The Gray
In the second edition AD&D version of Dark Sun, the Gray was described as a buffer zone on Athas that acts as a barrier between Athas's Prime Material Plane and its Ethereal and Astral Planes. It is much weaker on the Ethereal side where it is easier to breach. On the Astral side it is almost impenetrable. Spellcasters seeking access to these planes (or the outer and inner planes beyond) must attempt to breach The Gray.
The dead of Athas end up here after they die and are caught in an eddy and gradually fade away to nothing. When someone asks the spirits of the dead dwelling in the Gray where they are they reply "nowhere" and when asked who they are they reply "no one." They can however prolong their existence by dedicating themselves to a cause which is greater than themselves.
The Thri-Kreen of Athas supplement states that the Thri-Kreen instead have a heaven in the Beastlands (Happy Hunting Grounds) and a cold hell in Baator (the nine hells), which are both traditional D&D outer planes.
Read more about this topic: Dark Sun
Famous quotes containing the word gray:
“No rival will steal away my sure love; that glory will be my gray hair.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)
“Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You’ve got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)