Astral Sea

The Astral Sea, also known as the Astral Plane, is a transitory plane between all of the various planes of existence within Lorone's cosmology.

Geography
Outside of the sphere of ordinary reality (the Material plane) is the Astral Sea, a void of raw magical essence, psychic energies, and barren structures of unknown often origin that make up the infinite expanse of the plane.

It is physically impossible to properly map long distances throughout the Astral Sea, much like many planes of mercurial space, as all distance and sense of direction is purely relative to the individual. An individual's will dictates not only the speed but the direction they travel, but travel to locations and places are more useful as a means of relative travel as opposed to concepts from the Material Plane like directions.

Appearance
From the perspective of most creatures traversing the Astral Sea, it appears as an ocean of starlight, iridescent yet twisting colours, and silver painting the space between, with wisps of magic, psychic energy, and the insubstancial bodies of spirits and creatures travelling to other planes darting throughout the infinite expanse.

Colour Pools
A Colour Pool is a two-dimensional pool of rippling colours that vary in size but often maintain a regular circular shape. These pools of light are often described as beautiful and look akin to a pool of coloured oil that has been poured over water. Though they can also be unnerving in appearance due to their two-dimensional nature and visibility from only side, making them difficult to spot; though this invisibility on its opposite end can be nullified if one can see through magical invisibility.

Colour Pools act as portals to other planes of existence, with the colour of a Colour Pool being an indication of which plane it will transport to. These pools are scattered throughout the Astral Plane and appear seemingly at random and are indesputibly numberous if not infinite. A creature need only step into one, as one would step into a hole, in order to be transported to the pool's destination. However, this could be dangerous because Colour Pools are not neccesarily connected to safe locations on the planes they lead to.

A creature staring at a Colour Pool for long enough is capable of seeing its destination, though one's capacity to do so is often limited by their intellect shaping the pool to form the image. Even an incredibly intelligent creature can often only sustain such a viewing for an hour or two (within the Astral Sea, or seconds on other planes) at a time before the viewing ends.

Traversing the Astral Sea
The Astral Sea completely lacks all sense of direction and gravity, but all creatures and objects maintain their mass, allowing objects and creatures to be thrown and pushed off surfaces with ease and without resistance from natural forces.

Creatures traversing the Astral Sea without the assitance of magic, psychic ability, or some form of artifice (such as an airship, like those employed in the [Era of Storms]), do so with pure thought. Regardless of the presence of solid ground, all creatures not assisted in some way float through the void, though smarter creatures are able to control their movement within the infinite space through force of will. It is for this reason that the plane is referred to as a sea, because movement through it is often compared to "swimming" or "sailing".

Like many planes of mercurial distance, time of physical travel is often totally irrelevant in the Astral Sea, with creatures travelling large distances not by change in geographical position but through force of will. Often Astral travellers do so to find something, such as an object, a person, or a portal to another plane of existance (known as a Colour Pool), with this inherent desire to seek leading to the body of the individual being transported to find what they seek.

Astral Projection
Travelling through a planar portal or teleporting one's self to the Astral Sea is not the only method of travelling to, and often through, the plane. Instead, some particularly powerful individuals may use a spell, psionic ability, or intense spiritual meditation to project their astral form into the Astral Sea.

Astral Projection is by far the safest way to traverse the plane in terms of preventing one's death while travelling through the Astral Sea, due to one's astral form being purely insubstantial and the silver cord being impervious to damage save for a powerful blow from an astral dreadnaught or the will of a deity.

Cosmology
According to the Hierarchical model, each plane, save for the Material Plane which is bordered by the Ethereal Plane (although this is heavily debated with the existance of Mana Storms circa 170 CA), is surrounded by the Astral Sea. This theory holds due to the belief that the Astral Sea is used to transport the souls of the dead throughout the planes quickly and effectively. Additionally, this theory would allow the powers of the Gods (and subsequently the Hells) greater movability and access to other planes so that their influence can be felt throughout all of the multiverse. Hence, the Astral Plane is also one of the most common transitive planes, due to its efficacy. Those who travel throughout the planes often enough can even experience a glimpse into the Astral Sea as they move between planes.

Phonomenon
The Astral Sea is a plane of pure thought, where mortals were not meant to dwell. As a result, the plane has many strange effects that affect any mortal creatures that attempt to traverse it or stay within the plane for any extended period of time.

On rare occasions, physical, mental, or even spiritual shock can occur to those traversing through the Astral Sea, typically due to an improperly employed or unstable portal.

Time and Biological Functions
In the Astral Sea, the flow of time is slowed to a near halt. While it is not certain, it is theoried that time in the Astral Sea is slowed such that 1,000 years on the Material Plane is equal to 1 day (or over one 15,000th of the time) in the Astral Sea.

In addition, biological functions such as hunger, exhaustion, and even aging do not occur in the Astral Sea. Pregnancies and physical growth also do not progress while in the Astral Sea.

Psychic Winds
A Psychic Wind is a mental phonomena that attacks the minds of those in the Astral Sea. It can be physically percieved as a mobile darkening of visibility in the Astral Sea that travels and grows rapidly over time, followed by a feeling of resistance and trembling through the travel path of any creatures headed towards it.

A Psychic Wind is an esoteric concept made manifest, ideas and thoughts of billions of creatures throughout the planes condensed into a single force of pure psychic energy that can eviscerate an untrained mind with its untamed chaos.

Psychic Winds are incredibly fast, meaning caution must be taken hastily by those that percieve them, especially given their surely lethal effects, such as throwing travellers off their course or into Colour Pools, or even causing severe mental harm and stress.

The Weave and The Astral Sea are connected
It is theorised that if high level magics and interplanar portals were employed too frequently throughout the multiverse, it could cause rapid deterioration of the boundaries between worlds as we know them. Essentially, tears in space to other planes could randomly manifest in a moment and would remain until someone (or something) closes it.

At worst, portals into the Astral Sea and the Ethereal Plane would resonate and cause leakages into other planes. Travel into these “leaks” would cause travel between locations to be instantaneous, but without proper navigation also completely random and likely lethal.

These theories became more common plane, especially within paranoid scholarly circles and the church of Arcti, after the public announcement of the death of Joeri Celeste in 23 CA, which was stated to have caused a large blast of divine magic over all of Lorone. According to diviners, sages, and the clergy of Arcti, this blast tore an almost irreperable hole into the Weave.

These theories were then proven true, as a large surge of unstable magical phonomena in 170 CA caused the emergence of magical rifts into the Astral Sea (known from then on as Mana Storms) to spontaneously apper in the Material Plane, sundering the land and shattering Lorone's landmass.

The Noosphere
Those that believe in the theory of the Noosphere believe that the plane itself is the source of all psychic energies and mental potential throughout the multiverse. The existence of Psychic Winds only lend evidence to this concept as they are forces of pure thoughts and ideas that have been lost and thrust upon travellers of the Astral Sea.

Some even believe the psychic energies that drift throughout the Astral Sea are the minds of the deceased separated from their souls, and that they could potentially be communicated with given enough time and psionic ability.