Leywarp
If the gods malign the use of magic other than their own, if they condescend and tear down those who find their own paths, then their words and deeds are worth nothing. Let us rely on the world's own bounty instead.Leywarping is a new and very unstable magical technology supposedly invented by Elias Cielwood, famed alchemist and experimenter extraordinaire. It allows nigh-instantaneous transportation of virtually anything, and has most commonly been used to send fully-manned airships to the battlefield unseen, especially in the ongoing War of Empires. In essence, it is the harnessing of natural leyline energy and traversing via its currents.
Jump to the Sky by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
In practice, it's a little bit more complicated than that.
Leylines themselves cover the entire globe. They cross constantly, with major crossings being recognised as incredibly powerful nexuses.
Beyond this, they are inherently linked to life and magic itself: leylines travel to the void of space and cross the boundaries of planes, carrying currents of magic throughout the universe just as one's arteries carry blood forth.
Mortal and immortal souls alike are carried by the magical currents, and few places exist where leylines may not wander.
It is, then, quite logical to look at this network and consider its benefits in teleportation - until one considers the dangers. Attempting to use the literal lifeblood of magic itself as a mere form of transport is perhaps not the best idea to most people, regardless of the sheer convenience it offers.
Invention
The boundaries of what is possible should never be defined!Leywarping is not the first attempt at harnessing leyline power, though it is perhaps the current candidate for largest in scale. It is preceded by inventions such as ley siphons, which have significant risks to the local area if misused, and magics such as those wielded by followers of the Way of Runeblessed Dreams that focus on techniques of walking ley paths through dreams. Instead, it unites a number of principles initially developed by others, and then takes them to another level. While conjuration mages have long since developed a thousand different variations of the basic Teleport spell, next to nobody has tried to take the inscriptions of teleportation scrolls and circles to infuse them into potions.
While druids can tap the land's leylines as a source of power and can travel through living plants as a means of land-assisted transport, their rites ensure they will never combine these aspects of their teachings.
The others who have tried to take pieces of these building blocks and put them together have met with sharp consequence. No avatar will tolerate mortals damaging their leylines if they can avoid it -- if the mortal does not simply get themselves destroyed in the attempt. Very little can handle that level of power.
Elias, lucky bastard he is, has not shared how exactly he has managed to never have an attempt go so badly wrong that it has harmed him. Those aware of the more dangerous circumstances Riven Drast strides into may have their own guesses: one of the only things that can counter the power of an avatar beyond a deity's direct intervention is the intervention of something far, far worse. If a Shard is involved, then ley magic's dangerous effects may be tampered by the corruptive void energies.
Elias Cielwood by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Utility
Travel is merely the first step to an infinite playground of opportunity.One would hope the utility of travelling through the world's leylines is somewhat obvious. That said, there's a number of more hidden uses for leywarping that are not as clear as the ability to travel nigh-undetected to almost any location in the known universe (with some caveats).
Kaihua's Prime by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Most seriously: the ability to harness a leyline and interfere with its current in such a significant way could be used in far more damaging ways than just to send airships to their destinations.
For instance, the Fallen Island of Kaihua was both given its ability to levitate and eventually brought down by the power of the nexus beneath it, and that same power was later used to bind Long Meixue to her eternal prison.
The consequences of that use are still apparent today in the endless storms of Yuànlán, where nature's grief is splayed across the twisted hills near the fallen empress's Jade Prison.
If leywarping is the first step in establishing a new level of influence over ley power, the disasters of the past must be considered. Ley magic is unstable on the best of days, balancing the sheer scale of its furious power and the risk of drawing the ire of a location's avatar. With Elias demonstrating a new level of power over them, the future teeters on uncertainty.
Parent Technologies
Leywarp by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Access & Availability
Limited exclusively to whoever Elias wants to have access to it. Mostly Riven Drast and his allies.
Complexity
Ridiculously complex - on a level where mistakes can mean true soul destruction.
Discovery
Discovered in approximately 5625, during a period of high ley anomalies across Valathe.
Related Vehicles
Elias sounds like a Problem. Hopefully this won't have too many terrible consequences.
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