Anatomy of the Astral Plane
The Astral Plane is the sea of souls that envelop the Earth and is the source of all magic. The astral exists a a quasi 4th dimension, a 3-dimensional space wrapped abstractly over the surface of the Earth.
While there is no consensus in-universe over where the Astral Plane came from, it is the "corpse" of the Goddess, Scifera, who sacrificed most of her power to save humanity during the End of the World.
Table of Contents
Material Space and the Aether Field
As the Aether Field is the part of the astral plane that characters interact with the most, there is a lot to say about it.
The Aether field is the part of the Astral Plane that overlaps with the Material reality the earth. While it's presence seems all consuming, it, and the astral plane as a whole, only exist in a thin layer that surround the world. Zeppelins can use mechanical engines at altitude because magical interference is much lower at that height, and the seas tend to be deceptively low magic areas (Many mountain ranges do have an intrinsic magic quality that makes air travel over them difficult, but that's a different story).
Aether is best described as unincorporated soul stuff. Magic, when not traveling through the soul of its caster, travels through the aether field, for it too is made of "souls".
The Aether Field is almost like humidity, having a density that moves and changes like weather. Some areas tend to naturally be more dense than others, and some, like Shiv and the Weiss Desert that surrounds it, are magically dry and devoid of magic.
There is a temperament to the Aether Field too. The presence of the Aether Field and the Magical Interference against technology do not have a 1:1 correlation. Settled or well traveled areas filled with people with a positive or neutral view toward technology tend to suffer less interference. Their opinions and will bleeds intro the aether field around them. Unincorporated aether, while opinionated, will eventually yield to the incorporated will of a living soul.
Daemon's do not appear and can't even function in spaces without an Aether Field. Many mages find discomfort in totally magically devoid spaces like Shiv. They are attuned enough to the aether field that it's complete absence feels like the loss of a sense, or like being in an Anechoic room.
First Draft of an Astral Diagram
Astral Space
Astral Space refers to the huge reserve of aether that exists once one leaves physical space. Even when one can still sense the world around them, when one becomes incorporeal, then they have existed Material reality, and have entered Astral Space.
Parallel Space
When one drifts into Astral space, but can still perceive the material world around them, they are in Parallel Space, a reflection of the physical world one sees when in the spiritual world. The soul field around a person, conversely, is a reflection of themselves that exists in parallel space.
A good way to illustrate parts of parallel space is the Succubus, Vayn. Vayn uses her daemon link to shift into parallel space, allowing her to pass through physical objects and phase where she needs to be. She is stopped by magical objects and (living) human bodies. She can phase through a sword swing, but cannot phase free of someone's grasp, because that grasp, through their soul, also exists in Parallel space. Magical objects -- objects that have accrued some of that free floating Soul Stuff -- cast tangible reflections in parallel space that can also stop her.
In high magic areas, parallel space can sometimes represent a warped, or exaggerated version of the physical space. If magic gets high enough, sometimes these parallel realities can overtake reality, leading to liminal space.
Liminal Space
When Parallel and Material space breach into each other, you get a Liminal Space. A haunted forest, filled with giant, twisted trees, swimming with Daemons, with paths that seemingly wind impossibly into each other? That may be a Liminal Space, which would vanish if the Aether Field in the area weakened. Sometimes this can be caused by a sort of magic weather, or sometimes from human interaction.
Something like Sinlen's house and the magic, sprawling, abstract "Basement staircase" is a liminal space where reality breaches down into parallel space. Meanwhile, the stretched out, distorted bell tower during the Lyse Incident(BE:P) is an example of parallel space breaching material space.
Places susceptible to becoming liminal have likely imprinted themselves in the astral plane, much like magic items or peoples souls. A forest can have a soul, and you can see it, and the fun-house mirror version of the world when the conditions are right. A rumored haunted forest lightly likely is haunted, and that state ebbs and flows over time. Sinlen's haunted basement exists, mirroring her real one.
By comparison, something like the Lyse Bell Tower, a place not imprinted on the astral plane, requires a much more extreme magical event to happen.
Waterway Gates
While largely unknown, Waterway Gates are high speed paths in Parallel space that flow along rivers and coasts, created by the pressure difference caused between magic and non-magic areas and reinforced by the flow of aether around them.
Waterways must be entered from a Node, usually a key point like a lake, pond, river delta, or small cove. Once in these nodes, one can pop out anywhere along the waterway network, though the high speed of the travel makes precise travel extremely difficult, almost like trying to skydive precisely on target. As such, if one is not careful, they can enter a node and pop up somewhere unexpected, with no idea where to find another node to get back. Node to Node travel tends to be the most consistent.
Sinlen has found many methods to make waterway travel more reliable, calculating entrance and exit timings beforehand with magic. This technique later gets enhanced and developed into her Magic Doors.
Those who use the Waterways tend to be secretive, because overused nodes tend to collapse, depleting a very finite resource.
Lorenz' Cliff
The end of Parallel space is called -- at least in the Aistorian centric world -- Lorenz's Cliff, named after Sorcerer named, well, Lorenz, who developed Astral Diving techniques early in the study of magic.
This seeming dead-end becomes a sudden drop as one passes from Parallel Space to the Subliminal Layer.
Subliminal Layer and the Astral Sea
Dropping into the Subliminal Layer represents a flip of perspective. While in parallel space, Up and Down still feel like up and down. Depth, in parallel space, feels like an intensity. Once one crosses Lorenz's cliff though, these axises flip(causing the drop sensation), down now being down in astral space and the physical world's location becomes indiscernible.
