“Flash and glow, here then there. By all accounts, a Rupturer is the most aggravating mage to hunt. ” - Inias Splinterstaff, Mage Hunter

Long have the sentient species of Idalos labored over the perfection of transportation systems. Faster ships, better bred mounts, even flying creatures of Desnind and Rynmere create new dimensions for travel and commerce over large distances. Mages, however, feel they have more completely cornered the market on reliable and fast travel. Translocation, Teleportation, and Rupturing are the names this discipline is known by. It is the magic of stepping out of one place and into another.

Existing Domain Magic and Non-Spark

Where existing magics mention sparks, staff are working through to change each occurrence to "spark / non-spark method" Where existing magics have spark-specific stuff, players are invited to explore that and make a note in their review request. Reviewers will discuss in the staff team, and the magic page will be updated following the review.

In Practice

A Rupturer is a traveler first and foremost. Often it is a worldly individual that is first drawn to this power, someone who wants to see more of the world as quickly as possible. Rupturers are, as a people, often independent and struggle to form cohesive coteries or cabals. Something about the spark makes them flighty, gravitating to those who cause things to move and who are currently moving. Few Rupturing-centric mage groups have ever been successful. Even The Seekers and The Coven struggle to keep their token Rupture mage membership. Of all the magics, Rupturing is usually categorized as one of the least common. This may not be because of its actual lack of use but more that it is so difficult to tie any of these mages down long enough to get a consensus. Rupturers are rarely dynastic, a trait more often seen in disciplines like Necromancy, Attunement, or Transmutation, and often deliberately embrace those of different cultures and perspectives. Almost no one has heard of an antisocial Rupturer...something about their Spark draws them to interaction.

In the world of Idalos, Rupturing continues to be an important magic to possess. In times of warring city states, nations, and divine powers, the ability to transport from one area to another...or even to bypass barriers is an invaluable skill to be weaponized. More and more Rupturers have their arts turned toward espionage and assassination, making excellent use of their power to simply be in a different place at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, it means that Rupturing is one of the more feared magics across Idalos. The idea that a sense of security could be so quickly profaned is unsettling (at the least) to most and downright terrifying for those in positions of power. Effective fearmongering campaigns spread by witch hunters propagate rumors of deadly portals shearing people in half, to reaching through the skull to push out their brain, or any number of inaccurate speculations toward the magic that have built a tragic barrier of terror against wide acceptance. Most Rupturers believe there is little wrong with their art. It is, among arcane circles, classified as a benign Discipline alongside Attunement. If Rupturing were standardized and more accurately controlled, Idalos could change almost overnight.

Gone would be the terror and uncertainty of long voyages across unsteady waters or through bandit-ridden forests. However, everything from their poor reputation to the inability of Rupturers to stay long in one place usually makes such speculation merely a fantasy.

Rupturing, then, is the magic of travel. It allows one shorten the distance between two points through the use of Doors or Portals.

The Nature of Doors

Rupturing operates on opening and closing doors. The size of these doors is immaterial and can range from the yawning maw of Rend to the smallest passage of a Snapshot. Where an ordinary man sees the distance between two points as a length that must be traveled, the Rupturer sees this distance merely as a closed door...one which they have the keys to open. By and large, Rupturing is a violent magic of transportation. In its basic practice it is always loud, the screeching of reality as it rends for the Rupturer’s portal to appear. Many find comfort in the noise, taking solace that reality continues to resist their efforts rather than sliding easily under their touch (as if to herald it might fall apart at any minute).

A portal always carries similar attributes. First, a portal is a two way journey. When one opens a door, there is the space on the other side. So each portal a Rupturer casts is actually two portals, an Ingress (the entrance) and an Egress (The exit). Both of these can be entered, but the Rupturer decides the Ingress and Egress upon casting their portal. When applying certain techniques of the magic, it is important to note whether it is the Ingress or Egress portal that the effects are linked to. One should not utilize Pull on both the Ingress and Egress unless they intend to send their target in a loop of transportation.

Second, a portal must have clear boundaries. The edges of portals are their most vulnerable. By disrupting the edge of a portal significantly (a feat easier with standard portals than with Rends) it will immediately collapse in on itself, canceling its link. Sufficient trauma to a portal’s edges will destroy the portal’s nature. When a portal collapses, reality crashes back in on itself to fill the gap, but there is not the same tearing noise of a portal casting. Indeed, fixing reality seems to be relatively quiet by comparison.

