Portals and Gates on the Transitory Planes

What Are Portals?

When you strip away all the magical elements and the peculiar appearances that Portals can take, they are, when all is said and done, doorways that connect one Material Plane to another Material Plane. In particular, they connect the Transitory Planes to the Celestial Plane, the Ancillary Planes, a few Demi-Planes, and even the Echo Planes. However, regardless of the differences between Portals, there are certain rules that they all follow.

The Unbreakable Laws of Portals

There are several important aspects about Portals which are considered Unbreakable Laws that govern how they function. No amount of Arcane research has found any means to get around these Unbreakable Laws, to the consternation of many a Mage. The Unbreakable Laws of Portals are as follows:

The Law of Destinations

A Portal cannot connect two locations on the same Material Plane. A Portal will only lead from one Plane to another. This is why using Portals to get between locations on the same Plane requires two Portals, one to take you to another Plane and a second to return to your original Plane.

The Law of Mediums

All Portals are anchored to a Portal Medium of one kind or another. Planar Mediums are physical materials that house the magical energies which generate the Portal itself. An Earth Portal is anchored to physical mediums that are comprised of stone, dirt, or sand, for example. Without the Planar Medium, a Portal cannot form, either permanently or temporarily. The Planar Medium acts like the frame of a door, in many ways. It separates the Portal from the "walls" of the Material Planes, it is what one must pass through to use the doorway, and, if the frame is damaged, the door can be left stuck either open or closed. Unlike a conventional door frame, however, the Planar Medium of a Portal can be moved, thus changing where one side of the Portal leads (see The Rule of Mobility.) In order to artificially create a Portal, called a "Gate," one must first have the appropriate Planar Medium that will allow one to open a door to or from one of the eight Transitory Planes. If you want to make a Water Portal, you need water. Whether the Portal is open or closed, the Planar Medium will remain.

The Law of Correspondence

Portals will only be created between two locations with corresponding Planar Mediums. That is, a Flame Portal will only connect with flames on another Material Plane, a Water Portal will only connect with Planar Mediums of a similar liquid (i.e., salt water, fresh water, sulfuric acid, etc.,) and a Sand Portal will only connect with sand, not mud or stone. This has a tremendous effect on where, exactly, a Portal (natural or artificial) can manifest, both on the Transitory Planes and the other Material Planes. Thus, it can also be a strong indication of what sort of environment one will find on the Transitory Plane when viewing a Portal from the other side. A Magma Portal will clearly lead to a location with plenty magma (unless it has somehow been moved to one that lacks it.) This makes risk assessment and preparations somewhat easier when exploring Portals and their destinations.

The Law of Statuses

All Portals have two states - the Active (Open) State and the Inactive (Closed) State. Nothing can pass through a Portal in its Inactive State, even if it moves through the space the Portal occupies in its Active State. A common analogy with this rule is a hypothetical doorway with a special key. If you open the door without the key, it only leads into the room on the other side, but, if you open the door using the special key, it opens into a different Universe. A cave entrance with an Earth Portal connected to it can work as both the entrance to the cave or as a passage into the Transitory Plane of Earth. However, getting to the Plane of Earth is only possible when the Earth Portal is in its Active State. If it is an Inactive Portal, passing through the opening will only take you into the cave.

The Law of Mobility

All Portals have a certain degree of mobility, at least in terms of where either side of the doorway is located on the two Planes the Portal connects. How one can change those locations depends on the nature of the Portal and the size. A small Portal is obviously easier to move around obstacles than a larger one. The Law of Mobility also explains how Portals and Gates on Planets of the Celestial Plane are able to move with the Planet as it both rotates and orbits a star which is itself moving through space.

The Law of Proximity

Two Portals that are in their Active State cannot come in direct contact with each other. The closest they can get is one millimeter apart, no less. Consequently, no matter how much it may appear that two Mirror Portals connect two locations on the same Plane, you are not, in fact, staying on the same Plane as you pass through the pair. Instead, you are passing through a one-millimeter-wide slice of the Mirror Plane. You have, in fact, left one Universe, passed briefly through another one, and returned to the original Universe in a different location. This principle applies to all Portals of all types regardless of which Material Plane they occupy. You can put two Mirror Portals next to each other on the Mirror Plane or on the Celestial Plane, but those Mirror Portals cannot come any closer than one millimeter while they are in their Active State. In their Inactive State, the mirrors which contain the two Portals can physically touch, but once they become Active, the Mirror Portals will immediately try to separate from each other. If they are prevented from doing so, both Portals will instantly cease to exist.

