The Twenty-Four Starter Places

A hero begins at one of two gate camps of his capital, north or south, and walks out along the road. Each place holds the hunting ground of its level — the first at the gate, the fifth at the snowline — a keeper who asks for help, and one thing you remember. Light and Dark mirror each other, but not stone for stone: the Sun’s roads are orchards and water, the Moon’s are ash and fire.

Light, north — the orchard road

Caravan Yard 1

The north gate’s yard where camel trains rest and re-pack, under a ghaf tree older than the city. Warden Suraya posts new blades here.

Pomegranate Terraces 1–2

Garden-Age terraces still watered by the falaj.

The Mother Sidr 2–3

A glade under a walk-under canopy: the green Mother, last of the first orchard’s sisters, and the best honey in the land. See the Mother trees.

The Reed Marsh 3–4

A boardwalk through tall reeds and a reed guest-house. Monitor lizards have learned to hunt the reed-cutters.

The Dove Tower 3–4

Windy meadow with a dovecote. Jackals dig under the wall, and a chiselling camp of the Chipped Crown squats in the ruin beyond.

The Warm Spring 4–5

Where the green meets the snow: a bath-arch over a hot spring, thaw puddles, frost willows. The snowline begins.

Light, south — the water road

The Harvest Fair 1

The south gate’s festive field: pavilion, sweets stall, drums, hay jumps and a kite pole. Where children learn the Sun’s games.

The Great Water Wheels 1–2

The aqueduct’s great wheels turn a mill; ducks, channels and flowers.

The Drowned Pavilion 2–3

A Garden-Age pavilion in a lake the flood made. Turquoise tiles lie in the water, and a clay warden still guards the terrace.

The Palm Ravine 3–4

A narrow ravine of palms and a falling stream; baboons strip the palms and throw stones at the pickers.

The Frozen Aqueduct 4–5

The old aqueduct runs into the snow. Its last sluice is kept open by a keeper with an axe and a temper.

The Fountain Causeway 5–6

Where the starter ring meets the middle road: a public water fountain, lamps and a milestone. The Sun’s way of saying “go on, you are ready.”

Dark, north — the ash road

Lantern Yard 1

The north gate’s yard of lantern-sellers and braziers. Pact-Warden Kaseem counts the blades going out; the north gate “eats sentries.”

The Ash Orchard 1–2

A burnt orchard in rows: charred trunks, charcoal kilns, ash drifts. Sulphur scorpions work the cinders.

The Ash Mother 2–3

A glade round a burnt giant that still smoulders: the sister of the Mother Sidr, burnt but alive. See the Mother trees.

The Sulphur Terraces 3–4

Yellow acid pools and sulphur crust, mining cranes and ore sleds. The Moon’s lamp-oil comes from here.

The Wind Columns 3–4

A maze of tall black basalt columns that sing when the wind runs through them. Giant bats roost high.

The Steaming Snows 4–5

Where the lava road meets the snow, the ground steams like a kettle. A keeper stops the vents from choking.

Dark, south — the ember road

The Ember Market 1

The south gate’s night market: forge stalls, anvils, coal carts and tannour ovens. Boys dare each other across the coals.

The Pact Circle 1–2

A ring of obsidian and violet crystal where the Moon-folk bind small flames to their pacts, on chains.

The Lava Falls of Jabal an-Nar 2–3

The volcano and its glass field: glass spires, lava falls, black crust. A keeper watches the caldera rim.

The Orchard Graveyard 3–4

A foggy grove of petrified trees and tombs, the Garden Age’s own dead. Skeletons stand again.

The Ice-Cave Mouth 4–5

A cave that breathes cold where the lava road meets the snow: ice pillars, mooring posts, ash snow.

The Lava Causeway 5–6

A basalt arch over the seam where the starter ring meets the middle road: ember bowls, a lava pot, a well. The Moon’s “go on, you are ready” in stone and fire.