Doors to strange places. Trees intertwined so that you pass through a band of shadow. The mouths of enormous idols. Caves and cloudy mountain tops. The world’s full of strange passages.
Mages call them Irises to signify the blurry line between travel and perception and perhaps, to hint that travellers should look before leaping — or stepping with the left foot and speaking a secret name, for many Irises require a special action or object to function.
Irises arise spontaneously, or in response to some epic event. Potent spells (“Spirit Manse” and others) generate them. Archmages open Irises from their personal realms to virtually anywhere in the cosmos. Irises have various specialized names, but these are mostly of interest to academics; most mages are content to call one an “Iris to (such and such)” and be done with it.
System
Passing through an Iris from the material side brings a traveller to the connected realm as long as she utilizes the Iris’ Keys.
Irises formed by phenomena other than Awakened spells possess Keys related to the manner of their creation. One need only burn a picture of the evil man who died there, walk widdershins around the boundary stones, or do whatever else is necessary.
The following Irises have been catalogued by the Awakened.
Aberrances
Irises to The Abyss are extraordinarily rare, but can be opened by epic Paradoxes, strong Abyssal verges, and Scelesti rites. Step through, and you won’t come back unless you’re a Scelestus returning from a successful initiation, or a possessed shell for an Abyssal entity.
Avernian Gates
Doorways to The Underworld, Avernian Gates manifest in tombs, caves, and other places associated with death and passage underground.
Mages create these with the spell Create Avernian Gate.
Natural examples occur in every graveyard and cemetery in the world, and many Stygian Verges.
Distortions
These Irises offer travel from one place on Earth to another without crossing the distance between them, or to a pocket dimension. Mages create them with fifth-dot Space spells such as Pocket Dimension and potent variations of Teleportation, but many are naturally-occurring.
Shadowed Doors
The Reaching spell builds an Iris to The Shadow.
These Irises might also manifest near ley line nexuses or anywhere where spirits are especially active, particularly if people feed spirits Essence with actions on the material plane.
Scars
No spell can create a Scar into the Lower Depths, because it’s a place where reality itself fails. As one approaches a Scar, its signature absence grows ever stronger. Color fades, or certain emotions degenerate into wordless urges. People who pass through don’t return. Lower Depths entities might whisper from the other side, begging to be raised.
Soul Eyes
This Iris has an informal name because it describes a poorly understood phenomenon: gates leading to Wendings, the realms made of archmages’ manifested souls.
All known Soul Eyes enter abandoned Wendings (as opposed to the “Golden Roads” of an archmage’s active presence) but most still retain complex Keys and potent defensive spells. Wendings that don’t allow physical journeys place visitors in a trance state, just as for Astral Synesi.
Synesi
These Irises provide direct access to an Astral Realm. Synesi allow anyone with the Key or another means of entrance to enter the linked realm while sleeping or meditating. Travelers don’t physically enter the Astral through a Synese, but enter the usual trance state for Astral journeys. Instead of going to a personal dream, they immediately arrive at the Iris’ destination in dream form.
Thurae
Thurae lead to an Emanation Realm. No known spell can create them — instead, they usually manifest at the heart of Supernal Verges. Add +2 dice to Supernal Summoning attempts where the mage opens the Thura
Enigmatic Gates
Finally, certain Irises lead to places mages know very little about. One type leads inside The Gauntlet, not across it, compressing visitors so that the world outside looks enormous and distorted. Another takes travellers to an airless landscape where the stars are wrong. Their particulars are up to the Storyteller.