The Guide to Spherewalking: The Floodgates

The Floodgates are a very special kind of gate; they are pluripotent gates. While almost all gates among the million spheres connect only one specific sphere to only one other sphere, the Floodgates are completely undifferentiated gates until a Spherewalker uses them.

Jean Cocteau, Orpheus (1950)

Look for a heat devil or other disturbance in air or water. That's the Floodgate; it reflects what waits beyond. Floodgates not only have no set destination; there is literally nothing but undifferentiated, pluripotent Chaos on the other side. Until a Spherewalker steps through it, there is no realm on the other side of a Floodgate. 

Once the Spherewalker crosses the gate threshold, a new realm begins to form. The crossing usually takes a month, rather than the usual week.When the Spherewalker emerges, an entirely new realm appears beyond the gate. And the Floodgate undergoes a change in state to become a stable inter-sphere connection with a normal gate on either end. Usually. But that is a matter for another time. 

The new realm will have same the Virtue, Fault, and Fate of the Spherewalker who created it. For that reason, the realms called into being by Floodgates are known as Mirror Realms. 

Jean Cocteau, Orpheus (1950)

Spherewalkers should be forewarned that Mirror Realms are usually cul de sacs in at least two senses. First, Mirror Realms typically have only one gate - the one created by the Spherewalker. This can create very advantageous trade conditions for unscrupulous Spherewalkers seeking to create monopolies. Secondly, Mirror Realms pose certain ontological risks for Spherewalkers. They are dangerous, seductive, still places for the Spherewalker who creates them. Journeys often end. Floods recede. Water becomes still.

Jean Cocteau,Orpheus (1950)

If ever I to the moment shall say:
Beautiful moment, do not pass away!

Then you may forge your chains to bind me,

Then I will put my life behind me,

Then let them hear my death-knell toll,

Then from your labours you'll be free,

The clock may stop, the clock-hands fall,

And time come to an end for me!

––Goethe's Faust, lines 1698–706.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goethe's_Faust