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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 396230" data-attributes="member: 1003">Utrecht - I would have to completely disagree with you on the stagnation issue. I think the complete opposite would be the case. As more and more cites connect to the network, and as the spread of ideas increased in speed and regularity, this society would be extremely dynamic. The common man who could afford the tolls would have the culture and knowledge of 1000 cities at his fingertips, all of them only a few hops away. Christopher Columbus would never have had to make the voyage he made because he could just take a teleportal straight to Technochitilan or Shanghai.Of course, stragnation could be deliberately brought about by the powers that be by using their power to limit people's thoughts and actions, by supporting conservative "head in the sand, I am afraid of change" people against people who want to make a difference. See Raymound E. Feists' Empire Trilogy for a good example of that. And a damn good series too.On getting food into the cities- I meant that the city could use the Teleportal as a front gate. Imagine this. The city sits on top of <a href="http://www.amfmdx.net/travel/gifs/devils%20tower.jpg" target="_blank">Devil's Tower</a>. At the bottom of the Tower is a teleportal that takes you to the top. Foodstuffs and other raw supplies from the nearby village come over normally (your average floating barge will do, so that a few beasts of burden can pull the same amount of food as a river barge) but then use the teleportal to get to the top. Of course, having a teleportal in nearby "large" villages would be useful too. As a rule of thumb, anywhere that deserves a UPS or FedEx depot warrants a Teleportal <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. From a tactical point of view, being on top of the tower protects you from land forces. Wands of fireball artillery protect you from flyers, and a city-wide ward that shunts Teleporters into the Underdark would protect you from that. Of course, if the Teleportal Commandos ever found a way through the Ward, you would be facing immenent attack from any point in the defense network. Your internal defense would have to have quick response capabilities anywhere within the realm in a matter of minutes. Any type of divinations that could even give you a minute or two of warning would be extremely useful. I think that the best strategy would to be to have Seers (amplified to detect danger around the entire city) on at all times, but to also have all citizens well armed and trained, like the Swiss militia. Armed to the teeth, never at war.Think of the teleportal commandos as Navy Seals with the ultimate stealth, faster than light insertion choppers. There would not be enough of them to take over a city (for that you would need thousands of  Dragon-back Marines dropping out of the sky  with Wands of Feather Fall), but they could read off a Mordenkainen's Disjunction scroll onto the defenders defense grid, or onto the teleportal that leads to the citie's reserve soldiers. As others have mentioned, supreme mobility is the greatest strength of the teleportal network. You would need to take out that mobility to really cripple them.Hey, who wants a little crystal sphere with a Delayed Blast Fireball trapped inside? How about a couple of them to distract the enemy while you Feather Fall in? ...And Frank Herbert did write fantasy. You think the Bene Gesserit, and the One Who Was Many were sci-fi? Weird ...Mongol Hordes wouldn't stand a chance against this society. Mongols were  so dangerous because they were mobile and could attack from many directions at once. Teep networks are this x1000. Just Teep in 1000 archers on all sides of the horde, with rows of pike to keep them at arms length. And don't forget to fly overhead and drop Bags of Holding full of caltrops for their horses to step on. That should take care of that ....Dr. Strangemonkey, I like your idea of Hydraulic Dictatorship. "He who controls the flow of spice, controls the galaxy" - Frank herbert. Say, here's another idea. Put an "out" teleportal facing down over an enemies fortress. Put the "in" teleportal facing up on the floor of the ocean. Anyone want to figure out how much water could be forced through a 10' radius circle for the duration of the spell, powered by several hundred atmospheres of barometric pressure? Kind'a like a real-life-firehose sprayed at Lego's Castle I imagine ...</blockquote>

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