Portals

"Did you brought what I told you to?" says a purple haired woman to Pasha and he nods. "Good, you are aware of the dangers of a portal right? Did you bid farewell your pet just in case?"

"She's not a pet. And yes, I know the dangers, I've heard plenty of times how people got cut in half while crossing a portal, can we just do this and avoid the chit-chat, Echo?"

As with magic, portals started appearing since The dawn of magic. These have been unstable and unpredictable, more usually causing problems than anything.

Manifestation

"Why did I had to bring that thing?" asks Pasha while Echo puts it to the ground and cast some spells that Pasha never saw before.

"That thing is your anchor to this world. I will use that to bring you back if something goes wrong. And don't worry about the magic, unlike you all, my magic does not come from the world but from myself and the gods, so these spells will not be altered by the world."

"Why don't we go to your place if something goes wrong?"

"I think people deserve a second chance, but I will not risk my home and my friends to be hurt twice. Your only option is the anchor, you can leave if you don't like it"

"You won't get rid of me so easily, many people depend on me and I can't fail them. This is something I need to do or my people will be in danger." says Pasha, playing with their fingers.

Portals may appear in any shape and form, activated or not. They appear at times that seem random and stay for an unknow amout of time, from seconds to years, and in random places at any level (might spawn inside rock, partly inside a tree, or even floating in the sky, portals that are accessible and on the ground are rare). Portals can be natural or made by people.

Anchors

Anchors is something used to attempt to came back to Iphars from whatever other place the portal took one to. This needs to have at least one powerful mage in Iphars, next to the portal with an anchor. This, as with all magic, does not always work, but it has a high chance to work and its better than having nothing.

For an anchor to work though, the person who is linked to must be alive, so if the mage tries to call back the person but they are already death, the anchor does not work and, depending on how it was build, might signal the mage that it is not linked anymore as the linked person has died. Some anchors destroy themselves when losing their link.

Brown dried leaves on ground

"How did you find that portal?" Pasha watched carefully how Echo was activating the portal.

"I did not find it, created it. It is impossible to find a portal unless its by luck, and you do not seem to have enough time for luck, your whole city is trusting you with this."

Pasha fell to their knees and throw up while Echo tottered a bit.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" screamed Pasha to Echo, not paying attention to their surroundings.

"That was the experience of crossing a portal in Iphars. That world is filled with wild magic, and that effects portals as well. But ignoring that, I welcome you back to Ashtara. I hope you still can fly." said Echo before jumping a cliff and flew to a nearby island.

Destination

The destination is often unknow, even for artificial portals (although they are more "safe"), as the wild magic of Iphars interferes on their travel. Common destionations are the other planes of the universe although some people asure they have traveled to a shattered world made of floating islands in the void. Sometimes, a single portal can bring people to different places if entered in different times.

Crossing a portal is not something pleasant to do. People who survived a portal and came back to tell explain very different feelings, from headache to feeling their heart explode. Melgent have explained that portals in the other world do not cause such disconforts or pains and thus it is believed that these disconforts are caused by the wildness of the magic in Iphars.

Activating

Activating is easy to do once you know how to, the problem is that each portal is different from each others and may need a different way to be activated. Some portals have it easy, being themselves already activated when appearing. Some have the method to be opened carved on themselves, although not always in languages know to ipharians or Melgent. The other portals, the ones without inscriptions or without being activated, are very hard to open or even impossible as they have to be opened by trial and error and a lot of luck.

Surroundings

These portals are known to change their surroundings, be it with magic corruption, with disasters that come from the other sides, or by being surrounded by creatures that crossed the portal and called their home that same spot. It is know that if a portal spawns on air, floating, it will create a small platform around itself; these platforms usually stay there once the portal disappeared. There is even a case of an underwater portal creating an air bubble around it, which stayed there after it disappeared.