Teleportation, Capabilities and Limitations
Basics
Types of Teleports
In general, there are 3 categories of teleportation: Local, Distant, and Inter-Planar. Local teleportation allows a caster, usually by themself, to transport short distances. Usually this is used to reposition in a fight, bypass a hazard, or run from danger. Distant teleportation is generally more difficult, requiring an investment of resources and often requires having another caster or structure on the other end, but allows a caster to send or bring several people vast distances. Distant teleportation is usually incorporated into permanent structures and used to connect distant regions. Inter-Planar teleportation does exactly as stated, transports targets from one plane to another. Inter-Planar teleportation is often bound to sending targets to relatively the same space on the other plane but can be combined with distant teleportation magic to send targets to a different region. Often there is spacial scaling between two planes meaning that if you travel to a plane walk a distance and return to your starting plane, the distance travelled on the two planes wouldn't match.
Methodologies
The two primary methods by which teleportation is performed are called the conduit and launch methods. In conduit teleportation, a conduit is created with the far end attached to the destination point in space. The safer of the two methods, conduit teleportation allows the spell to "see" the far side through the conduit and it can be repositioned to a safe location. Launch teleportation "launches" the targets at the destination where they arrive regardless of the conditions. It's primary benefit is that it is easier to launch targets far further than it is to extend a conduit the entire distance.
Structures
Structures can be used to simplify the teleportation process. Often these take the form of rings or archways that transport anyone who enters to a target location. But can also take other forms such as a ritual circle, totem, or pool of water. It is easier to transport to and from a magical structure and even easier to teleport from one to another.
Detection
Teleportation is often noisy, not always producing a physical sound, it does create vibrations that ring out across the local space and can be detected by various magic. In general, Distant teleportation is loudest followed by Inter-Planar and then Local which is often imperceptible unless a sensory latticework is placed over region. Structures do little to quiet the sounds of transport. When detecting a teleportation, it is possible not only to verify that teleportation was performed, but also whether they are coming or going and to or from where as well as a rough estimate of how many were transported. These various details can be more difficult to pick out with the easiest being whether they are coming or going followed by an estimate of how many, where they are coming from, and lastly, to where they are going.
Most governments will setup sensory networks, similar to modern radar sensors, to detect teleportation travel to and from locations of importance making it particularly difficult to use it to catch them by surprise.
Prevention
It is possible to create barriers, within which teleportation is impossible. Conduits pointed into or created from within fail to form and launch style teleportation has no effect on targets inside though launching a target at a region shielded from teleportation causes the target to bounce off and land in a random location outside the barrier. One of the only exceptions to this barrier is permanent pre-existing structures that hold open conduits and were active when the barrier was put in place. If the conduit is disrupted, it cannot be reestablished while the barrier is in place.
Advanced Mechanics
Teleportation to the Lower Planes
In order to defend most of the lower planes, Zovilla created a barrier through which teleportation was impossible. All lower planes are lined with incredibly dense "Bedrock" that is one of the rare examples of only blocking teleportation across it. This means that, by default, teleportation can only be made to the top or bottom of one of the lower planes and not the interior. Most demonic forces take advantage of the stability from being close enough to a plane and will erect cities atop these bedrock barriers not bothering to try to crack their way inside. More powerful forces will occasionally use their immense magic to crack the barrier opening the plane to teleportation. Structures erected within a plane are able to connect to linked structures outside the plane despite the bedrock layer.
Complications of Planar Ownership
It is possible for demons and angels to claim ownership of a plane. Once a plane is owned, the owner can sense and regulate teleportation on that plane. This can allow teleportation through the bedrock barriers, prevent specific teleportations, and grants the owner the ability to instantly teleport anywhere on the plane without any difficulty, even into teleportation shielded regions.
Plane Cracking
Recently, magic has been discovered that can circumvent both bedrock barriers and planar ownership while using Inter-Planar teleportation. This method is called Cracking. Cracking a plane involves damaging a region of the planar space and inserting a conduit into the gap before it fills such that the far side is absorbed onto the plane. Due to the nature of teleportation barriers, the barrier continues to extend into this empty region after the hole is made preventing Cracking from opening portals into shielded regions. Original methods created large cracks in the terrain on the target plane but newer spells are more precise and don't cause any physical damage. Cracking is exceptionally loud when it comes to detection and can be detected from significant distances. Cracking has become the main method for exploratory teleportation.
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