Third, a portal has specific rules regarding its passage. Rupturing was clearly not made as an offensive magic. Although cunning and brutal minds have devised techniques (now widely practiced) to enable great danger to come of the Spark, it is, at its heart, a magic of moving one thing somewhere else quite swiftly. Sapient or Living targets caught between a collapsing portal are never harmed, but rather jettisoned out the Egress or Ingress depending on which side they are more fully on. Often this jettison can be bruising and surprising, but rarely fatal (Unless in cases of overstepping). Magical objects have this same property, their natural ether providing resistance to the portal’s chaotic energies. Most other non-living substance, however, is neatly sundered when caught between portals. Part of the item remains at the Ingress and some of it at the Egress. Magical theorists are mystified by this distinction, but believe that the Spark must operate by fairly specific metaphysical rules, much like an Immortal’s domain, which prevents them from being used like a guillotine.

Fourth, the longer the distance of a portal, the longer it takes to prepare and the more exhausting the ether price. Circumventing distance is not altogether an easy feat, even with the ability to do so. Within a Rupturer’s perspective range (what they can see/perceive), portals are usually at a fairly standard cost. Brief blinks and small portholes are less costly than sustained standard portals. Usually the strain of an individual portal makes maintaining more than a single Ingress and Egress a dangerous implausibility. In order to prepare longer distance portals, a Rupturer must feel the distance they want to bridge. For portals beyond their range of sight (sight from their body rather than sight through another portal) a Rupturer must meditate in order to establish the Ingress and Egress for the portal. For portals a quarter of their range, at least a break must be observed. At half a Rupturer’s range, two breaks at least, and their full range can take anywhere from three to five breaks to properly feel the distance of the jump.

Both an Ingress and Egress must be identified for a portal, and usually it is the Egress that is the most difficult to ascertain (as it exists outside their sight range). For techniques such as Nail, however, only the Ingress needs be established and the technique can be utilized much quicker, within a few beats.

A Beacon, however, is a much different beast. Ordinarily it can ignore the typical laws of portals and may be cast reflexively. However, casting a beacon without at least a full trial of preparation automatically sends a Ruptuerer into overstepping, usually moderate or severe enough to hamper their magic for a season or more to come...and thrice as bad if attempted again. With proper preparation, the strain is enough that a Rupturer may utilize their beacons once or twice per season without any ill effects or negative consequences.

Fifth, a portal can only be called where one has been before. Rupturers are often travelers who spend their lives across the back of Idalos. While any localized portal within sensory range for a Rupturer does not innately require them to specifically be in that place before, all other distance portals do require the Rupturer to have a familiarity with the environment they are teleporting into. Rupturing is not a discipline of exact science and the spark provides natural safeguards to avoid being teleported into walls or underground. Generally, when a Rupturer chooses to make an Ingress and Egress at a farther distance than they can currently perceive, they will chose a place with which they have a strong memory or familiarity. This allows them to spatially determine where best to open the Egress of a portal. Some mages usually Scry a location before creating a standard portal to ensure that no significant changes have occurred that might disrupt their magic. Should a location the Rupturer want to open a portal to be drastically changed from what it was when they were there, they will find it impossible to summon a door. Instead they must travel to that location again, take in its new appearance, and then they will be able to teleport. The kind of changes that require this doubling back, however, are extreme...such as in the wake of an avalanche, a disaster, or if a clearing had, for instance, been the site of a new tower built in the time since the Rupturer had last been there.

This, of course, means that sight is essential for Rupturing. Without the ability to see, Rupturing becomes quite limited in use. Knowing this, the Spark insulates and changes the eyes of the Rupturer when they are initiated. A Rupturer may naturally regenerate any ocular damage as long as some of their eye is intact.

Types of Portals

In Rupturing, size matters. Portals can have different properties based on their relative size and longevity. Below is the accepted classification of portals among Rupturers. This list is not meant to be exhaustive and different teaching styles may have alternate conventions.

Porthole: Named for the windows designed into the side of a ship, Portholes are the first stable portal a Rupturer ends up able to open. Portholes are often just large enough to fit one's head through or as small as the width of a finger. These portals are easiest to establish and the least disruptive.

Blink: A Blink, named for the speed at which they are cast and closed, is a short lived full portal that closes almost as soon as it is opened. These portals are often chained together and are noted for their almost stumbling method of conveyance. Often the sorcerer is tearing as they go, midway through leaping or rolling and blinks seem to necessitate the need for momentum of some kind to activate. Blinks are only within the range of the Rupturer and also only within sight perception range. One must see where they are going if they are to tear and tumble. Following a Rupturer through this portal is often improbable, but swift enough opponents may risk their weapon to strike a Rupturer departing.

Portal: The standard term for any full length portal. These portals range anywhere from larger than a Porthole to over six feet tall and three feet wide. These are the hallmark of Rupturing, a stable, glowing, flickering doorway from one point to another through egress and ingress.

Scry: A Scrying portal is porthole sized but weak, as to not allow passage from one side to the other outside sound and sight. Should any object or appendage be forced through the Scry, the portal will instantly collapse before anything makes it to the other side. These portals open quietly, with only a whisper of the characteristic loud tearing. They are utilized to scout locations for information or to establish a safe place to set an egress.