The Law of Localities

All Portals are affiliated with one of the eight Transitory Planes. The side of a Portal that exists one the Transitory Plane to which it is affiliated cannot leave that Plane. That is, the side of a Flame Portal on the Transitory Plane of Fire cannot be removed from the Plane of Fire. Or, to put it another way, the Flame Portal has the locality of the Transitory Plane of Fire. Any attempt to do so will either end in failure or cause the Portal to cease to exist. Thus, that side of the Flame Portal has an Unchanging Locality. The same is not true for the side of the Flame Portal that exists on a different Material Plane. Because the other side of the Flame Portal's locality is the Plane of Fire, the other side is free to be moved to a different Material Plane (see The Law of Passage for further details.)

The Law of Passage

Portals can pass through other Portals in their Inactive State but cannot leave their localities. That is, the side of a Water Portal that is located on the Plane of Water cannot leave the Plane of Water but the side of the Water Portal found on any other Material Plane can be moved to a different Material Plane so long as that other Plane is not the Plane of Water. You can move a Water Portal from the Celestial Plane to the Plane of Earth, but you cannot move it from the Celestial Plane to the Plane of Water. Why? The Rule of Destinations, obviously. If you try to move the Water Portal to the Plane of Water, you're trying to force the Water Portal to connect to locations on the same Plane. That is impossible, therefore the Water Portal will simply cease to exist.

How Portals Are Classified

There are specific ways in which Portals are classified. These are by Kind, Category, Sub-Variant, Class, and Type. Two Portals of the same Kind may exist in separate Categories, Sub-Variants, Types, and Classes, for example, which is why classification can be a tricky business. However, Mages and other people who have researched Portals seem to have settled upon this system, which we shall now examine in detail. First, however, a few minor notes regarding terminology.

Important Terms

With the way Portals work, certain terms must be kept in mind, especially in regard to the two Sides every Portal has. As we'll discuss in the Category section, certain Portals are related to a specific Transitory Plane. Thus, the side of the Portal found on that Transitory Plane is called the "Native Side." This applies even if the Portal was (artificially) opened from a different Plane. Likewise, the other side of the Portal is called the "Foreign Side," even if it was the side from which the Portal was originally made. "Native" and "Foreign" therefore are not about point of origin but affiliation. Finally, different Categories of Portals are created with specific Arcane Energies involved. In particular, the Elemental Energies, which are Earth, Water, Air, Flame, Electric, Light, Shadow, Corrosion, and Force. I'll list which Categories go with which Elemental Energies, but to make sure there's no confusion, I'll explain that the Elemental Energies are all Aethyr, the energy which powers Arcane Magic, but they are Aethyr which has been set to a specific "harmonics." This means they can only be used for specific kinds of Spells, but also means casting those Spells is easier because half the work has already been done. You don't have to tune the Aethyr's harmonics because the Elemental Energy is already tuned to them. However, creatures with innate Arcane Abilities and certain magical phenomena also use Elemental Energies. Portals do, too, but only in certain combinations. So, when I delve into the Categories, I'll explain which Elemental Energies go with which Portals.

Kinds

A Portal's Kind is determined by if it is naturally occurring or created artificially. While any passage from one Plane into another is called a Portal, the term "Portal" generally only gets used for those that were made by natural forces. The term used for an artificial Portal is "Gate." A temporary Portal is a "Fissure." An artificially created Fissure is called a "Rift." So, Portal and Fissure mean naturally occurring kinds of Portals while Gate and Rift mean artificially created Portals.

Sub-Variants

Portal Sub-Variants are the different kinds of Portals that exist within a Category. The Sub-Variants are all determined based on the Planar Medium which generates the Portal. As previously stated, each Sub-Variant can only connect with a matching Planar Medium on the other side of the Portal. Going through each Category, these Sub-Variants are:

Earth Portal Sub-Variants

Stone Portals

Planar Medium: Stone, particularly that around the mouth of a cave or the entrance to a side passage in a cave network or a mine.

Dirt Portals

Planar Medium: Dry dirt or soil, especially the dirt that forms the edge of a pit or the opening to an animal's den.

Mud Portals

Planar Medium: Mud, especially mud with a high clay content, but not having so much water content as to be runny or soupy. Like Dirt Portals, Mud Portals are more likely to form around the mouth of some kind of pit or the entrance to a den.

