If we worked it all out logically, there shouldn't be light, etc. inside, but that's one of those things I'm going to flutter my hands over and hope nobody looks too closely at--in the city-wide ones, the sun and sky look like normal, and no, I don't know why. In the person-sized ones, I'm not really sure.shimobaatar wrote:What's it like inside of a fold? I'd assume it would be dark and void-like, but that doesn't seem to be the case. If a dalar were to hide themselves in a fold, would they be undetectable to just humans, or to other dalar as well? Also, since city-covering folds are only permanent-ish, what could cause them to fail/break/be taken down/or something else?
And I thought you might comment on "permanent-ish"! :) They're set up to be sort of self-feeding off of anybody nearby them, so basically as long as there are dalar in an area, the fold will automatically borrow a little of their amati to replenish itself. (if this was not done, the amati used to create the fold would eventually leach out and return to its original "owner", and it would collapse) But what I meant by "permanent-ish" is really that they can actually be moved, if you're sufficiently motivated. The capital Elten has been moved around several places by now, actually.
It really only works on the order of a couple of feet at a time, which is enough to make you significantly faster than an unaided human, but not enough to leap buildings in an entire bound or anything. Dalar have pretty good reaction time (their mild psychic-ness frequently can give them a warning before they trip or something), but still, I wouldn't suggest it over rough terrain. If you got it out of sync with your pace, you could probably break legs and so on. To an outside observer, it would basically look like someone is making impossibly long steps--the actual folding would be done so quickly and just on ground level, so it wouldn't be too noticeable unless you knew what to look for. It definitely would look severely unnatural, though.This sounds awesome! I'm curious about how visibility, reaction time, and such things factor in here, though. Would this only be possible/a good idea to do across flat, open areas, or can especially experienced dalar dodge buildings and such in their way? Similarly, how does this kind of movement look, both to the dalar moving this way and to others (both humans and dalar) observing a dalar moving in such a way? Would dalar have to avoid human-filled areas while doing this so they don't cause a scene of some sort?
Probably more likely than not... or at least they work very hard to give that impression, to discourage people from trying. It's just, because the only people who are trying to do this thing are probably mixed up in organized crime anyway, and it takes multiple people on each end to pull it off, the odds of them finding some lead back to you are pretty good. Not sure on the punishment, likely lots of fines for "unauthorized teleportation" and jail time.If you were to teleport into Elten, how likely would it be for the investigation that gets opened to actually find you? Sorry if this has been answered before, but what would happen if they did find you?
Dunno if it's faster, but definitely more closely-monitored....is the kind of system used at high-security areas also faster as well as more accurate?
Perhaps large enough for a semi truck to drive through, at the largest. At a time, maybe anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen people (assuming this is one of the official portals with a proper staff. The black market ones being run by a handful of people might only take three or so at a time, to be safer).Hmm… any estimates of how large these portals would be, in area, I suppose? Alternatively, any ideas about how many individuals could use a portal at once?
Yeah, makes sense. :)I guess crime organizations would at least generally prefer it if their members didn't use the portals all the time, since they'd have to pay?
So, a portal is basically punching a couple of holes in reality. If you just let one snap closed, there would be a weak spot left behind. It would heal itself relatively quickly (within the week, say, and it wouldn't be noticeable even to a dalar unless they were explicitly looking for it), but until it healed up, it'd be somewhat easier to create another portal in the same place. (if it was closed properly, there'd be barely any trace, however) When you set up a portal that you intend to use repeatedly, rather than letting it just close and heal up, you instead are trying to maintain that weak spot and the link to the other side of the portal. If this link/weak spot are set up properly, you then can open and close the portal as often as you want, theoretically forever if you maintain it. As for leaving it closed for long periods of time, you'd want to periodically open it up and use it, because it will heal up eventually. But a well set-up portal could easily be left closed for a month and be just as easy to fire back up--or even after several months, it might be a little more difficult but still much easier than opening a new one. (note that this doesn't apply to "ad hoc" portals that are created just for a one-time use, or portals that aren't maintained)Once a portal has been opened somewhere, is it established in that location forever, or only for a limited period of time/number of uses? Also, how specific are portal locations? That is, if a group of dalar were to try opening a new portal somewhere, would they be able to detect/sense an already established (but probably closed at the time) portal in the area, which they could reopen to save themselves time/work? If so, how close would they have to be to the already established portal?
When it comes to establishing a new portal, it probably wouldn't be worth it to try to find a place where a recent portal was created. First, it's not like people are creating new portals all the time or anything, so the odds of finding one are very low, and second, unless you got there RIGHT after it closed up, it would only be slightly easier.
Not a clue, but if I ever figure out what materials react to amati, I'll have to consider this side of things too.Are there any materials/objects/what have you that can't pass through the portals (perhaps because of amati-related properties)?