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An Umbral traveler can spend all her time wandering the Penumbra, but most mystics eventually venture off into the more varied world of the Near Umbra. Realms in the Near Umbra have no direct link to any place on Earth and geography ceases to have any real meaning. In fact, earthly notions of time and space do not have as much bearing in the Near Umbra, and travel through this region can be confusing indeed.

Reaching the Near Umbra can be a non-trivial task. There are places in the Penumbra that lead deeper into the spiritual world. These paths are many, but most mystics know only a few. It takes knowledge to find an Umbral path, and an ignorant traveler can walk right by one without ever knowing it.

Usually these paths are associated with a particular kind of spiritual energy. The start of such paths can be found in places exhibiting that kind of power. The mystic can enter the path by focusing on the energy of the path rather than the energy of the Penumbra. As she moves away from the site, she will see the Penumbra fade away and find herself on the Umbral Path instead. A few Umbral Paths are of such strength that they will be readily visible in the Penumbra, as some sort of gate into another world.

Once in the Near Umbra, distance has little meaning. The traveler must follow the path he has chosen, and go where it leads. The journey can be long or short, but there seems little rhyme or reason to distances within the Near Umbra. Happily, the Near Umbra itself is not a hostile environment, and the traveler should be reasonably safe. Safe, that is, unless they encounter some of the potentially hostile spirits that walk those same paths.

Most of the Near Umbra is a place to travel through, rather than a destination. Scattered through the Near Umbra are various Umbral Realms. These Realms are like worlds of their own, separated from the rest of the Near Umbra by a thin Gauntlet called a Pericarp. The Near Umbral Realms, often called Near Realms, are usually related to the Earth in some way. They vary wildly in size and nature, and can be rather bizarre, but travelers from Earth can usually make some sort of sense of them, given time.

In the Near Umbra, the distinction between the Three Worlds is the strongest. The types of paths that lead into and through the High, Middle and Low Umbras are very different. It takes power and knowledge to chose the right one.

The Near Living Umbra

The Near Living Umbra is a realm criss-crossed with a variety of paths. The Garou are most familiar with Moon Paths, roads formed out of solid moonlight. These paths are more bright, solid and reliable when the moon is full, but at such times they are traveled by Lunar spirits, who may or may not be friendly. When the moon is waning, the paths are thin, dark and hard to follow, and the traveler risks getting lost.

Also crossing the Near Umbra is the Pattern Web, a manifestation of the Weaver. Some mystics believe the Web is the foundation of reality, holding everything together. The wary traveler can make her way along its strands to her destination. The Weaver jealously guards her web, and Weaver spirits patrol the Web's span. In addition, there are places where the Web is sticky and the traveler can get caught.

It is rumored that the Wyrm has tunnels through or "beneath" the Living Umbra, dark paths for its minions. They are said to be rough hewn, almost chewed in appearance, and in places filled with pools of toxic sludge. If the tunnels exist, they must be very dangerous to follow.

Aside from Moon Paths and the structures of the Weaver and Wyrm, the primary method for navigating the Near Living Umbra is to have a spirit guide of some sort. Many spirits have a natural ability, called the Airt Sense, that allows them to sense the proper direction to any place in the Umbra. They can travel off the main paths, directly to their destination.

Occasionally, mystics may find frequently traveled Spirit Tracks, where many spirits have passed. The mystic can follow these to whatever destination the spirit was headed towards. Some mystics travel by seeking a spiritual inhabitant of a particular Realm and following it in the hope that it will lead to such a Spirit Track.

There are innumerable minor paths through the Near Living Umbra as well. Some of these paths connect specific Near Realms. Others have been constructed by some group of spirits or another. Some of these minor paths are hidden, and most are difficult to find.

Off the paths, the Near Living Umbra is a morass of formless mist. This mist can vary in character: sometimes it is a dense fog, others times like clouds. Occasionally it will clear completely, and the traveler will see blue (or night) sky in all directions, with clouds here and there. Without guidance, the mystic floats aimlessly through the Living Umbra, until he stumbles on one of the paths, some Near Realm or back to the Penumbra.

