Talk:Integration
Old Warpgate file contents, for incorporation into this file:
A Warpgate is a natural feature of the Multiverse's makeup, and one of the few features that newly unified worlds are forced to contend with nearly immediately. They take the form of large rifts in space, often in the shape of a circular portal or a doorway. Entering these doorways leads into a pocket dimension that leads off into several directions. It is most easy to compare the interior of a warpgate to a subway system that can be utilized by simply walking (though vehicles can often be accommodated as well), allowing rapid movement from Point A to Point B with a minimum of time and energy spent.
Each unified world has a number of warpgates located at major landmarks or locations of note. While it isn't uncommon for local authorities to secure warpgates to prevent unwanted intrusion, it bears mentioning that even physically blocking off a warpgate is only as effective as the forces or defenses that can be posted at it. For better or worse, if someone is determined to come to your world, they probably aren't going to be stopped.
Warpgates connect to other, nearby warpgates, though 'nearby' can be as close as a few miles or as arbitrarily far away as multiple universes away. Like a series of interconnecting train stations, it can be possible to need to detour through an unrelated region to make it to your intended destination. Even so, where warpgates are present and available for use, they are almost always more quick and efficient for long distance travel than personal transportation would provide, allowing even foot traffic to journey thousands of miles in a matter of minutes.
Because of this, warpgates are the primary means of transportation in the Multiverse, particularly for inter-world travel. Early in the Multiverse's history, every warpgate could access every other warpgate in the Multiverse, making them exponentially more valuable than they are now. Early conflict between the organisations that would become the Union and Confederacy lead to a tweaking of the warpgate network's functionality so that warpgates were 'locked' to relatively localized connection points. It is possible, and quite normal, for artificial warpgates to be produced in order to supplement a gap in the warpgate network. While these artificial warpgates can be destroyed, it is effectively impossible (or at the very least, arbitrarily difficult) to destroy natural warpgates.
Warpgates do not conduct matter through them passively (that is, deliberate intent is required to move through), and the 'interior' of a specific warpgate mirrors the surrounding environment. If a warpgate is underwater, its interior will be submerged but it isn't draining water out of the surroundings to accomplish this. It will also, generally, only connect to other submerged warpgates. So a warpgate that is on solid ground will open out onto solid ground, a sea-bound warpgate will open out on the surface of the ocean to conduct boats through it, a space-based warpgate will open up into space elsewhere, etc.
