Curtain of Vaporous Color

ripvanwormer's picture

Curtains of vaporous color are the boundaries between the Deep Ethereal and the Border Ethereal. If the Deep Ethereal is like an ocean and the Border Ethereal is like a beach, the curtains are like shoals and reefs that warn of land ahead.

Vaporous curtains look like huge two-dimensional fields of force continually agitated by the forces and dreams of the plane within; lights and fey fire dance across their surfaces. They are always stationary, immune to all but the most violent of ethereal+cyclones. A traveler can pass through the curtain merely by willing it.

Within these curtains are all the dreams being dreamt by the inhabitants of the planes they border. See Region of Dreams.

It's thought by some that you can tell which plane the curtains border by what color they have. This might be any of the Inner Planes, Demiplanes, or Prime Material Plane. Ethereal curtains never border the Outer Planes, because the Ethereal Plane itself does not border them.

Sources: 
Manual of the Planes (D&D 1.0)
Planescape Campaign Setting
A Guide to the Ethereal Plane
Nightmare Lands
Manual of the Planes (D&D 3.0)
Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.