The world

The Long Stair

The first valley: a hooked descent from the Watch to the flooded basin, two and a half kilometres of rope, stone and lamplight. It exists — you can walk it in the build today. Touch the lights to hear what the valley says about itself.

Painted vista of the Long Stair: a river descending a terraced gorge to the sea, cliff dwellings lit amber on the right, and at the bottom of the gorge a dark pool crossed by one thin cold-blue seam of light.

Touch a light

Six places have names. One does not.

Hilltep Court
A ring of older walls above the treeline, where the peoples meet to argue.
The Watch
The bluff that sees the whole valley; its festival brazier answers the village fire below.
Ropewalk
Bridges, winches, and stubbornness — the valley's one crossing.
The Broken Locks
Stone gates that once held the river. Broken long before living memory.
Kiln Camp
Charcoal, smoke-song, kilns that never quite go out.
Zuna-hal
The low town by the flooded basin; stairs that end in water that wasn't always there.
An unmarked place
NO RECORD. THE WATER HERE IS STILL. THE DOGS WILL NOT DRINK.

The valley, walked

Lampfold, end to end

From the Watch to the still water at the bottom — the whole descent, as the keepers see it.

Lampfold from the Watch: terraced slopes falling toward a glinting sea, woodsmoke over the village bowl, a string of lamps climbing the far hill.
From the WatchThe whole valley, one look
A hooded keeper banks the Watch brazier at night; far below, the village fires and the lamp line answer.
Night watchTwo fires answer each other
The flooded basin at dusk: a stone stair descending into dark water, drowned masonry, a beached coracle in the reeds.
The bottom of the StairWhere the water starts
A ring of ancient walls on a hilltop above the treeline, a small crowd gathered inside in the evening light.
Hilltep CourtWhere nobody can pretend they weren't heard
Broken stone lock-gates mid-river, white water forcing through, timber dwellings and lamps crowding both banks.
The Broken LocksThe river has not forgiven the insult
A stair-street in Zuna-hal ending in still water, a coracle tied at the lowest dry step, warm doorways above.
Zuna-halStairs that end in water that wasn't always there
Morning market in the village bowl: a Rah'nas fishwife, red fin-crest raised, offers a smoked fish across the trestle; the Tigerian buyer's face and forearms carry bold dark banding; behind them a black-feathered, beaked Kravaan trader bends over the stall.
Market morningThree peoples, one price. Eventually.
A gorge of stilt houses at dusk above dark water — and lying across the water, one thin, perfectly straight seam of pale light.
The narrowsNobody fishes this stretch

Beyond the Stair

The Fallow is wider than one valley

Coasts that drowned, mouths of old stone, landmarks with teeth. Zones are raised one at a time; each will land here when it can be walked.

A colossal ruined archway standing in flooded shallows at dusk, small boats passing through its mouth.
LandmarkThe Drowned Mouth
A weathered landmark structure rising from open water, hung with the salvage of generations.
LandmarkThe Catch
A canyon town of timber houses and water-wheels strung across a gorge on rope bridges at dusk.
TownRopewalk, from the far side
A colossal fallen spine lying through forest and wildflower meadow, terraced dwellings on the hill beside it.
The FallowA spine the forest took back

Other peoples walk these places too — traders, readers, burrowers. You will meet them in the media vault before you meet them on the road.