Astral Sea

“...most amazing of all, there is life there. It exists outside the warped pocket of land I’ve encountered, and seems even to feed upon it- consuming all manner of rock, dirt, tree, and more. Whatever they are don’t seem to move very far in from the edge of the island, but I’ve avoided getting close enough to learn if they’d try to feed on me as well. What I have learned is that they are many.” -excerpt from “A Wanderer’s Journey through Creation”

Introduction

The Astral Sea is the space outside the planes; it surrounds them all, in ways both sensible and not. Mostly void of mana, it is inhospitable to almost anything from the planes, and is as unknown as it is dangerous. To enter it unprepared will result in only death.

Background

Unlike the planes, the Sea is mostly devoid of both land and mana. The greatest sources of both are the stars, albeit in very different ways. Countless numbers of stars fill the Sea, their vicinities are dense with mana- so dense as to be destructive to near-anything. As mana spreads from the star, it thins and thins until relative nothingness. This results in islands of great energy separated by even greater distances, resulting in the barren nature of the majority of the Sea.

False Stars

Despite the desolate nature of the Sea, there is life within it. The greatest example of such are false stars, colossal collections of mana which attempt to rival the real stars that dot the Sea. Unlike real stars, they do not ceaselessly produce mana- rather, they horde it, though to what end is unknown. In addition to collecting the scraps that far-away stars produce, false stars can collect mana in more active ways, the most common of which is the absorption and conversion of planar magic back into mana. This trait is shared amongst many Astral creatures, and while the exact nature of this process is unknown, it is known that the creatures of the Sea do not discriminate; whether it is a rock or a person, it contains planar magic, and thus eligible for conversion. This process is lethal.

Planar Borders

It is difficult to define exactly where the Astral Sea ends and where the planes begin, but it is generally accepted that the most easily observable border is high in the sky above the surface of the planes. It is thus commonly assumed that it’s possible to enter the Sea by reaching a high enough altitude. This is not the case. Attempts to pass through this barrier are universally lethal, with deaths most commonly stemming from the voracious Astral life that resides at the border.

In addition to these more distinct bounds, the Sea is universally connected to the planes. The exact nature in how this occurs is unknown, but it is fact that for every point on a plane, there is a corresponding point in the Astral Sea. This is and the nonlinear nature of the Sea is what allows portalmancers to transport themselves and others large distances instantaneously.

Portalmancy and the Astral Sea

When a portalmancer uses a portal to travel from one place to another, they are utilizing the Astral Sea. Most portalmancy functions by opening a set of holes in the barriers between the planes and the Sea; the first at the origin of their spell, and the second at the spell’s terminus. Then these rifts must be weaved together. This effectively folds the Sea so that the origin and the destination are briefly next to each other, and thus allow the instant travel a portal allows.

Opening the exit portal requires an act of extreme magical precision, and is aided by a good mental image of the area being traveled to. This is most commonly achieved by having been to the location prior. If a portalmancer makes any major errors in the construction of their spell, it is possible for them to, on entering the portal, become stuck in the Astral Sea or not accurately arrive at their destination; in most cases, though, the portal will simply fail.

Such usage of the Sea results in considerable amounts of planar magic being left adrift within it, though it is overall an insignificant amount.

Astral Pockets

Though the Astral Sea is itself inhospitable to planar life, there are places within it that aren’t necessarily. These are called Astral Pockets, and are formed of a combination of large congregations of mana and planar magic that has yet to be absorbed by the denizens of the Sea. The planar magic that goes into the creation of an Astral Pocket determines what can be found there; this mostly results in realms that are distinctly Fey, Rhystian, or Voidic in nature, though anything is theoretically possible.

While these places range greatly in terms of safety relative to the Astral Sea, all of them are warped and distorted; imitations made in the likeness of the planes- as if a painter who had never seen a cat was told what they are, and attempted to recreate one.

They are also temporary. The creatures of the Astral Sea, though seldom venturing inwards, break apart the edges of the pocket and gradually shrink it until nothing remains. The amount of time this takes depends greatly both on the size of the pocket and the number of creatures dissolving it, but it is a certainty.

Despite this, they are the only places in the Astral Sea eligible for visitation by denizens of the planes with reliability; experienced portalmancers could likely locate one with trial-and-error, though what they’d find there could be nearly anything. For this reason, expeditions into the Astral Sea are usually conducted for the sole purpose of research, rather than searching for anything specific.

Trivia

False stars have been observed to connect themselves to other creatures to create networks of connection, with the largest possessing the greatest numbers of these. The majority of these links are with other false stars. The purpose of these networks isn’t known, but it’s thought that they’re used to share mana.

Planar magic is mana that has been used by those who reside on the planes; this includes the magic energy that flows through everything on the planes, most notably mages.

Though Astral Sea creatures will try to convert all planar magic into mana, some forms or quantities of planar magic may be more difficult for them to process. This becomes abated the greater the Astral lifeform becomes.

Portalmancers being left adrift in the Astral Sea isn’t nearly as lethal as it sounds; as long as they keep calm about the situation and swiftly recreate a portal back onto a plane, they will be perfectly fine.

Credit

Author: Avajain https://forum.verdict.dev/showthread.php?tid=3866