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Ethereal Plane in 5e?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7183965" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>It's a misty otherspace useful to underpin some magical effects. </p><p></p><p> No.</p><p></p><p> Only in the practical sense that some creatures can travel there, and thus move unseen/incorporeally about the prime material.</p><p>In that sense it's like an explanation for the impression of ghosts and spirits as being misty see-through beings - an impression that only goes about as far back as 19th century 'spirit photography' (double-exposures).</p><p></p><p> Yes, but less so, because it doesn't have lots of weird/cool/surreal set-dressing, just mist.</p><p></p><p> No.</p><p></p><p>Pretty fair. The RL meaning of Ethereal comes from ancient ideas about the structure of the universe, the Greeks thought that the four elements made up the physical world, and the the stars were made of some fifth, spiritual essence - 'ether' was one of the words used to translate the concept. Scientist later used it for, well, ether (C4H10O) and for the theoretical luminiferous ether that explaned the wave characteristics of light, confusing the subject.</p><p></p><p>The D&D Astral & Ethereal planes are clearly influenced by Theosophy (as is so much the pop-culture take on the supernatural), the Astral coming prettymuch whole cloth, the Ethereal possibly a take on the Theosophic afterlife, as an immaterial being that perceives itself in the form it had in life, and exists apart from, but able to perceive, the world of the living. D&D Ghosts and the like, for instance, have been 'Ethereal,' in early editions of the game.</p><p></p><p>So, it's a plane of the immaterial which is co-existent with and permeates the material planes - both the prime material and elemental. Where the prime is layered into infinite parallel planes, the ethereal is just one undifferentiated misty nothingness - shapes glimpsed as 'part of the Ethereal' different from one's native material plane are probably reflections from other prime materials. </p><p></p><p>TL;DR - Yeah, OK, if you want to be succinct and to the point... ;(</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7183965, member: 996"] It's a misty otherspace useful to underpin some magical effects. No. Only in the practical sense that some creatures can travel there, and thus move unseen/incorporeally about the prime material. In that sense it's like an explanation for the impression of ghosts and spirits as being misty see-through beings - an impression that only goes about as far back as 19th century 'spirit photography' (double-exposures). Yes, but less so, because it doesn't have lots of weird/cool/surreal set-dressing, just mist. No. Pretty fair. The RL meaning of Ethereal comes from ancient ideas about the structure of the universe, the Greeks thought that the four elements made up the physical world, and the the stars were made of some fifth, spiritual essence - 'ether' was one of the words used to translate the concept. Scientist later used it for, well, ether (C4H10O) and for the theoretical luminiferous ether that explaned the wave characteristics of light, confusing the subject. The D&D Astral & Ethereal planes are clearly influenced by Theosophy (as is so much the pop-culture take on the supernatural), the Astral coming prettymuch whole cloth, the Ethereal possibly a take on the Theosophic afterlife, as an immaterial being that perceives itself in the form it had in life, and exists apart from, but able to perceive, the world of the living. D&D Ghosts and the like, for instance, have been 'Ethereal,' in early editions of the game. So, it's a plane of the immaterial which is co-existent with and permeates the material planes - both the prime material and elemental. Where the prime is layered into infinite parallel planes, the ethereal is just one undifferentiated misty nothingness - shapes glimpsed as 'part of the Ethereal' different from one's native material plane are probably reflections from other prime materials. TL;DR - Yeah, OK, if you want to be succinct and to the point... ;( [/QUOTE]
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