The Ethereal World · Tier
The Ethereal World
The Ethereal does not move. The Ethereal is movement.
Thought has physical form
Between all things flows the Ethereal. It is the medium that separates and connects all places. Every plane of existence is surrounded by and connected through the Ethereal. When a wizard teleports, they briefly dissolve into the Ethereal and reconstitute elsewhere. When a cleric's prayer travels to their god, it passes through the Ethereal. When a soul departs a body, it drifts through the Ethereal. Magic itself flows through the Ethereal like blood through veins.
The Ethereal does not move. The Ethereal is movement.
Magic's Highway
Every spell that has ever been cast in the Material has passed through the Ethereal. When a wizard conjures fire, the spell-form exists simultaneously in Material and Ethereal. Divine magic travels differently - a cleric's prayer passes through the Ethereal like a thread of intention seeking resonance, moving not in a straight line but along the paths of strongest connection between caster and deity.
Survival Requirements
Traveler's notes
The Ethereal does not require normal biological maintenance. Travelers in the Ethereal do not need to breathe, eat, or sleep in the same way the Material demands. This is an advantage on short transits and a trap on long ones - the absence of the body's usual maintenance requirements removes the natural rhythm that keeps mortals oriented in time. The primary hazard of the Ethereal is drift. Extended presence without an anchor - a physical object of strong personal significance, a living creature who will notice if you start to fade, a destination that you are actively moving toward rather than simply existing in - allows the Ethereal to begin incorporating you. Drift Ghosts are the extreme endpoint of this process. Travelers who feel their name becoming less important, who find themselves thinking about nothing for long stretches, who notice that the emotional significance of their memories is thinning, are drifting.
Secondary hazards: predators (Mist Horrors, Thought Leeches, Veil Weavers), manifested fears taking physical form near emotionally volatile travelers, and the specific disorientation of the Memory Sea if entered without preparation.
Minimum preparation: an anchor object (strongly preferred), a companion, a clear destination. The Ethereal Anchor Rope is specifically designed for this. If none of these are available, a written record of who you are and why you entered the Ethereal, kept on your person, provides measurable psychological resistance to drift.