Portals are passages through the Ley, not permanent doors that can be used as unlimited transportation. Portal workings require discipline, and their scale is inherently limited.

Sídhe Portals

Sídhe portals require ritual preparation, a destination anchor, and a key. The key may be a phrase or an imbued relic. Creating and using a deliberate portal requires significant concentration and carries the risk of failure.

Ddraig Portals

Ddraig can open transient portals instinctively. A dragon can return to a place it has previously visited, but it cannot independently determine an unfamiliar destination. A Morrighan or other biped can read a map and provide the necessary location. A dragon may also open a random portal to escape danger.

Portal Limits

Portals are not troop transports. A Ddraig may carry its wingbond, a second rider or gunner, or a small flight. Two dragons and their riders are reasonable; a Wing of four is possible. A Phalanx cannot be transported through a single Ddraig portal, and armies cannot be moved through portals.

Ancient Portals

Thousands of old portals remain scattered across Aereth, many created by the Tuatha Dé Danann or ancient Sídhe masters. Some are anchored to landscape features such as cylchs. Many are transient or unstable. Some have been known to seize vessels or deposit Travelers from Earth into Aereth.

Travelers and Portal Transit

Only materials with a natural equivalent on Aereth can survive portal transit intact.

Natural materials such as wood, leather, cotton, silk, linen, stone, and naturally occurring metals may survive when Aereth possesses an equivalent material. Synthetic materials, plastics, composites, and exotic or artificial alloys cannot survive the Crossing. This is absolute.

A Traveler may bring knowledge from Earth, but modern technology does not make the journey intact. A Traveler wearing entirely synthetic clothing may arrive naked. A leather medical bag may survive; a modern polymer instrument may not.

Sensing Portals

A human carrying Sídhe or Drakeri blood may sometimes sense the presence of a portal without being able to create or control it.