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Let's say your army wanders across it's realm and finds an previously unknown realmgate. Do they know where it goes or do they just activate it and find out once they walk through?

From what we have seen the only way to know where a Realmgate goes before walking through it is having prior knowledge. Though I wouldn't be surprised if skilled wizards/priests could divine a sense of the destination (like the realm it goes to, for example).

Just stick a hand in. You don't need fancy magic,

pm713 wrote:
Just stick a hand in. You don't need fancy magic,

That's not how they work.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Just stick a hand in. You don't need fancy magic,

That's not how they work.

A. It was a joke. B. How do they work then?

pm713 wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Just stick a hand in. You don't need fancy magic,

That's not how they work.

A. It was a joke. B. How do they work then?

Obviously you need Kurt Russel, an archeologistl and a team of marines to check things out first.

pm713 wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Just stick a hand in. You don't need fancy magic,

That's not how they work.

A. It was a joke. B. How do they work then?

Well I mean unless your fingertips have eyeballs your method isn't going to exactly tell where they head anyway.

On topic, realmgates are usually already well used since the Age of Myth and so people know where they'll lead too as they are vital transports. Thus it's a mystery when new ones are found to where they'll lead especially ones that aren't portal structures but formless wild magic like eldritch fog or enchanted tarpits.

Could a realmgate change where it leads possibly stranding an army in another realm until they find one that leads home?

I'd expect that to take a powerful wizard messing with it on one end or the other, rather than the realmgate changing where it points of its own accord.

How was it done in World of Warcraft? I missed that part in the movie and need to watch it again.

pm713 wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Just stick a hand in. You don't need fancy magic,

That's not how they work.

A. It was a joke. B. How do they work then?

Apologies, I misinterpreted. Anyways, when we've seen them used it's all or nothing; you step in and are transported wholly to the other end. Sticking a hand in probably wouldn't do much in the way to transportation but I imagine the consequences would be negative if you just held it there. That's assuming the realmgate is even structured in a conventional portal sense (like the terrain piece) at all; many of them are not. It could be that very stable realmgates work in a manner that you could stand with one half in one half out but there is still a huge distance between--they are a magical pathway between two points rather than literally connecting those two points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Davor wrote:
How was it done in World of Warcraft? I missed that part in the movie and need to watch it again.

Warcraft has 'conventional' portals that are a gate which stays open, portals that only stay open as long as they are held open by magic, and magical teleportation. There is a scene in the movie where they go through a temporary portal and are floating in the twisting nether (like space, but without all the scientific context) for a few seconds before they land on the other end. Once they get there they begin constructing a gateway that acts as a more conventional portal (like a shimmering wall where you put a hand through and can see it sticking out the other side).

I'd say spoilers but that's all part of the basic premise.

The newest Stormcast book implies that all of the Realmgates are 'known' to where they go, but not all of them are readily accessible...so some are just not really utilized.

They mention that the Stormkeeps are all built around Realmgates, sometimes in the middle of deserts or atop mountain peaks. They're still in the process of getting a few of these kinds of gates under control. It's interesting that the first thing they do is build a fort around the gate proper and then they build a secondary fort inside the fort to prevent incursions through the gate--which implies that even though the Realmgates are supposed to be static, they can be redirected.

Also some gates now go to the Realm of Chaos, so blind leaping has its risks.

The city of Hammerhal, is half in the realm of fire and half in the realm of life, and they channel lava from the fire half through the realmgate to the life half to "control plant growth". So it must be continuous for the channels of lava and less like Stargate.

 Kanluwen wrote:
The newest Stormcast book implies that all of the Realmgates are 'known' to where they go, but not all of them are readily accessible...so some are just not really utilized.

They mention that the Stormkeeps are all built around Realmgates, sometimes in the middle of deserts or atop mountain peaks. They're still in the process of getting a few of these kinds of gates under control. It's interesting that the first thing they do is build a fort around the gate proper and then they build a secondary fort inside the fort to prevent incursions through the gate--which implies that even though the Realmgates are supposed to be static, they can be redirected.

Or that someone just conquered the keep on the other side.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
The newest Stormcast book implies that all of the Realmgates are 'known' to where they go, but not all of them are readily accessible...so some are just not really utilized.

They mention that the Stormkeeps are all built around Realmgates, sometimes in the middle of deserts or atop mountain peaks. They're still in the process of getting a few of these kinds of gates under control. It's interesting that the first thing they do is build a fort around the gate proper and then they build a secondary fort inside the fort to prevent incursions through the gate--which implies that even though the Realmgates are supposed to be static, they can be redirected.

Or that someone just conquered the keep on the other side.

Well of course. The implication though was dealing with Arcanite stuff and "sorcerous incursions".

Oh ok, that makes sense. We do know for sure that they can be redirected to/from the realm of chaos at any rate.