Nexus Portals - Bloody, Bloody, Arduin & The Empire of the Petal Throne Rpg

 Finally we're done with the snowblowing for today. Here in Connecticut we got hit with a bit of last minute snow. And while tooling around on the snow blower the idea of Nexus portals or  gates from the Arduin Grimoire by David E. Hargrave.

If we're going to talk about the nexus portals of Arduin then we're going to delve into the mysteries of the multiverse. The fact is that over the years I've speculated that the failures of Arduin's Nexus portals may have been tied into disappearance of Tékumel, of the Empire of the Petal Throne rpg. The disappearance of Tékumel, may have screwed up the nexus system gates  for thousands of years. According to the Empire of the Petal Throne rpg Tekumel wiki entry; "Suddenly, in the 1120th century (according to Shawn Bond)^[4] and for reasons unknown, Tékumel and its star system (Tékumel's two moons, Gayél and Káshi, its sun, Tuléng, and four other planets, Ülétl, Riruchél, Shíchel, and Zirúna) were cast out of our reality into a "pocket dimension" (known as a béthorm in Tsolyáni), in which there were no other star systems. One hypothesis is that this isolation happened through hostile action on the part of an unknown party or group. Another is that the cosmic cataclysm was due to over-use of a faster than light drive which warped the fabric of space. No one knows, but the inhabitants of Tékumel, both human, native, and representatives of the other star-faring races, were now isolated and alone. The novels contain vague clues as to what might have happened."

"Severed from vital interplanetary trade routes (Tékumel is a world very poor in heavy metals) and in the midst of a massive gravitic upheaval due to the lines of gravitational force between the stars being suddenly cut, civilization was thrown into chaos. The intelligent native species, the Hlǘss and the Ssú, broke free from their reservations and wars as destructive as the massive geographic changes ravaged the planet. Several other significant changes took place due to the crisis: mankind discovered it could now tap into ultraplanar energies that were seen as magical forces, the stars were gone from the sky, dimensional nexuses were uncovered and pacts with "demons" (inhabitants of dimensions near in n-dimensional space to Tékumel's pocket dimension) were made and a complex pantheon of "gods" (powerful extra-dimensional or multi-dimensional alien beings) discovered. Science began to stagnate until ultimately knowledge became grounded in traditions handed down from generations long ago, the belief that the universe was ultimately understandable slowly faded, and a Time of Darkness descended over the planet.

Much of Barker's writing concerns a time approximately 50,000 years after Tékumel has entered its pocket dimension" 

 
So what happens when all of the hyperspacial eddies & waves calm down?! Could we actually see elements of Arduin showing up in other univeses?! Or could the hyper dimensional events of Empire of the Petal Throne actually be responsible for the collapse of the worm hole in the Clement sector rpg as the hyperspacial waves ripped across the planes?! 

 Anything is possible but the fact is the underlying idea of the collapse of such an extensive hyperspacial gateway system is going to echo across time & space. This means that thoericially there could be space craft trapped from EPT's hyperspacial folds or those of other realities. 
Other anomlies could be the displacement of other reality inhabitants as hyperspacial folds or warps pick up random inhabitants from Arduin & deposit them on other worlds. This could easily be done using Sword of Cepheus rpg to bring your favorite Arduin rpg elements or adventure bits into your 2d6 fantasy. 

  These gates & keys could bring traders into from the Clement Sector rpg or other Cepheus Engine rpg campaign worlds. Only these ideas are limited as products of you & your player's imaginations.