June 2023
This post is about the (inter)dimensional travel system, which might make better sense when read after the magic system explanation post (“The Magic System”), or in conjunction with it.
The primary modes of magic and tech assisted travel (not counting hovercraft or voidships) in Broken Dimensions are teleportation and warping, which can be used for traveling long and short distances within a dimension, as well as between dimensions. They are two similar but different types of magictech travel, both of which use pads or rune circles of varying size to transport one or more people across a pre-calculated stretch of space.
Teleportation is what is sounds like: the de- and re-materialization of a person or object by way of molecular dis- and re-assembly. In Broken Dimensions, teleportation be performed via self-generated magic, or by using technological developments like telepads or hand-held teleportation devices.
Self-teleportation always involves magic, but one method is an innate ability and the other is learned over time. Runic/spell teleportation is performed by learning a series of runes, combinations, and spellwork that takes years to master and requires physical coordinates. Therefore, most runic/spell teleporters carry compasses that interpret their current coordinates and frequently possess a map application to calculate jumps.
Conversely, ziojics are the most well-known race capable of innate self-teleportation, meaning they require no spell or rune knowledge of teleportation magic to teleport themselves. That said, they do use the same spells and runes as runic teleporters, but instead of having to learn and improve their knowledge of how to do so, it’s entirely subconscious. Many of them couldn’t tell you the rune combos to save their life, unless they’ve chosen to study how their innate ability works. Ziojic teleportation is also aided by their natural “grid sense,” through which they can perceive the world around them as an expansive grid and determine where to move to and how/where to re-materialize with much greater accuracy than other non-ziojics (this does take time to master, of course).
Teleportation is typically short-ranged when performed by an individual – even Void Demons can only jump as far as they can reach out with their grid sense, which that caps out around a mile. Uncalculated runic/spell teleporters can go only where they can see. The calculation map is limited too, usually by HOLOnet service or radar capability.
There have been attempts to develop hand-held technological teleportation devices, but they often have bugs and complications that runic teleportation doesn’t. Integrated MagiTech devices have greater success, but are often still a bit buggy. Most people choose not to take the risk; what good is a hand-he;d teleportation device if there's a 40%+ chance it'll drop you two hundred feet above or below your destination?
On a public level, there are teleportation pads (telepads) integrated across cities to aid in cross-city teleportation. Telepads often discharge often en mass, as it is one of the most popular forms of public transportation. Anything further than twenty miles away is typically considered a warp.
Warping is similar enough to teleportation, but is considered different because of the more elaborate technology and rune circles involved, and the larger distances it can cover. Typically, a warp is used for travel across the vast reaches of Void between dimensions by disassembling the transported person’s molecules in one world and reassembling them in another. Warping can also take place within a dimension to travel across continents and seas, although most in-world instant travel can be achieved with simple teleportation routes. Warping involves not just the transportation between a set of given coordinates, but translating those coordinates across voidspace to different landing points in two separate worlds on different reality planes.
A warp is achieved using a piece of technology called a warp pad, which is a more powerful, often larger version of its cousin, the telepad. While a telepad can only transport a few people at once (1-8, maybe 1-10), a warp pad can transport anywhere from one person to several hundred depending on its size, the accuracy of lifeform registration, and the pad’s power source. An interdimensional warp can also be performed by one or two powerful, experienced mages who know which world they’re going to and where (or where else in their current world) and have access to coordinates via a calculation app and/or map.
According to in-universe theories of omnipotence, the gods are capable of instantaneous interdimensional travel (warping). (Although, it should be noted, there is still speculation upon whether or not some gods are capable of omnipresence, or at least appearing in two places at once.) Several ziojics have also been recorded as having the ability to warp between worlds on their own, though they are less studied and the practice is thought to be extremely draining. (It is theorized that ziojicss can only perform an interdimensional warp if they are extremely familiar with their end location, and it is often called Void-Walking – something akin to Shadow-Walking – instead of a warp because they literally use through tesseracts in the Void to step to their destination.)
Other Notes
Generally speaking, teleportation is a common practice in most settled dimensions. However, why it may be a convenient method of travel, it takes time to learn and the process of doing so is often accompanied by age restrictions and probation periods. Many worlds require certification that proves you’ve passed the necessary tests to teleport yourself and others safely! Because of this, and because learning the spells for self-teleportation can be difficult or sometimes impossible for individuals, it is nowhere near the only form of transportation, public or otherwise.
Land vehicles like bikes and motorcycles are extremely common in populous areas like cities and trade or travel centers, and hovercraft of various sizes dominate public and family transportation. Hoverbikes and other levitation craft are more common than land equivalents in worlds like Adreoni and the Iron Archipelagos, where gravity stabilizers are a must and the world itself is made up of physics-defying floating islands.
Voidships are another class of transport that have taken the place of space- and (some) air-craft. For example, all aerial transports in the Iron Archipelagos must be equipped with void-capable life support and protection features, meaning they are all classified as voidships. Some common aerial transports are simply modified hovercraft designed to take the place of real-world airplanes. But all voidcraft and hovercraft are powered by the same thing: a runic hyperdrive. Runic hyperdrives also power stationary warp pads and are the basis for smaller telepads and hand-held teleportation devices (part of the complication with the latter comes from trying to create an accurate runic hyperdrive that tiny).
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