Gateway: A Gateway is noted by any portal larger than a standard portal. Rupturers of mastery or higher can push their portals into gateways, stretching their doors up to nine feet high and six feet wide at maximum recorded size. These Gateways are, understandably, much more strain on the Rupturer to maintain and far less stable.

Beacon: A Beacon is a unique portal in that it generally ignores the usual restrictions of distance and time that long distance portals need. Beginning at master, a Beacon can be created. In order to create a Beacon, the Rupturer must completely familiarize themselves with the place the Beacon will be established. It must be a location of intimate familiarity. When established, the Rupturer focuses on the location around them, as if they were preparing to do an Initiation. Their Spark will separate a piece of their own soul to suffuse in this location, creating an Anchor. The sensation is jarring, similar to being flayed, and most mages do not relish the experience in doing so. From that point on, this location is established as a Beacon to that mage. A Beacon may typically ignore distance and time restrictions on preparing a portal and at least once a cycle may be used to deliver the Rupturer to this location from somewhere else. Distance-wise, the maximum is usually on the same landmass or from port to port on neighboring land masses.

Beacon portals work a bit like Blink portals, but are much brighter and intense when utilized. Likewise any portal cast using Beacon is also blindingly brilliant. A mage may use their Beacon more than once a Cycle, but will find that they are thrown into moderate overstepping immediately. Heavy overstepping should they use it again. A visitant may utilize their Beacon once more than a master, another testament to the gulf between a Revealed and other mages.

Attuners find that the location resonates strongly like the mage and any magics or abilities used to track the mage will lead them to a Beacon should the Beacon be closer than the actual mage. This Beacon can be a vulnerability, however, as enemies with the right knowledge can use this against the Rupturer.

A Rupturer may ‘reclaim’ a Beacon, but only after several trials of meditation to draw that part of their soul back into them. It must be done in the location the Beacon was set in. Should the location be irrevocably destroyed, the Rupturer loses access to this Beacon entirely and must cut their own soul again to create another. By doing so, they lessen the number of times they can be marked by 1, and often can experience emotional, spiritual, even physiological side effects related to a loss of emotion or an existential feeling of emptiness.

Rend: The Revealed portal, the Rend’s size can be miles long and wide. As a pinnacle technique, a Visitant should only utilize this power if they expect to not need their use of magic thereafter. The amount of power this technique requires almost always forces overstepping.

Suggested Witchmark and Mutations

Witchmark: “Rupture Gleam” The Rupture Gleam afflicts all Rupturers. When a Rupturer attempts to perceive any distance over 200 feet from away from them, their eyes spark with motes of light reminiscent of their Rupture portals. It is as though the Spark prepares to leap within them. This brand will not trigger casually. The Rupturer must actively focus on something outside a safe 200 foot range in order to active this brand. However, any focus at all will do so. Many rupturers who try to blend in often seem to look at their feet or are cautious when looking up and across a city. In some tragic cases, mage hunters have accidentally merely accosted a deeply insecure person rather than a Rupturer in hiding.

Mutations: Rupturing mutations follow the personality of the Spark. They are wild, free, unpredictable, and rarely controlled by the mage in question. Rupturing seems to be the kind of spark to do first and think later and many rupturing mutations may rise around desires, vices, or other indulgences the mage already enjoys. The spark will interact and rupture them closer, or some other permutation of its magic to try and ‘extend’ its influence over the mage’s world. As such, most mages become aware quite early on about the nature of Mutations and the dangers of growing in competence with their magic.

Initiation

Initiation between a master and a student is a bond of journeys. Every new Rupturing spark is at its strongest when first born. Connecting to the soul of another person sends the magic into a maddened surge, strong enough to take both the new mage and the parent mage along for the ride.

Often a master will prepare their prospective student by getting to know them. It is vital that in the initial teleportations, the master is familiar with their surroundings. Always the Spark will lock into the memories of the initiate and master, teleporting them across Idalos to all places that have some emotional resonance or connection to them. This is the only time, outside Beacons, that a Rupturer will ever freely teleport across the world of Idalos. If left to do so perpetually, a spark will burn itself out between teleportations in an erupting crescendo of magic. The result?

What is left behind in the wake of a failed initiation is called a Flicker Phantom. Traced of Rupturing energy, blinking in and out of reality, this echo will continue to haunt their master for Arcs afterward, sometimes even forever. While the appearances of the Flicker Phantom do tend to diminish in time, their arrival is always unexpected, loud, and traumatic. A whirling dervish of emotional and spatial energy, they open portals at random, wail for release, mercy, revenge, or some inexplicable request and turn the master’s power against them. Once more the master is dragged through the places of importance to their student, all the while the Flicker Phantom tears at them, as though seeking enough of their skin to once again clothe itself in something real.

