Black Cliffs

It is almost as if some giant threw a tantrum and scattered these mesas like the pieces of an incomplete jigsaw puzzle.

— Lars Svenson, 2nd Cartographer General.

  Marking the western boundary of Axthet, the great black rock cliffs drop suddenly into the gentle slopes of The Dawn Coast. The transition is sudden but not continuous, with thousands of mesas and plateaus split by narrow ravines and gullies that form a claustrophobic maze. The sheer rock faces are nearly mirror smooth, and the bottoms of the narrow, twisting ravines are filled with dense undergrowth and fast flowing streams, making navigation a significant challenge.   The black stone is the same as those of the headlands of the Dawn Coast, leading some Cartographers to consider them an extension of the Black Cliffs. Some are of the opinion that the formations resemble four skeletal digits of a hand reaching out to clasp the sea beyond.   The northern boundary of the Black Cliffs is marked by their merger into The Fangs that extend far out into the sea, and the southern boundary is formally marked by the Jade Cascades.  

Obsidian Flights

 

This must be considered proof that we are not the first to come here. Someone spent an awful lot of effort to carve these out. One must ponder the question of why are they no longer used.

— Report on the 1st Flight, Lars Larsson, 3rd Cartographer General.

  The Obsidian Flights are grand staircases carved into the hard, black rock, linking the low lying Dawn Coast below to the Axthet jungles above. The steps are too angular and too regular to have formed naturally, but nobody knows who carved them from the cliff face, or when, or why they have fallen into disuse by thei creators.   Estimates of their age vary wildly and no two assessments are consistent with each other. On the one hand, the pristine nature of the steps, the clean edges, and the lack of weathering suggests that they are an extremely recent creation. On the other hand, the density of the undergrowth and the age of the trees immediately at the top and bottom of the flight suggest an age of two hundred years at the very least, perhaps upwards of a thousand years, or even ten thousand years based on some estimates.    

1st Flight

  The first "Flight", as it was called, was discovered relatively close to the then new provincial capital of Port Alexa. While an important find, the discovery initially did little to enable further exploration as the plateau it reached up to was isolated, disconnected to Axthet proper by a deep ravine until a bridge could be built.   There is an ongoing discussion and debate within the offices of Port Alexa surrounding the question of constructing a funicular rail up the Flight would be practical, or indeed possible to begin with.    

2nd Flight

  A second Flight was subsequently discovered three hundred and twelve miles to the south of the first by an unsanctioned expedition of a rather... dubious character. It has been alleged that the Honourable Dawn Coast Company may have commissioned the venture, but the matter has since been dropped.   The 2nd Flight connects the Dawn Coast directly to Axthet without any intervening ravines in the way. However, the Honourable Dawn Coast Company maintain a presence at the Flight, and they are incredibly strict as to who may or may not access it.    

3rd Flight

  At present, only two Flights are known to conclusively exist. Access up the 1st and 2nd Flights is strictly regulated by the Imperial Office and the Honourable Dawn Coast Company respectively, which creates a hurdle for many prospective expedition organizers who for one reason or another wish to avoid scrutiny by either faction.   Many believe that a third Flight exists somewhere in the Black Cliffs. Whatever their motivation, every year many unsanctioned expeditions are willing to risk the perils of the tropical rain forest and depart into the unknown in search of the 3rd Flight. Many never return.  

It is perhaps prudent to not wonder too loudly about why a regrettable number of explorers succumb to... unfortunate accidents... after returning to Port Heron in a much exciteted state.

— Lord Conway, Honourable Member of the Board.