Arcane Gates
They changed the world and how we scurry over it. But make no mistake, those portals are a harbinger of just how dangerous the world has gotten. Even if the Gates are a necessary evil.
Author’s note: Hoist the Colors may eventually inspire fiction. Most likely will and I’ll gladly write it. But right now, it’s a role-playing game setting with what I hope is an interesting take and look at an “Alternate History” of Earth. It isn’t really “steampunk”, though I can see how someone would get that impression. For me, it’s more a “flintlock fantasy” set on Earth of 1722 in all it’s historical mess… that I’ve stirred up even more!
So, with that said, here we get into more supernatural phenomena of Hoist the Colors. Arcane Gates!
Arcane Gates
Arcane Gates appeared right after Crossing’s Fall. They changed the world and how we scurry over it. But make no mistake, those portals are a harbinger of just how dangerous the world has gotten. Even if the Gates are a necessary evil.
- Captain Elias Driftwood, Captain of the Mystic Seas
Once the Rainbow Bridge collapsed, or so the story is told, the shattered remains of Otherworld crashed to Earth. This caused all manner of catastrophes, disasters, and changes. But the one that stand out most are the Arcane Gates.
These gates, either natural or temporary, are glowing sentinels to how much the world was changed. Arcane Gates are portals of raw magical power that stand silent watch in the Earth’s oceans and seas. Menacing, glowing portals that towered over the tallest ship’s mast by 100 or even 200 feet or more.
Once visible, they often appear as magnificent arches with frames of ever-shifting glowing knotwork, mystic amber symbols, and ethereal images from myth and legends. In the center flows a cobalt-blue, water-like power, as turbulent as the ocean. A mystic energy flowing and undulating within the archway, while fog billows up and out where the entire mystical structure touches water.
No one understands why they only appear in oceans and seas. But one thing quickly became clear, a ship can use one to travel from one side of the world to the other, or to Otherworld remnants, in a second. Arcane Gates changed the nature of travel, trade, and naval power forever.
About the Gates
Some Arcane Gates are natural. Mysterious structures that appeared immediately after the Crossing’s Fall disaster. As best as the most skilled Navigator or Wavebinder understand, these are a direct manifestation of the Etherwave Arcana itself.
These Arcane Gates sit in certain locations on both Earth and the shattered remains of Otherworld. Places where the veil between Earth, Otherworld, and the Etherwave Arcana is at its thinnest. But, for unknown reasons, these nexuses of power are only in the ocean, even if offshore from a mainland or island.
The gates resonate strongly in the Arcana. They are felt by anyone who can Channel the mystic powers from miles away. It isn’t a direction as accurate as a compass, but a strong feeling. A compulsion drawing a person attuned to the Etherwave Arcana to these natural magical knots.
Once a ship sails close, such as a cannon shot away, the gate appears in a flash of emerald lightning. Power boiling along their edges waiting to be used. But, while Wavebinders can sense the Gates, the raw chaos mixed with the forces of nature, it eludes their control. Only a skilled Navigator has the mind and arcane skill to plot a course through them that allows a ship to wind up where it should be on the other side. Many a ship with her crew have been thrown against rocks, shattered against the side of a Gate itself, or vanished forever, without the help of a trained Navigator.
Most wonder why, since it should be a matter of sailing straight through. Which would be simple enough, but sailing through a gate isn’t a matter of setting a course ahead. The power in between the magical arches is as thick as the most blinding fog. Sailing through a gate is a matter of resolve. Seeing where you want to go, since sailing through an Arcane Gate, is also sailing through the Etherwave Arcana itself.
To Harness Chaos
Casting a gate isn’t like dusting crops or lighting candles with the Arcana. It takes a bit of skill and willpower. It’s a bit like trying to lasso a hurricane.
- Lyrandar Starwhisper, Navigator of the Sea Path
But not all Arcane Gates are gifts of nature and the Arcana. Many are temporary creations of Navigators. The only profession that is capable of harnessing the wild combination of primal nature and the Etherwave Arcana to manifest these archways for their vessel. Wavebinders find the chaotic energy of the gate creation beyond their reach. Even Elementalists, with their deep connection to Nature herself, find it impossible to manage. Those that try often come to a bad end. A few wind up with Scars, such as Cursed or Haunted. Most vanish with a scream into the Etherwave Arcana in a burning flash of light, lost forever.
