# Need some help Re: Portals



## PencilFiend (Jul 23, 2012)

So in my story a portal, a few miles in height and width, opens up in the middle of the ocean connecting two alternate worlds together. I'm thinking of the portal as a door way with an opening in the "front" where people and ships can cross through. My problem is what's on the "back" of the portal? Nothing? A large wall of some sort? I just can't seem to visualize how this would look and work. If there's nothing on the back of the portal, can objects past though it and appear at the front of the portal or is there something blocking the way?

Can anyone help me out on this?


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## Ankari (Jul 23, 2012)

Why wouldn't both sides be the "front"?  Let's say you have a portal that faces East-West on world A and B.  So a person enters the portal on the West face from world A and exists the portal on the East face in world B.  Likewise, a person entering the portal on the East face in world A will exit out of the West face in world B.


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## johnsonjoshuak (Jul 23, 2012)

I think the way that most sci-fi movies do it is either a heavy distortion, like you can see through it but its super hazy.

The other way is that its black on the back of the portal with distortions around the edges and on the "front" you see through to the other side of the portal.

I think it would also work that the portal is just invisible. There was an example of this recently but I can't think of it off the top of my head.


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## Queshire (Jul 23, 2012)

DISCLAIMER: I am grumpy and am in no fit state to post.

That said, 

1) I REAAAAALY hope you've thought this through to the point of knowing how a huge freakin' hole in the universe slapped in the middle of the ocean would affect things on both sides of it.

2) Like has been said, there could be A) no back to it the portal could go 360 degrees, B) the back could be a huge wall of energy or something, or C) There could quite litterally be no portal from the back, sort of like a hologram it'd only appear when you're in front of it. If you go that case then I suggest pacing through the portal the "wrong" way could be felt as a curious pressure or something, and maybe render you immune to the powers of the portal for a period of time. Just be significantly vague and mumbly-jumbly and you should be fine.


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## Taro (Jul 23, 2012)

I would think of it more being a rip or a tear, you were saying something about being a wall, that confused me a little but i would think once you have gone through you would just keep one going. but i can see where you might be coming from with the wall thing, if someone came from the other way/ other side what would happen? is that what you meant?


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## ScipioSmith (Jul 23, 2012)

A portal that didn't appear to exist when looked at any way but the 'front'  would be quite freaky.

I have to ask though, why in the ocean? Wouldn't it make more sense to put it on land where it wouldn't drain the sea?


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## Addison (Jul 23, 2012)

What if it's like a swinging door? Or an automatic door? What if, when the door closes behind the guests the other side comes into light and focus? Maybe it's not just one step and you're through like a door way. Maybe it's like a hall. You have the door on this side, the hall which leads you to the other door and the other world. Maybe as a hall is described then another world can draw itself in your mind.


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## Kevlar (Jul 23, 2012)

I was thinking of the exact same thing as Ankari. To me it just comes off as more believable and interesting both.


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## mbartelsm (Jul 23, 2012)

Maybe from the other side it could just be empty, like an open door, but from the entering side it shows you the parallel universe


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## ShortHair (Jul 24, 2012)

From a mathematical standpoint, it's hard to explain a two-dimensional portal that stays put. You're dealing with a phenomenon that connects two universes. Why wouldn't it be three dimensional, or eight dimensional, or twenty-two dimensional? Why wouldn't it move? Why wouldn't it work in one direction and not both?

If some sentient agency is involved, then maybe that agency would create something that made sense to mortals. Then again, if you have the knowledge and the power to create a transdimensional portal, why bother considering mortals? If a few fall through, so what, they reproduce quickly.


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## Kevlar (Jul 24, 2012)

In the real world I'm sure it would have to be at least 5D, or if they were actually different planets in the same universe 4D, or if the portal needs only cross universes and not space-time once again 4D.  Even as it stands it's a two dimensional plan that has to cross at least one or two other dimensions (space-time or into another universe or both) so it either is 3D or 4D.

All this is irrelevant though, because I'm assuming this is magic and not science. I'm usually the type to apply scientific thought to almost everything I write, but considering the described portal I don't think PencilFiend cares if it is mathematically viable or even cares how many dimensions it occurs in, crosses, breaks or bends. I wouldn't care either unless I wasn't writing fantasy.