Sand Portals

Planar Medium: Sand, especially dry sand, like the kind that forms the dunes in a scorching hot desert. Sand on beaches rarely becomes a Sand Portal, likely because the moving water interferes with the process.

Crystalline Portals

Planar Medium: Crystals, especially magical ones, which create an aperture formation, such as with the opening of a geode. (See Crystal Portals in the Mirror Portal Sub-Variants section for another kind of Portal formed with crystals.)

Metallic Portals

Planar Medium: Metal, especially metal that forms an aperture, such as the hoop of a barrel. Note: See article on Earth Portals for important information on how Metallic Earth Portals form naturally.

Water Portal Sub-Variants

Pool Portals

Planar Medium: Shallow, stationary water, such as that of a shallow pond or even an artificial pool that is left to sit and becomes charged with Arcane Energy. Lake Portals
Planar Medium: Fresh water found in lakes, particularly lakes that are not part of a large stream or river, but water in a reservoir can still work.

River Portals

Planar Medium: Fresh water that is flowing in a stream or river, though rivers seem to be more likely to form Water Portals than streams.

Sea Portals

Planar Medium: Salt water, especially the kind found in seas and oceans, though salt water lakes can also create Sea Portals.

Flow Portals

Planar Medium: Most often salt water that is affected by a boundary current, rip current, undertow, subsurface current, or Ekman spiral. However, the Current Portal will always be under the surface of the water.

Deep Water Portals

Planar Medium: Water, especially stagnant water, found below depths where surface light is unable to reach and water pressure is greater than most surface creatures can withstand.

Brackish Portals

Planar Medium: Brackish water, especially the kind found in swamps along near coasts and in estuaries. The more stagnant the brackish water, the better.

Acidic Portals

Planar Medium: Liquids that are made of acidic substances, especially acidic lakes found in certain caves

Oil Portals

Planar Medium: Oils, especially those that are abiological in origin. (This is actually how most oil is made in my story setting rather than being made up of organic compounds.)

Slime Portals

Planar Medium: Any kind of strongly viscous fluid that is a an emulsion, but especially those that are able to hold a magical charge.

Air Portal Sub-Variants

Wind Portals

Planar Medium: Air, especially that of the atmospheres of Earth-like Planets, particularly air that is moving in a vortex, but is free of dense particles, such as smoke, soot, or water aerosols, and is therefore invisible to the naked eye.

Cloud/Fog Portals

Planar Medium: Air containing water aerosol, such as that which makes up clouds and fog. That is, the water content of the air must not be steam.

Steam Portals

Planar Medium: Steam, especially dense, scalding hot steam, such as from the vent of a boiler, i.e., air containing a high concentration of water vapor.

Cyclonic Portals

Planar Medium: Typically, the eye of a cyclonic storm (i.e., a hurricane,) a tornado, or a dust devil that lasts long enough for Arcane Energies to convert it into a Planar Medium for an Air Portal.

Thermal Portal Subvariants

Flame Portals

Planar Medium: Any gas that is hot enough to be incandescent but is not ionized, like a gaseous plasma, such as flames from a campfire.

Plasma Portals

Planar Medium: Any gaseous form of plasma, similar to that which makes up stars. Note: See article on Thermal Portals for important information regarding naturally occurring Plasma Portals.

Magma/Molten Portals

Planar Medium: Magma, especially sitting or slow-moving magma, or molten metals that are also incandescent (i.e., not molten lead unless it is glowing from the heat.)

Cryo Portal Sub-Variants

Ice Portals

Planar Medium: Ice, especially that of a glacier, though ice covering the surface of a body of water can also serve as a Planar Medium under the right conditions.

Snow Portals

Planar Medium: Snow, usually compacted snow, such as that found in the walls of an igloo, but not which has been compressed into a solid block of ice, as with a glacier.

Electro Portal Sub-Variants

Lightning Portals

Planar Medium: Electrical currents, particularly of the lightning variety.

Magnetic Portals

Planar Medium: Any sufficiently magnetic material that remains magnetically charged even without a magnetic current. The materials must form a ring or aperture of some variety, however.

Mirror Portal Sub-Variants

Looking Glass Portals

Planar Medium: Any kind of mirror.

Note: See Mirror Portal article for specifics about naturally occurring Looking Glass Portals

Reflective Portals

Planar Medium: Any smooth, solid, and highly reflective surface, such as a polished, silver serving tray or a reflective disk.

Crystal Portals

Planar Medium: A specific variety of Arcane Crystal that forms on all Material Planes but especially the Mirror Plane. Note that these Portals from on the surface the Mirror Crystal, compared to a Crystalline Earth Portal, which is formed by a formation of multiple crystals.