It is like suddenly falling off a boat into the ocean, all of reality a flat plane above you, and nothing but an endless sea below.
It's important to note that down is still rather 4 dimensional here. Down isn't down into the center of the earth, but an abstract down that exists on that layer of soul stuff that is wrapped around the earth.
Filling the sea is Aether (again, unincorporated soul stuff), Souls (incorporated souls. You know, dead people), and Daemons.
The vast, vast majority of the sea is aether, in the same way most of the ocean is water. Traveling deeper, one can encounter souls, drifting about, in dream like bubbles one can fall into while astral projecting. The astral sea serves as kind of an afterlife, and often souls that knew each other in life congregate together into what would best be described as collaborative dreaming.
Those who are freshly dead, or, due to the conditions around their death, destined to be ghosts, may be more lucid or closer to the surface, most souls are both deeper and more disconnected. They can be interacted with, talked to, and even learned from, but rare is it for them to realize what is going on. Even rarer is actually finding a specific individual, which would be as difficult as finding an exact fish in the ocean. Most avoid randomly interacting with the dead, as most find it deeply unnerving and somewhat risky, as one can easily be dragged in to their dream like state if they're not careful.
Most Daemons, especially in the upper and middle layers of the Astral Sea are harmless. Daemons are not intrinsically hostile, they're little stories that play out. Floating in the astral sea doesn't give most enough context to operate. Deeper though, many Old and Karric Daemons may actively seek out those who dive too deep.
Astral Columns
Astral Columns are "rivers" in the astral sea that cycle aether up and down it's depths, creating a cycle where souls sink down before being dragged back up, keeping the sea from stagnating. These columns are similar to the waterway channels, only going deeper rather than laterally. They can almost be thought of like thermal columns used by gliders.
Astral Columns are denser than the surrounding sea, especially in souls. Traveling through them can be like rapidly flickering through hundreds of dreams. Riding along side them are the easiest ways for astral projecting mages to get up or down.
Most highly magical areas have an associated column (or sometimes multiple columns) under them. If a powerful spirit is haunting a location, it's soul can usually be found in the astral column associated with that site.
The Calm Sea
The Abyssal Layer of the Astral Plane, a black, quiet void where the Astral currents created by the Columns come to a rest. Most souls tend to float above this layer, before occasionally dropping down like snowflakes into the Henotic layer below. The Calm Sea is a warning sign for most astral divers.
This is as deep as you should go.
The exact borders of the Calm Sea are vague, fuzzy, and ever shifting. The Astral current dies down, the spiritual 'light' dims, and a general sense of stillness and aloneness will creep through anyone who wanders this deep. You don't know when it starts, but at some point you're sure you're there.
While relatively safe, the Calm Sea hosts many Old and Karric Daemons, Daemons that verge on actual self awareness. While rare, it is one of the few places where a mage might get targeted and attacked when astral projecting.
While not understood by in-world scholars, the Calm Sea represented the barrier between souls that still want to exist and those that don't. The after-life that exists in the astral sea is, for most, comforting and monotonous. When a soul feels too stagnant, it sinks away from others, drawn to the abyss below. The passing through a layer of solitude confirms that a soul is ready to move on.
Henotic Layer
When one approaches the Henotic Layer, they can feel a growing spiritual pressure, and a dull, oppressive hum. As they approach closer, the sound becomes overwhelming and cacophonous. Those who ignore these warnings are crushed by the pressure, their soul obliterated, reduced back to pure aether. A terrible fate, not even giving the chance to relax in death.
Or so they say. While still not known in-world, henosis is more of a merging. Ones personality is lost, like an ice cube melting in the sea, but its parts persist, even if they're impossible for others to notice. Your experience and life have been added to the collective experience of man kind, passed to the next generation in a kind of collective re-incarnation.
Even if these concepts were fully understood in-world, this would still be place for fear. Despite this, some often describe a comforting, maternal feeling around the edge of the Henotic layer, with some places referring to it as Freyja's Womb, the spot where all souls are born from and eventually return to.
The Deep Library
Few have talked about encountering one of those dream-like bubbles on the edge of usually empty Henotic Layer. An endless library, containing an exhaustive, borderline useless history of humanity.
The Deep Library is where the first and fallen Sashni, Zephan resides. Zephan plucks souls and daemons from the astral planes and records their history, writing endlessly in the Deep Library. Over the course of centuries, Zephan will reduce the daemon population of Earth by grabbing, archiving, and destroying ones that he finds.
The Deep Library is not easy to find but the temptation of finding it is enough to encourage mages to drift dangerously close to oblivion.
Monadic Layer
The surviving essences of Scifera, humanity's adoptive Goddess. When the Henotic layer has been thin, some have been able to feel past it far enough to feel a feminine, motherly presence. Even from a distance, just in the Calm Sea, some can swear the sense hints of this.
Many mages who are experienced astral divers will say quite confidently that if God exists, she's a woman. Some even refer to polytheisticly as the Goddess of Magic. Few know her by her true name, Scifera. Some areas around Orso Moldano and Ryaith(The South-western Continent/Former South America), where the Monic texts(ancient Karric texts founds in the Mons Mountains) refer to her by close, but inaccurate translations, like Saphra or Xifara. Western names for her tend to draw from Old World religions, like Circe, Freyja, or the Devi.
When while people have come in brief contact with Scifera, worship of her is relatively rare, limited to mostly to mages and the Monic Cults. For sitting in the center of the Astral Sea, she rests in silence, demanding nothing and determined to not interfere again, for the fear that reaching out will bring suffering and destruction down upon humanity a second time.
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