I hardly think most readers are going to stop and say "Hey ,that's not possible!" if they're reading fantasy. If it was sci-fi, I'd agree with you.


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## Meyrrek (Jul 24, 2012)

It doesn't have to be a 2D image as you've described. Why not an orb or sorts?


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## Addison (Jul 24, 2012)

What if it's like a fish-lense picture? That would be neat.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 26, 2012)

Meyrrek said:


> It doesn't have to be a 2D image as you've described. Why not an orb or sorts?



That's what I was thinking also! A ball floating in space seems much more natural to me than a circle or oval. 

You could also require a conscious effort to cross through the portal. Sort of like opening a door, but with your mind. Then you could also avoid the questions about why the ocean doesn't go through on the other side (unless it had equilibrium with the ocean on the other side...!). Oh! You could also attribute an extra-dimensional consciousness to the ocean so that sometimes it could cross over! Or you could have evil space fish!

...maybe less coffee for me today...


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## psychotick (Jul 26, 2012)

Hi,

Can't think of the movie or show, but there was one I remember distinctly where they had the camera swing right around the portal, and from the front you could see into another world, from the side it was an invisible vertical line, and from the back you saw the other person in this world staring back at you i.e. it was transparent.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Avi Love (Jul 29, 2012)

I think the easiest way to describe it with quick reader recognition and not much need to explain would be a two-way mirror. Most people are familiar with them now thanks to crime tv shows, and in fantasy the explanation is often with the goal of metaphorical familiarity rather than scientific rigor. It's sort of easy to imagine a portal where one side shows you the other world, and the other side just reflects your own world back at you. It doesn't make any sense, but it's easy to imagine. So unless the internal workings are vitally important to your story I think some simple sentence of, "The portal acts like a two-way mirror," would be accepted by most readers.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 29, 2012)

Aye, Avi Love. I agree with you. And it is perfectly fine for neither side to be able to see through a la Stargate.


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## It's a Squirrel...Moose? (Aug 2, 2012)

We are discussing objects that even physics has a hard time explaining - and remember, we are talking about a fantasy setting... and by that I mean 'it's magic doofus!'

I think portals are objects where realism can take a step back, because the physics of portals and wormholes is much, much more strange and complicated then any magic system. Let your imagination run wild! If your portal is circular, then go for it - if it's a spinning ouroboros of flying puppies... that also works (and would be super, super awesome to boot)! Remember: we don't know what a wormhole would look like in the real world (heck, it might just be a black hole), so you are not going to hit the 'erm... I don't think it works like that' issue that sometimes arises.


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## chinookpilot77 (Aug 2, 2012)

maybe unless you approach the portal from the "front" it isn't there at all?


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## Addison (Aug 2, 2012)

In my story my protag passes through a portal without realizing it. It's more of a wall really but a portal was made between his home and the fantastic world. Walling one side of town behind the woods is a treacherous mountain range (not really mountains just treacherous rocks, thorny bushes and a long way down if you're dumb enough to try and climb it) Any way he's running from an attacker and falls through a thin part of this barrier into a water-logged cave and swims through the submerged tunnels and caves to pop up on the other side and into the fantastic world. There's no burst of stars, no singing puppets, no indication at all. In the future, when they travel between different worlds, the journey is dangerous and the rule of keeping hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times is taken very seriously.


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## Zero Angel (Aug 3, 2012)

Addison said:


> In my story my protag passes through a portal without realizing it. It's more of a wall really but a portal was made between his home and the fantastic world.
> ...
> There's no burst of stars, no singing puppets, no indication at all. In the future, when they travel between different worlds, the journey is dangerous and the rule of keeping hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times is taken very seriously.



That's a good point about portals like that. I have them as well although I never really thought of them as portals...although I call them Gates and I call the other things that I think of as portals Gates too, I didn't put it together until now. 

Anyway, that's how Faerie Circles are in my world or Faerie Gates if they are not marked with a circle of objects. In my second book the main main character steps into one, feels like he is blinking but isn't, and is greeted with a whole new world. The transition is seamless. On the main world side the Gate was marked with a circle of either flowers or toadstools (I do not recall) and on the fey side, marked with a circle of skulls.


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