Transposition
An uncommon ability even between magic users, Transposition is the power to use the everflowing currents of ether as a bridge to fold the fabric of space between two points and connect them with a portal. It is used by mages as a means of communication, transportation, fast travel, and in the case of the few mages of exceptional ability in this discipline cross the boundaries of the Material Plane to other realms.
Contents
Origins
Venadak gifted mortals with Transposition long ago. While he created the planes, it is said he wished for his creations to traverse them, to explore the totality of the lands the Gods had to offer. Such are the ancient and noble origins of this magic, though with the power of traversing vast realms comes a wide variety of use.
Initiation
As with all Cardinal Runes of Magic, the aspiring Transpositioner must find a wizard who is both willing and able to inscribe the Cardinal Rune of Transposition upon their flesh. Threshold sickness caused by the Rune of Transposition is particularly dangerous, not due to the direct effect of the symptoms it causes, but because of the vulnerability it causes on the initiate. Usually, the effects are purely psychological: the affected experience complete depersonalization and the boundaries of reality become blurred, making the person lose all sense of self that is tied to the world surrounding them; it also causes extreme spatial disorientation and amnesia, resulting in an inability to recognize places, distances or heights and following a certain course. On more extreme cases, the future wizards experience visions of faraway places as if they were their current environment, and small, partial teleportations might trigger, resulting in bits of flesh being ripped off their bodies as they teleport a few feet away, causing bleeding or internal bleeding. The threshold sickness lasts a few days, and after that patients might need some time to fully adjust to reality before it’s safe to start their training.
Overstepping
Overstepping caused by Transposition has varied effects, and it’s tied to the mastery of the mage creating the portal and its reach. At its lowest level, the portal won’t open where intended and its little capabilities will at most confuse the caster, having to close it and start again. The more ambitious the reach of the portal, the worse the effects of overstepping; a portal could blink open on the void and swallow the caster, teleport them to a deadly environment (underwater, underground or even open sky, making them fall to his demise) or simply open through them and split their body open. In most extreme cases, a failing portal could merge two different spaces, creating an eldritch amalgam of both places and possibly crushing the mage in the process, or simply open into the space between realms, the raw Aetherium causing the opening to collapse into itself and obliterate everything surrounding the portal, the radius of the explosion varying on the size of the initial spatial incision.
Mutations
Mutations gained by Transposition mages can be hard to recognize at first, most being psychological in nature as a result of their continued peeks into the fabric of space. Most mages gain an uncanny awareness of their environment, talking about things that aren’t in their field of view or grabbing stuff without looking at it. They can also lose touch with reality, mixing distances and speaking of places far away as if they were just in front of them.
Physical mutations are more unusual, but possible. Their eyes, whether sclera, iris or pupil, might reflect the swirling patterns of aether invisible to other people, resulting in that part displaying luminous shifting patterns to the beholder. Their bodies, attuned to different energies, might react whereas others’ wouldn’t: these mages’ hair often seems blown and pushed by an invisible wind, actually being moved by the aether flows others can’t feel. In very exceptional circumstances, their bodies might look distorted or translucent, space altered by their very presence or fragments of their physical bodies blinking in and out of the invisible Aetherium.
How It Works
Practitioners of Transposition utilize the power of their rune to seize or create streams of aether and compress them across order to bend the fabric of reality and connect two points with a portal. There are three components to creating a portal, and four types of limits when creating one.
Base Concepts
The Aether Flux: The principles of Transposition operate on the theory of the Aether Flux. The theory posits that existence is wholly and completely nothing more than raw aether given differing levels of form and purity or density. Different thresholds of aetheric density define the state of matter of a substance: Solid, liquid, gas, plasma, or raw aether.
Portals: Portals are holes in the fabric of space that connect two different points in space. They look like a flat hole in mid-air with a thin border of glowing aether, showing the other side of the portal inside the hole as if it was right in front of the beholder (and in a sense, it is). Depending on its limitations, open portals allow energy, matter and living beings to cross through them, and their shape, points connected and duration are up to the caster.
