D&D Lore - The Ethereal and Astral Plane

Episode 23 - The Ethereal and Astral Planes
The Cosmic glue that holds the universe together. These are the transitive planes that lead to the outer and inner planes.

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[lonk]

" Where you are when you aren't anywhere else." I love this quote since it can be said about every single location ever.

[Yiab]

How did you manage to do a summary of the astral plane without once mentioning what is (to me) its most interesting (if rare) feature: the gigantic corpses of long-dead and forgotten deities. (See Dead Gods; 2e Planescape)

[EyalDegabli]

Hey Great video! On Stranger Things, when the kids search for information about the Upside Down on the D&D books they find an entry about the Vale of Shadows. Now apparently they're not officially playing D&D because of trademark issues etc, but I would guess the upside down is something like the Shadowfell indeed.

[shamusfarmer]

The Astral Plane sounds like that place beyond time in Chrono Trigger!

[jonathanolson]

So if I have this right, the etheral plane is the "in between" for the material plane and places like the feywild or the shadowfell, and the astral plane is the "in between" for everything else? such as nine hells? 5e is back on the wheel cosmology yeah?

[terran]

i wish they made an isometric RPG based on crazy outer realms. Torment 2 or something.

[JeremiahMcCoy]

Maybe a detour into how Spelljammer intersects with Forgotten Realms. There are several points where it does.

[Elektroschnitzl]

So good! Thanks for setting all this up and spreading the lore :)

I'm currently writing on a campaign that has a powerful lich draining power from the barriers between the planes, eventually causing things to shift from one realm to another and vice versa, and all the lore about the different planes of existence is just fueling the entire narration machine! Thanks so so much!

[vjm]

So I'm a little confused:
The Ethereal is a "ghost dimension" where someone can walk around in the Material world, but as a ghost.
The Astral Plane is the "ocean" of travel between the planes, and acts as a physical way to do this traveling (unless you're doing that astral projection thing, where instead of physically traveling you're kinda using a spiritual version of "Google Earth.")

Am I understanding this correctly?

[TAGAnimus]

Jorphdan, just letting you know you're my go-to for Meta Lore and Knowledge

[davidlewis]

I’ve made lyrics to your theme song, and they please me a great deal. They have nothing whatsoever to do with anything.

[TechRunnerWB]

In a campain I played in my character got a hold of the Robe of Stars which allowed me to travel to the Astral Plane. This came in handy when we were fighting an adult white dragon in a small cave. My character was a Chosen Soul Sorcerer and was quite useful for healing the cleric when he went down. But eventually I got reduced to less than 5 hp so I just poped into the Astral Plane where I was safe since the dragon had its sights set on me for healing the cleric.

[Deity]

The Veil of Death in Harry Potter is a rare plane portal confirmed, probably an Ethereal one tho since no one comes back.

[AnthonySmith-wcky]

Lead usually blocks magic adapting the radiation blocking property it has in the real world.

[christofrochel]

I ran an encounter in the Shadowfell and as soon as the party saw the shadow crossing, they asked: "Oh my god - is that the Upside Down?!" So that's what we call the Shadowfell in my campaign :P

[ooloncolluphid]

I was thinking about the Upside Down while I watched your Shadowfell video. Great DM's think alike. I'll like to hear more of your take on 1st and 2nd Editions lore (I'm old school 70's and 80's).

[TheGillianReed]

Is Gloomwrought meant to be the Shadowfell equivalent of Baldur's Gate? They seem to share a lot of similarities (ex: located on the water, surrounded by a wall, huge hub for merchants, etc.)

[TheRabbitHole-rb]

To simplify.
“The Astral Plane is fully separated. The Ethereal plane is filled with shadows of things that are, the Astral Sea is filled with things that could have been.”-Reddit. Not me.

[endnami]

Yay! Another video I'm so happy :)

[pickering]

Working the astral sea into a campaign I'm working on so the info here has been helpful. Since the astral sea exists outside time and space, and if you know how to navigate it, you can go anywhere, could you also go anywhen? Long story short, I'm thinking of trying to get my players to team up with a crew of Gith to travel back in time to stop an llithid invasion before it has even begun.