Exploring the Astral Plane
This post’s aim is to provide a deeper look at traveling the astral sea and encounters during a journey. Much of the information provided here is based on my own world’s lore and imagination of what could be found in a plane devoted to transcendence and travel. If you are interested in a post about specific locations and people of the Astral Plane, read - The Planes: Astral Plane which is based on resources and books by Wizards of the Coast.
Exploring the Astral Sea
Exploration
In the space between everything is a plane of dreams, thoughts, and desires. Most visitors to this plane rarely realize they have ever visited the plane, simply transporting themselves through it at the speed of light and arriving at their destination none the wiser. Spells, like plane shift, simply whisk travelers from one destination to the next, not allowing a traveler to enjoy the journey.
However, there are those travelers who do seek the journey. While it is rare for this heavily traveled plane to be a destination, it is at the center of many journeys. For many, their journey through is gone in blink, while for others, it lasts for lifetimes and lifetimes.
Manual of the Planes, 2008 Wizards of the Coast / Zoltan Borxos - Gabor Szikszai
Travel by Thought
The Astral Plane is without direction or gravity—providing an interesting challenge for travelers to navigate it’s silvery seas. But when a traveler puts their mind to the problem, they find themselves coasting the seas on mere thoughts.
To travel the Astral Plane, you must use your thoughts to ‘propel’ yourself through space. To be more accurate, you aren’t so much propelling yourself across the plane as you are moving the plane around you. For a very select few, that is an important distinction, but for the average traveler, it does not matter so long as they arrive at their destination.
When a creature wishes to travel in the Astral Plane, they must concentrate on which direction they want to go and their body drifts in that direction. A creature moves 5 feet times its Wisdom or Intelligence modifier (minimum 5 feet). This can be in any direction, such as ‘up’ or ‘forward’. Many compare it to flight, however flying requires gravity to push yourself against, whereas on the Astral Plane, you are simply present at a point in the plane with no other forces acting against you.
A creature can also travel the plane by attaching themselves to a solid object or another living creature, like an astral skimmer (often controlled by the Githyanki) or a red dragon (also, often controlled by the Githyanki). When traveling in this manner, the object or creature imparts their own control over the plane and you move with the object or creature so long as you remain touching them. The moment you no longer touch them, you leave their control and must begin propelling yourself again. This is why it is not recommended to jump or leap while on a fast moving astral skimmer or you may find yourself adrift out in the Silver Sea with no idea of where to go or where the nearest dominion is.
The Planes Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea, 2010 Wizards of the Coast / Adam Paquette
Visibility
The Astral Sea is also known as the Silver Sea, thanks to the clear silver line that bisects the plane. Below the silver line is a roiling sea of silver mists that envelope anything below them. Above the line is the twinkling void of the Astral Sea. It looks much like the stars that twinkle in the vast array of many material planes, however instead of pitch black void, it is purple-like mist that when it overlaps and roils together, appears black and vacant.
Due to this mists, visibility is extremely limited. Creatures can barely see more than 5 or 10 feet ahead of them while in the silver mists, and when above them, visibility doesn’t extend for more than 200 feet. A creature watching a rock drift past them doesn’t see the rock the fade slowly into the mists, but rather watches as the rock simply disappears when it is more than 200 feet away from them. If they move closer to the rock, the rock suddenly re-appears in their vision as if it was always there.
This makes high-speed travel in the plane very dangerous. Many travelers on Astral Skimmers have found themselves smashing into a large asteroid that suddenly appeared in front of them. That said, with fast reaction speeds, you can stop yourself in an instant, with no momentum pushing you further. You simply stop moving or, rather, you stop the plane from moving past you, which is why there is no momentum. You are not moving, so there wouldn’t be momentum inflicted upon you when you suddenly stop.
Some will point out that the plane should then be affected by momentum, but scholars who study such things point out that obviously the plane is no affected by momentum because no momentum exists.
That isn’t to say that objects suddenly stop moving in the Astral Plane when released. When an object is thrown or an arrow unleashed from a bow, the mind imparts a bit of psionic force onto the object and gives it ‘sentience’ that it should travel. So it does. Any object thrown, launched, tossed, shot, or fired out into the Astral Sea remains in motion. Huge volleys of arrows will suddenly appear out from the mists and puncture travelers, thought such an incidence is incredibly rare and is probably more myth than truth. There are clusters of arrows, crossbow bolts, magical spells, ballista bullets, and more flying across the plane, but the likelihood of getting hit is astronomically low.
A Guide to the Astral Plane, 1996 TSR Inc
Psychic Reverberations
The Astral Plane is a plane of mental energies. Creatures who have mastered their mind often find it easy to travel and exist on this plane, while those who are more reliant on physical are often left floundering, unlike on the Ethereal Plane. In the same way that the Outer Planes revolve around belief and the Inner Planes on elements, so to does the Astral Plane revolve around thought.
