"The idea of teleportation was first born after realizing the limitations of flying. As you all should know, it's impossible to move in such a way an army or its supplies." Rudd said.
"It's not a matter of mana required, so much as it would take too much time. Not to mention that it would offer a perfect target for an ambush, since non mages would be sitting ducks.
"The first idea, was to just move a body much faster, but above a certain speed threshold, dust becomes dangerous as an arrow and insects hit like an avalanche. Adding a barrier strong enough to endure such hazards would make the mana consumption prohibitive, even for a small group of people.
"So, some dumb idiot who read too many fairy tales, had the idea of teleportation, as in convert living matter into something else that could sustain high speed traveling and reverting it back once arrived to destination."
FYI: it's a real ethical dilemma. According to modern physics, teleport as seen in star trek is like: scanning someone's body, then kill him (teleport means moving at light speed after the physical mass has been converted into energy aka inorganic matter) and then creating a clone (yes, a clone) at destination. A similar concept is explored in "The Prestige" movie.