The Ethereal Plane?

[Wolffenjugend]

I'm having trouble conceptualizing the Ethereal Plane. The DMG states that denizens "watch the Material Plane as though viewing it through distorted and frosted glass."

Ok, but where is the Material (MP) in relation to the Ethereal (EP)? The Manual of the Planes states that the EP is like the shallow water near the shore (which is the MP). The Deep Ethereal is the deep ocean.

Between what the DMG and MotP states, I sorta see the EP as a border area looking into the MP. But what screws everything up is when someone on the MP comes in contact with the EP (i.e. through the etherealness spell). So now their material form is still on the "land" and their ethereal form is on the "shore"? I thought the EP was something like a "shadow" or mirror (ethereal) image of the MP, but how can that be if those on the EP are looking into the MP like through a window? Do those on the EP not overlap their MP counterparts?

Me confused...

 

[Ovinomancer]

Maybe this will help. If you picture the material plane as a plane, a flat surface, and the ethereal as on top of the surface, but with volume, you kinda get the picture. The area of the ethereal that touched the material plane is the 'shallow' ethereal where the planes can interact, and the area that is away from the material plane is the 'deep' ethereal where you cannot interact.

To put is another way, consider a large blob of jello on a plate with a picture on it. The jello is the ethereal plane, and the plate is the material plane. If, somehow, you were able to be inside the jello and near the plate, you could see the picture on the plate, but it would be colored and distorted by the jello (shallow ethereal). If you were in the jello at the top of the blob, away from the plate, you could not see the picture(deep ethereal).

Most creatures that live or travel the ethereal do so in the shallow ethereal. Kinda like old time sailors that would not travel out of sight of land. The creatures do this for the same reason as the sailors did: There's monsters in the deep.

 

[dcollins]

My visualization is like this:

It's like a mirror or nearby area -- but a 3D mirror or nearby area. An ethereal traveller sees the prime material all around them, faintly.

It makes sense to me if the Ethereal is basically in a 4th direction (dimension). You can still go forward/back, left/right, or up/down in Prime Material space. But you can also approach/withdraw into Ethereal space. The further back you go, the more misty and faint PM becomes. The closer you come, the more firm PM appears.

 

[the Jester]

Say you have a glass of water.

The water is the material plane.

Say you pour semi-clear (but cloudy) food coloring in the water from a beaker overhead.

That's the border ether. They're mixed together, in the same place; overlapping but not the same.

The deep ethereal is when you climb out of your glass and into the beaker.

 

[Otterscrubber]

I picture it more like when Frodo puts on the ring in LotR. He disappears (although in D&D terms you actually leave the MP instead of just turning invis) and sees the MP world through a much hazier viewpoint, but sees ethereal things more clearly (like the way the Nazgul appeared in their true forms). You are no longer in the MP, but in an ethereal copy of it where the laws of physics are different than what you are used to. How is that for a comparison?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Imagine if the world around you were suddenly filled with swirling mist, and suddenly you could exert no pressure on anything in it. That is the border ethereal. When you are 'ethereal' you're fully on that plane, where, although you can see the walls ofyour room, you can also move through them.

When you go to the 'deep' ethereal, you can't percieve the walls anymore...it's like you've moved backwards, farther away from the MP, as the swirling mist becomes all that exists, not merely an obsctruction.

 

[Wolffenjugend]

Thanks for the replies! I've got a much clearer picture now.