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Oceanic Portals?

"Hell's Gate" and "Hell Hath No Fury", by David, Linda Evans, and Joelle Presby, take the clash of science and magic to a whole new dimension...join us in a friendly discussion of this engrossing series!
Re: Oceanic Portals?
Post by n7axw   » Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:54 am

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Louis R wrote:OTOH, if they are placed with the view of impacting the local sentients, ocean portals make all kinds of sense - in those universes with sentient cetaceans. Or sentient giant squid, or whatever the local flavour happens to be...


n7axw wrote:One thought about oceanic portals that might be an argument against them is the notion that the portals are not random acts of nature, but the work of a third party. That idea has been with us pretty much all along.

If they are placed with the view of impacting humanity in various universes, then and oceanic portal would seem counter-intuitive since the chances of being discovered would be more problematic, if not completely non-existant.

Don

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Can't really argue with that, although the books themselves make a place for sentients other than humans, are decidedly homocentric in thrust and emphasis.

Don

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When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: Oceanic Portals?
Post by Terranovan   » Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:20 pm

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The question most central to this thread has been thoroughly and resoundingly answered! :mrgreen:
I doubt that RFC will reply to this with anything more than a grin and "Tum, te, tum, te, tum..."
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Re: Oceanic Portals?
Post by OldGoat   » Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:42 am

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Yes, there are most definitely oceanic portals. The first one has shown up in Joelle Presby's short story posted on Baen.com.

This thread does raise some interesting thoughts about the physics of portals, which might shed further light on the other types of oceanic portals we might see in the future.

So far,
1. Portals have only vertical planes.
2. Portals do not seem to have a particular orientation, such as east/west, north/south or some other point of the compass. It might be interesting to see if the orientations intersect at a common point, either following the edge planes or the face planes.
3. Portals are anchored in solid matter, with only a portion protruding into air or water.
4. Does something in the physics of portals prevent a water-to-air interface? Or is that a result of Intelligent Design (see thread by that name for more), or the "industrial accident" which created portals. Perhaps the accident was something caused by magic, during the wars between the Shakira and the Andarans/Ransarans, which means there could be some as-yet unknown principles behind portal formation.
5. Could a portal be anchored in water and protrude into air? Or would the passage of ships from world to world require a portal anchored in dirt under shallow water, but with a large enough arc to protrude into the air above?

So, with 70% of the earth covered in water, why aren't there more water portals? If portals must be anchored in dirt on both sides, with no air/water interfaces allowed, that would mean oceanic portals might be exclusively under water, and many could be buried significantly below water level. Imagine a portal at the bottom of the Mariana trench. Orcas can only dive to 500 feet, so what percentage of the ocean floor is below 500 feet, and how many portals could be down there? Or maybe the physics or magic rules for portals somehow limit the size of underwater portals.
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Re: Oceanic Portals?
Post by drothgery   » Tue May 04, 2021 6:01 pm

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OldGoat wrote:So, with 70% of the earth covered in water, why aren't there more water portals?


Looney theory: there are, it's just that finding them is very hard.
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