Teleportation: Premise and Praxis

Post Reply
User avatar
Infragris
Project Administrator
Posts: 1396
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:51 pm

Teleportation: Premise and Praxis

Post by Infragris »

Another book in the "what's teleportation all about" series. Meant to contextualize the history of teleportation, showing that it's quite a difficult magic with lots of caveats. The last book is rather short, I'd prefer to come back to this at some point to fill out some of the details. Let me know if there are any specific uses of teleportation in other books that could be referenced.

Related to this, we should keep in mind not to add too many random teleporting artifacts or items, especially not in older locations.
TELEPORTATION: PREMISE & PRAXIS Vol. 1
by Voganna Plotinus

Self-catalyzed, instantaneous teleportation was long believed to be an unattainable dream, a fancy of folktales – god-heroes riding the winds of Kyne, armies transported to distant lands, or unlucky folk vanishing into Oblivion by the will of evil spirits.

Some believe these legends indicate that our earliest ancestors had access to teleportation magic. This is far from the truth. While ancient artifacts capable of teleportation have been discovered at times, such artifice (when not simply a counterfeit) was often the work of solitary, brilliant souls, who rarely passed on their knowledge to other – such was the case for most arcane masters predating the open scholarship philosophy of Galerion.

DOORS OF OBLIVION
The earliest known method of teleportation was to plot a course through Oblivion. The planes of Oblivion are connected through odd ways, and one who is knowledgeable of such connections could use them to quickly travel from one mundane location to another.

The drawbacks of this technique are self-evident: doors to Oblivion are rare, behave erratically, are difficult to open, and anyone traversing them is at the mercy of the Daedra.

Knowledge of these passages remains incredibly rare. Given that both the doors and the planes they are meant to connect are ever-changing, most of the ancient maps that have come to us from antiquity are completely outdated. Besides, most such maps are functionally useless due to their bizarre designs (murderous puzzle-boxes, mind-breaking glyphs, and elaborate verse are depressingly common). The only reliable method of traversing Oblivion is said to be by the use of a Voidguide, an exceptionally rare type of artefact which can connect its user to that which they seek to find (while still not promising any form of safe passage).

Exceptional mages of ages past boasted of the ability to open gates through their own will, coming and going to the mortal world as they pleased. Some even carved out pocket worlds in the Void, which could connect to many places at will. Of these liminal nexuses, only the heartfold of Gwylim remains in use. Others have gone dark long ago, their ties to the world severed.

Movement through the Daedric realms is no longer practical, as the barrier pacts of the late First Era have made it much more costly and difficult, whilst not diminishing the associated perils.

ARCANE ENGINES
The first verified successes in teleportation were accomplished through elaborate engines such as the occlusion tunnels of Yatillai Direnni. These tunnels required weeks of arcane calculations as well as a veritable fortune in aetherial matter – so much so that the famous Ryan Direnni himself derided it as the slowest and most expensive method of travel imaginable.

Another example of such engines are the obscure propylotics of ancient Morrowind. The most reliable account of their functioning is that of Cir Cimius, envoy under Emperor Gorieus. Cimius theorized that the Chimer spatially entangled two monoliths so that the Aurbis regarded them as one and the same. In practice, the system could only transport one person from a set place to another, limiting its potential to that of a messenger system. As the strategic locations thus connected became irrelevant ages ago, this system is assumed to be no longer functional.

Other early Elven cultures rarely developed teleportation systems. Most of the Summerset colonists inherited the repressive worldview of the Aldmer, in which free movement of the people was undesirable, and the other colonies were considered morally or religiously suspect.

Excepting the Weir Gate network (whose functioning is regarded as a state secret) and the well-regulated portico system used by the Mages Guild, such cumbersome teleportation engines are no longer in use, replaced as they are by the ease and convenience of the Celaudine praxis which will be described in the last volume in this series.
TELEPORTATION: PREMISE & PRAXIS Vol. 2
by Voganna Plotinus

In the previous volume, we considered our ancestors' earliest forays into teleportation magic using the byways of Oblivion and various arcane machines. before we can describe the contemporary practice, we must first investigate two other methods, which saw their heyday during the late First Era and the Common Era.

THE DAWN MAGICS
Apart from passage through the Void and the use of strange engines, the third most commonly cited method of pre-Celaudine teleportation is the use of the Dawn Magics, those obscure arts that hearken back to the most primordial state of the world.

One such practitioner, the eastern mage Barilzar, was supposedly capable of easily rending the divisions between planes of existence, bypassing the various limits of other methods entirely.

