They were created for traveling through space-time, but I suppose the wizards were not familiar with the idea of a two way door. Let’s learn all about the Portals to the Abyss! Buy Towers of High Sorcery: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2940/Towers-of-High-Sorcery-35?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
Imagine being a God that can’t actually enter the world you’re actively influencing. Until one day…
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the Portals to the Abyss. I would like to take a moment and thank my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. I am pulling this information from the Legends trilogy in addition to the Towers of High Sorcery sourcebook, and the Dragonlance Wikipedia.
Discussion
The Portals of the Abyss, otherwise known as the Portals of Travel, the portals of Suffering or the Portal of the One God, was originally intended to be doorways between the five Towers of High Sorcery and other strongholds of Magic. Some unknown time in the earliest days of the orders, the conclave planned on their creation, and to allow them to remain open, permanently. If a Wizard didn’t have to waste their own magic with a teleportation spell, it would serve all in the Orders a great deal of studying and time. Their construction and imbuement took decades, though the archmages focus was unrelenting.
Their focus was narrow, allowing travel between the towers, but the reach of the portals ended up breaking through space-time, into the other planes of existence. The White Robe archmage, Ombril Tucuri had overseen the construction of the portals, and was to be the first to activate and enter them. He activated the Portal at Istar, planning on traveling to the Lore-Spire in Palanthas instantly. However, when the portal opened and he stepped through, he gazed out at the red barren wastes of The Abyss instead! You see, when in construction, Takhisis noticed the probing into the Abyss, and rearranged the passages of netherspace so that all portals opened into her realm. Once Ombril opened the portal, and gazed into the Abyss, he immediately noticed the Dark Queen and closed the portal instantly, sealing himself inside.
The conclave were beside themselves due to their disastrous failure, and made plans to destroy every portal to protect Krynn from the Dark Queen. They traveled to the tower in Istar, but Takhisis’ power had taken hold and protected the portals, so they removed it to a location unknown and lost in time. The Daltigoth Portal was believed to be destroyed during the Lost Battles with the Istar Empire in 19 Prae Cataclius. The Losarcum Portal was believed to have been destroyed, but in 346 Alt Cataclius Tasslehoff Burfoot and his uncle Trapspringer Furrfoot entered a portal in The Ruins. The Wayreth Portal was present until 356 Alt Cataclius, but its current whereabouts is unknown. The Palanthas Portal was removed to Zhaman.
In their failure to destroy all of the portals, they took another approach. They imposed a restriction on the portals. A restriction so severe, it would ensure they could never be used again! Together, the archmages of the Conclave focused their magic to alter Ombril’s creations, requiring only the most powerful of Black Robe mage, paired with the willing, pure-hearted priest of a God of light. Secured in the belief that the portals would never be able to be opened again, they abandoned the portals to time.
My father once told me, after I lost a close friend in my youth, that time fixes everything. Well, in this particular case, time was all that was needed for the portals to be activated not once, but twice! The first time was with Fistandantilus the Dark. He sought to use the Kingpriest Belindas, but ended up finding a true-hearted priest in the monk Brother Denubis. Fistandantilus traveled to the Tower of Palanthus to use the portal there, but unknown to him, it was transferred during the Lost Battles to his old stomping grounds, Zhaman. They both traveled to Zhaman, opened the portal and perished in the blowback of conflicting magic.
Centuries later, yet at the same moment of time, Raistlin Majere traveled back in time, defeated and joined essences with Fistandantilus, and used the Reverend Daughter Crysania to travel to the tower in Palanthus, and then Zhaman. This time, though the same magical backlash occurred, Raistlin Majere was able to maintain the portal through sheer will, and entered the Abyss to face off against Takhisis herself! He succeeded in drawing the God back through the portal, destroying her, and systematically all other gods. However his twin Caramon Majere traveled back through time, entered the portal and warned Raistlin of his future. Raistlin made the same sacrificial decision of Ombril, and sealed the portal while he was inside.
The portal has opened twice more since. Once during the Chaos War, through Raistlin’s spirit, and again when Mina, a disciple of the One God at the time, allowed Takhisis to finally enter through it. Goldmoon’s death closed the portal, and it remains closed and inert to this day.
The portal began as a simple circular doorway, made of silver and steel missing a handle and keyhole. Once the Queen of Darkness corrupted it, it transformed, growing five dragon heads to mirror Takhisis herself. When active, the five heads come alive, growling, snarling and roaring with glowing eyes. The door was changed into a glass surface resembling a window that gazes out into unfathomable darkness. It is an oval roughly eight feet high and six feet wide, though when activated it can appear immense.
In order to open the portals, a white-robe priest must petition her god for aid. I have no idea why her god would ever grant it, but they shine their divine light, bathing her in it. Simultaneously, the Black Robe archmage must speak the following incantation, without error! Any mispronunciation or the slightest hesitation will cause the magic to collapse, causing a backlash as if an atom bomb exploded instantly destroying everything in a mile radius.
The incantation is as follows: To the first dragon head, Black Dragon. From darkness to darkness / My voice echoes in the emptiness. To the second, White Dragon. From this world to the next / My voice cries with life. To the third, Red Dragon. From darkness to darkness I shout / Beneath my feet all is made firm. To the fourth, Blue Dragon. Time that flows / Hold in your course. To the fifth: Green Dragon. Because by fate even the gods are cast down / Weep ye all with me. As each dragon is invoked, their color is added to the divine light bathing the priest. When the fifth dragon glows, the portal is open, revealing the flat, gray waste of the Abyss beyond.
Once activated, the archmage can open and close any portal from within the Abyss without the need of a priest.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about the Portals to the Abyss. Do you think the Portals to the Abyss are still around after the Dark Disciple trilogy? Will there ever be an archmage strong enough to open the portals again? And finally do the holy priests have to be ignorant or stupid to team up with the Black Robed wizard? Leave a comment below.
I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below.
This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
Are we like children, left alone in the house at night, who light candle after candle to keep away the darkness? We don’t see that the darkness has a purpose—though we may not understand it—so, in our terror, we end up burning down the house.
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