To this day, even then brightest minds of Sarnout have not reached a definitive conclusion about what the Astral is. However, the prevailing view in the scientific community revolves around the following postulate: the Astral is a quasi-plane of pure mana. It is considered a quasi-plane, because it's speculated, that before the Great Cataclysm, the Astral encapsulated the world and it's theoreticised that mana seeped naturally through the Liminal Plane's pores just as today, the various spiritual energies and essences emanate into our world through the spots of interconnection between the realms. But when the Great Cataclysm unleashed, the energies of it shook the fabric violently, drowning the Home Plane in the flood of mana.