Botanical Portal Sub-Variants

Tree Portals

Planar Medium: The trunks of certain magical varieties of trees that grow on all the Material Planes.

Vine Portals

Planar Medium: Any group of vines that have formed in a manner that creates an adequate aperture shape for a Portal, i.e., a ring or rectangle of vines with an open area between them.

Floral Portals

Planar Medium: The petals of a specific group of magical flowers, some of which can be absolutely massive in size.

Mushroom Portals

Planar Medium: A specific species of giant mushroom that grows on nearly all Material Planes and has potent magical properties.

Types

Portal Types are determined by how much time they spend in their Active or Inactive States. The different Types of Portals are as follows:

Active Type

Active Type Portals are constantly in their Active State (i.e., open) and will only become Inactive if the right Spell is used on them. Active Portals are often the easiest to find and tend to be "high traffic" in nature. They also tend to be larger than the average Portal.

Passive Type

Passive Type Portals are almost always in their Passive State (i.e., closed) and will only become Active if the right Spell is used on them. Passive Portals tend to be smaller than Active Types, but there are exceptions to this rule, with some being truly enormous in scale. A Passive Type Portal is harder to detect with Spells and the Planar Medium that surrounds it tends to be subtle in appearance, adding to the difficulty of locating them.

Cyclical Type

Cyclical Type Portals alternate between their Active State and Passive State on a fairly regular schedule, sometimes opening and closing every few minutes, every few hours, or longer. However, Cyclical Portals are difficult to move from their two States by Spells. They operate on a particular rhythm and strongly resist forces that try to break them from that rhythm. Indeed, attempting to force a Cyclical Portal from one State to another may cause it to simply collapse.

Conditional Type

Conditional Type Portals are a sub-type of Passive Type Portals which cannot be put in their Active State even with a powerful Spell. Instead, they will only become Active under very specific conditions. This may be if a particular magical object or type of magical object is brought within a certain proximity, when a particular object is passing close to the Planet, such as a comet, during a particular kind of planetary alignment, or if the temperatures on both Sides of the Portal are the same. These are but a few possibilities. Usually, Conditional Type Portals were created under very specific conditions and this somehow became tied into the Portal's Active State. Gates can be deliberately created to be Conditional, but this can be tricky and one cannot always predict if some extra variable got included in the conditions, such as a particular sound being generated along with a particular object being close by. Regardless, figuring out what opens a Conditional Type Portal is no small challenge.

Classes

A Portal's Class is determined by how it can be used. Thus, "Class" refers to if a Portal works two ways or can only take you one way but not the other. The two Classes of Portals are Monodirectional (one-way) and Bidirectional (two-way.)

Unidirectional Portals

Unidirectional Portals can only be used to go one way, either onto one of the Transitory Planes, or out from it. Any attempt to go through a Unidirectional Portal in the other direction will result in the object or creature bouncing off of it as if the Portal were a trampoline. A Unidirectional Portal is more likely to have some kind of flow of material, such as a flow of air, water, or magma, passing through it and thus is usually of the Active Type. However, there are some Passive Type Unidirectional Portals, though these also tend to be Conditional Types as well. There are two variants of Unidirectional Portals. Absolute Unidirectional Portals: An Absolute Unidirectional Portal can only be used in one direction no matter what. There is no way to go through an Absolute Unidirectional Portal in the opposite direction. No Magic can change this except Divine Magic, but most gods will simply direct their followers to use a route that doesn't require them to go the wrong way through a one-way door. Obstructional Unidirectional Portals: Obstructional Unidirectional Portals are Portals that are "one-way" not because of the Planar Magic of the Portal itself but because there is some obstruction that prevents the traveler from using it in a certain direction. For instance, a Stone Portal in the ceiling of a cave can be used to enter the cave from the Plane of Earth but to enter the Plane of Earth from the cave may be difficult to manage without a ladder of sufficient length. A Sea Portal that only flows one way can technically be used in both directions, but a vessel must travel against the current to do so, which will be impossible if the vessel does not have strong enough propulsion. This is the nature of Obstructional Unidirectional Portals. They are one-way because the other way is the path of greatest resistance.

Bidirectional Portals

Bidirectional Portals are Portals which allow travel in either direction. Bidirectional Portals are often of the Passive or Cyclical Type, with only about a third being Active Types at most, depending on the Category and Sub-Variant. Those that are Active Types are generally "high traffic," far more so than Monodirectional Active Type Portals. This makes them easier to find even when they are on the small side.