Barilzar did not need to visit his destination beforehand, required no calculations other than his will and desires, and used no instruments other than arcane artifacts whose functionality could be used even by a novice. In this way, he could summon creatures and objects from even the most secure planes, and traveled wherever he wished.

Barilzar disappeared during the Second Interregnum, taking the secret of his technique with him. Other explorations into the potential of the Dawn Magics have ended in disaster, to the point that the Emperor has prohibited study in this direction.

As is usual when the Dawn Magics are mentioned, some scholars have claimed that the elven cultures of the Merethic Era had access to these arts, using them in the colonization and exploration of primordial Tamriel. The supposed wars of Altmora, and the seemingly erratic movements of the Falmer and Dwemer populations are often brought up, as are the strange mentions of Kyne-winds in early Nordic myth. It goes without saying that there is not a shred of archeological evidence to support such claims.

INTERVENTION
Quite the opposite of such unnatural means are the category of intervention spells, which are first mentioned in the First Interregnum. Cyrodiilic hagiographies of this period attribute the rescue of various imperiled saints to acts of the gods, who, by way of their awesome power, take these hapless pilgrims away from danger or imprisonment and deposit them safely in some holy place, which inevitably became a temple or place of pilgrimage.

Strangely, intervention spells appear to be completely unknown to the Alessians, but became relatively commonplace starting from the reign of Reman. They were overwhelmingfly (though not exclusively) associated with temples of the Eight Divines, which knew a large resurgence during the Interregnum.

The Divine nature of these spells is uncertain. They function much like other spells, drawing on a person's natural wellsprings of magicka. It may be that Intervention is merely a hierophants' clever obfuscation of a spell in meaningless ritual brocade -- much like modern mages such as Ondusi, who add vestigial flourishes in order to trademark and protect their licenses.

Indeed, scrolls and spells of Divine Intervention work just as well in the hands of a secular-minded caster as in those of a priest. Variants of Intervention also exist, such as the Baandari Self-Theft scrolls, spells addressing the heathen Tribunes of Morrowind, and even scroll variants for the Altmer and Direnni market invoking elven deities.

That being said, the precise effects of Intervention still have not been replicated in an entirely secular context. It is possible these spells draw on an essential part of the mortal psyche, the faith in their Gods, or their desire for the safety of a holy place.
TELEPORTATION: PREMISE & PRAXIS Vol. 3
by Voganna Plotinus

The modern method of teleportation was discovered in 2E 662 by Celaud Mabeurre, a Breton mage associated with the College of Gwylim. It is said that Celaud labored over this work his entire life, arriving at a functioning spell only months before his death.

At the time, the question of self-catalyzed teleportation had – literally – consumed Breton academia for decades, with many of Gwylim’s best and brightest falling victim to ill-conceived arcane mishaps. Gwylim's Twist Hall, with its petrified figures and fused horrors, remains a sobering reminder of the risks our predecessors took in developing spells we now take for granted.

After decades of grueling experimentation, Celaud's mark-and-recall "spiritual anchor" method finally managed a stable transportation which avoid the unfortunate and bloody results of his peers. It took another two decades after Celaud's death for his assistant to transcribe and refine the spells into a functional and practical shape.

Despite this success, it would take centuries before Celaudine teleportation became commonplace. The new form of magic agitated the anti-intellectual sentiments of which the Interregnum was rife.

Many among the common people feared that mages were stealing souls, replacing those transported with doppelgangers, or that they secretly change the destination of spells to whisk their users away to distant prisons.

Among the myopic kings of High Rock, teleportation was seen as a challenge to their rule. The nobility was alarmed by the implications of this magic, which they thought would make institutions like serfdom and prisons obsolete.

As such, early practitioners of teleportation were often persecuted, and until the re-establishment of trans-provincial scholarship under the Septimite Mages Guild renewals, it remained an obscure and suspicious practice.

