Open Planes
The methods for moving and traveling to and through the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane or say the Outer Planes are well-documented. Here are some of the most common methods for traveling from the world to different planes. Although many places in the planes are impossibly distant from the mortal world, the mortal world is riddled with rifts in the fabric of reality and hidden planar doorways.
In the material world, volcanoes serve as conduits for the molten rivers and incendiary ash originating from the tumultuous Elemental Chaos. Guarded by rune-etched iron doors, gateways provide passage to the dread lands of the Nine Hells. Enigmatic archways, long abandoned in the ruins of ancient temples, serve as pathways to the celestial domains of deities. A myriad of such entrances, numbering in the hundreds or even thousands, are dispersed throughout the globe, each serving as a doorway to realms beyond comprehension.
The prospect of traveling between planes of existence has long captured the imagination of adventurers, scholars, and mystics alike. While the mechanisms to achieve such journeys are diverse, they typically fall into one of four broad categories: portals, crossings, rituals, and phenomena. Understanding the nuances of these methods can be crucial for anyone wishing to navigate the myriad planes of reality.
Portal Gateways
A portal serves as a magical gateway that facilitates instantaneous transportation from one location to another, often between different planes of existence. These portals can vary in form—some might resemble shimmering doorways, while others could be swirling vortexes of energy. Utilizing a portal is generally the most straightforward means of planar travel. However, there are complexities involved. Some portals require specific keys, phrases, or actions to activate them. Additionally, locating a portal that leads to your desired destination can be a quest in itself.
Crossings Veil Thins
Crossings are distinct locations where the boundaries between the material world and other planes, such as the Feywild and the Shadowfell, become permeable. These are places where the “veil” separating the realms is thin, allowing for easier passage. Sometimes, crossings spontaneously activate and function akin to portals, transporting travelers to predetermined points in parallel planes. Alternatively, crossings can serve as requisite locations for performing specific rituals, known as passage rituals, to gain access to these parallel worlds.
Worlds Collide
In unique circumstances, especially in the mystical expanses of the Feywild, large areas—such as cities inhabited by the eladrin race—might experience a phenomenon known as “worldfall.” In a worldfall, the very fabric of a specific area shifts between the material plane and another, carrying along anyone present at the time. These phenomena are unpredictable and can provide an unanticipated means of planar travel for the unwary traveler.
Rituals Crafted Pathways
For those skilled in arcane or divine arts, rituals offer another avenue for planar travel. The two basic types of rituals are “Passage Rituals” and “Transfer Rituals.” The former, like the Fey Passage or Shadow Passage, require a crossing point and enable transportation to a corresponding plane. The latter, such as Astral Sojourn or Elemental Transference, permit a traveler to shift to a random location within the Astral Sea or Elemental Chaos, without needing a crossing.
Moreover, advanced rituals like Planar Portal and True Portal create temporary teleportation circles. These circles allow travelers to move to specific locations on other planes, provided they possess the correct sigil sequence for their intended destination. These rituals are especially useful for those who know exactly where they wish to go and are equipped with the necessary magical knowledge.
Ship of Magic
Magical ships such as planar dromonds (fast-sailing galley ships) or spelljammers have the ability to serve as navigation foci for the Plane Shift ritual. The Plane Shift ritual is a comparatively easy ritual that shifts the planar vessel and all its occupants into another plane.
Realities
Portals offer an excellent means for adventurers to reach fabulous destinations, but in most cases, these destinations are fixed, making them of limited use to those who need to reach a particular location. A number of rituals help adventurers move within a plane or to other planes rather than spending an interminable time hunting down the right portal for the mission at hand. In addition, rituals can be used to divine a portal’s secrets, lock a portal to prevent its use, or alter a portal’s magic to make it malfunction.
Interplanar rituals grant passage from one plane to another. Planar Portal is the most common method, but like Linked Portal, it requires knowledge of the destination’s planar address (its sigil sequence), and that information is sometimes hard to obtain. Rituals to create permanent portals that bridge the planes exist, but such permanent portal rituals are mind-bogglingly expensive and their acquisition difficult.
A teleportation circle is a ring of sigils and glyphs inscribed or chiseled around the area where a ritually created portal will appear. Although not all rituals require the use of teleportation circles, their inclusion in the ritual is beneficial, even if it is expensive. The reason is simple: The circle binds the portal to your location and to its destination by establishing the magical coordinates of the location into the circle itself (sometimes called the sigil sequence). Since these codes are required to establish the necessary links for a portal to appear, these coordinates are precious commodities for planar travelers, and their acquisition can be the subject of an entire quest.
Realities separated by the gulf of time and space, where different peoples, civilizations, perhaps even cosmologies reside: if sigil sequences exist for every point of space in a D&D universe, sigil sequences must exist that correspond to other worlds, such as Abeir-Toril and Eberron. It’s possible then that with the right sigil sequence, a planar traveler could slip free from one world to enter another. And with that, the is an infinite universe to explore and adventure.