And then it vanishes...gone until some other random time when it appears. Sometimes the Flicker Phantom can be quite dangerous and other times simply a haunting reminder of failure. Initiates are warned of this possibility by their teachers, a grim threat, and one that is tragically not heeded.

Depending on the nature of the student and initiator, the places they will be transported can be comforting or terrifying. An initiator is encouraged to learn about past traumas of their student to best prepare themselves for the places they will be taken to. During the initiation, the initiator must help the student navigate back to their place of origin. Often this involves facing certain old traumas. The spark is running rampant through their student, so the student is often consumed with emotion. In this way, failed initiates of Empathy are actually the safest to initiate into Rupturing. The teacher must make a connection with the student, re-orient their spark, and convince it to take them back to the place of their origin. Often, due to the nature of the link between both parent and child spark, some of the places teleported to will be emotionally significant to the initiator and they must always be on guard for that. After centuries of study, the consensus is that the average initiate has 7-10 teleportations before they fail, though extremely emotional students may have as little as 5 before being overwhelmed.

In a successful initiation, the student gains a link to their master that can never be broken. Eyes are the window to the soul, the portal to the heart. Eyes are focal to Rupturing and it is in the eyes that the initiator and initiated are linked. Both initiator and initiated have the uncanny ability to access each other’s eyes when covering their own. By settling into a deep meditate, the initiator may close their eyes and ‘see’ through the eyes of their student...wherever they are. By the same token, the student will be able to to do the same to the initiator. However, one spark is the child of the other. While the initiator may do so without the student’s knowledge, the initiator is always aware of when the student accesses their own vision.

Overstepping consequences

Minor: Vertigo, Telescopic Sight, Fatigue, Runner’s low, The Lurking, Booming Cough

Moderate: Colocation, Fractured portals, Wanderlust, Fatal Urging, The Hunting

Major: Transtemporal Jump, Transdimensional Jump, Rupture Amnesia, Transcorpus, The Capture

Telescopic Sight: An aggravating overstepping penalty and most common in novice to competent mages (although can be exhibited by all), Telescopic sight is a sudden disconnect between distance. Things far away will appear incredibly close and things that are close will loom impossibly large and detailed before the afflicted. This occular condition is debilitating for the duration of its presence and is clearly visible by the active cascade of Rupturing sparks constantly sparking in the mage’s eyes.

Booming Cough: Also known as Sunder Sneeze, this basic Rupturing overstepping penalty is relatively harmless but nearly impossible to hide. For a few trials or more after, a Rupturer will suffer from a persistent cough or sneeze that shreds the air around it, making each exclamation a deafening sound. Trying to hold it in is sometimes effective, but when forced out the Rupturer’s nose it is not only loud, but hilarious.

Runner’s Low: Different from Fatigue, a Runner’s low occurs in basic overstepping. The mage is retroactively subjected to the rigors of if their body had physically traveled the distance they actually teleported. Not simply limited to muscle fatigue, this also takes into consideration height of portals. Pulled muscles, aching bones are fairly common in a Rupturer that has stepped past their limit as their body compensates for the stress of their own magic.

The Lurking: The Lurking is a phenomenon that Rupturers are divided about. By all accounts, a portal is simply linking two places through an ingress and an egress. Yes, there may be a doorway but there is no tunnel between the points that any mage can see. This phenomenon is characterized by an extreme paranoid reaction to ones own portals, feeling acutely like something is...watching from just within, something close and something dangerous. While many Rupturers believe it is simply part of the Spark, others are not so sure. Where do the Flicker Phantoms go when they aren’t haunting a mage? What else might lurk in all the unopened portals of the world? The Lurking manifests strongest in mages that are more advanced with the Spark, whereas it only rarely seems to happen to novice or competent Rupturers. This phenomenon always lasts at least half a cycle before dissipating, but is the only overstepping consequence to level up on severity should the Rupturer use their magic during the period of the Lurking.

Colocation: A moderate overstepping consequence. Colocation refers to being in two locations simultaneously. While this is technically impossible, Rupturers have found an unfortunate overstepping consequence that almost mimics this condition. This penalty is always triggered upon entering a portal. To the rupturer, they will feel as though the portal has collapsed and they’ve been violently ejected into the egress. However, once there, they will find they have no body or control to speak of. Colocation is the terrifying condition of projecting your senses and consciousness through a portal while your body collapses into a coma behind you. This state could last as short as a few trills or as long as a few trials depending on the severity of the overstepping in question. During this time, the Rupturer ‘feels’ aware of where they Egressed as though they were physically there, but unable to move or feel. While they may hear and see, taste, voice, and touch are forbidden. This is always a terrifying sensation as there is no ability to reverse this consequence early. At some point the consciousness of the mage will be yanked back into their body and they’ll awake in a blind panic for the first few trills. Any portals attempted within a trial or two of that time will often cause Colocation for shorter durations.

