Portals

[Deleted]

So, portals, how do they work? I can understand how a mage from Orgrimmar can put portal to Silvermoon and simply walk through it, thats ok. But why no one used mages (correct me if im wrong) to invade another city? Why Horder didnt gathered their army and simply put 10 portals to silvermoon to swarm this city? Why we needed the whole Dark Portal to get from Azeroth to Draenor, and when we set up our garrison Khadgar puts a portal to another timeline (!) with no effort. Why mages can't put portal to most zones, whats the difference?

[Deleted]

always remember rule 1: gameplay > lore

but the basic gist of it is a portal is harder to make if its a longer distance, into unknown territory, into territory that has other mages casting counterspells and shields, etc.

the portal khadgar made wasn't no effort, he said some shit like "i can't maintain this for long" and he probably spend a long time off screen doing prep work. (if its lore canon at all)

an offensive portal into stormwind by the horde would probably have it's exit node be randomly relocated away from the target spot, most likely with your invasion force ending up inside a mountain or 500 feet in the air, because of stormwind mages having wards in place for that.

[cparle87]

Portals take a lot of preparation ahead of time. Also they're heavily regulated. For instance I'm sure you've noticed that when your mage creates a portal to say Orgrimmar that it's always in the same location? The magic was prepared ahead of time that all portals to Orgrimmar go there, for safety's sake. Also, as Ner'zhul showed us, too many portals are bad. Permanent portals, like the ones in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to the various Cataclysm zones are even riskier. They have to make sure they do it right to not damage the fabric of reality. As for Khadgar, the Dark Portal was created by two powerful magic users on each side kind of 'burrowing' towards each other in the middle to create a huge, permanent tunnel. Khadgar was on the Draenor, and he likely had a coven of mages on the other side waiting to help him make the portal.

[faithbane]

Why mages can't put portal to most zones, whats the difference?

You need to split this topic into to parts. one part is the gameplay portals and another one is the lore portals. Gameplay portals literally have no impact on the lore and they technically don't exist. They are in line with a boss we killed respawning every week or running back to your corpse to revive etc.. You have to individually confirm which portals in game are lore portals and which are gameplay portals. In the past, there were ingredients that mages had to use to open up a portal to specific cities which was at least slightly justified in lore about the runes having premade magic in them that was bind to that location bla bla bla.. but as the game got oversimplified even those justifications are gone so just ignore the gameplay portals.

Lore portals are a lot different. In lore, the bigger the thing you want to move through the portal to more magic/energy/power it requires. Thats why the first thing we do in WoD is to shut off the dark portal which is powered by siphoning magic out of 3 powerful magic users. Lorewise we were stuck in WoD for a while and all those portals back to Azeroth is just for gameplay. Only in the HFC raid, Guldan opens the dark portal again archimonde pokes him to Azeroth. I am assuming we followed him through and that is how we managed to get back to Azeroth.

Back in WC3 to open a portal big enough to Argus/twisting nether to summon Archimonde to Azeroth, Kelthuzad had to gather a lot of mats, including a book of medivh that contained OP spell recipes and even with that it took him 30 minutes of uninterrupted channeling spell to manage to open that portal.

[Deleted]

So, portals, how do they work? I can understand how a mage from Orgrimmar can put portal to Silvermoon and simply walk through it, thats ok. But why no one used mages (correct me if im wrong) to invade another city? Why Horder didnt gathered their army and simply put 10 portals to silvermoon to swarm this city? Why we needed the whole Dark Portal to get from Azeroth to Draenor, and when we set up our garrison Khadgar puts a portal to another timeline (!) with no effort. Why mages can't put portal to most zones, whats the difference?

The Horde did inflitrated Darnassus to steal the Divine Bell by using portals. And Jaina set wards to detect those portals.

So, the answer is simple, major cities are warded against foreign portals.

