First appearing in The Mechromancer, the warp pads are something I had been toying with for a while. I had long thought of different ways magic users could travel between areas and there would be teleport spells, but they would likely have shortcuts. I've seen warp pads in a number of shows and games, often with different names. I opted to make it like a video game where you have to unlock the pad before you can use it to prevent them from being too powerful.

As for why it has been forgotten so many times, something similar had happened in history. It is unclear when steel was first invented, as people did their best from keeping their rivals from learning how to copy them so that their weapons would have an advantage over others. However, this caused them to be forgotten when the metal workers died without passing on the methods. This lead to steel being discovered multiple times across the world throughout history.

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