Strangely, it seems that a Rupturer’s consciousness truly does travel to the other side of the portal. Both Attuners and Empaths have been able to note their presence and their tangle, disconcertingly floating invisibly in the air before them. Any powers that can directly contact the mind are able to be used.

Fractured Portals: A Fractured Portal is a state that can afflict Rupturers. While it doesn’t really stop their portals from working, it does force them into uneven shapes. Most Rupturing portals are arcs, large enough to step through without trouble. A Rupturer afflicted with Fractured Portals will find that their portals take on strange and sometimes chaotic configurations, making travel through them all but implausible. Serpentine shapes, crescents, distended blobs, strange geometric patterns...the problem is that the Rupturer has no idea what shape their portal will take. Imagine trying to blink behind someone and instead of opening a tear to slip through, you open a long ruler-thick line straight up into the sky. Usually this results in the portal edges being breached and the portal collapsing almost as soon as it is used. Some Rupturers have found intriguing use from this overstepping penalty, but it almost always is more trouble than it's worth.

Wanderlust: A moderate overstepping penalty, Wanderlust is a longer lasting (albeit fairly benign) condition. The Rupturer feels compelled to travel and will be unable to stay in one place for more than a handful of trials at a time. Usually this condition can last anywhere from one cycle to three, but the key difference between this condition and the normal flighty nature of the Rupturer is that they are compelled to travel and become emotionally dependent on the act. Forcing themselves to stay in one place saps their energy, their emotions, and their willpower. Some have even experienced an almost amorous draw toward those traveling or people preparing to travel.

Fatal Urging: Fatal Urging is a moderate overstepping trouble that unfortunately leads to many Rupturer deaths. Fatal Urging is the Spark forgetting about mortal limitations, and the mage does as well. Effective anywhere from a trial to a few trials, a Rupturer is drawn to greater and greater risk. The more daring they can be, the more dangerous, the better. The Spark works best in these circumstances but the trouble with this penalty is that the mage forgets their own mortal limitation. To the mage they are spark and fire, they leap from place to place and barely are conscious of their body. A Fatally Urged Rupturer feels no pain, no hunger, no thirst, no fatigue, no stress, just wild, reckless freedom. It is not that they are immune to these things, they simply lose the ability to perceive them.

The Hunting: The evolution of the Lurking. If the Rupturer tempts fate and enters their portals again before the paranoia has vanished completely, it upgrades to a Hunting. Now something stalks the Rupturer through their portals. They catch glimpses between destinations, feel gnarled fingers, tentacles, or claws on their back. Sometimes they exit a portal more injured when they entered. Their portals are no longer chiefly safe. It seems that whatever entity stalks them is always just a moment or two too slow to catch up. Once again, portals must be avoided for a cycle to turn this back into Lurking and another to downgrade to to nothing. The Hunting is a persistent effect and a Rupturer can still use portals. The greater the distance the portal goes, the more seems to happen to them between locations. Should the Rupturer continue to try and push their luck and overstep (not just cast portals, but overstep) again, this moves to the severe version.

Transtemporal Jump: A heavy overstepping consequence. The Ruptuer opens a portal that tears into time itself. It is uncertain if this is an ability that was always within Rupturing, but the laws of Idalos have steep consequences for this breach. The jumps are usually no more than a few Trials apart, but the body is ravaged by the time missed during the jump. In addition, the force of using a Transtemporal jump warps the time within the Rupturer. A Rupturer or anyone unfortunate enough to enter through a Transtemporal portal will age several arcs instantly in either direction. This effect is not mitigated by any other magic save Immortal intervention (or a sufficiently powerful artifact)

Transdimensional Jump: Another heavy overstepping consequence. Transdimensional jump is where a Ruptuerer accidentally rips into Emea with their own portals. While not immediately fatal, this cannot be consciously replicated and those who are sucked into Emea often find themselves lost in the madness of that swirling world forever. Any who witness the Rupturer fall through a Transdimensional portal will dream of the mage for three trials following before the mage is lost to the Mists.

Rupture Amnesia: Sometimes the mind makes a last ditch effort to protect itself from the meddling of the Spark. Rupturing amnesia is a powerful repression of ones own Rupturing magic. This is usually a consequence with a long effect as it will not wear off. Instead, the Ruptuerer must be both subjected to portals and an impetus strong enough to reach into themselves and find the Spark again. Otherwise, their mind will naturally block out circumstances, events, and even people they associate strongly with their Rupturing ability. The curious nature of it is that the mind is almost conditioned to convincingly explain away any loss of time or memory, making this a stubborn overstepping to get past. Given the solitary nature of Rupturer’s...it’s hard to know who is actually walking around as a Rupturer, completely lost in Rupture Amnesia.

