Gendin’s Journal – Nexus Portals

a page from the journal of Gendin, son of Arissa and Temone of the dwarven Clan Gilderlo

Nexus Portals

January, 1444 AWR

The Nexus Portals have existed since before the memory of the eldest gods, and no one knows who created them, or why. It is assumed The Builders, the lost race that created the World, created the Portals when they created the World. But that is mere supposition, and no one really knows.

What are the Nexus Portals? Savants believe they are a travel mechanism to traverse the huge distances of the World. The World is believed to be one million miles wide, and nearly six hundred million miles long. Travel is problematic, even with the swiftest aerial mount.

These numbers are fantastic. I can do my numbers into the thousands. Millions? This is beyond my ken. But I digress.

The known Nexus Portals all exist in a box canyon, or in a cavern. All have a single entrance and vision is obscured by a musky smelling mist that limits vision to ten or fifteen feet. The mist is lit with a mild glow which varies in density. It is proof against weather magic, as even a Wind Gust increases visibility range by a mere four or five feet, and that lasts but a minute or two. Dark vision and ultra vision are both similarly limited.

It is believed there are thousands, or even millions of paths through a Nexus. Walk into one, barely out of sight of the entrance, turn and walk back the way you came, and you exit someplace else. Walk in and keep walking? Within a minute or two, you’ll reach the exit, and again, you are someplace else.

Stories persist of explorers going in and out of a Nexus Portal hundreds of times, and never seeing the same place twice. And never finding their way home. These stories are gathered from explorers from other places, who found themselves in Trivana and decided to stay. Some of the places are not friendly at all while Trivana is a good place to be marooned.

Animals in an area with a Nexus Portal avoid it. Within half a mile of one, all sounds of animals and birds cease, resulting in a eerie silence, broken only by the wind. Those sensitive to such things claim the very air around a Portal is charged with strange energy.

It is believed that some animals can trace their way through a Portal, using smell or magic, or some other unknown means. One of the dangers of living near a Portal is that things come through. For those that are killed or taken, it matters not if their attackers ever find their way home.

Much is believed but little is known of the Nexus Portals. But the evidence is clear — if you want to disappear forever, enter one and you will get your wish.