Theory of creating a mobile portal to the Shadowfell - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Theory of creating a mobile portal to the Shadowfell

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
sanraal
Jan 25, 2009 14:52:56 Below are some thoughts on portal creation by an evil Red Wizard of Thay. Please give some feedbacks and tell me what you think about it.

Among wizards of great power such as me, it is a well-known fact that as a person dies, his soul passes through the Shadowfell plane and to the Fugue plane where he will be judged for his acts in life. As the soul is released from the body, a very small portal is opened by the power of the planes which after a very short time becomes closed yet again. The soul may end up permanently in the Shadowfell as an undead, it may pass through to the Fugue Plane or it may become lost in both time and space. Either way, a very small portal is created for each soul, which means that the more souls that dies at the same time, the bigger the portal will be. Through experimentations I have discovered that in order to create a portal where large creatures can pass through, the total of 197 souls are needed. I have derived this number through several experiments and measurements and many test subjects have been required.

As mentioned, the portal will only exist for a very short time at the moment of the subject’s death. It is therefore desirable that the subject can die over and over again indefinitely. This can be done by combining a Soulguard ritual targeted at the subject inside an artifact mimicking a Demiplane created with a permanently time loop. The subject must of course be reduced in size and teleported inside a sphere which will become the artifact. The Soulguard ritual will make sure that the subject never truely dies, but will live in an eternal limbo of dying. The time loop which is defined as the artifact is created will make sure that only a short time passes before the subject dies. As an additional parameter, the time constant for the artifact must be chosen such that it’s time progresses much faster than that on the mortal world, a frequency of dying that must be at least fifty times our time progression. The soul will therefore always maintain a connection to the Shadowfell and the Fugue plane which now can be used by others for plane travel.

Wherever the souls are, they will create a link towards the Shadowfell and the Fugue plane. This means that it is possible to move them around, and we thus have a mobile portal to the Shadowfell.

As a final note, I have intentionally not mentioned a dying mechanism which is required inside the artifact. I am confident that the readers of this paper on portal creation have many inventive ideas that will solve this problem and which will impress the Mistress of the Night.
#2
winterstar
Jan 26, 2009 23:47:33 Have you considered how best to channel the possible backlash that the endless toture of 197 souls is probably going to create so the artifact is safe to be around or is your research going to result in an undead plague?

-Bek Tanir
#3
sanraal
Jan 27, 2009 12:08:54 Through physical theory, all energies would like to end up in equilibrium. For this case we have a very powerful source of dying souls, which would mean that it would probably have effects outside the artifacts. For example it would make sense that it slowly drew the lifeforce of the ones using it to fuel its own portal creation ability.
So in a zone around this artifact, it would draw the lifeforce of all living creatures, slowly turning them into undeads.
#4
markustay63
Jan 28, 2009 11:22:38 Excellent plothook - nice work.

I would make Shades immune to that last effect, just for flavor.

Also, another flavor possibility - you have to use a 'tarnished soul'.

Although this has nothing to do with D&D mechanics, it just rubs me the wrong way that EVERYONE has a portal to the Shadowfel open for them when they die. People who were devout should have a "Portal of Light" open before them, which leads directly to their god's Realm (the god having taken special interest in the mortal, and accepts authority over his soul).

Going "into the light" is an accepted trope of death, and should be incorporated into any fantasy version of dying. Using the excellent movie Ghost, we see that most folks do have a portal to 'a shadowy realm' open before them (and shadows even come and take them away! - way cool visual for a D&D game). We also see that 'good people' go into the light, which as I have stated, is an accepted mainstay of death in literature and media.

So, without continuing to ramble in a thread not meant to do so, I would add in the little part about the 'tainted soul'...

...and maybe a little somethin'-somethin' about accidently creating a portal to some godly Realm (invoking MUCH devine wrath), or perhaps the Fugue (although it doesn't really fit the 'Portal of Light', unless you decide the Fugue is part of the Plane of Brilliance, which is even more convoluted), if the 'wrong type of soul' is used.

Also, it seems that it is a natural fit to use a portable hole for this - just create the un-ending death-loop within the portable hole, and you have your 'portable Shadow-Portal' that can be neatly folded up and stuck in your pocket.