[Aucald]

Within the narrative basic portals (those created by Mages) wouldn't be a good breaching mechanism because they are both small and subject to closure by other Mages or magic-users - they admit only a few persons at a time in a narrow flow and could be swiftly closed if need be. You would need something far more powerful and massive if you wished to use it for a military purpose. Something like the Legion's Fel Storm portal or the Dark Portal, both of which take an a good amount of time to craft, rely on pre-existing conditions to make use of, and/or aren't subject to interference by rival magic-users.

[Deleted]

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Portals_are_NOT_Garbage_Bins!

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Thinking_w...r_Portal_Usage

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Quest:One_...gdom%27s_Trash... - when portals are open for too long, the mana starts to crystallize on the edges. It's a sign of how much energy they suck from ley lines.

Also, you shouldn't confuse portals with mass teleportation. Mass teleportation is what Jaina does in Hyjal raid for example. It's briefly explained in Cycle of Hatred book when she tries to mass teleport thunderlizards or kodos (can't remember now) that she has to connect each of their minds with her own and then focus on some place she knows and can recall the look of it so she can teleport (I think it's a general rule of teleport / portals for mages - they have to know the place they're teleporting into, not sure about demon summoning portals for warlocks). It was hard for her because the beasts were hungry and were thinking about food only so Jaina became hungry herself. She also notes that it's recommended for mages to keep some snacks in a pocket at all times because teleporting consumes large amount of energy and without eating after one might become exhausted for a long time. (It's also noted that Aegwynn doesn't need to do it because she's so powerful if I remember correctly)

I hope I helped. If someone has any info on warlock portals in the lore, post it here too, for me, please.

[DeicideUH]

You need to split this topic into to parts. one part is the gameplay portals and another one is the lore portals. Gameplay portals literally have no impact on the lore and they technically don't exist. They are in line with a boss we killed respawning every week or running back to your corpse to revive etc.. You have to individually confirm which portals in game are lore portals and which are gameplay portals. In the past, there were ingredients that mages had to use to open up a portal to specific cities which was at least slightly justified in lore about the runes having premade magic in them that was bind to that location bla bla bla.. but as the game got oversimplified even those justifications are gone so just ignore the gameplay portals.

Lore portals are a lot different. In lore, the bigger the thing you want to move through the portal to more magic/energy/power it requires. Thats why the first thing we do in WoD is to shut off the dark portal which is powered by siphoning magic out of 3 powerful magic users. Lorewise we were stuck in WoD for a while and all those portals back to Azeroth is just for gameplay. Only in the HFC raid, Guldan opens the dark portal again archimonde pokes him to Azeroth. I am assuming we followed him through and that is how we managed to get back to Azeroth.

Back in WC3 to open a portal big enough to Argus/twisting nether to summon Archimonde to Azeroth, Kelthuzad had to gather a lot of mats, including a book of medivh that contained OP spell recipes and even with that it took him 30 minutes of uninterrupted channeling spell to manage to open that portal.

This is a good post. Just to add:

Khadgar and other mages opened portals between (Alternate) Draenor and Azeroth so our armies could settle and build our garrisons and Ashran bases, but Khadgar does say that this is a big effort and he couldn't sustain the portal for long. Also, such portals were helped by the existance of the magic beacon (from the broken artifact forged by Kairoz, I forgot the name... Moment in Time?) linking both worlds. Canonicaly, those permanent portals in Ashran did not exist; they would be constanly opened by mages, but were never permanent links.

Even Medivh couldn't just conjure a portal big enough and durable enough to let the entire orcish Horde free passage to Azeroth. The Dark Portal is the result of a very complex ritual. The magical frames stabilizes the gateway, and their location are above leylines, so that the natural flow of magic of both worlds would keep fueling the connection.

Portals are overused in-game for convenience. Caravans, boats and flying are still the standard methods of transportation in Azeroth.

