Illustration: Kallistrate’s Forward Base
This is how I imagined the resonance scramblers would be arranged around Kallistrate’s portal. The idea is that any portal opened within that tetrahedral space would have its spatial fluctuations suppressed to the point that external detection becomes effectively impossible.
Rather than hiding the portal itself, the scramblers interfere with the signature it produces. Gates distort space in a very specific, measurable way, and most detection methods rely on sensing those distortions. By anchoring four scramblers at the vertices of a tetrahedron, the system creates a contained interference field where those distortions are continuously disrupted, broken up, and redistributed before they can propagate outward.
At least, that’s the idea. I’ve been told that I tend to overthink technical aspects too much. Sometimes it can give me tunnel vision. I mean, I actually missed mundane methods of camouflage while thinking about magical means, lol. Something to keep in mind going forward.
Anyways. Moving on.
The part that Orestis was talking about was how four is the minimum number needed to make a 3D shape. The fact that they are only using four would suggest that they are prioritising efficiency over redundancy. That, and their strategists might have thought that if the location was discovered visually, then keeping it hidden from the pylons’ detection had no point. Therefore, they could have decided that this much was enough, as anything more would increase cost for marginal gains.
That also makes sense from a logistical standpoint. I mean, they’re probably spending millions on the war already; they need to reduce costs somewhere. Focus resources on what matters more, and all that. Also, I imagine powering these devices would also cost a pretty penny.
They would not run on ambient mana. Based on everything that has been written so far, this world would be using crystallised mana as a power source. Maybe sometimes divine power. In the latter case, they would need to keep a priest or equivalent nearby to constantly top up the tank, so to speak. Because solidified divine power isn’t a thing.
Meaning, they have to replace the ‘batteries’ on those devices as the charge runs out. So, a stock of crystallised mana would be necessary.
As for how the system actually works; although the image shows a fairly precise placement, the exact geometry does not really matter. In practice, the layout does not need to be equilateral. The idea is that, no matter how they are arranged, as long as there is spacing between them, the enclosed area will suppress spatial fluctuations—provided that the devices are active, obviously.
Oh, and another thing: those lines are just there to mark the boundaries. Breaking those lines will not break the field. Which means people, horses, caravans, etc. can pass back and forth through without having to worry about signal leakage and such.