The Ethereal World · Ethereal region
The Silver Roads
Well-worn near-Material pathways. Navigation by landmark.
Thought has physical form
Near the Material Realm, travelers see ghostly echoes of the Material world - faint impressions of buildings, roads, and forests built from silver mist. These are resonance impressions, the Material world's presence imprinted on the adjacent Ethereal like heat radiating from warm stone.
The Silver Roads are the well-worn near-Material pathways of the Ethereal, navigated by landmark rather than compass. Along them drift things the Ethereal has preserved: a crystallized memory of a decisive battle, a compressed record of a founding treaty.
The routes shown on the Ethereal World plate are the standard paths experienced Ethereal travelers use to avoid the Hollow Meridian. Senna Voss knows the Silver Roads better than most Gate Keepers.
Regions
Near-Material Boundary
Resonance impressions of Material worlds
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.