A rift is a tear in space and or time. The concept is not a new one. Man has had the desire to go from one place to another in the blink of an eye ever since the advent of science fiction and probably before. To be able to achieve this incredible magical feat which was only ascribed to men of magic in millenia before.
In the world of Rifts Earth, a natural rift occurs ever twelve minutes. A rift event takes place on a nexus point, which is defined by a point where two ley lines cross. Ley lines, invisible in the years before the great catalcysm, are natural lines of magical flowing energy that encircle the Earth. After the apocalypse, as magic overflowed these lines, they became visible and incredible natural reserves of magical energy, still at nearly full strength over 300 years later.
The magical energy in the ley lines ebbs and flows based on a number of other natural phenomena (location of the moon, solstices, peak hours of the day and night, etc). All of these factors work in harmony to produce a spectacular set of events. As the magic builds, it will need to be released in some manner. Sometimes, this can result in a Ley Line Storm and at other times, a Rift will form at a nexus.
When a rift forms, it can be almost any size. Some are no bigger than a softball, others have been seen the size of mountains. (Phase World Space travelers have documented larger occurances). The Rift Phenomena has been documented for mellenia, but even the most skilled races only have a limited understanding of the real workings of rifts.
Methods of opening a Rift
There are two main methods for opening a rift. The first and most natural is the magical approach. Magic (a yet-unexplained force) performs much of the hard work and complicated tasks involved in making a rift. It will take care of the calculations, avoidances, transferrances, stability and many other factors involved in creating and maintaining a rift.
When a person casts a magical spell which opens a rift, they must know their destination and must have the pre-requisite amount of Potential Psychic Energy (PPE) to expend in creating the rift. [LIST PALLADIUM RIFT COST VS RECOUPERATION numbers] Once the P.P.E. is spent, the magic is infused into the spell and a rift is formed. It begins as a small flash of light seeming to emit from a central point. The light will expand verticaly as tendrils of magical energy are attracted to nearby P.P.E. rich sources (from nearby plants to magical batteries). If the rift is formed on a Nexus point, tentrils of energy will quickly race upward, connecting with the nearby rivers of energy.
The visible structure of a rift is capable of going through solid materials (for instance, forming through a roof or other structure) tendrils of magical energy are non-destructive and produce a tingling effect as they caress nearby objects.
Rifts formed in this manner are typically percieved as being very beautiful. A fully formed rift is typically tear drop shaped and its edges will seem to shift and flow slighly, bending slightly to unseen currents. This tends to make a rift look as though it is never fully stable, but as long as the spell has sufficient energy to run, it is quite safe. RIfts tend to be blue in color, using the same type of energy as the ley lines. Their appearance will also vary based on surrounding events, sometimes they will crackle with energy, while at other times they simply seem to radiate with a nice glow as described above.
The other method of forming a rift is the blunt technological approach. This approach is usually taken by races who have an inability or hatred of magic. The technological approach was suspected of being attempted by the staff of the Lone Star Complex in Texas at the time of the great cataclysm.
As with many rift-creation experiments, the scientists of pre-Rifts Earth were still only in the beginning stages of trying to comprehend Rifts and how they work. In fact, because a rift had not been created on Earth for several millenia, they were working from many assumed calculations and equations. Their results might have turned out differently had they chosen not to test their project on that particular night.
The Lone Star Rift generator is incomplete in a number of areas and, if it is ever to work properly, will require a much deeper understanding of how rifts work and additional reworking of the system.
A number of other worlds have been destroyed from similar attempts as black holes were created, massive amounts of power were unleashed causing damage, mutations and other disasters, at other times the machines worked long enough to allow plagues of alien invaders onto the planet. To be sure, there are many dangers, but for the few races that can survive the trials and create stable rifts, the process goes as follows.
A complicated series of coordinates is entered into the computer, both the current location, as well as the destination, massive amounts of energy are generated and pumped into the system (this process can be refined, but will take centuries of research to make the process close to cost-effective). The system then directs the energy into a focused point, funneling more and more energy into the focal point until a tear is formed. This tear is usually accompanied by a loud and painful tearing sound accompanied by bright and crackling light. In the first few moments of tearing open the rift, many forms of energy and radiation are released. Typically this process can be quickly enhanced to reduce the amount of harmful energies released. Then, once the tear has begun, more energy is required to expand the rift and maintain its size. Typically, for a man-sized rift to stay open for one minute, it will require 2000 Megawats of Power (thus Lone Star's Multiple generators) from start to finish.
Closing the rift requires a gradual reduction of energy until the rift seals itself back up. Suddenly shutting off power willl destabalize the rift and cause it to seek out nearby energy reserves, if it finds none, it could collapse violently, sometimes emitting a sonic boom or additional radiation. Should nearby energy reserves be found, there's a 30% chance the Rift will either feed off of them and grow or steadily deminish. In some rare cases, anomalies have occured where rifts will surge and grow out of control.
Technological rifts tend to constantly crackle with energy and seem to have a rather violent appearance. They will surge and seek to naturally close. Until their process is refined, they seem to be unnatural abberations in nature and nature itself seems to want to make them go away. If enough power is maintained in them, they can however be sucessfully maintained like any magically created rift.
Opening a rift technologically is a dangerous process for many years. Just as with any technology, it's initial incarnations will contain both many successes and many tragic failures.
Known Factors of Rifts
- They create magical echoes which draw magical beings toward the source of magic
- They do maintain a barrier which won't allow environmental mediums (air, water, the void of space, etc) to pass through, but will allow moving bodies in those mediums to traverse the threshold.