Transcorpus: A gruesome fate, Transcorpus is the incomplete translocation of a body. It’s a much more severe evolution of Colocation. Although where Colocation simply ejects the consciousness, Transcorpus only teleports certain limbs, organs, or bones through the portal the Rupturer attempts to use. This has not been able to be replicated despite war mages clamoring for the ability and only seems to work at the extreme detriment of the mage and anyone unfortunate enough to use that particular portal. The body part seems to be random, but it is often part of the mage or the victim symbolic to the situation in some way.

The Capture: The final evolution of the Hunting. Should a mage overstep while being Hunted, all their portals thereafter are traps. What goes in does not come out. The egress is established, but to pass into the ingress is to be captured. Something reaches out of these portals for the mage, something hunts them...something now fast enough to catch them. A mage unfortunate enough to evoke this response is often either devoured or sets down their magic for good. It is unknown if there is a way to reverse a mage who has fallen to the Capture...or even where they are taken to, or what happens to them.

Techniques

Phasing

Obtained at Novice rank, Phasing is a special kind of portal that allows a Rupturer to ‘see’ through solid objects. Walls, doors, clouded windows, or even past thick vegetation. This kind of portal does not create an exit on its side and makes very little sound when opening. It does allow the Rupturer to see a small, porthole sized window through the physical object and to lies beneath. Some have used this ability to look inside barrels, boxes, or bags as well to seek out belongings. The small portal allows the passage of light, but nothing else. These portals can be maintained only a few trills before becoming undone but as a Rupturer grows in competence, these small Phasing portals grow larger and can last longer.

Snapshot

Perhaps one of the most valuable abilities in a Rupturer’s arsenal is Snapshot. Developed in times of war, it is taught to nearly every new Rupturer should they be in danger. This ability can only be cast on fairly small, non combustible objects. Up to the size of a dagger can be pushed. The Rupturer draws their ether over the object and then hurls it. The missile ‘cuts’ its own small rupture portal and the Rupturer chooses where it opens. Rupturers have used this method to ‘shoot’ around corners or past dangerous obstacles and is one of the most deadly abilities in their arsenal. At mastery, objects as large as sword can be launched and a visitant is capable of hurling the entire length of a spear through the snapshot portals. Repeated use is exhausting for the Rupturer at any level. The object itself must have some kind of edge to ‘cut’ the portal open. The ability can only work within the Rupturer’s effective range.

Skystepping

Obtained at Competent, Skystepping allows the Rupturer to create miniature portals - acting as stepping stones - to increase their mobility. These tiny portals are conjured quickly and are actually just small portals that open right above the ground, allowing the Rupturer to quickly ‘climb’ the air. These portals can be sustained longer than a few instants, but tend to be much more dangerous when not used for quick aerial advantage.

Roar

Roaring is an ability unlocked at Competent. As a portal tears the air asunder with a shriek, this power builds on that. A Rupturer does not quite tear the air, but claw it. The sound created is a terrible and ferocious roar they can conjure anywhere within their range. The sound is loud enough to crack glass, damage eardrums, and shake most things. Those subjected to it often feel a strange sense of vertigo afterward, making balance all the more difficult.

Scrying

Scrying - some would say - is a much more advanced form of Phasing. Scrying allows one to project a portal to view and observe an object, person, or place. One can learn to mark an area as lore, such as a specific room, street corner, or alleyway, and with concentration, open a small portal to the area. This practice is known as scrying which grows far more potent when a mage has achieved mastery of Rupturing and can mark the people they meet or objects they find, allowing small 'view/speak only' portals to open around the marked in order to spy on their movements.

There is no distance unattainable at this level, so long as the mage has been there before and memorized the ether signature of the area. In this way, it breaks the usual distance allowed to a Rupturer. However, these portals are small and not capable of sustaining a stable passage between two locations. Due to the immense distance, these portals can only be viewed or spoken through. Attempting to pass items through them will instantly collapse the portal, rending the object passing through into bits. Scrying portals make little sound when opening, like a whisper, likely due to the weakness of the passage.

Pushing/Pulling

Obtained at Expert proficiency - allows the Rupturer to ‘magnetize’ the ether in either the Ingress or Egress of a portal to drag or shove from its mouth. This power does not discriminate and can draw the caster into their own portal should they not be careful. This technique begins at the force of a hash wind at expertise, increasing to a tempest at mastery. Supposedly a Visitant can conjure a funnel cloud of force at their level.

