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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7183835" data-attributes="member: 20323">I'm going to be using the Ethereal Plane in an upcoming game with a Lost City that exists both on the Material and the Border Ethereal. But I'm having a hard time grasping the essence of the Ethereal Plane (pun intended) even after reading its entry in the 5e DMG, the 3.5e Manual of the Planes, and the 2e Guide to the Ethereal Plane. The material I've read had exhaustive descriptions on the what/mechanics, but little on the why/essence.So...what is the Ethereal Plane about?Is it the Plane of Dreams? Well...maybe...cause night hags go there and prey on the nightmares of dreamers...and ethereal dreamscapes are a thing in 2e...but then the 5e DMG says explicitly that the Astral is the "realm of thought and dream." So...which is it?Is it the Plane of Travelers Unseen? Some kind of "space between spaces" with travelers both in the literal and figurative sense (e.g. dead souls "traveling" to their eternal reward) moving amidst the mists? Kinda like a cross between the city of Ghostwalk in 3.5e and a planar caravanserai with all kinds of skullduggery and espionage?Is it like the "Upside Down" from Stranger Things, full of strange monsters, like a surreal blend of the Far Realm and the Shadowfell?Is it the Plane Beyond Time and Space where the ruins of ancient civilizations crumble into faded memory? Where you could run into any figure imaginable, whether from history or legend or pure fancy?Is it the Plane of the Un-manifested, where the building blocks of life wisp away from the Inner Planes into mists, to coalesce and form tangible matter on the Material Plane?</blockquote>

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