Editing Skein of Worlds:The Material Plane (section)

== Traveling Between Spheres ==
Traveling between spheres within a system is, naturally, easier than traveling within systems, but no means of travel is particularly easy on the whole.

=== Portals ===
The simplest way to get between two spheres is through an open portal. You can clearly see what's on the other side and simply step (or ride, or sail) through. Finding and opening a portal though is no simple task.

Portals are ancient artifacts of unknown origin. (Actually, they have many origins, but few people know much, if anything, about them.) A portal links two places somewhat like a ''gate'' spell. There are many portals in existence, but most are hidden, locked or both. The key to a locked portal can be any number of things from a specific item to a time of day or year to a particular bloodline. Unlocking a newly discovered portal can be very difficult since there is often little to no information as to the portal even existing, much less when it was made or what it was used for. 

Not all portals are locked though. Even though they may always be open, they still might be very hard to find. There is no distinct boundary between one side and the other. Light, sound, objects and even magic pass through unhindered. If there is no way to look around both sides of the portal (where one might see two different views), there's really no physical way to tell where one side begins and the other ends. Even magical means rarely work. Normally, ''detect magic'' would cause a portal to glow brightly (even blindingly so); however, most portals were built with enchantments to prevent such simple spells from working on them. (This could have been done for any number of reasons, and likely varies from portal to portal.)

Though rare, there are some large, always open portals out in the open. These tend to become important centers of trade between the two planets they connect. Assuming the portal is built on suitable terrain (and sometimes not-so-suitable terrain), the area around it is likely to grow into a fairly large city spanning both sides of the portal. (Portals on suns and black holes exist, but are even rarer than portals on planets. Large, always open portals on a sun or black hole are basically non-existent for a number of reasons.)

Finding and unlocking a new portal and charting what's on the other side can be a great adventure, or an even greater business opportunity. This is another reason why many portals remain unknown. Their finders may not want to share the secret, eventually taking it to their grave. On the other hand, many such secrets are passed down from father to son, or master to apprentice, so some portals that may seem undiscovered might just be well kept secrets.

Portals are always built into either a natural or artificial structure. All known portals are immobile and it is theorized that moving one would be a bad idea.

=== Magic ===
The range of ''Teleport'' is nowhere near big enough to move between even the closest planets (which would be about 200000 miles). ''Greater teleportation'' and ''teleportation circle'' are powerful enough to move between spheres. (Even spheres in distant systems are part of the same plane.) This isn't without problems though. Getting an accurate description of a distant sphere generally means having to go there, which defeats the whole purpose. It does allow someone to revisit a sphere they've been to before though, or to allow others to visit a sphere they've been to.

''Gate'', ''plane shift'' and similar spells are useless for direct travel between two spheres, but since the Astral Plane coexists with all spheres, it can be used to visit even unknown spheres. The Astral Plane isn't without its own hazards though.

There exist some spells designed specifically for moving between spheres. ''Note: insert such spells here.''

=== Other Means of Travel ===
Some creatures are capable of traveling though the Void. By observing these, some wizards have built craft capable of traveling between spheres. Merely surviving in the Void requires a great deal of magic, but moving over the great distances between spheres requires even more. Any such craft is a great feat of construction, engineering and magecraft, but few if any can move fast enough to travel between systems.

There may be other methods of moving between spheres, but anyone who knows of such a method is keeping it secret.