Components
The three components used to create the portal are the nodes, which determine the points that the portal connects, the stream, which connects both nodes, and the anchor, which is usually the caster that locks portals in place and feeds the energy needed to keep them open.
Nodes: Nodes are small clusters of aether amassed by the Transpositioner. They are locked in chosen places using plain sight or memory or, more accurately, the mage’s spatial perception, as they are created by having in mind their position in relation to the caster’s. They determine which places the portal will connect and, upon colliding, they provide the necessary energy for the portal to open.
Stream: The stream is the continuous flow of aether connecting both nodes. Mages can use a naturally occuring current of aether that crosses both nodes (which helps them minimize the strain of opening a portal) or create their own stream. This stream is then forced to collapse on itself in the fabric of space, folding it so that both nodes collide into each other in the same place. The energy resulting from the collision tears the portal open, connecting both places in the same space.
Anchor: The anchor of an open portal is the caster: they lock both nodes in place and then the portal so it remains in the desired place, and feed the aether needed to both open the portal and keep it open. As part of the system, the Anchor virtually exists on both sides of the portal at the same time. Although rare, it’s not unheard of devices enchanted to act as anchors; these devices need an external source of aether and open portals connecting two set places.
Limits
As mentioned, there are four types of limits when creating portals: Time, Distance, Substance, and Crossing. The skill of the caster determines their ability to overcome these limits.
Time: Time is the most comprehensive limit of the three: as all magical product, portals need aether to be kept open and working. The more unstable a portal is, the more aether it needs to be fed and the less efficient it is, thus making the time it can be kept open shorter. The true determinants of the time a portal remains open are its caster’s aether reserves and its ability to make stable portals.
Distance: Portals connect two distant points in space. It’s the caster’s ability that determines this distance and the placement: the further and the more unclear the points are, the harder it is to produce two stable nodes there and a reliable stream connecting both, due to the influence of the mage fading. It is also harder to bend the fabric of space through large distances, making producing a portal and maintaining it open much more straining, thus setting a limit to the range a mage can cover.
Once the Transpositioner reaches Expert and Master, as detailed below, they are allowed to create portals reaching very long distances. While users of these portals (whether they're the mage that created them or a different traveler) may travel without significant risk to their body, every travel through a portal contributes to an ethereal cumulative effect lingering in each traveler's soul called Spatial Fatigue. Spatial Fatigue is harmless until it reaches a critical amount, causing Portal Sickness; effects include continued headache and malaise until it wears off, and vomiting and hallucinations in worse cases. However, the fatigue wears off with time, short travels needing just a few hours for the fatigue to vanish; long distance travels (1000+ miles) need a few days. Recovery time is directly proportional to distance travel, during which the accumulated Fatigue steadily dissipates; however, most experienced Transpositionists don't wait for full remission. Instead, they calculate their recovery times and the distances they need to cross in order to travel in the most efficient way, their stockpiled Spatial Fatigue fluctuating but attempting to never surpass the Portal Sickness threshold.
Transposition masters have an increased resistance compared to starters or non-initiated, but even for a Master, traveling a few thousand miles essentially causes Portal Sickness as an inevitability, with greater distances causing more significant sickness. While suffering from severe Sickness, further portal travel or blinking exacerbates the effects exponentially, causing overstepping and soon leaving the user bedridden. Even minor Sickness does induce this effect, but obviously at a less exponential rate. Portal Sickness' effects linger until a bit after the Fatigue level goes under the critical threshold, then quickly fading. Excessive use of inter-city portals in one season and thus repeated cases of Portal Sickness can deteriorate the user's spatial integrity and thus incur the negative consequences of Dread-Mist Corruption.
