This article is one entry in the Traversing Terrains series of articles. Below you will find 33 read-aloud descriptions that can be used while traveling through planar terrain.
Astral brume fluxes wildly around a octagonal stellate archway leading into what appears to be a solid black marble structure, a perfect cube with a large silver-veined obelisk rising high above the small building. The tip of the spire gleams like a tiny sun.
A strange varicolored fog rolls across the ground, small pulses of light flashing beneath the drifting cohesion of misty tendrils. Each illumination is followed by the faint sounds of tiny bells reverberating in an oscillating chime and occasional high-pitched giggling.
A loud crackling sound is followed by a dopplering echo which repeats until beyond the edge of earshot. A moment of silence is preceded by the reverse as the echo returns, growing louder with each pass, culminating in one final encore of the original crackling sound.
Towering humanoid shapes of transitioning hue lumber across the distant star-strewn horizon, their faces are indiscernible and constantly shifting features and expressions as they follow one another in a staggered swaying march into the dark nothingness beyond.
A slowly rotating maelstrom of stars fills the heavens above, the glinting astral pinpoints spiraling around a singular void of pitch nothingness. As each star reaches the edge of the abyss, its light flickers with brilliant cerulean flash before it is consumed by the darkness.
A massive pyramid of solid translucent crystal distorts the lucid lilac glow of the horizon bending lines into sharp angles that refract violet hued light in a miasma of distortions upon the ground around it.
A seemingly impossibly large tree towers high overhead, its gnarled branches laden with prismatic forked leaves. Several of the larger branches curve back and burrow into the earth below like roots, providing convenient passage to the upper bows of the arboreal titan.
A chromatic river of flowing crystal shards pours across a bleak obsidian landscape, the undulating waves of calcite creating a symphony of discord as they clink against one another en masse.
A distant scattering sound arises as a veil of opaque white obscures the world beyond. The sound grows louder and overwhelming as a rain of nacreous drops washes across the landscape.
A small island of bright incarnadine floats above a landscape of deep plum-hued sands. The fiery mound levitates with a slow oscillation, slowly turning to reveal a gnarled tree with shimmering silver leaves, the plant rooted firmly into the skyborne boulders.
A massive white marble archway stands alone, tilted at the edge of a barren cliff that drops off into a void of stars and cosmic dust. However, through the arch can be seen a distant locale of lush green jungle accented by a spray of vibrant flowering vegetation.
Deep in a forest of polychromatic trees, a grove empties to a clearing where the wreckage of a galleon is mysteriously plunged into the earth, its stern extends skewed towards the sky while its bow had been deeply buried below. Tattered sails whip in an erratic breeze.
A featureless black sphere slowly levitates across the sky, its void surrounded by a multitude of sigil-etched aural rings that spin and rotate around the massive central orb. A deep thrumming hum can be felt more than heard as the object slowly drifts overhead.
Streaks of azure light beam across darkened skies in erratic angles forming a riotous network of glowing blue lines that fill the heavens from horizon-to-horizon. The blue glow fades to a gentle luminescence to reveal pulses of brighter ivory light traversing the mysterious web.
A large craggy pit burrows deep into the stony ground, razorlike talon outcroppings piercing its core as it descends to a pool of rippling light deep within. A cool and constant wind erupts from the opening manifesting an unending otherworldly howl as it escapes.
Etched deeply into the ground is a massive spiral that extends across a flat expanse of earth, the smooth-edge groove three feet in depth. At the bottom, a shallow stream of sanguine fluid flows with tumultuous current, hues of carmine and crimson swirling in the undertow.
In the distance beyond a veil of orchid-hued mist rises a magnificent city of gold and ivory, its structures towering in curvaceous organic form. Gleaming spires of light reach from the city center towards the soft morning glow kissing a sky laden with darkly layered clouds.
A gargantuan grey marble statue depicting a nude woman wreathed in strangling vines of thorn casts its shadow across the still landscape, the expression upon her visage indiscernible between agony or euphoria as the figure languidly reaches one entwined arm towards the sky.
