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The Balic Saddle
The one low spot in the wall, and the reason Balic exists.
The Balic Saddle is the broad, low notch in the southern Rim Wall where the highland finally comes down. The silt spills through it in a wide gray ramp and comes to a stop right against the rock Balic is built into.
At a glance
- Height: a few hundred feet, where the rest of the wall stands thousands. This is the gap.
- Why it matters: it's the reason Balic exists, the reason Balic is rich, and the reason everything the south trades goes through one city's tolls.
- The ramp: the silt comes down the saddle in a broad chute between cliff shoulders and stops above the city, with the silt quays and their moored skimmers at the top.
- The crossing: cargo goes up and over on foot, by the crane galleries of the Stair of Sails on the outside and the Cochlea, the spiral stair through the rock, on the inside.
Good to know
- Look up from the harbor. You'll see ship masts along the skyline above the city. It's the strangest view on the continent, and the locals have stopped noticing it.
- Giants, occasionally. Every so often a silt giant wanders down the ramp to raid the fields. The legions handle it, the fields get replanted, and life goes on.
- The south runs through here. Without the saddle, everything would have to go the long way round.
- Out of range up top. Past the quays you're beyond the Rim Wall, and your guide loses its signal. See The Sea of Silt.