When these mental energies begin building up, they create psychic or psionic winds, which are largely harmless to most creatures. It’s when these psychic winds form together and create powerful psychic storms that their impact has lasting reverberations across the plane. These psychic storms can rip and tear minds apart, launch creatures through shifting tears across the multiverse, and are said never to stop.
Many scholars believe that psychic storms can never die off in the Astral Plane, rather they grow in power as more and more psychic energies are pulled in. Eventually, they hypothesize, these storms will take over the entire plane and no one could survive here.
A creature caught in a psychic storm could take psychic and force damage based on the severity of the storm every round, could be flung into a portal and onto a random plane, or be gifted strange psionic powers.
Life in the Plane
Life is a rare thing to find on this plane, but they may simply be due to the vastness of this plane. Settlements exist here, but many of them are controlled by warring factions whose xenophobia keeps out anyone not already from the settlement. Most travelers only use this plane for travel, after all, so there isn’t much point in those who live here to be friendly to outsiders.
You don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep on this plane, and you don’t age at all until you leave. Those who live here need very little to survive, and while companionship is sought by many across the multiverse, it isn’t sought by many on this plane.
Wizards who lock themselves in towers to study the arcane. Adventurers who seek ancient gods for unknown purposes are adrift in the endless expanse of the plane. Warring bands of Githyanki looking for slaves or battle. Many who reside here are just not interested in what outsiders have to say or do.
The Planes Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea, 2010 Wizards of the Coast / William O’Connor
Astral Beings
While many who live here are ‘outsiders’ and have only recently decided to reside here, there are those who are actually of the Astral Plane (at least as far back as anyone can remember).
From astral dragons and astral dreadnoughts to the quom and shardminds, there are races and beings unique to this plane, and have little interest in ever leaving it. They have all they need or want on this plane, or can simply demand a traveler give them what they want.
Astral Dragons
A Guide to the Astral Plane, 1996 TSR Inc / Adam Rex
Unlike most dragons, Astral Dragons are not solitary creatures. They can either be found as a duo or in groups of up to ten or more. They typically make their nests in solid chunks of matter floating through the Astral Plane, like the corpse of a dead god, on a sizeable asteroid, or ancient bones from some behemoth killed off during the early war between primordials and gods.
An astral dragon resembles more of a snake than the traditional dragons found on the material plane, though they still have 4 legs and 2 wings, even if they rarely use the wings for more than just show. They are typically a yellow color, though some feature shades of orange and red, with a pale yellow underbelly.
Because Astral Dragons see the entire plane as their realm, they dislike visitors of any kind to the plane. They see travelers, even those being whisked through by a spell, as intruders who constantly lie about their true motives. That said, Astral Dragons don’t attack first, but rather wait to hear whatever lies these intruders might give. If the story is good enough, the dragons might let the intruder go, or they will cast a banishment spell and be rid of them with little fuss and minimal violence.
Player’s Handbook 3, 2010 Wizards of the Coast / Ben Wootten
Shardminds
Long ago, there was said to be a gate that blocked or limited access to the Far Realm from the Astral Plane. This gate smashed apart by the gods, causing it’s shards to be scattered across the Astral, forever leaving rips and tears in the multiverse that allows the Far Realm to creep in and corrupt it.
The shardminds are a race of crystalline creatures who are seeking every piece of the gate, so that they might rebuild it and restore the seal that will ensure aberrations, like mind flayers and aboleths, can never gain another foothold in the multiverse again.
Magic
Perhaps the greatest place of study for those who practice arcane magic, the Astral Plane is home to many wizards who have scattered their towers and laboratories across the plane. They seek no distractions from their studies, like the need to eat or sleep, or to deal with the deprivations of age.
They remain shut into their towers, never leaving the plane for if they do, they will gain all the years of life immediately. For some, that would result in them suddenly aging thousands of years and dying. For travelers looking for quests out in the Astral Plane, a wizard may be their only hope for adventure. They may need something they can’t go get by themselves, and must deal with outsiders to go on simple fetch quests.
Clerics and the Divine
The divine, gods, deities, devils and demons, and more, have little interest in the Astral Plane. To them, this plane is a graveyard filled with the countless bodies of dead powers who, while not rotting, are left abandoned and forever lifeless when their worshipers run out.
No one knows why the corpses of gods are left adrift in the Astral Plane upon their death, and the gods are certainly not telling anyone (if they even know). All anyone knows is that they rarely venture to this plane, and if they do, they keep it short and with no distractions. Even clerics who travel to this plane report feeling their magic harder to grasp and use on this plane.
Sometimes they lose their highest level spell slots, have fewer spells they can prepare daily, or simply lose all access to their divine gifts until they can leave this plane. For that reason, few clerics or paladins willing choose to spend much time on this plane unless an adventure forces them.
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