Astral Plane
The Astral Plane is the non-place between places that connects the different planes existence to one another. Travelers walk briefly through this void whenever they engage in Soulfaring, use an interplanar portal, or otherwise travel between worlds. In most cases, the trip happens so quickly that the traveler barely registers the experience, recalling only a vague sensation of floating through nothingness. Although it's rarely necessary, it is possible to conciously travel the void.
The Astral Plane is a realm of nothingness with no firmament, allowing travelers to move in all three dimensions. The only things that exist on the plane--other than travelers and the astral predators known as Reavers--are portals to the other planes of reality. The shape of these portals appear different to every astral visitor, but doors, pools of waters, and mirrors are the most common manifestations. These portals have no fixed location, so there's now way to navigate to a particular portal. Instead, the traveler must "look through" each portal until they find the right gateway. When an astral body steps through a portal, a new body appropriate to the plane instantly forms for them to step into.
Although the Astral Plane and everything in it is completely incorporeal, the astral traveler still has a body, which appears as a ghostly outline of their earthly body. Attached to the astral manifestation's ankle is a silver cord that trails off behind them. Upon arriving on th Astral Plane, the cord stretches back to the portal leading to the traveler's home plane. As the traveler moves farther away from the portal the cord grows longer and thinner, eventually becoming invisible.
Time does not exist on the astral plane, so a person who travels to the Astral Plane but doesn't step through any portals returns to earth in an imperceptibly small amount of time. Astral bodies have no biological needs and cannot be killed, but magical weapons, Reavers, and some other creatures have the ability to sever the silver cord that binds an astral form to its home plane. If this happens, the victim's earthly body dies immediately and the person's ruh is trapped on the Astral Plane and finds themself unable to move through any portals. Most who get trapped in the void eventually go mad.
If a traveler's physical body dies during astral travel, the far end of the silver cord moves from the deceased's home plane to the portal correstponding to whatever Summerland or afterlife plane the character is destined for and the astral form loses the ability to pass through any other portal.
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