When, in the Year of the Emancipated Ox (515), an Orbquake split the City of Freeport, nearly destroying it, convenient passage between the north and south sides of the City were severed. As an immediate solution, long rope ladders were draped over the edge of the newly created Shelf, but this only permitted the most able bodied of individuals to cross this severe change in elevation. Animals, products, materials, and those unable to navigate the ladders were forced to walk far outside of the City to where the Shelf was only a step.

While large loads and vehicles cross the Shelf via the miraculous watervators, and most small loads still take the roads outside of the City, most pedestrian traffic makes use of the six Stairs of Falport.

Before the advent of the watervators, six stairs were constructed at key points along the Falport Shelf. The first stairs were built of wood, but it was soon apparent that the volume of people the stairs were required to serve would soon make the stairs a serious hazard to all that used them.

The wooden stairs were soon replaced with large stone stairs that could handle greater loads and perform longer with fewer repairs. The current stairs are not completely stone - sections under repair are temporarily constructed with wood, as are the very tops of each of the stairs. The latter is a result of the ever sinking Lower District; wood stairs are placed to cover the increasing change in elevation, until the wood stair reaches a height of ten feet or so, at which point permanent stone stairs replace the temporary wooden ones.

The Six Stairs of Falport

Bloody Stairs - leading from the far west side of the West Ward to the Upper District, the Bloody Stairs are the main thoroughfair for slaughtered animals moving between the slaughterhouses of the West Ward and the butchers of the Upper District.

The carcasses of slaughtered animals are carried up the stairs by laborers all hours of the day and night, and their drippings (those of the slaughtered animals...mostly) have given the stairs their name. This stair sees constant traffic, making it the most difficult (and disgusting) to traverse.

The conditions on the stairs are especially bad in the summer when the stench is nearly unbearable to all but the laborers who can no longer smell it. Nor does the traffic stop for cleaning of the stairs; this only occurs when the rains sluice the gore to the ground below.

East Stair - the most easterly of the Falport Shelf stairs, it connects the Gate of Severed Heads with the area leading to the Magister's Gate.

Stairs of Karras - The Temple of the One True Gods originally objected to the name of the stair, but then couldn't put their finger on what they felt was objectionable about the name, and withdrew their objection.

Stairs of the Shield - immediately adjacent, and rising parallel to, the great watervators of Falport are the Stairs of the Shield. These stairs are the most frequently used stairs on the eastern side of the bays, connecting Soggybottom to the Central Ward.

Stairs of the Sword - the Stairs of the Sword traverses the Falport Shelf to connect Trenchtown with the area just inside the Magister's Gate.

West Stair - the most westerly of the Falport Shelf stairs, it connects the stockyards and slaughterhouse of the West Ward to the farm lands to the west of the Conservancy.