Navigators, on the other hand, learn to use their innate sense of the sea to read the combination of ocean power, nature, and the Etherwave Arcana. They hear that siren’s song it makes, then Channel that into being. But, like any attempt to Channel the Etherwave Arcana, an equivalent exchange of material for energy must be paid. Which is where a ship’s portal platform comes in.
These platforms are marvels of engineering and arcane craftsmanship. Earliest known platforms were an invention by grimling cultures over a thousand generations ago. Since Crossing’s Fall, it took human craftsfolk no time to alter, adjust, and at times improve the designs. They aren’t found on all ships, as they take time to make, but many have some sort of portal platform for a Navigator to use.
Ship portal platforms are crafted from a rare blend of metals and materials that are then imbued with arcane properties. Engravings of flowing water, clouds and more line the raised edge. These are more than just decoration but grooves used by the Etherwave Arcana when it’s Channeled by a Navigator. As a Navigator draws on the Arcana and creates a gate, the cost is paid by the platform itself. Over time, the once polished platform loses its luster and the engravings become worn down. Once cracks appear or the engravings have almost worn away, the platform will be useless.
Creation of these platforms is a well-guarded secret, known only to a select few skilled Engineers and Navigators. Spreading this secret draws down bounties, if not a death sentence, as the creation of the platforms is as dangerous as Channeling the Arcana to assemble a temporary Arcane Gate. Also, no two portal platforms are alike. The engravings, alloys and more reflect the personality and style of the creator, if not the ship the platform rests on.
Gate Casting
The process to Channel the Arcana to form a gate is intricate and dangerous. It requires the utmost concentration and precise hand gestures. Some who have watched a Navigator in action describe it like a conductor at a symphony. Only the conductor uses ghostly glowing runes, symbols, and light to direct invisible musicians. Then there are other stories that talk about a Navigator ‘painting’ the air, causing the gate to rise in a flurry of mystical, glowing lines from fog and ocean water.
No matter how they’re created, Arcane Gates are an awe-inspiring sight. They are, beyond any doubt, the most complicated and magnificent example of the Etherwave Arcana affecting the world. Despite his complexity, it takes a skilled Navigator only a few seconds to craft one from the Etherwave. This has become a powerful tool in the hands of a clever crew that needs to evade a lethal storm, pirates, or worse threat.
A Will Of Its Own
Don’t be fooled. The Gates will give you the fight of your life. If they can, they’ll try to drown out of spite, or worse…
- Lyrandar Starwhisper, Navigator of the Sea Path
But any crew that thinks once they cross through a gate is safe will be in for an ugly surprise. Arcane Gates, for all their power, are an open door. Ships fleeing pirates might find those pirates willing to chase them to the other side. The same is true for any other threats, from krakens to storms.
Once the Navigator has seen the ship safely through a gate, they’ll have to close it. This seems a simple task save for once open, an Arcane Gate doesn’t want to be closed. What most students of the Etherwave Arcana find surprising is that natural Arcane Gates are far easier to close than Navigator-created ones.
For a natural gate, a ship’s Navigator simply needs to Channel the Etherwave Arcana to tap the gate’s runes to close it. Most Navigators compare this to forming a magical key to turn in the gate’s lock. Once done, the Arcane Gate vanishes in the same way it appeared, with bolts of emerald lightning. Unless another Navigator opens it up again.
A Navigator made gate? Well, that’s a beast of a whole other shade…
- Lyrandar Starwhisper, Navigator of the Sea Path
A Mighty Tempest
Those gates appear in a flash of lightning and look similar to a natural Arcane Gate, complete with knotwork and ethereal images of myth. But these gates are wild and untamed. A Navigator has to guide the ship through, but also keep control over a magical creation that fights against being tamed. If they fail, all manner of disaster could claim the Navigator and their crew.
Most often, the gate simply slams shut with the ship partway through. The doomed vessel is split in two with pieces, and crew, scattered across the far corners of the globe. Other tales tell of tossing a ship to some unknown place on Earth or the shattered remains of Otherworld. Worst are the rare tales of a wild Arcane Gate trapping a ship and crew partway between reality and the Etherwave Arcana. Ghosts to wander the worlds, cursed by some mysterious entity from within the Etherwave itself.
