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Teleportation

teacup

Auror
In my wip the antagonist, and later the protagonist, both are able to teleport/warp from one place to another via powerful magic. The thing is that "teleport" seems very futuristic and so wouldn't really fit into the general medieval/middle ages type setting, and I can't find any other words that would work, except maybe "warp."

So what would the characters call this?
Would they call it Warping, or does that not fit much either? Or, failing to find a suitable synonym, should I just create my own term for it due to it being my own magic system?
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Teacup, I love the teleportation power and my characters are always equipped with it =)

They call it Apparition in Harry Potter (Wizards can Apparate and Disapparate) and I remember that several different terms are used in the old TV series Charmed, like Orbing, Shimmering, Blinking and others that I cannot recall right now.

I create my own terminology according to my Magic systems, which is the best option, I guess. The teleportation power is known as Ayhallen in my Joan of England trilogy, and I call it something else in my other stories. Warping sounds neat, you should use that, why not?

Anyway, whenever that my characters teleport I just say "and she vanished in a flash of white light", so you do not need to make use of the specific name every time that it happens.

Whatever name that you choose for this power, you can make your Teleportation magic unique by adding your own twist!!
 

teacup

Auror
Thanks Sheilawisz, I actually went with Blinking on my first draft, but didn't like it.
Great suggestions though :)

Don't know why I didn't just ask my sister, she just finished marathoning through all of Charmed.
 

teacup

Auror
They ride and walk for the most part. The teleportation makes the antagonist more of a threat, for one. He's also able to manipulate the protagonist into finding something, then appears to take it without the protagonist seeing him coming (at that point he can kind of "sense" where he is), so it's used for plot points. Also my fighting scenes are good with that, I think.
The protagonist only gets the ability near the end of the book when he doesn't have much to travel anyway, so it isn't like some cheap way of skipping the travel, as most of the travel is done anyway.
 

Athena

Dreamer
Well the only other word for teleporting I know would be shadowsteps,although in Guild Wars,the game I got it from,shadowsteps only have a very limited reach.So it depends on how you want to use teleporting,long range or short range.
 

teacup

Auror
Yeah it's supposed to be very high end magic so only short range, but because of plot stuff these are able to use it long range after a while - though it almost kills the antagonist on his first try. I probably will just go with naming it my own thing like shadowsteps, blinking, or phasing or something.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I was first thinking "displace" and then "replace" but it felt a bit too scientific/modern for a fantasy setting. Various forms of "stepping" might work as well, shadowstepping was already mentioned. Farstepping or voidstepping may be suitable, similar for leaping.
Dripping might be another option, like the character drips into the void and then pops out again somewhere else.
 
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