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, causing established crossings to weaken or disappear, new ones to emerge, and particular regions of Eldareth to experience unusually strong planar effects.
These changes are uneven and often temporary. A plane may exert considerable influence in one region 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 as dormant planar ancestry surfaced more frequently and planar traits appeared in families where they had previously been rare.
Other disturbances remained scattered for centuries and were often treated as unrelated magical events. Reports increased markedly after the Incursion of 572 U.R., and by 620 U.R. scholars were comparing accounts from across Eldareth and increasingly treating them as evidence of a wider phenomenon.
Whether the Drift itself intensified during this period remains uncertain. Scholars continue to debate the relative importance of the fractured Mythal, lingering consequences of the Upheaval, the Incursion, and improved recognition of events that had previously been studied in isolation.
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 region remains part of the Material Plane. Local conditions may develop environmental, magical, or supernatural qualities associated with the influencing plane.
Elemental manifestations often affect weather, temperature, or terrain, while stronger Feywild or Shadowfell influence can alter local growth, light, emotion, or animal behavior.
Manifest zones vary greatly in size and duration. Some disappear quickly, while others persist for years before gradually fading.
Rare planar correspondences of this kind existed before the Upheaval, though they were generally more stable than those associated with the modern Drift.
Crossings, Breaches, and Conjunctions
The Drift can destabilize the boundaries through which planar travel occurs.
Natural crossings may open, close, shift destination, or become unreliable as planar relationships change. Long-established routes can fail while new ones appear in places with no previous history of planar passage.
More severe instability can produce a breach, allowing creatures, matter, or environmental effects to pass between planes without a stable crossing.
Conjunctions are rarer and more extreme. During these events, two realms overlap strongly enough for features of both to occupy the same location for a limited period.
Regions damaged by severe planar disturbances can remain unusually sensitive afterward, increasing the likelihood of later anomalies.
Different Planes, Different Effects
The Planar Drift does not affect every plane in the same way.
Elemental influence commonly appears through physical changes in weather, terrain, or temperature. The Feywild and Shadowfell already maintain close relationships with the Material Plane, allowing their local influence and crossings to strengthen or weaken more readily.
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. The instability instead affects the boundaries and routes they connect.
Val'Syra behaves differently from the conventional planes. Stronger connections to the Dreaming can produce oneiric resonance, including vivid shared dreams, unusual visions, and disturbances of memory or perception. Scholars generally require additional planar evidence before attributing such phenomena directly to Val'Syra.
The Far Realm also stands outside the Drift. Although it lies within Eldareth's wider Reality Sphere, contact with it occurs through breaches, specialized planar magic, and other rare crossings beyond the normal Astral and Ethereal transit structure.
Study of the Drift
Planar scholars monitor the Drift through changes in known crossings, divination, travel through the Astral and Ethereal, and recurring reports of planar anomalies.
Reliable prediction remains difficult. Some disturbances vanish without intervention, while others persist despite extensive attempts to contain them. Powerful magic can stabilize individual crossings, contain breaches, or lessen the effects of a manifest zone, but no known method can end the Planar Drift as a whole.
The fractured Mythal remains central to ongoing study. Its damage clearly coincides with the beginning of the wider instability, but the precise relationship between the two phenomena has yet to be determined.