Our next stop in The Planes series is the Astral Plane - the space between everything.

Introduction to the Planes

Feywild, Shadowfell

What is the Astral Plane

The Astral Plane, also known as the Astral Sea, is a space between everything. If you are ever nowhere in the multiverse, you are in the Astral Plane. This plane isn’t specifically a plane, but rather a nonspatial nonplane as it has no space and planes are specifically spaces. The Astral Plane has been described as a silvery horizon that extends all around you like you are inside a silver orb, to a dark plane with twinkling lights in the distance like stars and stretching out before you is a sea of silvery cloud-like mists.

History

The Astral Plane was first introduced in the 1e Fiend Folio (1981) and then detailed in the Manual of the Planes (1987). It is described as a barren of bleakness with small motes of matter broken off from the planes it connects. It is little more than a plane of transit to facilitate travel from Inner and Outer planes and most people that travel through the Astral Plane rarely notice it as spells like Plane Shift take them instantly through the Astral Plane.

Throughout the editions, the Astral Plane has remained largely unchanged, it is a silvery-grey all around with clouds of silvery material with motes of matter discarded throughout. In 4th edition, this was slightly changed and the name, Astral Sea, came into use. The Astral Sea became more of a starscape of purple-black with twinkling lights in the far distance, deep silvery-grey clouds that aren’t liquid or mist, and across the ‘horizontal’ of this plane, those clouds become separated so that ‘below’ are where the denser clouds congregate and above the line are the lighter clouds. Most will orientate themselves so that they travel with the denser clouds beneath them.

An Outsider’s Perspective

The Astral Plane is a strange locale for most adventures and, as it is a transitive plane, is rarely used for more than just getting from one location to the next. As the Astral Plane is the location between everything, you can easily travel from one domain to the next using it, and most travelers will never realize they were ever in the Astral Plane. Spells, like Plane Shift, immediately sweep you from your current plane, like the Material Plane, through the Astral Plane and then to your destination, like the Nine Hells or Hestavar.

For travelers in the Astral Plane, and not using it to take you elsewhere, you can find yourself adrift in the vastness of nothing. Depending on the edition, you may only see the silvery-greyness of nothing spanning infinitely all around you. Or you may see silvery clouds forming some sort of horizon that you slowly adjust yourself to with twinkling stars in the distance.

Travelers who find themselves in the Astral Plane are in a strange locale and they should be on constant guard. While there is no atmosphere to speak of and very little to impede your sight, your vision is limited in the Astral Plane. You can only see a few thousand yards out, which means that astral pirates could be just out of range of your vision and heading near your location quickly.

While you are in the Astral Plane though, you needn’t worry about breathing, food or drink. Time behaves strangely on this plane and while you might spend 50 years in the plane, your body will not age until you leave it. For an outsider, this plane is unlike any you might be traveling too, and it may be a plane you will never leave for fearsome creatures roam the nothingness.

A Native’s Perspective

The Astral Plane can’t be claimed by any creature as it is a place of nothingness, though many now make it their home. Before the arrival of Astral Dreadnoughts, Astral Whales, Couatls, Deities, Githyanki, and others the Astral Plane was only home to the bodies of dead gods. Here they sit, rotting slowly away and many of the now-inhabitants of the plane set up their cities, fortresses, and lairs on and inside them.

The inhabitants of the Astral Plane come in all shapes, sizes, and alignments. It may be solars on business for their gods or githyanki pirates that travelers may encounter. While the solar is not likely to bother you, the githyanki are quick to fall on anyone they think might have treasure or valuables on, or maybe you would just make a good slave.

Those who reside in the Astral Plane do it to take advantage of the fact that you don't age while on the Astral Plane, which isn't entirely true. What most editions agree is that time is relative on this plane, and for every 300 years you stay on the Astral Plane, you only age a day. Unless you leave, in which case 300 years will pass for your body in an instant and you may die of old age before you can stop it. If you plan on spending all eternity on the Astral Plane, make sure you never leave or all the time you've lived will catch up with you.

Atmosphere

Because there is no gravity or atmosphere in the Astral Plane, objects continue to move. This means that arrows fired from bows, rocks thrown or matter ripped from a plane of existence drifts through the Astral Plane. It's not unheard of for an astral skiff to come under fire from arrows that had been traveling for hundreds of years from an ancient battle site.

But, organic creatures do not exhibit that. In fact, when a creature sleeps on the Astral Plane and they are traveling somewhere, momentum does not keep them moving forward and so they stop where they were until they reawaken and focus on where they wish to go. Non-organic matter is always moving forward because that's what the mind thinks should happen. The Astral Plane is about perception and not actual reality.

Traits

The Astral Plane is a transitive plane, meaning its easy to travel across it but hard to stay in it.

Travel to the Plane

To travel to the Astral Plane, the easiest way is to leave the Material Plane, or it’s reflections, and go to an outer plane or dominion. There, it is far easier to escape the boundaries of that plane and arrive on the Astral Plane. Another way is through the use of spells like Astral Projection, though that requires a powerful spell caster.