Gatekeepers of the Dolmens

[15 mins] - An organization considered cruel or monstrous by some.
There has been a lot of debate behind closed doors about whether the dolmen keepers should in fact restrict travel through portals at all. For the restriction is one way -- certainly no known visitor to our world has been turned away, explicitly (though the gate keepers do ensure that the travelers are aware of changing physics, magics, and cross-dimensional travel's potential ramifications on physical and mental stability before letting them pass into Nioshi).
Explorers, as a whole, are not elite; anyone can become an interworld traveler, either as a profession or as a personal journey. There is no specific schooling for it, if you do not count joining the canonry (where a basic understanding is taught to all neophytes).
However, the sheer level of bureaucracy reinforced separately by the Order of the Four Winds and the Quarrykeepers of the Stone Caves in their respective jurisdictions is recognized far and wide as a general hindrance, enough of an inconvenience to mean that only those who really, really want to visit other worlds subject themselves to.
Within the airfae portal jurisdictions, for example, one must request an appointment to consult with the Oracle secretary to receive permission from the Order of the Four Winds to procure passage into the areas where the dolmens lie (the areas, not the dolmens, being restricted to clergy). Considering the amount of time it takes to schedule an appointment, and how far in advance a meeting must be scheduled - for a great many things require review by the Oracle committee extendign beyond portal travel - it can be assured that we're talking several months at minimum to expect waiting.
Then there is the matter of assuring the royal house of your faehood that you do not intend to trade in the secrets, magics, or strategic intelligence of your species with the people of other worlds, nor will you trade in any powers (of magic or superlative ability) that you may possess while under the influence of otherworld physics while you can be identified as a representative of your species either by direct communication or unavoidable attribution. If your purpose of travel is trade, you are generally required to sign a waiver to the purpose that you will adopt a disguise so that you cannot be identified as any fae species (most travelers do their best to disguise their differences from the culture into which they enter as a matter of course, as there is always some unpredictability in the welcome other worlds have for otherworld visitors).
A small proportion of the population, when polled, suggest that travel portal should be unhindered, with passage free and open to all, with no body of authority to monitor the comings and goings of any portal. They argue that every traveler has an innate right to privacy, to control and obscure their own comings and goings, and that it is the right of any free-moving individual to use the portals given to us by this world since the dawn of faestory. They argue that the risks of travel are known, and that travelers accept the consequences of their actions when they choose to travel.
Others still argue that without any security at our borders, we might be overrun at any moment, or threatened by an invasive species, or some sort of multidimensional paradox that may potentially occur. Not a small number point to the recent war with the mage [NEMESIS] as proof that no one person can control the consequences of visiting or allowing visitation to and from other worlds, [NEMESIS] himself being an example of an otherworld visitor who moved to Nioshi and, with newfound magical powers, subsequently attempted to dominate it and subjugate all of its peoples.
This discord is not yet at the level of protest, nor serious debate within the governmental bodies, and probably it will not come to a resolution while the great nations are preoccupied with supplying and sustaining the Protectorate to defeat [NEMESIS] and close the Bleeding Rift. However, it is a question that should, inevitably, be answered, for Nioshans to clearly identify their definition of personal freedom and ownership of shared resources.

Type

Research, Council