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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5032756" data-attributes="member: 4937">Terrain on the Astral Plane is hard.  There is concievably small pockets of matter that have survived out into the astral sea, but because you can basically see forever, anything that isn't huge and moving can be pretty easily avoided.  You never actually have to encounter anything you don't want to unless it wants to encounter you.  And while an area of floating islands might be pretty cool, if you clutter up the Astral Plane too much it loses its distinctive character and becomes basically a variation on the Plane of Air or Limbo.Things that you might commonly see on the Astral Plane:1) Flickering shadows or dimly glowing curtains of light, representing some large emotion or ideology passing through the astral plane.  This is the tangible manifestation of, 'I feel a great disturbance in the Force...' sort of thing.  Many of these would be thousands of miles away, but on the rare occassion you got to close to one you might be effected as by the Emotion or Suggestion spell.  When these curtains become dense and violent enough, they are the source of psychic storms.2) Clouds of diffuse glittering dust, representing some thought of some sort slowly fading away.  Where enough of these collects, you get thin floating beaches.3) Floating fragments of dreams or fantasies.  A few of these are actually semi-sentient and dangerous, and they attempt to catch the unwary in them and force them to relive the dream (thereby sustaining it).  Treat as anything from Persistant Illusion, to Maze, to Temporal Stasis, to Wierd spells.  Living Spell templates might be appropriate for some of the most nasty of these.4) In some parts of the Astral Plane, you begin to encounter shallow pools of darkness or faintly glowing light where ideologies, thoughts, and emotions have condensed to a fluid consistency.  These are often near to some connection to the outer planes, and often contain a portal to them within.  They might seem to steam, fountain, or rain ideas near them or to swirl, froth, or bubble.  The area might collect a local trait so that the vicinity of them is treated as an aligned plane.  Contact with these pools or drinking from them could have various effects, and drinking from a lower planar 'well' could be particularly painful.  It's also a convienent place to hide behind if you want to ambush something.  Promenient ones that make an important connection are likely to be gaurded by anything from Astral Devas to Modrons to Succubi.More rarely:5) Islands of real matter occasionally end up on the astral plane.  You might find a small 'star' of fire that has broken off from the Elemental Plane of Fire, or an archaepeligo of a small floating tropical islands long ago hurled here by some vengeful diety.  There might be floating beads of real water, like tiny watery planets.  All these tend to either have inherent hazards explaining why they were banished here, or attract dreams and creatures quite heavily and so are generally worth avoiding.  The Gith tend to claim all the real matter that they can, so anything that isn't really dangerous is probably a Gith colony and so... really dangerous.6) Dead Gods: The bodies of dead gods tend to be some of the most promenent solid spaces in the astral plane.  They are almost always enveloped in various curtains that conceal there presence at a distance.  For the most part, these are like islands of real matter only much much worse.  If you don't have business being near them, back off as quickly as possible.</blockquote>

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