Information > The Portals
No one knows anymore who built the series of doorways which litter the planet of Euphoria and connect the kingdoms. No one is sure how they work anymore either. Of course there are numerous theories, some of which are quite inventive. The angels built them from stones from their own palaces, the first kings and queens built them from blessed stones found deep beneath Tradkiel, aliens brought them as a gift during a galactic treaty.
Okay, so that third one is something I just completely made up and you can safely ignore it. However, there are many other things about the portals that you or your Warrior cannot afford to ignore.
The portals have existed for thousands upon thousands of years. Their intended purpose was to both aid the kingdoms with trade and communication and to allow the rulers of all kingdoms, no matter how distant, to attend the meetings at the Mount. Therefore, they -were- set up by the angels to facilitate ruling and peaceful unions. Such a resource was protected and guarded; most kingdoms had a keeper who would live near the portal. The keepers were not military but rather solid and trusted individuals who maintained calm pass books of travellers. Due to the nature of the portals and the tricks involved in working them, use was strictly controlled. They were reserved for royalty and diplomats and messengers with special exceptions made for merchants of perishable and far-travelling goods who received special dispensations from their kingdom's royalty to use the portals.
All of this free-flow between kingdoms ceased, however, upon the advent of the Great Battles. Kingdoms grew suspicious of each other and many portals were dismantled for a time. It was only after Lucifer and its allies fell that the portals were rebuilt and hesitant travel began once more. As the years passed, though, the portals were used less and less; unease still lingered between the so-called light and dark kingdoms and Euphorians tended to occupy themselves with matters closer to home.
As things moved along these lines, it is small wonder that the portals fell into disrepair. No keepers watched and cared for them; no royalty visited the Mount anymore. Weeds grew and stones fell. Pass books had been abandoned generations ago, lost and destroyed. Where once royal libraries and religious orders maintained detailed records of the codes needed to move between kingdoms, they no longer bothered. Decades passed and things decayed as the portals became less real and more mythic. Eventually, they existed only in stories and fables. A way to travel instantly between kingdoms? Amazing, magic, unheard of.
Centuries passed and most of the code books were misplaced and, as misplaced books fall apart if not taken care of, soon disintegrated. Very few remain at this point in time and those that do are pretty much complete mysteries to anyone staring at them. Series of random-seeming symbols dance across parchment, no logic or explanations as to where they belong. Those who dutifully copied the information had no understanding of what they saw.
The greatest form of angel-magic on the planet and no one remembers it as anything other than legend. Kind of sad, hm?
FACTS ON THE PORTALS
- The portals are actually more like elaborate yet simple pillars of worn grey stone set apart from each other by a span of five feet. The pillars themselves are a series of three cubes each, set one on top of another. Each cube is two feet all around, adding up to six foot tall pillars. There is a conical stone atop one and a sphere atop the other. The portals always face north-south and there is a north-facing three foot block against the left pillar when you face south to look at the arrangement; this is the pillar topped by the cone. The other pillar has an identical three foot block which is positioned to the west-facing side of the pillar; this pillar is topped by the sphere.
- The grey rock that forms the pillars is believed to have been mined below the third level of Canaan under the Zadkiel mountain range. There are only empty and decaying mines left, however. The rock itself is very hard and wears well; the symbols carved on the surfaces have lasted thousands of years. The Canaanites have begun experimenting to determine how they were carved, with thoughts towards setting up more portals.
- The symbols for activation and destination are all carved on the north-facing faces of the cubes. Ten symbols appear on each pillar.
- Destination codes consist of three symbols, pressed in a specific order.
- The activation of a portal requires more than just a code. Luckily for Euphoria and Canaan, hm? Either a Warrior or a so-called trigger stone must be at the site in order to activate the portal. The trigger stones are simple bits of a type of stone found in a vein that runs along that where the portal rock was quarried. It is jet black and polishes to a high gloss. In fact, the use of trigger stones is traced to the current Warrior of Midael's necklace; originally thought to only be the token by which she transformed, she discovered that carrying the necklace with its polished black stone allowed her Tradkielian companion, Ely, to travel through portals without her. Rare and difficult to mine without caving in the already hugely depleted portal rock mine shafts, most of the existing trigger stones are therefore guarded closely by the Canaanites.
- When a rebel leader at some outpost has proven themselves and has a large enough group to warrant it, the leader is given a trigger stone and a code. This code will never lead back to Canaan but it will take the leader and his group far from their original kingdom; it is for emergency use only. Fully-fledged Canaanites know more codes and can move and escort other rebel cells throught Euphoria if need be.
- There are FEW (as in, maybe, a grand total of two or three) of the old code books left on Euphoria. Most have been lost to time and decay; even more were lost to ignorance and forgetfulness. The few that still exist only as vagaries and relics, unfinished, unused, uknown. There are NO complete copies in general use. Almost no one would know what they were if they were lying around anyway. The Canaanites have been compiling their own list of codes and kingdoms and have one copy of their work deep in the caves. The scholar in charge of the book has orders to destroy it should it seem as if the Swarm might retrieve it. Needless to say, many of the Canaan leaders and rebels already have a sizeable portion of the codes memorized; Cahira and Ely, however, are most likely the only ones to know all of the portal codes so far discovered.
- Lastly, most importantly... These are legends and myths and, after your character finds out they are not... Well, this sort of magic should help in the war and angels help your kid if they endanger this slight advantage.