Where is an Eidolon when it isn't Manifested?

[Serum]

An eidolon can telepathically communicate with you at all times, even when it isn't manifested. Can it perceive the world around you as the summoner, or is it purely a mental connection?

Of the four types of eidolon presented in the playtest, the Angel is considered an actual angel, and the Dragon is an echo from the Astral Plane. I would think that they would exist in Nirvana / Astral Plane when they're not manifested. Based on the 1E Spritualist, the Phantom comes from the Ethereal plane and exists there when it isn't manifested. The Beast seems to have come from "nature", which doesn't give me much idea where they would exist aside from the first world, or maybe as some disembodied form on the material plane.

Has there been any treatment to this in the past, with, for example where Sarkorian God-Caller Eidolons exist when they're not with their summoner? I thought there was a series of stories that included a god-caller with a brilliant coloured bear eidolon, but I can't find it anymore.

[Snes]

It would make sense if it was inside your head, as it were. There's a lot of that in fiction: a powerful being taking residence inside a character's mind, commenting on what happens and engaging in conversations that seem one-way to anyone watching them.

[Deriven Firelion]

Like Bleach. They should make an eidolon weapon that you can use as a weapon with powers and then turn into an eidolon level weapon at some later time. That would be pretty cool.

Bankai.

[Asethe]

As written, unmanifested eidolons may not exist anywhere. They are not dragons, angels, demons, beasts, whatever; they are beings formed from essence that resemble these creatures.

While they are manifest, they are the thing you believe they are. While not manifest, they might just be in your head, or maybe a pocket dimension

[Kuroko-chan]

Asethe wrote:

As written, unmanifested eidolons may not exist anywhere. They are not dragons, angels, demons, beasts, whatever; they are beings formed from essence that resemble these creatures.

While they are manifest, they are the thing you believe they are. While not manifest, they might just be in your head, or maybe a pocket dimension

"Your eidolon is a celestial messenger, a member of the angelic host with a unique link to you, allowing them to carry a special message to the mortal world at your side.

[...]

The two of you are destined for an important role in the plans of the celestial realms. Though a true angel, your angel eidolon’s link to you as a mortal prevents them from casting the angelic messenger ritual, even if they somehow learn it."

At the absolute least, the Angel is a real angel, not something made up in the image of one. There's no reason to believe when not manifest in the material realm they don't just go back to whatever plane they originated on. Considering you have to have it physically manifest for it to project its sense with Share Sense would imply it doesn't live in your head. So either a pokeball or it just goes home.

[graystone]

I'm more curious where the Summoner goes during Synthesis...

[Sedoriku]

His matter used as building blocks of the eidolon? I mean it saves power having to generate even more mass?

[ShadowFighter88]

Well if there's ever an Archon eidolon (so a sibling to the Angel, basically) aligned with Cayden Cailean, then in their case I'd say down the celestial pub. :P

[Rosc]

Well a 20th level class feat implies that your eidolon has its own life in its own home plane when it isn't serving you. I feel like there's a lot of missed potential when addressing the idea of what things are like for your eidolon, who it knows, what it does.

I'm entertained by the idea of a noble eidolon who actually holds sway in the City of Brass or some kind of celestial library or whatnot. What if they could call in favors? What if their own affairs lead to issues the party could solve? Tons of plot hooks there.

[beowulf99]

I'd imagine that what we have of the Eidolons is an incomplete picture of their fiction at best presently. Just enough to get through a playtest anyway.

Hopefully, there is far more detailed and nuanced lore for Eidolons when Secrets of Magic comes out. For now we can guess that the Eidolon goes "somewhere" and that that information just isn't what Paizo thinks is important for playtesting the class as is.

I'd like to see much more than 2-3 paragraphs describing each one at the very least, along with answering questions like this.

[siegfriedliner]

So going off the descriptions for each eidolon

An angel ediolon is in nirvana with doing Angelic messenger stuff whist your not summoning them.

A beast ediolon is busy being a pool of of life force until you manifest it.

The devotion phantom is chilling somewhere between the ethereal and real world.

The dragon eidolon is a smear of formless draconic cognition on the astral plane when you aren't summoning it.

[RexAliquid]

I read those more as descriptions for where eidolons come from before bonding with the summoner. Once the bond is formed, they don't really go back "home". My thoughts:

Angel- Always there, like a guardian angel, but only the summoner can see/interact with them until they manifest into a physical form.

Beast- more of an invisible presence around the summoner. Every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit (has a name). The summoner draws in and manifests that energy into a specific creature form as an eidolon.

Phantom- phantoms canonically reside in the summoner's (spiritualist's) mind. They are a voice in your head/ presence in your mindscape until manifested into ectoplasm form.

Dragons- dragons powerful enough to create Astral echoes probably established their own demiplane in the Astral ether. Degraded from disuse, but stabilized through the summoner bond. There is a possibility of wondrous treasure to be glimpsed from a long-ago dragon's hoard.