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--- concept:glyphic_teleportation [2024/01/17 14:27] – shyriath
+++ concept:glyphic_teleportation [2024/01/25 09:43] (current) – ↷ Links adapted because of a move operation shyriath
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 ====== Glyphic teleportation ======
-**Glyphic teleportation** is the general term for the use of [[concept:enchantment|enchanted objects]] to instantaneously travel from one location to another, most commonly in the form of [[#linking_books|linking books]]. While the production of such objects, centered mostly in the [[avishraa:geography:sekhaa:region:brightness]], is relatively limited due to the need for particular skill sets, individual examples have made their way across [[avishraa:geography:sekhaa:start]] and can be found in use in unanticipated places.
+**Glyphic teleportation** is the general term for the use of [[concept:enchantment|enchanted objects]] to instantaneously travel from one location to another, most commonly in the form of [[#linking_books|linking books]]. While the production of such objects, centered mostly in the [[geography:sekhaa:region:brightness]], is relatively limited due to the need for particular skill sets, individual examples have made their way across [[geography:sekhaa:start]] and can be found in use in unanticipated places.
 ===== Mechanism =====
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 The resulting geopolitical changes eventually culminated in the outbreak of the [[history:cloud_era:Gate Wars]] from 48 to 50 Cloud. The pyrrhic victory of the Breaker faction ensured that many of the Gates and nearly all of the referents were damaged beyond use, putting an end to the general use of the Gate network for travel.
-Progress in the field remained stagnant until a 66 Cloud takma raid on the xtauh village of Rukhiltik, a former protectorate of [[geopolitical:ivridan]] that retained an intact Gate still pointing to a valid destination referent. The invaders, witnessing the xtauh fleeing through the Gate, realized its import; although the takmar had theorized the existence of gates, they had never built any, deeming it uneconomic. The Gate was destroyed shortly thereafter to discourage attempts by the local xtauh to take it back, but not before rubbings of the glyphs were taken and brought back to the takma sphere along with other spoils.
+Progress in the field remained stagnant until a 66 Cloud takma raid on the xtauh village of Rukhiltik, a former protectorate of [[geopolitical:Ivridan]] that retained an intact Gate still pointing to a valid destination referent. The invaders, witnessing the xtauh fleeing through the Gate, realized its import; although the takmar had theorized the existence of gates, they had never built any, deeming it uneconomic. The Gate was destroyed shortly thereafter to discourage attempts by the local xtauh to take it back, but not before rubbings of the glyphs were taken and brought back to the takma sphere along with other spoils.
 The prize of a working glyph-set for teleportation resulted in the construction of a few test Gates by the takmar, but although they worked, further attempts were redirected in the face of a new development: variable-geometry enchantment. Before this point, each glyph was constrained by its three-dimensional geometry: one glyph inscribed on a flat surface, for example, would not work on a curved surface. Usually equivalent glyphs existed for various geometries, but discovering them had been a lengthy and tortuous process; and it meant that enchantments could not be placed on items that were flexible enough to be light, unless their shape was held with frames. The discovery of a method to derive glyphs capable of functioning over a range of surface shapes allowed enchantments, for the first time, to be drawn on flexible surfaces without losing their function; although less durable than stone or metal, it allowed a reduction in both the size and the weight of the objects housing complicated enchantments. The translation of the huge teleportation glyph-set to a variable geometry took time, but when it happened, it allowed it to be written into books: the first linking books.
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 The latest development, in 75 Cloud, involved an elaboration of the idea of referent glyphs. The scholar [[person:Kreith of Oraa]], pondering the nature of the referent, reasoned that if a non-magical symbol could be given meaning in an enchantment through its placement among certain other glyphs, surely there was no reason to suppose that said symbol had to have no meaning in itself. Traditionally, a destination was marked with a referent that was complicated by abstract: but why, she thought, could it not be expressed in written words instead, and achieve much more specific results? She set out to test her theory by creating a book that relied on representing a destination with words rather than by an arbitrary symbol.
-Kreith decided, for her first attempt, to aim for a high hill that had been near her childhood home in the [[avishraa:geography:sekhaa:region:cerulean_tangle]]; she had immigrated to the Brightness as a youth, but still had fond, clear memories of the view from the hilltop. Her home had been an isolated farmstead without any particular name, but had not been far from a named village; it would have been possible (as was later realized) to simply write the name of the village into the book, and, assuming no other villages of that name were confusing the book, could have gone there and walked the rest of the way to her hilltop. But so intent was she on teleporting directly to her hilltop that what she did instead was to write into the book a detailed and vivid description of the hill and its environs. This proved to be a momentous choice.
+Kreith decided, for her first attempt, to aim for a high hill that had been near her childhood home in the [[geography:sekhaa:region:cerulean_tangle]]; she had immigrated to the Brightness as a youth, but still had fond, clear memories of the view from the hilltop. Her home had been an isolated farmstead without any particular name, but had not been far from a named village; it would have been possible (as was later realized) to simply write the name of the village into the book, and, assuming no other villages of that name were confusing the book, could have gone there and walked the rest of the way to her hilltop. But so intent was she on teleporting directly to her hilltop that what she did instead was to write into the book a detailed and vivid description of the hill and its environs. This proved to be a momentous choice.
 When Kreith used the finished book, she was indeed transported to a hilltop. And while it clearly bore a resemblance to her intended destination - indeed, it was so similar as to be uncanny - it also clearly was not the place from her childhood. The details were not quite right, but as she spent time exploring her surroundings, larger issues revealed themselves. The vegetation was strange, the leaves the wrong color. Such animals as she saw were utterly unfamiliar. And she realized, with fascinated horror, that not only was [[universe:mikurmiya:Kastun]] not in the sky, but that the sun was moving across it far too quickly; where the sun had just dawned when she arrived, it had reached its zenith barely ten rests later!
-She had brought a linking book back to [[geopolitical:Oraa]] with her, since she had had no intention of going to her hilltop, however beloved, only to travel back thousands of miles. Siting that book in a rocky crevice for protection from the weather, she used it to return home, and over the following turns traveled again and again to her unknown destination to study it. From the absence of Kastun to the dizzyingly fast sky to the flora, fauna, and even stars being unfamiliar, it became evident to Kreith that she had accidentally linked to a world that was not [[Avishraa:]].
+She had brought a linking book back to [[geopolitical:Oraa]] with her, since she had had no intention of going to her hilltop, however beloved, only to travel back thousands of miles. Siting that book in a rocky crevice for protection from the weather, she used it to return home, and over the following turns traveled again and again to her unknown destination to study it. From the absence of Kastun to the dizzyingly fast sky to the flora, fauna, and even stars being unfamiliar, it became evident to Kreith that she had accidentally linked to a world that was not [[universe:mikurmiya:avishraa]].
 While Kreith was sufficiently respected that people were willing to entertain the idea that she was not crazy, they did perhaps regard her in the fashion that a beloved grandmother gets when she's had too much to drink. But she was able to demonstrate her new world upon request, and eagerly described her methods to other Writers she knew. Over the past generation, a new type of linking book has been developing - not widespread yet, but promising a new era of exploration. The technique has even received some interest from the [[Chosen:]]; it was brought to the Citadel by Jennith, the escaped Chosen scribe of one of Kreith's pupils. Jennith has attracted a small following of new Writers there, including her daughter [[person:Enneth]].
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