Realm Gates

Purpose / Function

Realm Gates facilitate access to the Threadway, a series of interconnected tunnels that cross the immaterial void between realms. By accessing this, ships are able to move between two connected realms at incredible speeds, and without the necessity of a powerful magic user to create a Gate between places.

Alterations

Little if any alteration is physically capable of being done to a Gate, due to their construction. The most that any nation has been capable of doing outside of having physical control over a Gate is to either add to the superstructure (with some choosing to add various defensive fortifications, etc.), or add various elements to show their ownership, i.e. painted symbology and the like.

Architecture

Realm Gates are massive superstructures designed in an unknown style with unknown materials. The material appears to be a type of metallic substance, cool to the touch regardless of exterior environment, and boasting several anomalous properties. For example, the structures are completely immune to any type of damage, both physical and metaphysical. Even in the event of a world-ending cataclysm such as a Conflux, the Gates will remain suspended in the empty void in the exact position they stood prior.
The average Realm Gate is over 300 meters in height, with an average width of 100 to 150 meters. The structures are composed of a single base that makes up the majority of the structure's bulk and height, atop which two prongs jut out from either side, wrapping up and around to form a completed circle. Exact dimensions, appearance, and other specifics will vary between individual Gates, but they all follow a basic construction plan.

History

One of the everlasting mysterious of the Realmscape concerns the history of the Realm Gates. No one throughout all of history has ever been able to discern who built them. Even the Elders, whose civilization is the oldest in recorded history, discovered the Gates already constructed and operational. Due to the inability to deconstruct a Gate in order to study its components, they've likewise become impossible to replicate.
Every realm is home to at least one Gate, though most will house two or three. Many remain hidden deep beneath the earth, rising up and activating seemingly at random, with little indication of what stimulated the reactivation. Once emerged and operational, the Gate will remain active and untouchable regardless--and sometimes in spite--of the world around it, and seems to function with no obvious method of power generation, and with no maintenance required.

Alternative Names

Realmgates, Great Spires, Thread Points, Nexi

Type

Megastructure, Land based