Scale

A Portal's Scale obviously refers to its size. Portals can range in scale from the size of a pinhole to the size of city. However, Mages have developed a set of Scales which divide Portals into the following groups:

Miniscule

Miniscule Portals are often no bigger than the size of a pinhole. They are actually very common because it does not take long for a Fissure of this scale to become a permanent Portal. However, Miniscule Portals are also the weakest and thus the easiest to permanently close. Tiny
Tiny Portals range from the size of a hole made by a paper punch to Portals the size of a coin. On average, Tiny Portals are about the size of the O shape produced by your thumb and index finger when you make the OK sign. They are also the most common kind of Portal to provide air and water the Transitory Plane of Earth. Very few creatures can fit through a Tiny Portal, but there are some migratory insects and other diminutive creatures that make use of them.

Small

Small Portals generally fall between the size of a dinner plate and the porthole of a sailing ship. They're not large enough for most people to squeeze through, at least not easily, and thus are not generally useful for travel purposes. However, they do make for excellent windows through which objects can be passed. Many Gates are of the Small size for this purpose. True, you can't fit a person through them, but you can fit letters, small bundles, and other important things through, allowing for the safe and speedy transportation over great distances. Small Portals are also used by plenty of animals to get from place to place, so people are not the only ones to make use of them.

Average

An Average Portal is large enough to accommodate the average humanoid being. These are the most convenient kinds of Bidirectional Portals for linking two facilities together. As the name suggests, Portals of this Scale are the average size of the majority of Portals.

Moderate

Moderate Portals are big enough to allow a vehicle, such as carriage, stagecoach, or covered wagon, and the animals pulling them, to fit through without difficulty. The biggest Moderate Portals can accommodate a beast the size of an elephant and still have room to spare.

Large

Large Portals are big enough to accommodate a double-decker bus without issue. This makes them idea for larger migratory creatures using them as they can pass through the Portals without having to move in single file.

Greater

Greater Portals are more than capable of allowing objects the size of blue whales or small sailing ships to pass through them. In some cases, whales and small sailing ships actually do this.

Giant

Giant Portals are big enough that most heavy frigates can easily fit through them as well as a few smaller versions of ships-of-the-line.For this reason, Sea Portals of this size are often used by sailing vessels to access the Transitory Plane of Water. However, Giant Portals are rarely able to accommodate first rate ships-of-the-line as the tops of the masts cannot pass through the aperture of the Portal without touching it, resulting in the masts being snapped or ripped from the vessel entirely.

Massive

Massive Portals are big enough not only to allow a ship-of-the-line to fit through them but several of them if you stacked them on top of each other (including the masts.) While not a very common size for Portals, Massive Portals are often found near the centers of dense Portal Clusters on the Transitory Planes, yet the Foreign Side of these Portals usually stand in isolation, especially on the Celestial Plane.

Titanic

Titanic Portals are a big leap in size from Massive Portals. These are Portals can fit a moderate-size city through them. However, in addition to being quite rare, Titanic Portals almost never connect to the Celestial Plane. Instead, they mainly connect the Transitory Planes to each other, allowing Transitory Islands to pass between them but also enabling air currents and water flows to be exchanged from one Transitory Plane to another.

Colossal

The rarest Portal size of all is the Colossal Portal. Only a handful of them have been documented and each of them connected one Transitory Plane to another. Colossal Portals are so big that a Dwarf Planet could pass through them without much difficulty. Colossal Portals tend to be located in very remote parts of the Transitory Planes and it is suspected that they are the result of less-than-normal phenomena, such as two gods fighting each other, so it is debatable if they are really naturally occurring or not.

