to wonder if there’s a functioning portal inside a dharculus that transports the digested bits somewhere else. To date no one has proven this theory and returned to tell the tale.

Attracted to Wild Magic. Perhaps owing to their connection to the Far Realm, dharculus are drawn to extreme incidents of wild magic surges. Some sorcerers have reported encountering the fearsome creatures after particular powerful wild magic surges, though it is not known how far a dharculus can sense the power unleashed. One particularly unlucky wild magic sorcerer caused several surges in a row, much to the chagrin of her companions, and when the dharculus showed up it found easy prey of most of the party.

Ethereal Marauder

Ethereal marauders are aggressive carnivores native to the Ethereal Plane. They resemble bipedal blue-skinned lizards, with a long sinewy tail and a wide triangular mouth filled with jagged teeth. Three red eyes are set along the maw between smaller mandibles that it uses to latch onto prey.

Marauding Packs. Ethereal marauders are pack hunters, and they are rarely encountered in groups of less than five. They move about the Border Ethereal, stalking targets and waiting for the perfect moment to leap into the Material Plane and strike. For larger targets, ethereal marauders focus their attacks on the single foe, utilizing their ambush tactics to devastate the creature before it has a chance to retaliate.

Broad Territories. Ethereal marauders keep a large area of the Border Ethereal as their regular hunting grounds, and it’s not uncommon to find packs that have marked an area of over 100 miles as their territory. The pack leader marks the territory using a strange and potent musk gland located at the tip of its tail. To an ethereal marauder, the smell can be detected in the Border Ethereal from over 50 miles away. Some strange property of the musk also allows it to be sensed in the adjoining Material Plane location, but only within 30 feet. The smell is reminiscent of putrid eggs.

Ghost, Ancient

Powerful and dangerous, ancient ghosts are the restless spirits of creatures that have died sometime in the past and did not pass on correctly. Most ancient ghosts start out as regular ghosts, and then become more potent through a deep connection to the Ethereal Plane. This can be caused by a strong tie a unique location in the Border or Deep Ethereal, or an anomalous event from somewhere in the Ethereal, inner, or Material Plane. Regardless of how they formed, they are potent foes, able to command minor magics at will and use a variety of visage attacks against foes. They are cunning, relentless, and utterly devoted to tasks that drove them in life or unlife.

Rest Conditions. Each ancient ghost has specific conditions that must be met in order for it to be fully destroyed and put to rest after it has been reduced to 0 hit points. The conditions must be met within 1 minute of the ancient ghost being destroyed else it reforms in 24 hours. The conditions are usually tied to the events or circumstances that created the ancient ghost in the first place. For example, the deceased lord of a castle, haunting his former home as a regular ghost, has his castle pulled into the Ethereal Plane suddenly. Now an ancient ghost, the lord can only be put to rest by sprinkling crushed stone from his castle over his ethereal remains.

Deep Ethereal Connection. Ancient ghosts have a stronger connection to the Ethereal Plane than their common ghost brethren. Most retreat fully into the recesses of the Deep Ethereal, dwelling in forgotten landscapes of protomatter that drift through the eternal swirling mists or in hidden demiplanes away from the cares of the regular world. Some are cruel, viewing their fate as a cosmic joke, and seek to cause as much harm as possible.

Others are thoughtless and uncaring, moving about their homes or even further with listless abandon in their ethereal steps. Perhaps because of their strong connection to the Ethereal Plane, ancient ghosts can actually see and influence the other Material Plane echo realms, including the Planes of Shadow, Faerie, and Dreams.

Ghost, Hunger

Twisted, emaciated, and thoroughly evil, hunger ghosts are incorporeal monsters that feed on death. They are driven by instinctive needs to feed on the souls of living creatures who are dying, quickening the process and gaining strength as victims slip closer to their final death. There have been two basic types of hunger ghosts encountered, each distinct only in appearance. The first is a shriveled humanoid figure, nearly skeletal, with a monstrously wide mouth and a spectral tongue that licks the air searching for living souls. The other is a large black mastiff, similarly emaciated, possessing an oversized jaw.