I always loved portable holes - Gary Gygax's salute to the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sanraal Jan 25, 2009 14:52:56	Below are some thoughts on portal creation by an evil Red Wizard of Thay. Please give some feedbacks and tell me what you think about it. Among wizards of great power such as me, it is a well-known fact that as a person dies, his soul passes through the Shadowfell plane and to the Fugue plane where he will be judged for his acts in life. As the soul is released from the body, a very small portal is opened by the power of the planes which after a very short time becomes closed yet again. The soul may end up permanently in the Shadowfell as an undead, it may pass through to the Fugue Plane or it may become lost in both time and space. Either way, a very small portal is created for each soul, which means that the more souls that dies at the same time, the bigger the portal will be. Through experimentations I have discovered that in order to create a portal where large creatures can pass through, the total of 197 souls are needed. I have derived this number through several experiments and measurements and many test subjects have been required. As mentioned, the portal will only exist for a very short time at the moment of the subject’s death. It is therefore desirable that the subject can die over and over again indefinitely. This can be done by combining a Soulguard ritual targeted at the subject inside an artifact mimicking a Demiplane created with a permanently time loop. The subject must of course be reduced in size and teleported inside a sphere which will become the artifact. The Soulguard ritual will make sure that the subject never truely dies, but will live in an eternal limbo of dying. The time loop which is defined as the artifact is created will make sure that only a short time passes before the subject dies. As an additional parameter, the time constant for the artifact must be chosen such that it’s time progresses much faster than that on the mortal world, a frequency of dying that must be at least fifty times our time progression. The soul will therefore always maintain a connection to the Shadowfell and the Fugue plane which now can be used by others for plane travel. Wherever the souls are, they will create a link towards the Shadowfell and the Fugue plane. This means that it is possible to move them around, and we thus have a mobile portal to the Shadowfell. As a final note, I have intentionally not mentioned a dying mechanism which is required inside the artifact. I am confident that the readers of this paper on portal creation have many inventive ideas that will solve this problem and which will impress the Mistress of the Night.
#2 winterstar Jan 26, 2009 23:47:33	Have you considered how best to channel the possible backlash that the endless toture of 197 souls is probably going to create so the artifact is safe to be around or is your research going to result in an undead plague? -Bek Tanir
#3 sanraal Jan 27, 2009 12:08:54	Through physical theory, all energies would like to end up in equilibrium. For this case we have a very powerful source of dying souls, which would mean that it would probably have effects outside the artifacts. For example it would make sense that it slowly drew the lifeforce of the ones using it to fuel its own portal creation ability. So in a zone around this artifact, it would draw the lifeforce of all living creatures, slowly turning them into undeads.
#4 markustay63 Jan 28, 2009 11:22:38	Excellent plothook - nice work. I would make Shades immune to that last effect, just for flavor. Also, another flavor possibility - you have to use a 'tarnished soul'. Although this has nothing to do with D&D mechanics, it just rubs me the wrong way that EVERYONE has a portal to the Shadowfel open for them when they die. People who were devout should have a "Portal of Light" open before them, which leads directly to their god's Realm (the god having taken special interest in the mortal, and accepts authority over his soul). Going "into the light" is an accepted trope of death, and should be incorporated into any fantasy version of dying. Using the excellent movie Ghost, we see that most folks do have a portal to 'a shadowy realm' open before them (and shadows even come and take them away! - way cool visual for a D&D game). We also see that 'good people' go into the light, which as I have stated, is an accepted mainstay of death in literature and media. So, without continuing to ramble in a thread not meant to do so, I would add in the little part about the 'tainted soul'... ...and maybe a little somethin'-somethin' about accidently creating a portal to some godly Realm (invoking MUCH devine wrath), or perhaps the Fugue (although it doesn't really fit the 'Portal of Light', unless you decide the Fugue is part of the Plane of Brilliance, which is even more convoluted), if the 'wrong type of soul' is used. Also, it seems that it is a natural fit to use a portable hole for this - just create the un-ending death-loop within the portable hole, and you have your 'portable Shadow-Portal' that can be neatly folded up and stuck in your pocket. I always loved portable holes - Gary Gygax's salute to the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie.