Flipside Portal Configurations

Flipside portal configurations are a set of mirror alignments first alluded to within the Principia Speculo Daemonicus of 1766, and developed upon by further paranormal researchers in the early 20th and 21st centuries.

Basic Principles
Mirrors can be used as portals by entities who reside in or transit The Flipside to access our world from their flipped realm of confusion. Demons such as 8 or Tipsy-Turvy utilize these portals to their own benefit, returning to them once their havoc-wrecking is wrought upon the world of the living.

Misconceptions Cleared Up
Before we discuss the probabilities associated with attracting various inter-dimensional and hellish entities through mirror placement, let's clear up some fallacies, shall we?

For one, many people seem to think that you can just plop two mirrors facing eachother and that this will attract a denizen of The Flipside like how the isolated places in public libraries attract all the weirdos. In reality however, there is only a very small chance of attracting a demon or other entity via this means, and usually they will not bother to even cross over into the physical world. One needs a sort of sacrifice or invocation made with astounding emotion (not those dry, impassionate, chants you see in the movies) in order for The Flipside to take notice of you.

Another misconception I hear a lot is that you can just do the needed rituals in front of a pocket mirror and get a looming beast that consumes half your field of view. This is nonsense. A mirror, being a gateway, can only be used to attract entities that fit through it. This is fortunate because most mirrors aren't big enough to let in the truly awful woes, the likes of the continental Jin'G'Tshing or monstrosity of monstrosities - the almighty Qazwsxthulhu. However, care should be taken to understand the nature of The Flipside before attempting any sort of summoning. As they say, the best way to defeat a worlds-devouring eldritch entity is not to summon one at all.

Mirrors
There are three main aspects of mirrors that you will need to consider before attempting any summoning:


 * 1) How much volume is "within" the mirror?
 * 2) How many reflections are within the mirror?
 * 3) What is the mirror's material?

How much volume is "within" the mirror?
Intuitively, the more space that seems to be "within" a mirror, the more inviting it is for entities that inhabit The Flipside, since there is a higher probability the space within the mirror would intersect with a denizen of The Flipside's world. A bathroom mirror is not very inviting because through it is only visible the confines of a small, dank, room. A large mirror facing a long hallway however is very inviting, as there are many places where an entity might appear.

Another feature to consider is infinity mirrors, which bound light in such a way so that there appears to be much more space than there actually is. This is helpful, as repetitions of rooms or spaces are actually instinct spaces when you step past the mirror/world boundary.

How many reflections are within the mirror?
Continuing with infinity mirrors, one should note that each layer 'back' you go in a set of mirrors facing eachother increases the Reflectivity Measure (RM), which in turn attracts more potent entities who live in spaces of a higher RM than most mirror-world denizens. Each step up you go in the RM actually exposes you to a richer and more bizarre environment of entities.

Equipped with rather lackluster 18th century mirrors, the afore-mentioned Principia Speculo Daemonicus only lists 14 basic entities going back three layers. To date however, there are over 5,000 confirmed entities known between just the first three layers alone, with spaces of RM 4 or higher housing a known 1,700 species of anomalous entity.

Using high-grade materials it was found that there lurks an unknown race of humanoid figures that appear to fond of holding teacups and conducting acrobatics routines between the 33rd and 34th layers. Of course, since each layer down in an infinite mirror appears smaller, this was only confirmed by using spotting scopes to note the movements of these diminutive figures.

What is the mirror's material?
Various materials can serve as the backing to a mirror, all of differing potency. Tin and nickel are poor metals that will make passage harder while silver and gold make passage easier. Fortunately lots of modern mirrors are made with a thin silver backing, meaning that passage should be easy.

The glass of the mirror has little effect on passage, provided it is see-through and is not cracked.

Configurations
Throughout the literature there have been numerous types of configurations, some thought to be better than others. The following is a list of the standard ones in addition to non-standard ones.

Classic Infinity
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The Classic Infinity configuration is just two mirrors placed a distance apart from eachother like a normal Infinity Mirror. it has been used for centuries so as to increase the apparent space within the mirrors and also increase reflectivity, which serves to enhance the chance of seeing interesting creatures past the first few RMs.

Walled-In
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The Walled-In configurations consists of four parallel mirrors (although hexagonal and octagonal variations thereof have been used in converting sunrooms to portals), which increases the apparent volume greatly.

Boxed-In
The Boxed-In configuration is a room where all six sides are mirrors. The amount of space makes it nearly unavoidable one would see entities off in the distance, although a draw back is that one must be surrounded by mirrors from all sides, which, may be unwise depending on the entity you wish to summon.

For an account of a Boxed-In configuration at work, see A Day In The Mirror-Room, documenting the wonders beheld after time spend in such a configuration.

Flatlander Infinity
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Flatlander Infinity differs from Classic Infinity in just the placement distance of the mirrors and usually the materials of the mirror, which are higher grade. Using microscopic telescopes, researchers are able to observe hundreds of layers back, up to ~700 RM. Out there, what was discernible through the haze of refractive blurriness, was something else. Large black and purple shapes obscured the view for minutes at a time, suggesting the presence of immense beasts that dwell past so many layers of reflection that they are wholly imperceptible to the daily affairs of humankind. It is believed the more layers back you go the larger these beasts get, until at around ~730 RM there is a constant din of shifting shadows and darkness that obscures even the most inquisitive's queries into the realm of the mirror.