Planar Travel
Across all the Seven Planes it should be noted that they are not meant for us, and so the longer we remain the more exhausted and drained we begin to feel, with the ultimate risk, of course, being death, unless there is some way to protect oneself. This is not helped by the fact that it is almost impossible to eat on those planes from anything that is upon them – the exception to this being the Seven Mortal Realms. Because of the nature of the structure, Planes tend to have stronger veils, especially around the Mortal Realms, but other dimensions can often be reached directly, much like with Fairywilde, though not entirely as easily. This has led to the perception among layfolk that they are all merely one step away, and caused the less well informed to suppose that there are “wheels” and a multitude of dimensions, and to confuse Dimension and Plane as terms.
Travel to the other planes or dimensions is accomplished in two ways: a gate, or a summoning. For a summoning, the name of the being must be known, which helps greatly to avoid having people randomly snagged. Although it is not perfect, it is said that Ululani setup a shield to prevent Demons from summoning mortals after a particularly nasty incident involving one of her Grand Master Clerics.
Gateways require effort to open to most locales – the Astral, the Ethereal, and the Fairywilde are all very close and don’t need complex gates. The Astral plane is said to have natural gates within it, but most permanent gates are in The Pale in the form of Veil Gates.
There are ways to craft Gates to many other dimensions, bypassing the Planar Veils in some cases, such as weaving a rug that can take one to a dimension, or traveling in a vehicle designed to rupture the Veil in a precise way to reach a given dimension such as the Eighth. Reach Dimensions is a trick few know, and many try, seeking power, prestige, secret knowledge, or just even a meal. The motivations of those who do so are so varied that trying to explain it is beyond me.
Planar Travel Effects
The Pale is filled with swirling maelstroms that are different colors, and within it are storms of many colors, whirlwinds that glitter in a thousand hues. There are peculiar storms that can range from no larger than the palm of your hand to massive content sized things. These storms appear only to those who do not belong there and seem to dim the brightness of the world around them, reduce contrast, as a sort of suggestion of what is coming, the edges of things becoming blurry and indistinct, and then it hit, a massive cacophonous storm of thought that is not a physical thing, but a thing of psyche, a smashing against the walls of our thoughts and feelings and dreams and fears.
These storms were created by travelers from all the planes as they crossed through, and are formed of lost memories, forgotten thoughts, minor yearnings and deep anxieties, subconscious fears, and spasms of despair. Of note is that the denizens of that plane will not see the storm or experience it. And that does mean that here on Wyrlde those from elsewhere do.
These storms can strike one anywhere except the plane to which one is tied, or bound, in that Cycle of their existence.
One cannot eat and survive on food from Planes other than one’s home in the Cycle. Nor can one drink anything from those planes, and as water is a planar conductor, even if one were to carry it with you, it cannot be drunk. Other beverages brought with can be consumed, just as with food, but this places a practical limitation on travel that is often forgotten.
Another well-known effect is the sheer exhaustion that begins to weigh on people when they are off the Seven Mortal Realms. In a strange quirk, those seven places are the only ones where a traveler from one of them does not over time become exhausted simply from the ever-present pressure and dissonance of existing in that place when one does not belong.
This also only appears to effect Mortals when they leave the Mortal Realms, and not any of the other planar denizens. Yet, it is obvious that The Mortal Realms have much in common, for they are truly like places of respite from the other dimensions.
