The Esfynor Ioria Portal

Construction and Purpose

The origins of the Esfynor Ioria Portal are tied up with the origins of the original Ioria Portal. The original Ioria Portal is a powerful, and dangerous device designed and used by the elves of Thysduin thousands of years ago. Built of knotted wood and vine, and infused with the magical energies of elven mages and of Thysduin itself. This portal was said to be able to give direct access to the realm of the Cacophony. A tumultuous noisome place where the fuel for all magic on Fyria is said to originate from.

This second Ioria Portal was supposedly constructed in the elven village of Esfynor, which itself is somewhere lost in the Jungles of Mijhail. Its location only being known to the elves that founded it and built the Esfynor Ioria Portal.
The Esfynor Ioria Portal was constructed in order for the elves to test the variations of magical energy dependent on differing values from the original.
Things like construction material and location were chief of mind when the elves decided to construct this second portal.
The material used, much like the original Ioria Portal was of wood and vine, but instead of being sourced from the naturally magical forests of Thysduin, they were sourced from the surrounding jungles in Mijhail. The reasoning behind this thought was to see if the difference in the quality of wood would have any effect on the strength and stability of the structure.
The selected location was also of importance, as the elven researchers wished to see if using a different magical wellspring would alter the power or effects of the portal. The original portal was designed with Elys Lenora's magical wellspring in mind and was designed to access the Cacophany, a realm of infinite energy.
It was theorized that a different location and a different wellspring could offer one of two differing effects.

The elves constantly sought out ways to improve upon their own technologies and foolishly tried to access Cacophany via the first Ioria Portal in Elys Lenora, the capital of Thysduin.
Instead, the action of the portal caused the demise of the elves of Thysduin. When the portal opened a flood of chaotic magic screamed through Elys Lenora, destroying a huge chunk of the city in a mere moment. But the worst was yet to come. The explosion left magical tears in the fabric of reality, gaps in between the realms, in which a foul plague poured through. This plague flowed through all of Thysduin, corrupting and killing all it touched. And in a matter of hours, the elves were gone.
The only survivors were those that weren’t on the plateau and those on the borders that were able to flee in time. Only a few thousand elves survived, and today no full-blooded elves are known to live on Fyria.

You can read the full story of the original Ioria Portal, and the demise of the elves here.

One theory was that different locations on the Fyria's side would grant access to different locations within the Cacophany, which would be a fantastic way to gain insight into the different locales of the noisome realm. Or the second theory which was that it may give access to or a view into a completely different realm altogether, another fascinating and thrilling possibility.
The construction of the portal began after the initial construction of the original Ioria Portal was nearing completion. It was thought that the first portal was assuredly going to work without fail, so construction on this second one was begun without much concern. Sadly, due to the sudden and dramatic effects of the first Ioria Portal, the Esfynor Portal was never completed. Though some believe that it is close enough to completion that it may be operable if some final tweaks are made.

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Potential Use and Danger

There are two schools of thought regarding this Ioria Portal. One with the belief being that the discovery of this portal could lead to the potential resurrection and use of elven technologies, using the bones of this portal and working backwards to try and learn the secrets of its construction. And the potential for repairing and activating the portal, with proper modifications to ensure catastrophic failures don’t occur. In order to open a window into the Cacophony, the dimensions in which all magic originates, so that it can be studied and understood.

An abstract depiction of the Cacophony and the energy it may hold

And the other school believes that this technology should only be located so that it can be properly dismantled and even destroyed. In order to ensure that no one accidentally recreates the circumstances that led to the demise of the elves and their entire culture. The plague that was unleashed killed millions, in mere hours, and has created a poisonous landscape that hasn’t been able to be traversed safely in thousands of years.
If something like that was activated in the Jungles of Mijhail, it could not only swallow up the jungles and its people but spread to nearby Ithosia, the Gnomish Lands, and even Heldrin which lies across a small mountain range to the west. Some even theorize that the only reason that the plague didn’t progress farther than Thysduin, is because their lands sit on a plateau entirely surrounded by deep gorges. So, the plague only spilled over into these gorges and wasn’t able to roll into other territories. The Plateau of Thysduin is the only area in Fyria that has this feature, making the rest of the continent far more susceptible if a second plague were to be released.

Summary

A second Ioria Portal was being constructed by the elves in order to test if the location and materials used would affect the technologies operation and effect. The original Ioria portal was built with Thysduin-sourced wood and vine and was powered both by mages and by a wellspring of magic located underneath Thysduin’s capital, Elys Lenora. The Missing Ioria Portal reportedly used wood and vine sourced from the Jungles of Mijhail and was placed atop a similarly powered, though not quite as strong as Elsy Lenora's, wellspring.
This Missing Ioria Portal is said to reside within the Lost Village of Esfynor. Historians have been searching frantically for this village and the rumoured portal for a variety of reasons. One is that it is a possibly surviving example of elven high technology. And two, because historians specializing in the elven culture know that the first Ioria Portal led to the downfall of the elves. And that this second one could pose a risk to the entire southern coast.

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A depiction of the Elsfynor Ioria Portal by a local Mijhail artist

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Inventor(s)

The Elves of Thysduin

Parent Technologies

The Ioria Portal  

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