Nethereal Plane

The Nethereal Plane rests directly below the Material Plane. It bears all the features of the Material Plane, but everything is a shadowy, see-through version of its material counter part. One can walk through solid objects on the Nethereal Plane, and regular weapons cannot hurt you. The plane is inhabited by shades, though it is often visited by other beings as a temporary means of travel and vision.

The plane is also where the shadows of the dead go. Upon death, your soul and your shadow separate from your body, which has been somehow rendered unsuitable for life. While your soul disappears to the Ethereal Plane, your shadow sinks down to the Nethereal Plane, where it roams as a shadowling for 23 seconds before a shadow hound arrives to escort it down to Hades. Some refuse to go with the shadow hounds—a choice that can never be unmade. These shadows become shades, dark, ghost-like remnants of their past selves left to watch on as the world continues without them. There are many reasons shadows choose to remain: to watch over a loved one, to haunt their enemies, and sometimes just to watch the world unfold. Regardless, it is almost impossible to interfere with the life below, for without magic, those on the Nethereal and Material Planes have no way to interact.

As the Nethereal Plane has been claimed by the Absinthe Stone, many of the shadows that choose to stay slowly become corrupted by its evil. Those who don't are often turned bitter by their enslavement by wizards (known as Confinement), who summon them in ritual on the Material Plane and bend them to their will. However, without invitation, no shadow (nor soul) can reenter the Material Plane without direct summoning or invitation. Leaving, though, can be caused by a dismissal from Confinement, or by entering an area of incredible darkness, where planar overlap between the Nethereal and Material Planes is strongest.