Operate portal

Description

This simple spell is one of the first one that a magician learns to cast. Every magician is able to use it; along with create bond and detect magic, it represents a shared suite of powers common to everyone who works magic. Learning to operate magical portals teaches a magician how to locate and navigate the magical areas known as regio. Perhaps more importantly, it teaches a magician to tap into and draw on reserves of power outside of their own personal mana. Without this knowledge, they would find it difficult to learn more powerful spells, or use crystal mana.

The biggest limitations on this spell is that it only allows the magician who casts it to pass through a portal, and only in one direction. There are exceptions, of course. The Academy for example takes advantage of the apprentice ability possessed by young people to allow a single magician to take an entire group of students to the Hall of Worlds, while certain portals might specifically open "wide" enough to admit multiple travellers with just a single casting of the spell. A ritualist versed in the lore of Autumn might perform the Ambassadorial Gatekeeper to allow a group of mundane allies to travel through a portal. Likewise, once a magician has opened the portal to the Hall of Worlds they can travel through the Anvil portal in either direction for a time without needing to spend personal mana - but this is very much an exception. Wise magicians ensure they have the resources to re-open a portal they have passed through, or they risk being trapped in a potentially dangerous environment. Even these careful precautions cannot help if a portal has been sealed by a powerful effect such as Pakaanan's Iron Shutters - a sensible magician learns as much as possible about their destination before passing through a portal.

Perhaps the most important use of this spell for Imperial magicians is to gain access the Hall of Worlds where the Imperial Conclave meets. In some quarters, mastery of this spell is seen as a prerequisite for membership in the Empire's powerful magical order. As such it is generally the last of the three "cantrips' taught to an aspiring magician. Once a magician has opened the portal in the Anvil regio once, they can continue to do so for several days without needing to expend further personal mana - but they still need to cast the spell each time they enter or leave the Hall of Worlds (meaning, for example, that a magician cannot use the portal while wearing armour).

Of special interest to non-magicians, however, is that this spell allows the Empire to access the power of the Sentinel Gate. When a conjunction exists, this spell is the easiest way for Imperial forces to gain access to it and travel instantly from Anvil to intervene in important conflicts across the Empire. Being able to perform the operate portal spell also allows an Imperial magician to perform the minor cantrip that lets them calculate how long a conjunction they have used will last - this power is so minor it does not even require any personal mana. Using the Sentinel Gate is also one of the few circumstances where this spell will allow a magician to open an actual gateway that allows their companions to travel without needing their own magical abilities.

Beyond Anvil, portals are uncommon, but this spell has a strong symbolic resonance. With it, a magician can visit a chamber under their own power - and perhaps more importantly, they can leave the same way. When people who are not magicians enter one of these magical places, they often find themselves unable to leave without the assistance of one of the denizens - assistance that invariably comes at a steep price.

Rules

Effects

This flexible spell can be used to perform a number of seperate tasks, but only one may be used each time the spell is cast.

• Traverse Regio. You may open a portal to another location, provided a portal exists.
  • There is also a portal in the Anvil regio that leads to the Hall of Worlds. A magician wishing to use this portal pays the standard cost of one mana the first time they use it in a weekend; for the rest of the event they may then cast it without needing to spend additional mana.
• Trace Passage.You can determine where a portal was last opened to go to. This will tell you the last place the Sentinel Gate opened to, or gives basic details of the chamber on the other side of a portal in a regio.
• Operate Sentinel Gate.The spell is also used to open the Sentinel Gate, the powerful teleportation portal that stands in Anvil.

Sample Spellcasting Vocals

• TBC

Common Elements

• Rune Magic: TBC
• Astronomancy: The Door, unsurprisingly, has a deep resonance with this spell given it's associations of travel and transportation. Likewise, the Key is appropriate to casting this spell, especially when entering an unexplored chamber for the first time. When the spell is cast to operate the Sentinel Gate, some magicians will call on the Wanderer which surmounts the physical archway although doing so is seen as reckless by some astronomancers.
• Dramaturgy: The persona of the Witch works well with this spell, which deals with mysterious forces and hidden destinations. Where the Witch may focus on the magical element of opening a portal, the Prince often demands passage authoritatively, or takes on the mantle of a diplomat or emissary to evoke images of free passage and distant travel. The instruments of the Blade (especially when wielded by a magician taking the role of the Captain) and the Lantern are often used in conjunction with operate portal - the former to cut or pry open a portal, the latter to light one's way through the unknown.
• Other traditions: TBC