Pale Grove

Pale Grove is a quiet and reflective plane that stands at the boundary between life and death, memory and spirit, nature and stillness. It is not a realm of torment or reward. It does not judge or punish. Instead, it serves as a resting place for echoes of the natural world and the beings who once walked within it. Some view it as a spiritual waystation. Others see it as the final forest where all living things eventually pass.   The plane is covered in endless groves of pale trees with soft, silver bark and translucent leaves. The ground is dry but never dead. Mist hangs low through the woods, and there is no sun or moon, only a cold ambient glow that seems to come from the trees themselves. The air is still. Sounds are distant and muted. Rivers flow slowly, and animals move without fear or hunger. There is no decay, but also no growth. All things appear at rest.   Pale Grove is often associated with the dead, but it is not a traditional afterlife. The spirits that linger here are not always souls. Some are fragments of memory. Some are ancestral echoes tied to blood, land, or sacred sites. Others are spirits of animals, forests, or forgotten peoples. They do not speak in words. They move as shadows between trees, watching or wandering. They are not hostile, but they are not bound to mortal thought. Their presence is passive, not personal.   Some druids and shamans claim to visit Pale Grove in dreams or rituals. They describe it as a place where the past remains visible but cannot be changed. Others say it is the origin of primal oaths and the resting ground of ancient pacts. It is a place where nature itself remembers. The Grove does not call to the living, but those who enter it through magic or fate often leave changed. Some return with knowledge. Others forget what they saw. A few never return at all.   Time in Pale Grove does not pass in a linear way. Events seem to fold and echo. A traveler might pass a tree and see a memory etched into its bark. In one moment, a wolf may run past. In the next, it may appear again but older, or younger, or silent. There is no sense of urgency. There is no true danger. But the longer one stays, the more difficult it becomes to remember why they entered, or where they meant to go next.   The plane has no ruler and no hierarchy. It does not respond to divine magic in the way other planes might. It does not resist entry, but it does not open easily. Most visitors arrive through rituals involving death, memory, or transformation. Some who die in great solitude or who are deeply tied to the wild may pass into Pale Grove instead of a traditional afterlife. These spirits do not become undead. They simply remain, part of the forest, slowly fading into the landscape.   Pale Grove is not a place of fear. It is a place of silence. It is not peace in the sense of reward, but rest in the sense of conclusion. The animals do not hunt. The trees do not fall. The water does not rush. It is the forest after the fire, the path after the journey, the memory after the voice has faded. It is where the wild things go when they are done.