Astral Plane

Upon Yuriba, the Astral Plane does not work as many mystics consider it to in other places, owing to the island's state as a dimensional constant across numerous planes of existence, yet maintaining some degree of planar separateness. This leaves the area typically accessed through Astral Projection to it's own devices, a clear 'disconnect' from the greater, universal 'Astral Plane' at large. Though travel is possible between the two for the skilled, the natural 'end' to the island's plane can easily be found.

Religious Association

Priestesses of Zokutou hold that the astral plane came into existence when the Goddess herself did, making it's existence possibly older than the island itself. Her governance over 'the space between' makes the astral very strongly her place, it considered by the native religion to be the place between reality and dreams, or life and death. While there is little consensus about what the Astral Plane within other universes and realities looks like; some calling it a place of nothingness, others insisting that it looks just like what the traveler to it wishes for it to, one general belief mirrors how the Yuriban Astral appears, that which says that the Astral is simply a spiritual copy of earth. The Yuriban Astral has been described by the Sentry Ella as the island's memories, and as such looks like the island itself, with many locations currently existing upon the physical also existing there, though buildings and natural formations and items exist there which no longer have a counterpart on the physical. This is because the Yuriban Astral is less affected by the traveler to it rather than the emotional impact of happenings upon the physical; should a building have been created with great love and emotion put into it's building, or strong emotion linked to a location or object, it will simply one day appear and there exist for a longer period of time upon the Yuriban Astral than it may in the physical, eventually fading away as even the long memory of the island forgets.

Notably, this is not limited to positive memories, places of great trauma or dark energy have their place upon the Yuriban Astral as well, and frequently can be the causes of 'haunting' or other negative occurrences upon the physical counterpart location. It seems that it is the Sentry Ella's task to gradually cleanse these places of darkness and help the island 'move past the hurt', much like the Priestesses of Zokutou help people move beyond things in their lives.

Regions

The Yuriban Astral is generally split into two distinct regions, the 'Island Memory' and the Mists.

Island Memory

The region known as the 'island memory' would be the more direct reflection of the island itself. This is the region most strongly associated with Zokutou and where her Sentry patrols. Not quite identical to the physical island, there are homes, buildings like shrines, trees, stones, and natural formations which exist within the memory which no longer exist in the physical, and those which do exist in the physical tending to keep a younger, more well kept appearance than the physical counterpart. The magical wards placed by The Lady overlap into the island memory, perhaps even stronger there than within the physical, keeping the regions which are inaccessible within the physical similarly so within the astral. The boundaries of the island memory reach well out into the ocean; should one upon the astral travel away from the astral version of the island into the water, they would find a great distance able to be traveled before seeming to hit a 'loop'; basically, should one travel east out into the ocean on the Yuriban Astral they would eventually find themselves landing upon the western shore of the island, no discernible place where the movement to the other side occurs. Visibility within the Island Memory is somewhat restricted; while one can see the mountains from Yuriba Park while on the physical, the mountains are shrouded in mist when visiting the park in the Yuriban Astral, visibility only extending roughly a half a mile in any given direction. There seems to be no day or night with the sky hidden by the mist, the realm held within perpetual twilight or dawn, though the seasons do happen there at the same time they do upon the physical, albeit delayed a day or two from the main change.

The Mists

Reachable only by travel through the Island Memory, the exact method of getting to The Mists is largely unknown and difficult, as the Mist, while always seen while traveling upon the Island Memory, is always just out of one's reach. Believed to be the home of the Goddesses, the Mists are also believed to be the place between the pockets of existence in Underhill, making Underhill something of a part of the Yuriban Astral. Belief holds that the Mourning Bats are capable of crossing into the Mists by traveling into the Island Memory in order to bring the souls of the dead to Zokutou, making the Mist less a part of the Astral and more the true other side of existence, leaving the Island Memory as the true between of the physical and spiritual.

Travel To

Immigrants who are skilled with Astral Travel in their places of origin can often find travel to the Yuriban Astral all but impossible. Many who can reach it find it completely unlike what they know, and while it is possible to travel to and reach the more traditional Astral, that is even more difficult than reaching the Yuriban Astral itself. Little study has been done on the energy, spiritual or magical makeup of the Yuriban Astral, it's very nature seeming to defy quantification. Though it is considered Zokutou's realm, very few of her Priestesses have ever traveled to it, there seeming to be no study or known method of how to do so among the Priestesses. For those who can travel to it, there seems no uniform method or magical spell used to travel there. If there are two people who use the exact same method, one may be able to reach it and the other unable, making it near impossible for those who can get there to teach others how. Some believe it requires Zokutou's favor in order to travel there, others believe there to be something about a person physically which may prevent crossing over. Another theory to the difficulty of crossing is that there may be something in a person's life holding them back, requiring them to learn from Zokutou and her teachings, to advance their life before they may cross.