In the spirit of this transitioning time of year, this month’s RPG Blog Carnival is about Gates and Portals.
The Ley Gates
Looking like simple wooden farm gates, they’re nothing out of the ordinary. It’s only if you look hard and close do you notice what’s unusual. Looking hard you see the landscape around the gate aligns to it, as if the gate came first. Looking close there are hundreds of tiny runes carved into the stone gate posts. The shepherd druids built the as part of their long war against fey invaders. With the right incantation and a shepherd’s crook, passing through the gate will send you hurtling along the leyline it straddles. How far you go is set by how fast you enter, so most gates have little markings on the ground so you can time your run up to match your destination. Get the run up wrong and you’ll end up somewhere along the leyline but not anywhere useful. Slowing down on exit can be difficult for the inexperienced. The trick is apparently in the bracing of the knees.
The Moon Gate of Macau
With a tenth of the population of Hong Kong in only three hundredth of the area, the old Portuguese
colony of Macau is a crowded and busy place. Buried amongst the back streets of the old quarter is a Moon Gate carved out of black rock and decorated with dark woods. If the aperture is filled with incense smoke when the gate is illuminated by the light of a full moon, the portal opens. On the other side is landscape untouched by and empty of mankind. Originally created by a wealthy mage who wanted to travel China in peace, this moon gate is one of a dozen scattered across China. The portals have now become escapes for those looking to disappear. These folk either take to living as nomads or join one of the small village communities far from the gates.
Portal Mice
Not all mouse holes lead to the spaces between walls. Some of them aren’t holes in the wall at all, instead being a hole in reality. The mice that gnaw them are the remnants of a once great culture that was undone by invasion. These few survived by burrowing into the spaces between dimensions. But they waited there too long and have forgotten almost everything. Their society is now a collection of nomads with a powerful genetic legacy. All that’s left of their culture is the idea that they should go to and search different realities. Something out there is the key they need to restore their entire civilisation. In the meantime, their network of tunnels and portals is exceptionally useful for anyone looking to move between dimensions. Provided you can find a way to fit through the hole.
Image Credits:
- View of Door and Windows From the Street by Bud Ellison – CC-BY-2.0
- Early Morning sunshine farm gate by Gradders52 – CC-BY-ND-2.0
- In the Forgotten Garden by It’s Me – CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0
- The Blue and Purple Mouse House by Pulpolux!!! – CC-BY-NC-2.0