A whirl of glimmering rubicund lofts upward from beneath an enormous quadrupteric moth as its iridescent light-limned wings downstroke to loft the particolored creature into a staggered ascension. As it takes flight, a train of sparkling flush lingers, slowly dissipating, in its wake.
The apex of a bluff drops to an endless expanse of dark indigo clouds that drift across a brume-obscured landscape. Quick flashes of white light momentarily illuminate the surrounding stygian miasma forming a mystifying display of unpredictable phosphorescence.
Dunes of countless varicolored pebbles meander across a vista dimly illuminated by a trio of softly hued moons. Moonglow reflected off the surfaces of the enumerable stones creates the illusion of a cosmic sweep brimming with glistening stars.
White grass spills across a rolling landscape where the sky features only the faintest of porcelain blues across its wide expanse; but as the eye travels more and more of the flora, and seemingly fauna too, are all pale shades of ivory or white. A single blood red stag bounds into view from within the ivory forest, standing stock still briefly before darting off back into the trees.
As the breeze kicks and swirls, petals of a medley of hues picks up from nowhere then swirls to create a whipping whirlwind of colours. Then, when the wind dies down, the petals slowly drift back to the earth where they dissolve into the sedge below – staining wherever they land with their chromatic dye.
A soft chiming rings out across the canopy of pale blue leaves, the sound almost echoing between the trees as if the limbs themselves were creating the music. As if by some unheard cue, a giant eclipse of glimmering silvery blue moths take flight from every tree in view and flutter off in a phosphorescent cloud of light – leaving every tree bare of what had once been leaves.
Barren land stretches wide across a dark terrain only made more shadowed by the duet of bloody moons. Standing isolated and forlorn, a reaching spire of pure ivory splits the horizon like a dagger blade haloed in the mark of its victims.
Biolume glimmers its way up a series of floating boulders like an undulous tide of light, and at its apex rests a piece of land floating high above, crowned in a temple that has seen better days. Tattered banners of deep red wave limply in the lack of wind, the emblem it once held indiscernible from the fabric itself.
A door stands open in the middle of nothingness, to either side of its frame lie nothing but winding hills and mountains in the distance, the elaborate oak carvings heavily detailed to depict a fierce battle between what looks to be cats in armor. Viewed through the doorway itself, a cozy rustic room blazes a small fire near a shaggy wool rug and a chair; occupying the wingback is a cat sitting much like a human with a book in his lap.
Ivory and ruby hued grass sways lightly in a soft breeze from the west, its scent one of delicate florals and something darker; a musk that provokes thoughts of danger. Above, a brief flash of lightning illuminates what can only be described as a god-like serpent’s silhouette in the clouds, most of its appearance is shrouded but the sudden strike of electricity giving life to the once unseen danger in the sky.
Set off a strangely woven path of reeds and black stones, a mottled and moulded reed hut boasts a beaded doorway that conceals the interior from the outside. Once within, the walls are covered in a variety of what seem to be bleached skulls – each one containing a different pair of stones within its eye sockets.
The deep black of a winding river perfectly reflects the star-laden sky above until it looks like a galactic spill of the cosmos across the night darkened land. Growing massive along one bank, a silvery weeping willow is alight with dancing orbs of various pastel hues; the soft rustle of the tree’s leaves interrupted by the sound of fluttering wings and tiny giggles.
Stepping towards the ledge of a ravine reveals a bottomless drop below, the sound of what seems to be water crashing only echoes upward with no visual cause for it. Barely visible across the large crevasse, a set of bridge stakes match the ones nearby, but no ropes can be found.
A black sand beach stretches towards a series of sheer cliffs occupied currently by a roost of pale blue birds, each pair huddled against the dark grey stone. Waters the color of grass in spring crash gently against the sand to create fluffy foam that curls outward like vines before dissipating into nothing. The soft cry of the gulls above adding to the song of the coast.
Stingray-like creatures drift lazily through the sky far above where the ocean begins, their long tails instead a flare of a diamond with ruffled edges to match their ‘wings’ – giving lift to the floating avians. Polychromatic clouds drift by steadily, smaller birds murmuring past briefly before scattering off in different directions as the stingray passes through the flock unbothered.