Substance: The Aetherium is the source of all things created, and as the Aether Flux theory postulates, different kinds of aether, energy and matter are composite substances coming from it. Space is formed by layers of different aetheric density; as such, the Transpositioner must tear open all these layers to allow all kinds of substances to cross their portals. Thus, there’s four known layers that can be open to allow substances of increasing aetheric density to cross: aether (raw currents and magic), energy (light, heat, sound…), inanimate matter (elements such as air, water, rock, metal and dead matter) and life (all living creatures). Only organisms containing the spark of Raella and spirits of similar composition are considered Life. Substances not allowed to cross the portal just ignore it, their course following material space.
Crossing: Portals are able to transfer substance through space, but that transfer always comes at a cost: in order to allow matter or energy to pass through it, a flow of aether proportional to density and amount must feed the portal. The flow must be uniform in order to stabilize it; if this aether fails to be provided, the portal breaks, and either only a fraction of the substances cross it, or it rejects them all together, canceling spatial transposition.
Abilities
Window
Gained at Novice. The ability to open portals that essentially function as windows torn open in space, only allowing aether and energy (light, heat, sound) to cross through it. While this cannot be used for combative reasons, a clever mage can utilize Window to spy, and potentially to mask their presence if correctly placed.
Aetheric Redirection
Gained at Novice. The apprentice Transpositioner profits from the Window’s ability to transport aether to allow non-physical magical attacks to be absorbed by a portal and redirected by the other to the sender or any desired target; another use of the ability is expanding the range of attacks or overcoming physical boundaries through the use of portals. This ability is particularly vulnerable to the boundaries of Crossing, exponentially increasing costs based on the energy of the abilities being redirected.
Blinking
Gained at Apprentice. Having attuned themselves to the nodes in space that allow transportation, the mage can now exist in both points simultaneously, allowing for instant, personal teleportation between both. However, this simultaneous existence strains the mage’s physical body; requiring a short, 15 second recovery before it can be used again without backlash; if used in rapid succession, overstepping becomes an inevitability.
Mirroring
Gained at Apprentice. The mage can profit from Blinking's ability to exist at two points at the same time to freeze the process in a way, actually existing in both places for a sustained, short period of time. This makes the mage endure the full strain of blinking, making the recovery period for both Blinking and Mirroring longer than the usual 15 seconds. However, simultaneous existence in two places at once allows them to attack (and be attacked) or defend themselves from two different positions at the same time, either through melee or magical means. The time Mirroring can be held up without overstepping is fairly short, but the mage can choose which one of the two points his body remains at after ceasing the ability.
Spatial Perception
Gained at Journeyman. The mage has developed a connection with the aether network that conforms the fabric of space; they are now able to sense the different layers conforming it and have gained awareness of their environment. This allows them to quickly scan their surroundings, being able to “see” through physical restrictions and omnidirectionally up to a mile in length, and to open portals in places they don’t know or aren’t able to see from their location. However, they sense that surrounding area almost like a tridimensional blueprint of walls and open spaces, and are unable to sense living beings. Spatial Perception consumes exponential amounts of aether: it's not costly to activate, but keeping it active quickly makes its aether cost to skyrocket. Because of this, most Transpositioners tend to activate Spatial Perceptions for a few seconds to get a quick scan at a time, then rest for a bit longer than the timespan used before attempting to peek into space again.
Piping
Gained at Journeyman. The Transpositioner has learned to detect and break the physical restrictions on inanimate matter on their portals, now being able to send said matter through their spatial tears. Piping is an extremely low-cost ability that can be applied to other lesser portals; it is not necessary to use with the Portal ability gained at Expert.
Disarming
Gained at Journeyman. The Journeyman, profiting from the ability of their portals to let matter slip through, has learned to precisely open a portal in front of their enemy’s weapon. If performed with the right timing, the weapon will cross the portal, but the owner (if they’re a living being) won’t, resulting in them being stripped of their weapons.