Born of Death. Some creatures killed while in the Border Ethereal by a hunger ghost rise as hunger ghosts themselves. It’s not exactly clear why some rise as these undead monsters and others do not, and planar scholars debate whether it has anything to do with the victim and the means of their death. It isn’t clear at all how the hunger ghosts that appear as mastiffs are created, as normal hunger ghosts seem uninterested in the souls of non-humanoid creatures.

Hounds of Ill Omen. The hunger ghosts that appear as mastiffs have been nervously referred to as hounds of ill omen. Sometimes, a solitary hunger ghost hangs around a specific town or village, especially one suffering some sort of large scale tragedy, and it simply lurks in the Border Ethereal and waits for locals to start dying. Its mournful howl echoes through the air whenever it devours the soul of the dead.

Plasm

Ether cyclones that tear through the Ethereal Plane close to the Elemental Chaos has a chance of creating a plasm. These monsters are born from the mixing of the ethereal mists with the raw elemental power of the multiverse, and they are created only to suffer and cause suffering. Each appears as a rough humanoid skeleton, but its makeup constantly shifts. One moment its body its wreathed in flames and its bones blackened, and in the next the fire morphs into water and ice, and after that its form drips with acid, and then further into crackling lightning energy. The wild, unpredictable elemental power contained within a plasm makes it a dangerous and unpredictable foe.

Instruments of Chaos. Plasms are born from the connection between the raw forces of the Elemental Chaos and the Ethereal Plane, a fusion that creates instability. Hurled out of ether cyclones and thrown through the nearest ethereal curtain, plasms become instruments of chaos and destruction. They speak in wild chaotic words and phrases but rarely stop to converse – the malevolent energy that drives them pushes them to destroy. Sometimes, genies or powerful wizards and priests recognize the potential of a plasm and can direct them towards certain areas where their powers can wreak the most devastation.

Reviled Aberrations. Among common elemental creatures, plasms are viewed with hatred and loathing and are attacked on sight. Genies and other intelligent elementals often use them as tools in their wars against their enemies, but even they are careful to avoid being seen associated with a plasm.

Splinter Slave

Created by the Splintersoul or one of its many shards, splinter slaves are constructs made of hardened ethereal material. They are featureless humanoid shapes with a dense but pliable form that looks like slowly moving gray vapors. They cannot speak and obey the directives of the Splintersoul or its shard without question or hesitation.

Instant Creation. It isn’t clear how many slave constructs the Splintersoul can create, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be bothered by their destruction. In the Deep Ethereal, the crystalline structure of the Splintersoul itself is protected by numerous slaves, each fighting to protect its master, but the shards that break off and fly through the multiverse each have their own purpose for creating them. Some use them as their hands and feet, while others use them as faceless assassins and automatons forced to perform menial tasks.

Thought Eater

Thought eaters are strange denizens of the Border Ethereal. They appear as skeletal remains of an animal with webbed paws and a short tail, though the bones are sickly gray in color. A luminescence surrounds the thought eater centered around its oversized platypus-like head. They swim through the Border Ethereal seeking magic on the adjoining plane to devour, but they are cowardly and seek only to preserve their own life.

Immortal Scavengers. While difficult to tell for certain, it is widely believed that thought eaters are immortal creatures as long as they keep a steady diet of magic from the Material Plane. They are solitary creatures as well and flee from every direct combat encounter when given the chance.

Xill

The most fierce and reviled marauders of the Ethereal Plane are the reptilian xill, which are identified as Low Clan and High Clan. Regardless of clan, these monstrous humanoid-like beings have four muscular arms that each end in jagged talons. A pair of mandibles encircle their slavering jaws which they use to deliver a powerful paralytic toxin to grappled victims. The Low Clan xill have red skin, ranging from bright crimson to dull scarlet, while the High Clan members are never red but otherwise vary wildly. All xill communicate telepathically and there is no known language for the species.

Egg Sac Hosts. The xill reproduce by implanting their eggs into the body of a living humanoid creature, which necessitates their raids into the Material Plane from their home realm. The process is painful, but it can be reversed with a cure disease spell within four days of the egg being implanted. After that the egg hatches and release xill larva that devour the host from the inside. Nothing short of a wish spell can remove the larva without killing the host, and seven days from hatching the young xill emerge. No humanoid host has survived the birth of the young xill.