How Portals Are Made

Thanks to the Law of Mediums, Portals can only exist where there is a physical medium present to serve as an anchor. The material that makes up the Portal Medium must be primed with the right kinds of Arcane Energies in order for the Portal to form and become linked with them. (I'll detail which ones in the next section.) This is why the mouth of a cave can house a Portal to the Plane of Earth. The stone that makes up the cave entrance became saturated with the right Arcane Energies which were then triggered in some way to allow a Portal from the Plane of Earth to connect with it. Likewise, the waters of an ocean current may become saturated with Arcane Energies which allow an opening from the Plane of Water to connect with them. (This is how it occurs naturally, at least. See the section on Gates for how it can be artificially replicated.) While there is more than one kind of Arcane Energy involved in the creation of Portals, there will always be at least two kinds of Elemental Energy included. The first of these will always be Force Energy, which is the go-to power source for all Plane Shift Spells. The second kind of Elemental Energy involved varies, though in one case, a third Elemental Energy is needed. Where exactly the opening of the Portal manifests on either side is determined by a variety of complicated factors which Mages are still trying to understand, but, on the Transitory Planes, at least, there seem to be certain areas where Portals to a particular part of the Celestial Plane will manifest. These clusters are found in the same general coordinates of all eight Transitory Planes. So, the Elven Cluster is where Portals to the Elven Homeworld and other Planets in the Elven Galaxy tend to be found in a high concentration. Outside of these regions, however, the destinations of Portals are seemingly random (so long as they obey the Law of Correspondence,) though they also tend to be far more spread out as well.

Fissures: Temporary Portals

While there are countless Portals that remain present once they are created, the majority of them only exist temporarily. To become anchored to the Planar Medium, a Portal needs to exist for a certain duration of time, which varies, depending on the size of the Portal. Consequently, if the Arcane Energies that created the Portal are depleted before that time has passed, the Portal will simply cease to exist. Such a Portal is called a Planar Fissure or just Fissure, for short. Fissures occur naturally but can also be made deliberately, in which case they are called "Rifts," just as artificial Portals are called "Gates." Fissures can be very hard to predict and can manifest in just about any place that does not have some sort of interdicting effect in place to prevent their formation. This is actually one of the ways that certain Monsters and Abominations are able to reach Planets of the Celestial Plane from the Transitory Planes without using any Portals. A Fissure opens and they pass through it. Thus, even if one knows the locations of all the Portals in a region and takes steps to prevent Monsters and Abominations from using them, these dangerous creatures may still find a way in through a Fissure if they happen to come across one when it opens. This is why there is no foolproof way to keep out Monsters and Abominations. How long a Fissure exists is determined by the amount of Arcane Energy that is generating it and the size of the Fissure itself. The bigger the Fissure, the more power it needs and thus, if that power is not large enough, the Fissure may only open for a few seconds at the longest. Most Fissures that last for more than a few seconds (but not long enough for a permanent Portal to be created) are on the small size, with the average being big enough for a person or person-sized creature to get through. In most cases, Fissures do not form near civilized areas, as the presence of Mages and Arcane Technology can either deplete the region of the necessary Arcane Energies for Fissures to open or Mages and Arcane Engineers may set up Interdiction Fields to ensure that Fissures cannot form at all. Thus, the majority of Fissures will open and close without any sapient creatures being present and thus aware of them. Usually, it is the more rural and less magically inclined communities that get to observe naturally occurring Fissures the most.

Fissure Hot Spots

Some places on the Material Planes are notorious for having large Fissures pop open on a regular basis. This Fissure hot spots are sometimes used by migratory creatures that travel between two or more Material Planes, in fact. Further, some Mages will wait in such hot spots for a Fissure to open then supply it with power long enough for a permanent Portal to be created. Other times, they will try to drain the Fissure of energy so it will close faster, as Monsters and Abominations also seem to use such hot spots to get around the Multiverse. Fissure hot spots are often found in remote, isolated locations, which can make it difficult to determine where, exactly, a dangerous creature entered an area if it did not leave a clear enough trail back to the location. Sometimes, a Fissure hot spot will only exist for a limited duration, a result of some sort of magical instability forming in the area, but others are quite permanent. Like cyclical Portals, some Fissure hot spots have patterns to when Fissures will appear in them, as opposed to hot spots where the occurrences are entirely random but never completely stop for an extended period.

Gates: Artificial Portals

A Gate is a Portal connecting to one of the Transitory Planes that is artificial in origin. Gates, like Portals, require a Planar Medium in order to be created. However, one does not necessarily need the exact same Planar Medium to create a Gate that is normally involved in the natural formation of a Portal. For instance, a Water Gate can be created using any metal that can conduct the necessary types of Elemental Energy in place of using water as the Planar Medium. Indeed, a majority of Gates are created using metal, or at least a certain amount of metal in combination with other materials. However, this only applies to the non-native side of the Gate, that is, the side of the artificial Portal not on the Transitory Plane. A Plasma Gate can only open onto a part of the Plane of Fire where plasma is present, for instance, just as a Fresh Water Gate can only open to a part of the Plane of Water where the water has little to no salt content. Thus, the side of the Gate that is native to the Transitory Plane can only be made of the corresponding Planar Medium while the non-native side can be made of other materials.