Netherworld¶
"The plane is filled with thin, delicate, light colored living smoke-like connections. Souls appear as clouds of energy." — Terrun Cosmology (S421)
Contested
This page is named in the open question Netherworld: plane of souls or plane of Faerie. The 2026 Cosmology Revision makes the Netherworld the plane where the dead materialize; the Acadian notes of the same year give the name to the Fae plane and place the Abyss within it.
The Netherworld is the plane of souls. In the newest cosmology it is "an often confusing conglomeration of loosely knitted together subplanes. The general plane is the Netherworld or Sea of Souls. The souls of the dead naturally materialize here" (S001). The older cosmology called the same plane the Ethereal Plane and described it in detail as the Sea of Souls, a web of threads tying every soul to every place and memory it has touched. The souls themselves, and what happens to them, are on Souls and Spirits; this page is about the place.
Also called: the Spirit World, the Ethereal Plane, the Ethereal, the Sea of Souls, Astryssil (an ancient name, see below), and in one account the Underworld.
The newest account¶
The Revision sorts the Netherworld among the outer planes, in the middle rank of the astral chain: Astral ⟷ Rift / Netherworld / Abyss ⟷ Shadow Realm ⟷ Material. "Netherworld subplanes aligned with Astral Shards represent the 'heaven' of various theologies. Unaligned beings wander the Netherworld and are often pulled into one of the subplanes by collectors" (S001). The demon lore of the same layer says the plane "permeates and touches all other planes", which is why a demon's soul must physically reside on a plane to have power there while an ordinary soul need not (S019).
The Sea of Souls¶
The archive cosmology's description, repeated in the Cosmology of 2022, is the fullest picture of the plane the sources give. "Every being's soul is tied to this plane and everything in the ethereal is insubstantial. The plane is filled with thin, delicate, light colored living smoke-like connections. Souls appear as clouds of energy with various colors (depending on the emotions and connections with negative or positive energy planes). The souls are connected via the connections to thoughts and memories (on the Shadow Plane) to places and things (Elemental, Astral or Material) and to emotions, action and life (Negative and Positive Energy) and to each other (affinity). The Ethereal Plane is vast and borders on the Void. The souls themselves are unaware of their own presence there (their consciousness is focused on their spirits on one of the other planes). All living things, including plants have souls, even if they are tiny and contain almost no intelligence or power" (S421).
The threads can be followed. "Touching an ethereal thread changes your surroundings in the ether to show those souls and places near extra-planar points that share that thread. It is possible to use the threads in this way to traverse the ether for various purposes. Mind-reading spellcasters do this to view the memories of their target in the shadow realm. A ranger or druid may use similar magic to see who has recently passed near a certain place." And "Time and Space have no direct meaning in the Ethereal Plane, but are themselves just threads" (S421, S013).
The journey of the dead¶
"When a person dies, most of their ethereal threads are severed with their soul (though some of the strongest may remain with them in their astral form and the very strongest may even remain after reincarnation). The spirit then travels to the soul, where once united they travel to the center of the spirit world where an astral projection forms at the gateway between the Ethereal and Astral Plane (at a place connecting the Astral Shards relating to Death). Once an astral projection has formed, the soul and spirit will split once more, with the spirit going with the projection to the Astral Sea. Soul Death is rare, but has occasionally happened. Dead Souls float across the Spirit World as dark clouds with no energy and dark thread connections" (S421, S013). The Cosmology of 2022 marks this whole passage with the author's own note, "THIS NEEDS REVISION, doesnt make a lot of sense and seems contradictory in places", and the Revision replaces it with the shorter account above.
Denizens¶
"Only souls can exist here. Souls are pure ethereal energy, sometimes with intelligence and consciousness. Plant souls have neither intelligence nor consciousness, many lower animal forms have only intelligence without consciousness. It is believed all souls exist only in the ethereal plane" (S013). Exceptions matter: the souls of the Einar "do not reside on the Ethereal Plane", and a demon's soul has "a material manifestation" (S018). New souls can be forged "out of excess energies in the Ethereal Plane (usually there because of Soul Death)", a craft only a few Einar possess (S018). A demon's mortiquery feeds on spirits; destroying it frees them "and these souls will need to regenerate their energies in the Ethereal Plane before manifesting as a new spirit" (S019).
Astryssil¶
"Astryssil was the name for the Ethereal plane when it was smaller and only contained the city of the Gods. Religious scholars believe Izhtari's power was nearly absolute over everything on the Ethereal plane, including souls" (S372, S384, S498). Izhtari bears the title Queen of Astryssil, Ruler of the Gods, and the regional notes add that "Kalar was Izhtari's favorite, and firstborn son. He led the rebellion which overthrew his mother" (S498). The City of the Gods as it stands now, remade by the Divine, is on the Astral Plane page.
Who made it¶
The newest account says no one did. Astral Law "does not extend to the Ethereal, Shadow or Void Planes; as these were not created by the Creators, and have existed since before creation" (S205). The Cosmology of 2022 agrees: "scholars believe this a fundamental plane and not one formed by the Einar or elementals" (S013). The older histories say otherwise: "It was during the Primordial Wars that the Einar created the Ethereal Plane to separate their form from their soul. They did this to protect their souls (and those of their minions) from utter destruction" (S421), and "the Astral, Shadow and Ethereal Planes were forged by the Einar" (S386). The Nature of Magic calls it "an energy plane" and the place where every relationship of ownership between Ether and Ether "is defined" (S208).
Travel and magic¶
"There are no gateways to or from the ethereal plane due to its inability to host any kind of matter. However, limited openings/manipulations are used as part of spellcasting all the time." The plane "is connected to the Astral, Shadow, Material, Elemental and Abyss." "Only projections may visit the Ethereal. Note that no magic functions here" (S013; "no magic (other than Astral)" in S421). The oldest magic rules give the Spirit sphere dominion over "the ethereal and shadow planes" and let Divination "use ... the ethereal plane to find information" (S371); an Ethereal College "relates directly to the Soul, Soul-affecting-magic and the Ethereal plane" (S404). Ethereal energy itself "is available in any Plane" (S205). The Celestial colleges of Arcane Magic count the Ethereal among the Outer Planes they manipulate (S208).
Earlier accounts¶
The archive cosmology gives the name Spirit World to the Astral Plane, while also saying dead souls "float across the Spirit World" in its description of the Ethereal (S421, S389); the Monk rules speak of "the Spirit World (Outer Planes)" as the source of a monk's power (S368). The Revision equates the Spirit World with the Netherworld, so the name is placed here. The Compendium's Transitive Planes begin "The Ethereal Plane is the realm of" and break off (S372, S384). The Acadian notes use "Netherworld" for the Fae plane and speak of an "Underworld type Spirit sorting/cast out spirits?" among the Netherworld's connections, with the Netherworld as "the inner plane crossroads" fed by Mithis and the Elemental Chaos (S358); that reading is a variant kept on Fae Realms. The apparitions that spectromancers command live in "the in-between (partially on the material, shadow and astral planes)" rather than here (S296).
Gap
No source names any of the Netherworld's subplanes or the "collectors" who pull souls into them, says where the "center of the spirit world" is, or describes what a visitor in projection actually sees beyond threads and clouds. The Compendium's sentence on the Ethereal Plane is unfinished.