Ways to travel between worlds?

[Darkfantasy]

This is only an early concept (an idea I had today) but I'm looking for various ways you can travel from one world to another in Fantasy besides Portals. I tried to do some research but kept getting time travel all the time. I was thinking of it being an object, so the story becomes a quest for this object. But I'm open to any suggestions.
Thanks for your time.

 

[StrawhatOverlord]

So like Portkeys from Harry Potter ? You touch it and it transports you to a "pre-programmed" place.

 

[CupofJoe]

Feist used something like a tiled alcove with a unique pattern. Once you know a pattern you could "teleport" to that location [I can't remember what Feist called it]. Major homes and official buildings had then but they weren't everywhere.
In one story idea, I used a spell that was a bit like Dr Strange's opening swirly doh-hicky to let people [and their horses] compress time and space.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Feist used something like a tiled alcove with a unique pattern. Once you know a pattern you could "teleport" to that location [I can't remember what Feist called it]. Major homes and official buildings had then but they weren't everywhere.
In one story idea, I used a spell that was a bit like Dr Strange's opening swirly doh-hicky to let people [and their horses] compress time and space.

From what I remember, the logic behind it was that a magic wielder had to know the location he teleported to very well. By creating a pattern, the mage had an easy to remember location to teleport to. In theory any location intimate enough to the mage could be used (and it was used as a plot device), especially for the stronger mages.

 

[Patrick-Leigh]

In my story setting, there are Portals, but they don't take you directly from one world to another. Instead, they connect to different Transitory Planes, like the Plane of Earth. You then follow a route across a section of the Transitory Plane that connects to another Portal that opens onto a different world. So, to get between two planets on one Plane, you essentially take a "short cut" through another Plane.

But, if you're looking for a method that involves some kind of object, it seems to me that some kind of magical compass would be appropriate. Maybe it works by teleporting you or maybe it reveals some kind of "secret passage" between worlds. It doesn't have to be a portal in the usual sense. Maybe you just gradually transition from one world to another by going in the direction the compass indicates. How exactly it works could remain enigmatic. The only thing the character or characters with the compass know is that, somehow, it works. Let's face it, there are a lot of things that are like that for us in the real world. There are some medicines that are like that, for instance. We don't know how exactly a substance is able to treat a disease or condition, just that it does if you administer it in a certain dosage or in conjunction with other substances or medicines. It could be the same with the object in question. Nobody has figured out how it does it, only how to use it to get from one world to another.

That's my suggestion, anyway. Hope it helps!

 

[SirenSon117]

What I do for my teleportation magic is that anyone can use it but very few actually get to their destination for one reason or another. Exceptions to this rule only allow for short-distance teleportation. That probably won't work with your trying to do so let me try something else that works more inside your boundaries. The thing about Magic Items is that the concept of Magic Items, objects that store magic, is so simple and broad that you can do anything with it if you just think about for a little while. Regardless of what limitations you've placed on Magic, Magic Items as a narrative tool are full of endless possibilities. For inter-dimensional teleportation specifically, what about an airship or a carriage or some other form of transportation?

 

[Saigonnus]

Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time used doorways; which led to a network of paths, each taking you to a different place. You have to know the path to go where you want, and some of the paths were destroyed, so it was no longer possible to travel everywhere. Inside the network, time passed just like in the real world, but the distance between doorways was warped. You could enter and walk a day and a half and when you walk out it is 1000 miles away, or 500.

I use something similar in one of my worlds, though generally it is limited to short range transport. The ancients created a series of doorways; most double sided; each side going to a different destination, you walk into one and step out of a different one across the city, or in a different city in the realm. The trick is that you need a key (usually a specially charmed ring or amulet) to pass through them, so most ordinary people simply don't have the ability to use them. Occasionally merchants will be given the keys to transport their goods more quickly, especially in times of need.

There are also a few long-range doorways; ones able to take you to different parts of the continent; but with the fall of the great empire (one that once controlled the entire continent) and the subsequent wars of independence, the realms that broke off forced the emperor to surrender the keys for those particular doorways, the rest are either lost to time or hoarded by the rulers of the various countries so no one from another realm can use them to invade their territory.

 

[SinghSong]

How about astral projection, transferring a person's consciousness (/soul?) between different realities/planes of existence? What's the context here, though- what sort of cultural setting/s are you planning to have for the backdrop of your concept novel?

 

[Saigonnus]

Another idea for short-range travel is shadow travel. You step into a shadow and can emerge from any other patch of shadow in a place that is familiar to the mage, or another patch of shadow nearby.

 

[ThinkerX]

Travel between (fantasy) worlds without resorting to Portals...I did toy with some concepts in various tales...

Dreams - one of my characters (from our earth) dream traveled with assistance of an alien device to my primary fantasy world. Attracted the attention of a 'Leech' (Demon) along the way. A steal from H P Lovecraft, whose works featured potent 'Dreamers' who played the roles of heroes and kings in the 'Dreamlands' a sort of alternate dimension or pocket universe.

Demonic assistance. Used this one in another tale. Basically a demon takes you from world to world. Not really recommended. Another Lovecraftian concept.

Starship. The 'ancient aliens' who terraformed and then populated an assortment of worlds in my tales use portals where possible, but these portals are keyed to each other - meaning the first one needs to be physically transported to a given world. (The rewrite I've been mucking around with for the past eight months - Gah! - is set in part aboard such a starship, one that was wrecked thousands of years prior to the tale.

 

[Saigonnus]

I started on a short story that involves a modern man traveling to a fantasy world... he died in a skydiving incident and woke up in a tomb, in the body of someone else with the same name as him. Basically, it tore the dimensional veil and allowed the switch. I shudder to imagine what the reviled warlord's spirit might do in the modern world...

 

[S J Lee]

You COULD try a wizard possessing somebody at the other end and not going there "really" at all... or sending a familiar (hawk, raven) intelligent enough to do his bidding ... if the "teleport pad" seems a bit of a cliche

GRRM uses "ravens" to deliver messages, and NEVER explains how the raven knows where to go to! ARe they homing pigeons trained to go to ONE place? It doesn't seem so.... it is never explained!

 

[FifthView]

Then there's the tried-and-true method of art: paintings, music, television, books. Essentially, the person hearing/seeing these things is transported by them, sometimes into them as in the case of paintings, books and television.

 

[Azaraiha]

What about something similar to a wormhole. You could have places scattered throughout your world where the entrance points to these wormholes are. It also helps with Nation-Building and creating a history as well. It would be in any nation's interest to control the most strategic "gateways". These Gateways could lead to world's that can lead to trade, military alliances etc

 

[Sunny dewbae]

I like the idea of astral projection. What if to travel to a different world you have to project into a artificial body or golem.

 

[ChasingSuns]

One of my personal favorites is the Infinite Corridor in Castlevania. It basically is this gateway to potentially infinite worlds, but the entrances to it blink in and out of existence, thus requiring someone to track them down every time they want to use the Corridor.