User avatar
Taniquetil
Site Admin
Posts: 1162
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:25 am

Post by Taniquetil »

While ancient artifacts capable of teleportation have been discovered at times, such artifice (when not simply a counterfeit) was often the work of solitary, brilliant souls, who rarely passed on their knowledge to other – such was the case for most arcane masters predating the open scholarship philosophy of Galerion.
I would remove "at times". Typo "other" -> "others". The em-dash needs to be replaced with a period, and the text after made a full sentence. Needs "who" after the word "masters", and "predating" should become "predated".
The planes of Oblivion are connected through odd ways, and one who is knowledgeable of such connections could use them to quickly travel from one mundane location to another.
Better worded as something like "Odd gateways link the planes of Oblivion, and those with knowledge of such connections could use them to quickly travel from one mundane location to another."
The only reliable method of traversing Oblivion is said to be by the use of a Voidguide, an exceptionally rare type of artefact which can connect its user to that which they seek to find (while still not promising any form of safe passage).
I'd suggest a rewording to "The only reliable method of traversing Oblivion, it is said, is to use a Voidguide, an exceptionally rare artifact that can connect its user to that which they seek - though safe passage to one's destination is not guaranteed."
Movement through the Daedric realms is no longer practical, as the barrier pacts of the late First Era have made it much more costly and difficult, whilst not diminishing the associated perils.
I would add "in modern times" after "practical", and edit the second half to read "as a consequence of the barrier pacts of the First Era, which made such travel much more costly and difficult while not diminishing its associated perils."
The first verified successes in teleportation were accomplished through elaborate engines such as the occlusion tunnels of Yatillai Direnni.
Reads better with a comma after "engines"
These tunnels required weeks of arcane calculations as well as a veritable fortune in aetherial matter – so much so that the famous Ryan Direnni himself derided it as the slowest and most expensive method of travel imaginable.
Would replace "so much so" with "so much, in fact,"
Excepting the Weir Gate network (whose functioning is regarded as a state secret) and the well-regulated portico system used by the Mages Guild, such cumbersome teleportation engines are no longer in use, replaced as they are by the ease and convenience of the Celaudine praxis which will be described in the last volume in this series.
Isn't the portico system of the Guild Guides a Celaudine system? This seems to imply that it works more like the arcane engines described above.
before we can describe the contemporary practice, we must first investigate two other methods, which saw their heyday during the late First Era and the Common Era.
"Before" needs to be capitalized.
One such practitioner, the eastern mage Barilzar, was supposedly capable of easily rending the divisions between planes of existence, bypassing the various limits of other methods entirely.
"One such practitioner" should be changed to "One practitioner of such magics"
In this way, he could summon creatures and objects from even the most secure planes, and traveled wherever he wished.
Doesn't need a comma. Also, "traveled" should be "travel".
Other explorations into the potential of the Dawn Magics have ended in disaster, to the point that the Emperor has prohibited study in this direction.
Would reword this as "Other explorations into the teleportation potential of the Dawn Magics have ended in disaster, and the Emperors have prohibited further study of the subject."
As is usual when the Dawn Magics are mentioned, some scholars have claimed that the elven cultures of the Merethic Era had access to these arts, using them in the colonization and exploration of primordial Tamriel.
I'd replace usual with "typical"; just a personal preference for the style. Also would reword to something like "
As is typical where the study of the Dawn Magics is concerned, some scholars have claimed a connection to the elven cultures of the Merethic Era, speculating that these early peoples had access to the Dawn Arts, using them in the colonization and exploration of primordial Tamriel."
Quite the opposite of such unnatural means are the category of intervention spells, which are first mentioned in the First Interregnum.
Kind of strangely worded. I'd suggest "More familiar to the reader, no doubt, are intervention spells, which are first mentioned in the First Interregnum."
Strangely, intervention spells appear to be completely unknown to the Alessians, but became relatively commonplace starting from the reign of Reman.
"Appear to be" should be "appear to have been" and "starting from" should just be "by".
They were overwhelmingfly (though not exclusively) associated with temples of the Eight Divines, which knew a large resurgence during the Interregnum.
I'd change "knew" to "saw". Also typo "overwhelmingfly" -> "overwhelmingly"
It may be that Intervention is merely a hierophants' clever obfuscation of a spell in meaningless ritual brocade -- much like modern mages such as Ondusi, who add vestigial flourishes in order to trademark and protect their licenses.
"A hierophants" should be "a hierophant's'" if it is meant as singular rather than plural. Also, the em-dash should be a comma.
Despite this success, it would take centuries before Celaudine teleportation became commonplace. The new form of magic agitated the anti-intellectual sentiments of which the Interregnum was rife.

Many among the common people feared that mages were stealing souls, replacing those transported with doppelgangers, or that they secretly change the destination of spells to whisk their users away to distant prisons.
These paragraphs should be combined into one. Also "change" should be "changed".
Among the myopic kings of High Rock, teleportation was seen as a challenge to their rule. The nobility was alarmed by the implications of this magic, which they thought would make institutions like serfdom and prisons obsolete.

