Some Words on Teleportaion Circles

Teleportation Circles are a wonderous benefit to small groups of wealthy travelers, semi-powerful magicians, and adventurers with either the means to cast, or ability to hire. They are obviously a financial boon for any city that has one, because they make that city a potential destination for people with money and/or power (as well as powerful beings you may not want dropping in during Evening Meal, but we will get to that...). Even if it does not create an incentive for the wealth-laden traveler to spend their gold in your city (because, let's face it, every major city has at least one circle, and you probably aren't the wealthiest city in the realm...), there is some measure of prestige in being able to list your sigil sequence in the royal registry. But let's look at some of the tidbits they don't teach you in the academies.

For starters, just having a Circle is considered an essential necessity for being considered a major city. I have heard the ladies at court giggle when Count Dardraius came before the King during an official audience:
Lady-in-Waiting: "Oh, the poor Count, his city is so poor they can't afford to create a Circle."
Lady: "It's probably for the best, it's not a place you would anyone would want to go anyway..."
While the city in question isn't an especially picturesque location, is has a significant trading history, a Bard's College, and a major training center for the Royal Cavalery. One of the single biggest determinations as to whether you are called a town or a city depends on if you have a Circle or not.
Are there headaches with having a Circle? Most certainly. Once you are a destination, people will come. Tax Men. Members of the Court to "ask" that you provide resources/troops/gold for any and all sundry things. Of course, if the King has to send a tax-collection group to your city, it will be slighly less expensive, as you won't have to pay for the high-level mage to transport them {only the mid-level mage that can cast a less difficult spell). You also have additional costs for guards that will protect your city from whoever o whatever might decide to drop in (although your typical city guard won't be able to stop any group that can make use of the Circle).
 

There are other quirks having to do with teleportation circles. The first is the Tessaran. Tessarans? Tassarai? What are they, and what use, if any, did they serve? We all know they are cute little night lights, but why do they teleport those standing in a Circle to some random Circle tens, hundreds, or even thousands of miles away when you break one in the Circle? Why do they do nothing if broken outside the circle? And why does the bottle vanish when it breaks inside the Circle, but not outside? Perhaps the glass itself fuels the portation to some far-off destination. Answers have eluded sages for ages.

 

Another question is why some Circles don't seem to be true destinations? Circles have been found in ruins, and although the runes were clearly inscribed (as is common with every public Circle I have ever seen). Were they once destinations, but because they have been unused for centuries, the magic that once created them has faded? I have read a memoire that said one of these ancient Circles was used to port away using a tessaran, but all attempts to return were met with failure? While is is possible that the mage who penned the mistive of which I speak either incorrectly transscribed a character, or transposed two sigils, we can't be sure. And it's possible the mage was telling a tall tale. But other aspects of my considerable research into the history & lore of these Circles have spoken of locked Circles. Whether they are locked by some powerful magic, are intentionally created, or make use of some forgotten aspect of the spell formula, I am not certain. While it should, in theory, be possible to create a variation that requires the caster to use, or have on their person, some special item in order for the spell to succeed, I have found no formula (and I have found literally dozens of formula variations in my research) that requires anything that I would describe as a "key". And if such a Circle variation existed that required a key, what happens if the key is lost, stolen, or destroyed? The only other clue my research has turned up mentions a "forgetting glyph" or a "secret sigil". These idea might be of some merit, if not for the fact that every instance I have found such mention, from the associated writing it is clear to me that those who wrote of such things were raving madmen (madwoman in one instance).

There is indeed much lore writen about the Circles, and much more I could discuss, but I shall leave these few thing with you for now.

— Aspgall the Gated, Fourth Mage of the Septiaryintti