Splintering

Obtained at master proficiency, Splintering builds on phasing and pushes it a step farther. No longer will one only see through walls but have the ability to bypass them. Spider-webbing with glowing-ether cracks, a Rupturer and any with them can push through solid non-living, non-magical objects as though pushing through thick water. The space between the two places destabilizes, allowing the passage. It is a much more efficient use of ether than conjuring a portal and much quieter as well. Some combat minded Rupturers utilized this ability to bypass the armor of their opponents, splintering their full plate before plunging their dagger through.

Nailing

Nailing is an ability unlocked at Master. It is named as such due to its ability to staple two sides of reality to another. Typically, this begins with a Rupturer memorizing a particular location (within their range), generally one with a volatile environment. For example, a Rupturer may place this Nail - or spatial connection - within the confines of a body of water. Utilizing this later, they trigger the ability at their location, creating a one-way portal that funnels the contents of the location to their desires, such as flinging the water of said body throughout a battlefield. This is done by intense suction, similar to the Pulling technique. Usually if the portal would be open in an area that might destabilize the portal’s edge, it can only be used for short passage bursts before collapsing, but clever mages design pits, Nailing the bottom to allow a barrage of pre-stored objects when casting this kind of portal.

The Nail may also be manipulated, by applying Push to the portal Egress, they can jettison those items at higher velocity, whereas if they cast Pull, they might draw an opponent into a prepared cage, via a portal. The size of these portal are often half the size of a standard portal but can be increased to full standard or the size capable by the mage with Preparation.

Rending

Rending is accessible only by a Revealed Rupturer. It is the creation of a massive tear in space, an abyssal portal that can be maintained as long as the caster focuses on it, which requires great mental fortitude and of course the exceptional skill that comes with truly mastering this domain. Uses of this ability have only been spoken of in legend and myth. Terrible voids that drew many into nowhere, holes that opened over cities to flood their streets with seaspray or the contents of a lake. In Nashaki there is a legend of a massive sandstorm, the White Sky, that came to cover the city. Before the sands crashed down, an immense tear opened in the sky and swallowed the sandstorm. From there, none can say where it went.

Additionally, Rending can be used to transport armies or large groups of people. The options available are varied; it could be used for invasion or decimation, or evacuation and refuge. To be sure, however, it is an extremely dangerous magic and the caster must truly be focused on it to maintain it properly. Rends can be compressed in size with less danger and expenditure, however require a great deal of mastery before their size can be manipulated.

A rend is also much more durable than an ordinary portal. Attempts to destroy the portal by attacking its edges often find that the torn edges stretch and twist to resist destruction. Only tremendous force can stop a Rend once unleashed.

The Visitant

The Visitant is the pinnacle of Rupturing, a true merge between spark and mortal. The Visitant is a being of crackling and chaotic Rupture energy, seething and lancing from their skin. Their eyes glow the color of their portals and their body seems to move in short, rapid, impossibly fast twitches and tics. It is almost as if the Visitant is rapidly shifting between two places at the same time, constantly in motion. There is an ethereal beauty to the Visitant, as it has been described in mage accounts, but they rarely stay on Idalos long. Their new bodies are suited to the wide unknown and most eventually depart for Emea.

A Visitant’s most powerful property is the Corpus Nail. A Visitant counts their own body as an Ingress for a portal, much like a Nail and can utilize almost any Rupturing technique through their own body. Unfortunately, this does preclude a Rend and a Nail. The first due to size and the second due to the inability to link an ingress to another ingress. Even so, this one ability makes a Visitant nigh untouchable in battle. Accounts have been written of a theorized Visitant simply embracing another mage and hurling them through their own body out a portal high over the city. Their Corpus Nail is not always in operation, and they may activate it as a door when they see fit. Remarkably comes their last incredible ability and it is the power to ‘hijack’ other Rupturing portals. By identifying an Ingress or an Egress, a Visitant may immediately designate that portal as the beginning of their own and use their own ether to cancel the doorway linked to it and create one elsewhere. Among most magics, a Visitant seems strangely geared toward controlling the magic of other Rupturing mages. The reasons for this are only guessed as a Visitant has not been properly documented in a century.

Skill Levels

Novice

A novice Rupturer has only begun to understand the nature of distance and dividing space. Their portals tend to be small, temporary, and jagged. At this level, casting a portal is always an obvious act of cutting the air with one's limbs, as though tearing through a particularly thick fog. Portals are usually still quite small, not much larger than a face and last for only trills before vanishing. Additionally range only seems to be within 30 feet of the Rupturer themselves. Although the real benefit of novice Rupturing is in the physiological changes that come immediately. Within a ten foot sphere around the Rupturer, they become aware of passage and movement. Where an average mortal might not notice the mosquito till it landed and bit, a Rupturer novice instantly becomes aware when the small creature enters their sphere. As they have understanding of all movement, these signals interpret to movement only. A Rupturer would not be aware of the still bear trap they were stepping on, but the moment the jaws started to move they would be aware. There are those who believe rupturers would find this overwhelming when assailed with many small objects, but the Rupturer is able to easily categorize and ignore what isn’t important. This usually gives the Rupturer an innate resistance to being surprised and a moment’s more worth of time than others. While not as detailed as an Attuner’s grasp of an area, this benefit is always active and requires no ether. The range of this sphere never grows, but the zone can be classified to different techniques later in Rupturing. A Rupturer novice additionally has a perfect understanding of distance and easily knows how far something is away from them, even with very little extra detail. Phasing and Snapshot are abilities that become available to learn at this level.

