Dimensional gate

There's a spell named gate or dimenstional gate. It allows the caster(s) to create what seems to be a pair of spatial distortions or portals. Anything that can fit one can go "through" and emerge from the other one. Silverlake stated that it is actually "just one dimensional construct with two ends".^[1] If there's only one caster, the two portals can't be very far from each other. However, if there's two casters at each end and they can synchronize their actions, there is no known distance limitations. A simulacrum qualifies as the second caster. Vani stated that "The gate spell is almost certainly reverse-engineered from Bakora gates, back when people still knew how to activate them, and it is pretty much the pinnacle of dimensional magic that very few mages can cast safely".^[2]

A network of Bakora gates exists on Miasina, Altazia and Blantyrre,^[2] being most dense on Blantyrre.^[3] It is not known who built them. The method of activating them is stated by Alanic to be lost;^[2] however, Silent Doorway Adepts managed to design a ritual to activate them. The aranea-designed ritual is very crude, requiring a lot of attempts: as many as fifteen aranea can spend as many as two hours to activate the gate.^[4] Later, Zorian helped them improve the ritual.^[5] They look "like hollow icosahedrons assembled out of some kind of black bars".^[2] The gate requires a lot of mana to open and function, but is apparently able to open the passage by itself (the users merely request it to). Silent Doorway Adepts believe this means each Bakora gate contains a spirit of some sort.^[4]

Silent Doorway Adepts stated that "In order to connect with another Bakora gate, we need to first travel to said gate through some other means and contact its own gate spirit. Only after we receive a… sort of mental key from the gate spirit, can we use our own gate to reach it", but that the "the gate spirit will freely give you its key if you can contact it".^[4]

An inferior substitute of Bakora gates, supposedly designed by Quatach-Ichl. It is visually similar (also has an icosahedral frame around the spot where the portal is to be located when they are active). It is only capable of maintaining the dimensional gate made by the spell (see above), given, of course, enough mana.^[6]

The text never directly asserts that Quatach-Ichl is the designer. The characters suspect it: Quatach-Ichl "seemed to be in charge of maintaining the gates".^[6]

"None of the Ibasans know how that thing works," pointed out Zach. "I bet only Quatach-Ichl really does".^[7]

"They're afraid of what Quatach-Ichl will do to them when he finds out they let someone acquire a sample of his work," Zorian said. The simulacrum suspected the original had taken said information straight from the minds of nearby Ibasans."^[8]

The Sovereign Gate is a gate in the sense it transports a soul to and from the time loop, but is apparently not similar.