Vacuity
Gained at Expert. Vacuity allows the Transpositioner to create a one-directional portal, with only the forward-facing side collecting matter. They are able to imbue it onto a surface as a sort of shield, many Transpositioners covering their armor with small Vacuity tears to perfectly reinforce vulnerable areas. While this ability cannot redirect things like with Aetheric Redirection, it is very quick to perform and faces a lesser amount of strain through Crossing, making Vacuity highly effective for all forms of dueling.
Portal
Gained at Expert. Finally, the Transpositioner has mastered the ability to open perfect portals, allowing any kind of substance, including living beings, to cross them.
Spatial Chakram
Gained at Expert. The mage has mastered portal weaponizing; at a high aether cost, they can now wield spatial tears at will, allowing them to fire portals built upon nodes moving across space. This allows them to slice cleanly through enemies if undisturbed, notably by high energy attacks clashing with the blades. This makes them very versatile weapons, their circular or ovular shape able to change in size to fit the wielder’s momentary needs, though doing so expends aether. With sharpness unmatched by any normal weapon and being able to direct their path at will, Spatial Chakrams are known for their lethality. The wielder’s skill in wielding the Chakram-based weapons depends upon their skill in the weapon the shape most resembles. Depending on the usage of the Chakrams, for offense or defense, your efficacy in wielding them depends on your Blades skill and Shield skill, respectively.
Farsight
Gained at Master. The Master’s mind is melded to the fabric of space itself, allowing them to project their minds to distant lands and open portals that connect very distant points. Their awareness of the landscape is awe-strickening: they get a perfectly clear perception of the environment up to 100 miles in the form of a sensory blueprint, now able to also sense living beings. After that limit its clarity slowly fades, allowing mages to perceive those physical boundaries increasingly blurrily up to 1000 miles; after this, it becomes hard to distinguish anything. Using this ability they can even perceive underground openings, open sea and the space over the clouds if they focus properly. This ability can scantily perceive the metaphysical boundaries between worlds, making the Master able to sense the Aetherium barriers that separate the planes and roughly peek beyond. Farsight costs increasing amounts of Aether the longer it's activated, though it can be mantained for longer than Spatial Perception before the cost becomes unreasonable; Masters usually activate Farsight for up to half a minute before the cost starts being significant, and they can keep it up to a minute if they need to before the cost becomes unreasonable. As in Spatial Perception, users need to rest a little longer than the Farsight activation timespan to make the initial cost lower back to its minimal amount.
Suspend
Gained at Master. Suspend creates multiple dense layers of spatial folds over an area, equaling no larger than fifty feet in radius. Within that suspended area, any objects or people caught within will float harmlessly towards the center, the ground itself appearing to push them away from its edges. Acting as a prison, Suspend is extremely dangerous to attempt to escape through, as moving away from the center causes for the individuals imprisoned to face the degrading effects of what Transpositioners call “spatial friction”, as the layers wade into them in separate directions and endeavor to brutally twist their form. As this ability distorts and twists spatial layers, even Portaling and Blinking does not appear to allow those caught within to escape; they are merely sent to a different section of the spatial cell. Master-level magic can degrade the integrity of the cell and allow for an easier escape, but one would need to expend considerable ether to do so. Suspend takes only three seconds to prime, and can be cancelled by the Transpositioner before being formed, though they will still lose a significant portion of the aether devoted to the ability.
Interplanar Portal (CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE)
Gained at Master. Having perceived the limits of the material plane, the Master Transpositioner has transcended them. In an extraordinary display of magic power and ability, they can tear open portals to other matter based worlds, including Bel, Muid, Reverie and the Outlands.
Elder Abilities
Meltdown
Having acquired the expertise to open portals beyond the limits of the world, the Elder has access to a fearsome ability: to open an unstable portal to the chaotic, raw Aetherium that forms the space between planes. The very presence of the divine energies in contact with matter overcharge it; a blinding light and a high pitched sound ensues, and in less than 8 seconds it obliterates everything in a sphere proportional to the surface of the portal starting the blast, up to a radius of 100 feet. This is a very feared ability even among Transpositioners, given its rampant destructive potential, the strain on the caster and the high risk of overstepping from overuse.
