Ethereal Plane

[orcmonk220]

Hiya guys
I was reading up on the planes the other day (the one bit of the monster manual I never even glanced over - never needed to), and I was just wondering something. The DMG says

The Material Plane itself is visable from the Ethereal Plane, but it appears muted and indistinct, its colors blurring into one another and its edges turning fuzzy. Thwereal denizens watch the Material Plane as though viewing it through distorted and frosted glass.

however, if doesn't seem to explain "how" they watch it. Is if viewed as if they were side by side, like this?

 M | E 
 A | T
 T | H
 E | E
 R | R
 I | E
 A | A
 L | L

One of top of the other, like this?

MATERIAL
________

ETHEREAL

Or is the Ethereal plane a hazy version of the Material plane, with the same features as the Material plane but without distinct colours; blurred and faded?

Chris

 

[Shemeska]

The ethereal is a soupy fog, and from the border/near ethereal you can drift along (or through) a world on the prime material. They're essentially sandwiched over one another, and a 3d border ethereal exists within and alongside a 3d prime material world. As you move away from that prime material world, you'll eventually slip away from the border ethereal and into the deep (which is where the fun, and strange, stuff exists).

The border ethereal is essentially a foggy realm that's "out of phase" with the prime material (and inner planes too, depending on what exact version of the cosmology you use).

 

[Ripzerai]

Yup. From the "border" Ethereal Plane, you can see the Material Plane as if through a thick fog. Sounds and colors are muffled and dimmed. From the Material Plane, Ethereal things are normally invisible (without magic or special senses).

It's exactly like you're floating through a thick fog (though note that Ethereal mists can be brilliantly colored, due to bleed from demiplanes and dreamscapes). You don't see two things at once, you see one thing: a misty landscape. The mist gets thicker in regions that correspond to solid objects on the Material Plane.

 

[Clueless]

Imagine the stereotypical 'ghostly images' effect in movies. Only you're the ghost.