As such, early practitioners of teleportation were often persecuted, and until the re-establishment of trans-provincial scholarship under the Septimite Mages Guild renewals, it remained an obscure and suspicious practice.
These should also be combined into one paragraph.

These edits applied to the text:
Spoiler
TELEPORTATION: PREMISE & PRAXIS Vol. 1
by Voganna Plotinus

Self-catalyzed, instantaneous teleportation was long believed to be an unattainable dream, a fancy of folktales – god-heroes riding the winds of Kyne, armies transported to distant lands, or unlucky folk vanishing into Oblivion by the will of evil spirits.

Some believe these legends indicate that our earliest ancestors had access to teleportation magic. This is far from the truth. While ancient artifacts capable of teleportation have been discovered, such artifice (when not simply a counterfeit) was often the work of solitary, brilliant souls, who rarely passed on their knowledge to others. Such was the case for most arcane masters who predated the open scholarship philosophy of Galerion.

DOORS OF OBLIVION
The earliest known method of teleportation was to plot a course through Oblivion. Odd gateways link the planes of Oblivion, and those with knowledge of such connections could use them to quickly travel from one mundane location to another.

The drawbacks of this technique are self-evident: doors to Oblivion are rare, behave erratically, are difficult to open, and anyone traversing them is at the mercy of the Daedra.

Knowledge of these passages remains incredibly rare. Given that both the doors and the planes they are meant to connect are ever-changing, most of the ancient maps that have come to us from antiquity are completely outdated. Besides, most such maps are functionally useless due to their bizarre designs (murderous puzzle-boxes, mind-breaking glyphs, and elaborate verse are depressingly common). The only reliable method of traversing Oblivion, it is said, is to use a Voidguide, an exceptionally rare artifact that can connect its user to that which they seek - though safe passage to one's destination is not guaranteed.

Exceptional mages of ages past boasted of the ability to open gates through their own will, coming and going to the mortal world as they pleased. Some even carved out pocket worlds in the Void, which could connect to many places at will. Of these liminal nexuses, only the heartfold of Gwylim remains in use. Others have gone dark long ago, their ties to the world severed.

Movement through the Daedric realms is no longer practical in modern times, as a consequence of the barrier pacts of the First Era, which made such travel much more costly and difficult while not diminishing its associated perils.

ARCANE ENGINES
The first verified successes in teleportation were accomplished through elaborate engines, such as the occlusion tunnels of Yatillai Direnni. These tunnels required weeks of arcane calculations as well as a veritable fortune in aetherial matter – so much, in fact, that the famous Ryan Direnni himself derided it as the slowest and most expensive method of travel imaginable.

Another example of such engines are the obscure propylotics of ancient Morrowind. The most reliable account of their functioning is that of Cir Cimius, envoy under Emperor Gorieus. Cimius theorized that the Chimer spatially entangled two monoliths so that the Aurbis regarded them as one and the same. In practice, the system could only transport one person from a set place to another, limiting its potential to that of a messenger system. As the strategic locations thus connected became irrelevant ages ago, this system is assumed to be no longer functional.

Other early Elven cultures rarely developed teleportation systems. Most of the Summerset colonists inherited the repressive worldview of the Aldmer, in which free movement of the people was undesirable, and the other colonies were considered morally or religiously suspect.

Excepting the Weir Gate network, whose functioning is regarded as a state secret, such cumbersome teleportation engines are no longer in use, replaced as they are by the ease and convenience of the Celaudine praxis (best exemplified by the well-regulated portico system used by the Mages Guild) which will be described in the last volume in this series.
Spoiler
TELEPORTATION: PREMISE & PRAXIS Vol. 2
by Voganna Plotinus

In the previous volume, we considered our ancestors' earliest forays into teleportation magic using the byways of Oblivion and various arcane machines. Before we can describe the contemporary practice, we must first investigate two other methods, which saw their heyday during the late First Era and the Common Era.

THE DAWN MAGICS
Apart from passage through the Void and the use of strange engines, the third most commonly cited method of pre-Celaudine teleportation is the use of the Dawn Magics, those obscure arts that hearken back to the most primordial state of the world.

One practitioner of such magics, the eastern mage Barilzar, was supposedly capable of easily rending the divisions between planes of existence, bypassing the various limits of other methods entirely.

Barilzar did not need to visit his destination beforehand, required no calculations other than his will and desires, and used no instruments other than arcane artifacts whose functionality could be used even by a novice. In this way, he could summon creatures and objects from even the most secure planes and travel wherever he wished.