The Chasm
The Chasm is the creation of a monstrous rift within space, disrupting the continuity of a large area in order to create a large maw-like structure. The space that it has absorbed to come into being is disrupted almost like diverging single molecules, fragmented around the boundaries of the rift until it ceases to be, and corrects space by doing so. There are two applications to this ability. One mode is what is called the Riftcurve, formed at the edge of an unknown section of space that is orbiting an object of high mass. Creating the Chasm in such a location, the Riftcurve mimics the effect of being pulled into aligning orbit, creating an intense gravitational pull near the boundaries of the Chasm, one that seemingly grows more intense as the portal is sustained. Forced into the portal, those caught within are certain to die, plunged into space with no ability to return as they are flung into gravitational orbit. The Elder may prevent themselves from being pulled, but no others.
The second application of the Chasm, not able to be performed simultaneously with the Riftcurve, is the Conjunction. This forms the secondary point of the Chasm at another location -- whether Ranseran or even on other worlds -- and allows for thousands or even tens of thousands of objects and entities to flow through without disruption. The massive portal can be used to transport armies, evacuate cities, or redirect impending cataclysm to another more reasonable point in space. These two modes cannot be engaged simultaneously, as mentioned before, but they can be shifted between with relative ease. The Chasm is very costly to maintain for overlong, but its effects appear to widen and grow the longer it remains, expanding outward aggressively. For this reason, at times an Elder may allow overstepping by maintaining the portal for a long duration, if only to unleash this ability at its greatest extent.
Tier Progression
Novice (1-24)
The novice Transpositioner has just began to tamper with the fabric of space. As inexperienced as he is, he needs absolute, undisturbed focus to determine two different locations in space, use themselves as an anchor, fix the Aetheric nodes to use as focus for the portal and then use an Aetheric stream to connect them, make both locations collapse on top of each other and form the portal. They aren’t sensitive to the layers of reality yet, so their portals have only breached the energy barrier, only allowing them and others to see and hear through them. Due to the focus needed and the strain of the process, the steps to opening a portal are slow and need a calm environment, and the magical strain of keeping the tear in space open makes portals by novice mages last only for a few seconds before closing. The distance in which they can open a portal is also limited; as they haven’t developed their spatial perception yet, they can only open stable portals to a maximum distance of 100 feet.
Apprentice (25-49)
The apprentice Transpositioner has started to understand the underlying structure of space. Now more attuned to the Aether used to open tears in the fabric of space, they’ve made their body able to exist in both points at the same time, allowing them to effectively teleport even if they haven’t overcome their portals’ limit to transport matter. They cannot form long streams of connection between points in space either, so their ability to blink or form portals is limited to a maximum of 500 feet between connection points, roughly keeping these windows open for a minute.
Journeyman (50-74)
A Transpositioner reaches Journeyman level when he’s gained some degree of sensitivity to the layers forming reality and has learned to breach the barrier that keeps inanimate matter from crossing. They have developed their spatial vision and are able to determine points in space and connect them much more easily, so their casting speed has significantly increased and the focus needed isn’t as intense now, even if they still need to stay put and a little time to open portals. They easily open energy portals to see other locations for more than 3 minutes, and can open a matter portal open for almost half a minute if relatively undisturbed. Also, their portal opening range has increased to roughly a mile as long as they can pinpoint the locations in which the portal should open.
Expert (75-99)
An expert Transpositioner’s powers have grown exponentially, their minds having become familiar with perceiving reality as an Aetherium continuum and discerning its composition. They use portals as extensions of their limbs, allowing a single mage to cover a territory a whole army hardly could. They have a clear perception of the layers of reality and are able to bend them to their wills easily, not needing much focus to easily tear a portal open. This allows anything or anyone to cross it for as long as they will, easily being able to open a portal for as much as 30 minutes before needing some rest. If they don’t need to allow the crossing of living beings, the time limit grows exponentially, being able to maintain a tear in the fabric of space for hours. The distance limit has also increased significantly: if they are able to determine the locations of the two ends of the portal, they can open them within a radius of 700 miles. The reason for this significant jump is that the Expert has finally learned to create true portals, vastly increasing their purview in the realm of distance.