For more details on the paths through the Living Umbra, see the Werewolf book, pg. 176-7, or Umbra: the Velvet Shadow, pg. 23-5.

Near Astral Plane

Author's Note: This entire section is speculative. If you don't like this material, you might have travel in the Astral Plane resemble travel in the Living Umbra instead.

The High Umbra, or Astral Plane, is a realm of ideas. Its Near Umbra is laced with paths as well. Like the Living Umbra, the Astral Plane has Spirit Guides, Spirit Tracks and various Minor Paths. It also has major byways of its own.

The "paths" of the Astral Plane are not the sort of things one simply walks along. Astral Paths are conceptual in nature. The mystic "travels" along Astral Paths be changing their mental states. As their mental state changes, so does the scenery around them. The mystic seeks out the proper mental state that allows her to "arrive" at whatever Umbral Realm she seeks.

Many novice travelers in the Astral Umbra are fooled by the seeming simplicity of this method of travel, and let their minds wander wildly, hoping to arrive rapidly at the their destination. Such methods can get the traveler lost very quickly. By moving too fast, the Astral traveler can lose firmness of thought and end up nowhere.

The seasoned Astral traveler will move slowly and cautiously, carefully building up the necessary conceptual framework piece by piece. The mystic will focus on developing a single aspect of his image of his destination, making certain he has a solid hold on it before working on the next aspect. This method can take hours, days or even weeks of careful meditation, but the journey will be safe and sure.

There are several recognized paths or methods of moving through the Astral Umbra. The first is the Path of Form, the Low Path, and it is easiest to follow. The mystic simply builds up a visual image of the Realm that is his destination, and moves towards it in this manner. This path is simple to understand, but the mystic must already know a great deal about his destination, he must know exactly what it looks like, before he can attempt to reach it. Even small details left out of the mystic's visualization can move him to the wrong place.

The Middle Path is the Heart Path, or the Path of Emotion. It is the path Dreamspeakers, Verbena and Stargazers (werewolves) most often follow. Travelers on the Heart Path try to put themselves in the correct emotional state or mood to reach a certain destination. They seek to make their mental state embody the nature of the Realm to which they are traveling. In the proper mind set, the mystic is drawn to a Realm as if by a gravitational force. The mystic must strain to maintain the proper mental state until they arrive at their destination, however.

The High Path is the Path of Ideals. This path is the most flexible, but also the most difficult to understand. Rather than seeking to visualize her destination directly, the mystic seeks instead to find certain symbolic concepts associated with her destination. When seeking a Realm of Cold, the mystic might seek out Ice or North, or symbols associated with these concepts — such as a chemical equation for an ice lattice or road signs pointing north. Hermetic mages visualize certain arcane symbols associate with their destination. The mystic refines her symbol set until it exactly represents the desired Realm, at which point she arrives. This path is most useful for exploring the Astral Umbra, by combining different symbolic forms to arrive at a new place.

Some mystics believe that any Realm conceivable can be reached in the Astral Plane, given enough time. While this may be true, it is not easy. Certain large Astral Realms have a sort of "gravitational" pull. As the mystic's thought-state approaches that of the larger Realms, even just in passing, she finds herself drawn toward the Realm and only firm concentration will hold the mystic away. This draw can be useful as well, as the mystic need only get within a certain "distance" of her destination before her thoughts are naturally pulled into the state which will cause her to arrive.

In addition, frequent travel to certain Realms has cut Furrows or tracks of a sort in the Astral Plane. A mystic whose mental construct crosses one of these Furrows may find her train of thought stuck in a rut. She will naturally be drawn along the thought path of that particular Furrow, until she reach the Realm at the end of that path. It takes a great deal of mental energy to "jump out" of such a Furrow, and back toward her original destination. On the other hand, Furrows can be very useful if the mystic can find one headed toward the correct Realm, as they make the task of concentration much easier.