We call those ‘phantom sails’. If you’re smart, you’ll steer clear of them…
- Lyrandar Starwhisper, Navigator of the Sea Path
After they reach the other side, Navigators close these temporary gates just as they do natural ones. They have to Channel the Arcana through mystic gestures designed to close an Arcane Gate. Once that gate closes, it closes forever, until the Navigator has recovered enough to open a new one.
The only exception is if the Navigator loses control over their gate and it throws Navigator and ship elsewhere. That’s when the real threat appears.
The Jaws of Hell
Arcane Gates that break free of a Navigator are a danger to ships, crews and coastlines. They are a mystical storm of mythic proportions, often forming a hurricane around themselves before they charge toward land, thirsty for destruction. Some consider them a mystical beast a thousand times worse than the most bloody-minded kraken. Nature itself unleashed at her worst.
But the Arcane Gates can’t exist on land, as for unknown reasons they need the oceans. That doesn’t stop them from their deadly rampage. Many have carved a lethal path inland ripping through forests and erasing entire towns. Until, at last, both magic and storm exhausts itself, then fades to nothing.
To counter this, a special guild of Navigators called the Stormchaser Guild hunt these rogue gates. Considered both fools and brave by others, these Navigators chase the rogue gates and try to tame, then close them before they strike land. Undaunted, Stormchaser Navigators take their duty seriously. Even though, they know their chosen profession may one day take their life to save others.
It’s a dance of wind, wave, and magic. We Navigators weave portals between the lands of living and unseen, all to guide a ship around the world in seconds. Maybe even to a broken part of Otherworld, if you’re just plain fool enough to try.
- Lyrandar Starwhisper, Navigator of the Sea Path
To Channel An Arcane Gate
A Navigator Channels a gate much like a Wavebinder Channels the Etherwave for a spell. Only an Arcane Gate is a much larger spell, if not perhaps a living thing on its own. Like a spell, Channeling a gate has a cost.
Where a Wavebinder’s spell cost is taken from their own body or an item they carry for that purpose, a Navigator and their portal platform pay the cost to create, control, and close an Arcane Gate. It wears on the Navigator and their portal, just as a spell wears down a Wavebinder. Once the Channeling is complete, the Navigator will be exhausted and will need to rest. Provided they don’t have a potion, lotion, or other means to recover quickly.
It bears repeating that while many might have the knack, skill, or natural talent to Channel, only a Navigator can create or use an Arcane Gate. It takes skill and the sense of the wind, water and more to feel the flow of the Etherwave Arcana interacting with Mother Nature herself.
For normal situations, Channeling to open an Arcane Gate would only cost a Navigator 1 to 2 stress. This is the strain of concentration to harness the mix of Etherwave Arcana and primal natural forces to make a gate. This changes if the conditions become more challenging.
If in combat, during a storm, or traveling through a treacherous area, the cost goes up. Here the stress cost would be 2 to 3 points. This is just to reflect how much harder it would be for the Navigator to concentrate and maintain control.
Critical situations drive the cost even higher. If the Navigator has to help the crew make an emergency escape, or even if they have to close a rogue Arcane Gate, the stress cost would be 3 to 4 points. A serious mental and physical toll on the Navigator.
Naturally, a Navigator might feel the need to push themselves to open a larger than normal gate, or hold a gate open longer than it takes for a single ship to pass through. Perhaps the Navigator is trying to pilot the ship through a gate to a rarely visited, dangerous location, such as a rumored fragment of Otherworld. That alone can cost a further amount of 2 or 3 stress points at the Game Master’s discretion.
Failure, of course, is always an option. If a Navigator fails to Channel an Arcane Gate, there will be consequences. This could be as simple as an additional 1 to 2 stress cost because of the backlash of power from the Etherwave Arcana. Perhaps even the portal platform had a hidden flaw, which means it cracked and has to be repaired. In the worst cases, a Navigator might become Cursed, Haunted, or other appropriate Scar.
To recover from this stress, a Navigator will need to rest. This could be through downtime, help from their crewmates, or even using special abilities or items.
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- Kummer Wolfe
I love how your are building this world. You make me want to dig a little deeper with my own stories. :) Once you get to it, I can see a delicious story waiting in the wings!