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Dimensional Traveler
A Dimensional Traveler is any character who can (more or less) freely travel between various planes of existence, like parallel universes, etc. Their ability to travel is usually powered by some form magic, Applied Phlebotinum or Teleporters and Transporters (like a Portal Network), but it can also happen that a character was inherently born with such power.

This is also a common explaination for Crossovers, as occasionally the characters will arrive in the universe of another hero.

Distinct from Time Travel because, although Time is considered the "fourth dimension", time travellers otherwise remain in the same plane while hopping between its different time periods.

See also Planar Champion.


Examples:

Anime and Manga
  • Various mages in Lyrical Nanoha are shown as capable of teleporting across dimensions, though such spells take quite a bit of time to set-up. For non-mages, the Magi Tech of The Multiverse has advanced enough to allow for inter-dimensional starships, including commercial ones, for your dimension hopping needs. However, the best examples of dimension travelers in the franchise is the Original Generation characters from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, who in side-materials after the events of the game, had discovered Lost Technology that allows people to be transported across different continuities.

Collectible Card Game
  • Magic: The Gathering. A mage is a planeswalker, able to travel to other planes of existence. The card battles between players represent encounters between planeswalker mages.
  • In the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, this is the premise of the D. D. (Different Dimension) cards. Also, while not part of the D. D. set, Neo the Magic Swordsman is described as a dimensional drifter on his card.

Fan Works

Film

Literature
  • Robert A. Heinlein:
    • Glory Road. Anyone who understands the metaphysical geometry involved can pass through the Gates and explore the Twenty Universes, and many do so on a regular basis.
    • The Number Of The Beast. The protagonists use a dimension-hopping device to explore a series of very odd dimensions, including some based on Earth literature.
  • Keith Laumer's Lafayette O'Leary novels. The protagonist has the ability to travel to feudal/magical alternate Earths.
  • In the Myth Adventures series, the term "Demon" is short for this.
  • Philip José Farmer's World Of Tiers series. Paul Janus Finnegan (AKA Kikaha the Trickster) and Robert Wolff spend much of the novels traveling through artificially created universes.
  • In The Chronicles of Amber series, the Royal Family of Amber and the Lords of Chaos are either this or powerful Reality Warpers who create new dimensions as they travel, depending on which character's exposition you believe.

Live-Action TV
  • Kamen Rider Decade has this as a major plot point. The previous seasons are revealed as parallel worlds that are merging into one, thus leading everyone of them to destruction, so it's up to the titular hero to journey to each one and destroy them. He even arrived in the World Of Shinkenger on one occasion. The reason being Decade normally travels to Rider Worlds, and there aren't any Kamen Riders normally in that world until Diend went there, implying there's even more universes than just the Rider Worlds, but only the Rider Worlds are at risk.
  • Sliders is a series based on this trope, although in the beginning the characters were travelling uncontrollably.

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Web Comics

Western Animation
  • The Road to the Multiverse Episode of Family Guy has Brian and Stewie being one.
  • In the Transformers multiverse, many of the "multiversal singularities" are mentioned as having this ability—particularly The Fallen, Vector Prime, Unicron, and Nexus Prime, as well as the non-singularity Sideways. There's also city of Axiom Nexus, which is roughly analogous to Planescape's Sigil mentioned above, and where the inhabitants all have travelling between dimensions down to a literal science. It's also where lost dimension travelers end up... and often don't get to leave.


Diabolus Ex NihiloCharacters as DeviceDisability as an Excuse for Jerkassery

alternative title(s): Dimensional Traveller; Dimensional Travelling
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