Finally, there are numerous minor paths through the Astral Umbra. Minor Astral paths consist of a collection of mental states one must follow to reach a specific Realm. Mystics catalog these thought patterns for use in future travel. The knowledgeable mystic can reach a given Realm by visualizing the fixed sequence of symbols, visions and emotions of these minor paths.

Off the beaten track, the Astral Umbra is a formless white void, a blank slate of sorts. The mystic can stumble for a long time through the trackless white, occasionally coming across loose thought-forms which fade as suddenly as they appear. After enough searching the mystic will eventually get back to one of the established paths, Realms or the Penumbra.

Giving the complexity of Astral travel, many mystics acquire some sort of guide, spirit or otherwise. When traveling in groups, the most experienced traveler leads. The leader concentrates on the necessary thought paths, while the rest of the group keeps their minds relaxed. The followers will find they are drawn forward in the leader's mental wake, and need make no effort to travel. Groups that all try to concentrate on their destination may find that minor variations in their thought patterns will draw them in different directions.

Certain Umbral travelers, particularly Technocratic mages, finds the conceptual method of traveling the Astral Plane bizarre and repulsive. These travelers often build some sort of Astral vessel for use in plumbing the depths of the High Umbra. These Astral vessels have psychic hardware that handle all the necessary conceptualization of travel. The pilots of these vessels need only enter a set of coordinates and the Astral vessel will move toward the correct Realm. Astral vessels, with their mechanical thinking, cut particularly deep Furrows, and their rapid transit can cause violent eddies in the Astral plane. Other mystics are horrified at the degree to which Astral vessels pollute the rest of the Astral Plane.

The Near Tempest

Of the Three Worlds, the Near Umbra of the Lower World is by far the harshest. Known as the Tempest, it is a bleak and untameable realm, tossing the hapless traveler hither and yon. A traveler without the necessary knowledge has no control whatsoever over how he moves in the Tempest. He can only hope that the violent storms of that realm will eventually toss him on some stable shore. Some never find safety.

Most of the Tempest consists of a vast storm. Sometimes the mere threat of a downpour lies on the Horizon. Other times the storm bursts forth in full fury. This storm rages over a variety of landscapes, all of them dreary. Sometimes the Tempest is a murky black sea, barren desert, an impenetrable swamp, a dense, foreboding forest or a forsaken moor. The terrain shifts from one type to another with little rhyme or reason, and none of them seem to lead anywhere.

Only the knowledgeable traveler can navigate the Tempest. Wraiths that are trained in the art of Argos, known as Harbingers, are familiar with the subtle pulls and patterns of the Tempest, and can find their way through the murk. Most travelers are forced to rely on a Harbinger or spirit guide. The fabled Ferrymen of the Tempest are the most sought after, for they are the surest and safest guides, though it is said their price can be steep.

There are a few paths, known as Byways, that the dead have built through the Tempest. Byways are solid roads through the storm and can be followed by anyone. Most Byways go from one specific Realm in the Tempest to another, and they are often patrolled by those with an interest in it. Many Byways lead to Stygia, an immense city of the dead and capital of the Iron Kingdom, Empire of the Western dead. The Tempest erodes the Byways, and they require constant maintenance. It is said that only dead souls have enough plasmic solidity to hold against the storm for long, and this is the material of choice for construction in the Underworld.

One other stable path through the Tempest is the river Styx. It is said the Styx is mystically connected to every stream and river in the living world. The Styx forms a comparatively safe and stable route through much of the Tempest. The dead have in fact formed small communities along its shores, and traders ply its waters. At the mouth of the Styx lies the city Stygia, and its soldiers will patrol the lower waters of the river for intruders and enemies.

For more information on the Tempest, see the Wraith rules, pg. 39, or The Sea of Shadows, pg. 19-37.