[MechaCThun]

The word "portal" in science fiction and fantasy generally refers to a technological or magical doorway that connects two distant locations separated by spacetime. It usually consists of two or more gateways, with an object entering one gateway leaving via the other instantaneously.

Places linked by a portal include a different spot in the same universe (in which case it might be an alternative for teleportation); a parallel world (inter-dimensional portal); the past or the future (time portal); and other planes of existence, such as heaven, hell or other afterworlds. A parallel world, such as C. S. Lewis's Wood between the Worlds in his Chronicles of Narnia, may exist solely to contain multiple portals, perhaps to every parallel world in existence.

Portals are similar to the cosmological concept of a wormhole, and some portals work using wormholes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portals_in_fiction

[Deleted]

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Portals_are_NOT_Garbage_Bins!

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Thinking_w...r_Portal_Usage

It wasn't so hard to find and yet i didnt O.o Thank you, that was exacly what I was looking for.
Also

<This goes on for hundreds of pages>

I could read these things like regular books lol

[Hobbidaggy]

A really good read for this is the Illidan novel. He has a lot of work to do with making a portal from Outland to others planets and it requires a LOT of fuel that even he himself being the sorcerer supreme can’t fuel. He requires....help.

Have a read. It’s not too bad a novel and the portal stuff is really well explained.

[huth]

Lore portals are a lot different. In lore, the bigger the thing you want to move through the portal to more magic/energy/power it requires. Thats why the first thing we do in WoD is to shut off the dark portal which is powered by siphoning magic out of 3 powerful magic users. Lorewise we were stuck in WoD for a while and all those portals back to Azeroth is just for gameplay. Only in the HFC raid, Guldan opens the dark portal again archimonde pokes him to Azeroth. I am assuming we followed him through and that is how we managed to get back to Azeroth.

It's clear there is regular contact between Alt!Draenor and Azeroth later in WoD once the mages have set up shop on both sides(around the time you get sent to Ashran), but it still requires significant resources. High importance personnel like yourself(commander of the majority of your factions Draenor forces) or Varian/Vol'jin could get a personal transfer when needed, but most of the rank and file would have to wait until a scheduled shift rotation to get through.We weren't really stuck on Draenor for very long, but it wasn't quick and easy travel, either. Well, not easy, anyway.

If the Dark Portal is any indication, opening a gateway repeatedly also weakens the fabric of whatever in that place and makes it easier to reopen.

[DaveL]

always remember rule 1: gameplay > lore

but the basic gist of it is a portal is harder to make if its a longer distance, into unknown territory, into territory that has other mages casting counterspells and shields, etc.

the portal khadgar made wasn't no effort, he said some shit like "i can't maintain this for long" and he probably spend a long time off screen doing prep work. (if its lore canon at all)

For someone like Dadgar is very "hard effort" to make portal from azeroth to Draenor to pull 4 npcs to build our garrison..
But single gnome mage can maintain portal from basically Argus to Dalaran infinitely..

[huth]

For someone like Dadgar is very "hard effort" to make portal from azeroth to Draenor to pull 4 npcs to build our garrison..
But single gnome mage can maintain portal from basically Argus to Dalaran infinitely..

The latter portal only goes through space, not timelines, and Illidan made his job significantly easier with the Sargerite Keystone. He's pretty much just providing a convenient link to the megaportal connecting Argus and Azeroth.

Besides, who says he's keeping it open when it isn't needed?

[FuxieDK]

But why no one used mages (correct me if im wrong) to invade another city?

Didn't Jaina use a portal to transport an army to attack Orgrimmar at one point?

[Wyrt]

However Blizzard wants them to at any given point in time.

[Stormspark]

Portals are MUCH MUCH more difficult to perform in lore than they are in-game. Even experienced mages like Khadgar can only do them for a short time. They also act like a beacon, any mage within 100 miles would instantly know that someone was portaling in. If you tried to invade a city with a portal you might as well put a huge neon sign over it.