Competent

At Competency, a Rupturer grows more familiar with their power. While movement is still necessary to cast a portal, a Rupturer can moderate how wild their gesticulations as it is easier to cut through the fabric between one space and another. Their smaller portals are neater now, and can be stabilized for several bits if the Rupturer concentrates. These stable portals, also known as portholes (For being roughly the size of a window on the side of a ship) roar when they open but can be utilized to pass things through from either side before closing. In addition, the Rupturer has grown with enough dexterity and skill to tear larger, temporary holes that their body could pass through. Known as blinking, for its habit of happening within the blink of an eye, a Rupturer tears a hole in the air before them and tumbles through the other side. These portals last a trill or less and are often chained in quick succession. The longer one tries to maintain the tear or the more one does, the closer to overstepping one comes. A rupturer at Competence increases their range for small portals to almost 200 feet, although their blink portals can only open at a max of 100 feet away (and must be within eyesight). A competent mage becomes capable of closing any of their portals instantly, which ejects whatever living being is between them on whichever side the majority of it is on...whereas non living objects are sundered. Skystepping and Roaring become available at this level to learn.

Expert

Expertise involves a startling evolution for a Rupturer. Both their portholes and standard portals become stable, allowing a Rupturer to maintain a portal for a prolonged period of time. Rupturers have reported the ability to maintain a portal with complete concentration for upwards of a break before needing to let it collapse, and a smaller portal twice as long. Standard sized portals can now be made within line of sight to a max of 40 miles and smaller portals can be made at a max of line of sight or 80 miles. Stable portals take time to create, however, making instantaneous transportation at max distances nearly impossible. A portal that stretches more than 4 miles requires preparation and concentration. The farther the distance between two portals, the greater the ether used to sustain them. As explained in the Nature of Portals section, longer periods of time must be maintained to ensure the safe transportation of a mage. Both Scrying and the principles of Pushing and Pulling are techniques that may be learned at this level.

Master

A Master Rupturer understands distance better than almost any other on Idalos. Rarely locked in one place, they tend to be fleeting figures through history, dancing from sight in one location only to end up in another a city away. Rumors suggest some of the best spies were Rupturers, clandestinely eavesdropping on enemy conversations from a position miles away. A Master Rupturer is able to utilize their portals with far more ease, increasing the size of these portals to accommodate at least the size of a wagon. Standard portals can be maintain for several breaks, although that time shortens if they stretch it to the height of its circumference. Gateways can now be used, though such size halves the time one can hold the portal open, with nearly twice the ether. These portals are stable and require only a small gesture to cut their size through the air. Although a Master Rupturer has a much shorter time preparing their portals, for any portal outside their sight, instant teleportation is hardly advised. At Mastery, the grand league spanning capability of a Rupturer is realized. Upon reaching mastery, a Ruptuerer may establish a Beacon, part of their own soul they tie to an Anchor (Much in the way ghosts are tied to objects). These Beacons ignore the general rules around portal traveling and allow a mage to far extend the distance of a portal to this beacon. This ability is usually used to establish a home city or preferred location for the mage, who can cast a Beacon portal (detailed in Nature of Portals) to return to it. These Beacons allow for immense distance of travel once or twice a cycle, but are not intercontinental. Instead, they tend to link cities nearest to each other, from port cities over one body of water, or within the same region. Standard portals can now open at a max of 100 miles away, with portholes at 200. In addition, Fracturing and Nailing can be learned at this stage.

Revealed

The Visitant is a creature of crackling power and flickering figure. It exists in the nightmares of those who consider the ramifications of a being no longer bound by conventional physicality. Upon reaching Visitant, the mage becomes the spark itself and embodies its mercurial spirit. A Visitant can rarely stay in one place long, feeling the need to travel, to cover more ground. Legendarily, one has been spoken of that felt chased, flickering from city to city across Idalos till it flickered one final time, and was gone from this world. Still another is reported to claim it felt the drive to find something, something it could not name that sent it searching the world over. A Visitant is capable of one additional Beacon and halves traditional portal creation time. Although its maximums for portals do not change, it may hold them open for Trials at a time should it desire to. The Revealed is able to learn an additional technique at this level not available to any other Rupturer, the terrifying ability to Rend

Credit to Incubus & Plague