The Planar Drift

The Planar Drift is the name given to the instability affecting Eldareth's relationship with the surrounding planes since the Upheaval.

The planes are not believed to move through physical space. Instead, their influence and accessibility change over time. Established crossings may weaken or disappear, new ones can emerge, and certain regions may experience unusually strong planar effects.

These changes are uneven and often temporary. A plane may exert greater influence in one part of Eldareth while showing little change elsewhere.

Origins of the Drift

The first signs of wider planar instability appeared after the Mythal fractured during the Upheaval.

Within the following decades, Planetouched individuals became noticeably more common, with dormant planar ancestry surfacing more frequently and planar traits appearing in families where they had previously been rare.

Other disturbances remained scattered for centuries and were often treated as unrelated magical events.

The Incursion in 572 U.R. was followed by a marked increase in reports of planar anomalies. By 620 U.R., scholars were comparing accounts from across Eldareth and increasingly treating them as evidence of a single, wider phenomenon.

Whether this represented a genuine increase in the severity of the Drift, another consequence of the Upheaval becoming more apparent, an effect of the Incursion, or simply improved recognition of events that had previously gone unconnected remains debated.

The exact relationship between the fracture of the Mythal, the Incursion, and the continuing Drift remains a subject of study.

Manifest Zones

One of the best-known effects associated with the Drift is the formation of manifest zones.

Within a manifest zone, the influence of another plane becomes unusually strong while the surrounding land remains part of the Material Plane. These regions may develop environmental, magical, or supernatural characteristics associated with the influencing plane.

An Elemental manifestation may alter weather, temperature, or terrain, while stronger Feywild or Shadowfell influence can affect local growth, light, emotion, or the behavior of creatures.

Manifest zones vary greatly in size and duration. Some last only briefly, while others persist for years before gradually fading.

Extremely rare examples of similar planar correspondences are known to have existed before the Upheaval, though they were generally far more stable.

Crossings, Breaches, and Conjunctions

The Drift can also affect the boundaries through which planar travel occurs.

Natural crossings may open, close, or become unreliable as planar relationships change. Long-established routes can shift, while new crossings sometimes appear where none were previously recorded.

More severe instability can produce a planar breach, allowing creatures, matter, or environmental effects to cross without a stable passage.

Rarer still are conjunctions, in which two realms briefly overlap strongly enough for features of both to occupy the same location. Such events are poorly understood and are considered among the most dangerous forms of planar instability.

Locations damaged by severe disturbances can remain unusually sensitive afterward, increasing the likelihood of future anomalies.

Different Planes, Different Effects

The Planar Drift does not affect every plane in the same way.

Elemental influence often appears through changes in weather, terrain, temperature, or other physical conditions. The Feywild and Shadowfell already possess close relationships with the Material Plane, and their influence can strengthen or weaken in particular regions.

The Outer Planes are most often affected through changes in Astral routes, planar accessibility, and localized spiritual influence.

The Astral and Ethereal Planes themselves are not generally considered to drift. Instead, the routes and boundaries they connect become less reliable.

Val'Syra also behaves differently. Areas with unusually strong connections to the Dreaming may experience what scholars describe as oneiric resonance, producing vivid dreams, shared visions, memory disturbances, or other dream-related phenomena rather than conventional manifest zones. The causes of individual phenomena are often difficult to establish, and not every unusual dream or vision is attributed to Val'Syra.

The Far Realm also stands apart. Although it lies within Eldareth's wider Reality Sphere, it exists outside the conventional planar arrangement and is not believed to participate in the Planar Drift itself.

Contact with the Far Realm instead occurs through breaches, specialized planar magic, and other rare crossings capable of reaching beyond the normal Astral and Ethereal transit structure.

Study of the Drift

Planar scholars monitor the Drift through changes in established crossings, divination, Astral and Ethereal travel, magical disturbances, and reports of recurring planar phenomena.

Prediction remains difficult.

Some anomalies vanish without intervention, while others persist despite extensive efforts to end them. Powerful magic can sometimes stabilize a crossing, contain a breach, or reduce the effects of a manifest zone, but there is no known method capable of ending the Planar Drift as a whole.

Scholars also continue to study the relationship between the Drift and the fractured Mythal. The two phenomena are clearly associated with the aftermath of the Upheaval, but the exact nature of that relationship remains uncertain.

For this reason, the Drift remains one of the most closely studied cosmic mysteries of the post-Upheaval age.