Portal Jumps

[Nezz]

This entire subject is going to have to go in my book to account for why teleportation is so rare. Thanks for all the delicious commentary.

[DesertRose]

Known canon limitations. Both destination and origin portals must be known and within "range". But range is never really defined in this case but it doesn't seem to be the short/long range of a jump it's more of the Deryni sensing range.

For jumps we know that longer jumps take more energy to do than shorter jumps. I just skimmed over Deryni Magic and it really didn't have any more insight than that.

I'm guessing that range may also vary from person to person.  Dom Emrys likely had a farther-reaching range than Bishop Arilan, both because the training available to Emrys was far better than what was available to Arilan and because Emrys was one of the most powerful Deryni we've met in canon so far.

So this was of course to add some real word physics into the mix to explain range limitations. And of course what happens if they are exceeded. If you exceed distance from origin to destination you will have the momentum change caused by the planetary rotation. You could stumble at the destination at least or end up flying into a nearby wall if one is close and being bug splatter.

IIRC, a lot of people feel a certain amount of disorientation and/or discomfort upon Portal travel; it seems to be the sort of thing that has less of an impact the better-trained a person is and the more accustomed they are to Portal use.

[DerynifanK]

What is the distance from Beldour to Rhemuth? Regular portal jumps were made between these two capitals by several different people including ambassadors.  I also remember that the ability to make longer jumps  depended on the inherent power of the person making the jump. IIRC Feyd was a very powerful Deryni and able to make longer jumps than other Deryni. I'm not sure how much a Deryni could increase his portalling ability through training and practice but I got the impression that this was possible.

[Bynw]

What is the distance from Beldour to Rhemuth?

In an earlier post the distance is listed as about 475 miles between the capitals. A very long distance jump.

[HoundMistress]

Maybe it's the power of the individual? We know some are more powerful than others. Alaric could do anything a "full" Deryni could do. One fo the reasons they sometimes feared him. Good thing he was a good guy!!

[DerynifanK]

And how is the power required to make a jump changed not only be distance but also whether the Deryni is taking other people through and whether these "passengers" are deryni themselves or human and whether they are cooperating or being controlled by the other? Lots of factors to think about.

[tenworld]

this thread reminds of the discussions of the basis for jumps in Pern, called "Annescience". But she added a dimension of time travel too, which someone should build into a story. And then there is Dr McCoy's least favorite activity, which might be a better parallel for portals, replacing dilithium magic with Deryni magic.

[JediMatt1000]

I've always wondered about the portal effects; would it be akin to going through the StarGate or maybe like "beaming in" from Star Trek? lol...weird thoughts keeping a guy up at 1am!
Matt

[Nezz]

would it be akin to going through the StarGate

Oooh, I like the idea of portals opening little wormholes and plopping the traveller through to the other end of the wormhole, practically instantaneously due to the short distance involved.

I see it as less Trek-y since that's scattering atoms around. Magic is much cleaner, imho.

[Bynw]

Well KK created them based on Transporters from Star Trek.

[Laurna]

Personally, I would rather do a Deryni Portal Jump than a Star Trek Transport. Not sure I want to trust a computer taking me apart atom by atom and then reassembling me.(NOPE)

Just something Hypothetical on my part:

One thing about KK's portals, is that they are always "Grounded" with stone or earthen material(dirt and rocks). The grounding material literally absorbs the energy that is caused by Bynw's Laws of conservation of momentum.  I propose that all portals are not equal. The sub-straight of the "Grounding" Material may have a very physical limiting factor on how jumps are made.

I am an ultrasound tech, we rely on sound being echoed back at us to get an image. In ultrasound all substances other than water send echoes back even air. I am thinking in portals the very last thing you want is the energy of your jump being echoed back at you. It would blast you apart.  The portal must have the sub-strait that Grounds the portalling energy and sends it as far away from the portal as possible.

Maybe the reason older and more used portals are better is that the matrix of rock atoms align themselves with each use to disperse the energy like a crystalline formation. However, when a portal becomes disused that matrix breaks down and the energy is not so easily dispersed and therefor the Deryni making the portal jump has to use more of their own energy to protect themselves from the echo "backfire".

[Evie]

I think KK said in chat once that, despite her often signing off from chat with Portal "sparklies," the transfer portals Deryni use don't have any such visual special effects. And it makes more sense that they wouldn't, otherwise those portal jumps into and out of the Cathedral sacristy would be a whole lot riskier for Duncan and Alaric during a time when they might have been burned at the stake if they were caught at it! IIRC, there are several times when one or the other risks the jump through the portal to make sure the coast is clear, and finds a priest on the other side (or very close by) who has to be mind-altered to not know about their arrival. It would be much more difficult to catch someone on the other end completely unaware if there were sparkles, tunnels in the air, or other such visuals to herald one's arrival! 

I think what it probably ends up looking like is that the person doing the jump just suddenly seems to vanish from sight on one end, and equally suddenly just appears on the other end, so anyone who might happen to be present would doubtless be startled if a person just blinks into sight right in front of them, but if it happened off to the side or behind them, they might not immediately notice, and might just assume the person arrived through normal means and was standing there quietly before being noticed, which could be startling enough, but less likely to immediately cause suspicions of magic use (unless the only door to the room was also locked from the inside).

[Bynw]

I think what it probably ends up looking like is that the person doing the jump just suddenly seems to vanish from sight on one end

That is exactly the way it was described in the Camber books when it was used a few times.

[DoctorM]

I've always wondered about the portal effects; would it be akin to going through the StarGate or maybe like "beaming in" from Star Trek? lol...weird thoughts keeping a guy up at 1am!
Matt

I usually imagine Portal travel as being more like stepping through a door than something as flashy as a Star Trek teleportation unit. Though I've also always imagined it as disorienting for some people.

[Bynw]

Though I've also always imagined it as disorienting for some people.

I think in one of the books it's stated that it can be disorientating to some people. Mainly Humans but I'm sure some Deryni too if they aren't the one controlling the jump.