Master (100)
The Master Transpositioner’s mind is naturally connected to the space surrounding them, able to feel details in the landscape to great distances and connect two points instantly and effortlessly. They're able to connect two points they remember clearly with no distance limit, and they can keep closer portals open for long periods of time. Their perceptive prowess having grown so large, a true Master can cross the barriers between different planes of reality, extending their aetheric strings to other material Planes, such as the Shrouded Realms or the Elemental planes. Although opening an interdimensional portal takes a great toll on the mage, Masters needing immediate rest after doing so, the ability to breach the barriers between worlds is proof of their otherworldly dexterity.
Ascension: The Elder
A true master of Transposition - one who Ascends - is able to become an Elder, steeling themselves to the whole of the planes, and even the Outlands. Elders are very unique and the physical changes marking upon each Elder tend to vary dramatically from one to the next. Common examples include skin that appears to resemble space (often nebulas) in color, perhaps even appearing mist-like or intangible; eyes that look similar to black holes...
Commonly, Elders have hair that is colored and even textured like cosmic entities, such as hair that changes to glow white like a moon, shining radiance in the dark of night.
They are also often lined with highly intricate and often beautiful adornments, innate to their biology. While this commonly takes the form of a headdress, whether organic or material (such as celestial-like horns or simply a circlet imbued around the skull), these adornments can appear all across the body and can hold vastly different appearances, though among each mage they tend to hold a consistent theme and style. Perhaps ribs of silver growing across the body, or translucent star-like webs that grow from the thighs to the chest to one's jaw. Even physiological changes are possible, though Elders keep their humanoid shape.
The powers of an Elder are often tied to their most central adornment, which is inseparable from them though it may be rescinded into their form at will. This adornment will often be a cloak in terms of appearance, though like with most adornments of the Elder, it can vary. It acts as an always-powered Node that can be used to create and power many portals; this effectively reduces aethereal expenditure by a significant amount, reducing the expenditure necessary to create and maintain portals, as well as reducing ramp-up time for portals. This has the obvious effect of allowing for much more consistent long-distance travel for Elders, who needn't recover long, particularly given their precision in controlling Nodes and Streams from afar. An Elder can also, unlike other Transposers, open portals in non-physical space; this is necessary for the utilization of Meltdown and Chasm.
Additionally, an Elder may tie other abilities into their Blinks by sowing Nodes into space prior to their leap. What this effectively means is that they are able to leave a Node at the initial leap point of their blink, and may force it to collide with their Elder-Node upon arrival. This allows them to near-instantaneously trigger abilities, as they channel them with the same Node collision as the one used to Blink. This can result in a Chasm being conjured rapidly; it can be used to lock foes into Suspend quickly like a trap, a number of other possibilities. They can also thread abilities into Blink without having to perform them at all, reducing their expenditure, such as the Interplanar Portal. Elders can, therefore, effectively travel through realms of reality purely through Blinking.
Blinking, as it is so central to the Elder's expanded utility, now no longer grates on their body the same way. Simultaneous existence and the traversing of planes is now natural to their Ascendant physiology, and Blink can be used with a much lower gap of five seconds.
Finally, an Elder may carve their own small domain within space, though it appears to exist within the edges of a pre-existing realm. This domain, far inferior to a God's realm but still arbitrated by their will, can even be melded with the real world or withdrawn from it at their behest. Commonly it is a home of some sort, and they cannot fabricate life within this domain. Things that physically interact with other entities must be physically viable; for example, a home can only be lived in if it is a home that has truly been built. Still, this offers the Elder a safe reprieve from others, and an escape from most dangers. It is, however, very exhaustive in aether to call upon this domain, though less so to enter it.