Barilzar disappeared during the Second Interregnum, taking the secret of his technique with him. Other explorations into the teleportation potential of the Dawn Magics have ended in disaster, and the Emperors have prohibited further study of the subject.

As is typical where the study of the Dawn Magics is concerned, some scholars have claimed a connection to the elven cultures of the Merethic Era, speculating that these early peoples had access to the Dawn Arts, using them in the colonization and exploration of primordial Tamriel. The supposed wars of Altmora, and the seemingly erratic movements of the Falmer and Dwemer populations are often brought up, as are the strange mentions of Kyne-winds in early Nordic myth. It goes without saying that there is not a shred of archeological evidence to support such claims.

INTERVENTION
More familiar to the reader, no doubt, are intervention spells, which are first mentioned in the First Interregnum. Cyrodiilic hagiographies of this period attribute the rescue of various imperiled saints to acts of the gods, who, by way of their awesome power, take these hapless pilgrims away from danger or imprisonment and deposit them safely in some holy place, which inevitably became a temple or place of pilgrimage.

Strangely, intervention spells appear to have been completely unknown to the Alessians, but became relatively commonplace by the reign of Reman. They were overwhelmingly (though not exclusively) associated with temples of the Eight Divines, which saw a large resurgence during the Interregnum.

The Divine nature of these spells is uncertain. They function much like other spells, drawing on a person's natural wellsprings of magicka. It may be that Intervention is merely a hierophant's clever obfuscation of a spell in meaningless ritual brocade, much like modern mages such as Ondusi, who add vestigial flourishes in order to trademark and protect their licenses.

Indeed, scrolls and spells of Divine Intervention work just as well in the hands of a secular-minded caster as in those of a priest. Variants of Intervention also exist, such as the Baandari Self-Theft scrolls, spells addressing the heathen Tribunes of Morrowind, and even scroll variants for the Altmer and Direnni market invoking elven deities.

That being said, the precise effects of Intervention still have not been replicated in an entirely secular context. It is possible these spells draw on an essential part of the mortal psyche, the faith in their Gods, or their desire for the safety of a holy place.
Spoiler
TELEPORTATION: PREMISE & PRAXIS Vol. 3
by Voganna Plotinus

The modern method of teleportation was discovered in 2E 662 by Celaud Mabeurre, a Breton mage associated with the College of Gwylim. It is said that Celaud labored over this work his entire life, arriving at a functioning spell only months before his death.

At the time, the question of self-catalyzed teleportation had – literally – consumed Breton academia for decades, with many of Gwylim’s best and brightest falling victim to ill-conceived arcane mishaps. Gwylim's Twist Hall, with its petrified figures and fused horrors, remains a sobering reminder of the risks our predecessors took in developing spells we now take for granted.

After decades of grueling experimentation, Celaud's mark-and-recall "spiritual anchor" method finally managed a stable transportation which avoid the unfortunate and bloody results of his peers. It took another two decades after Celaud's death for his assistant to transcribe and refine the spells into a functional and practical shape.

Despite this success, it would take centuries before Celaudine teleportation became commonplace. The new form of magic agitated the anti-intellectual sentiments of which the Interregnum was rife. Many among the common people feared that mages were stealing souls, replacing those transported with doppelgangers, or that they secretly changed the destination of spells to whisk their users away to distant prisons.

Among the myopic kings of High Rock, teleportation was seen as a challenge to their rule. The nobility was alarmed by the implications of this magic, which they thought would make institutions like serfdom and prisons obsolete. As such, early practitioners of teleportation were often persecuted, and until the re-establishment of trans-provincial scholarship under the Septimite Mages Guild renewals, it remained an obscure and suspicious practice.
A far green country, under a swift sunrise
she/her

User avatar
Infragris
Project Administrator
Posts: 1396
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:51 pm

Post by Infragris »

I'm not sure if anybody has elaborated on it, but I saw the portico system as something using a physical doorway as opposed to just a super-powered Guild Guide. So that would put it on the side of using physical implements to travel, not just a spell. Until there's more clarity about this it might be better to just remove any mention of the portico network from the text.
"Other explorations into the teleportation potential of the Dawn Magics have ended in disaster, and the Emperors have prohibited further study of the subject."
Disagree with this change, either "the Emperor" or "Imperial authorities" would be better. This would imply that multiple Emperors have forbidden the practice, which isn't the case - some Emperor did this, but from a legal point of view it doesn't matter which Emperor exactly - we're talking about the Emperor as a legal entity.

Post Reply

Return to “P:C Literature”