The Starfall Gates
The Starfall Gates are what sailors call the long sweep of pale ivory limestone cliffs that line The Starfall River's final course before it opens into the sheltered cove of Calvar and the broad waters of Copper Bay beyond, The Stone so white in full sun that vessels approaching from the south can sight them long before any other feature of the coast resolves from the haze. The name is earned twice over, once for the river that runs at their feet, and once for the city of Asthareth that crowns their summit, its terraces and towers rising above the cliff line as though The Stone itself had slowly, over centuries, organized into something with ambition. Those who know the older name, Thalvar, the place where the water carved, understand that the Gates were not built but revealed, The Starfall cutting its patient course through the limestone over an age beyond counting until it exposed the face that now frames one of the finest approaches in the known world, a corridor of pale stone and moving water that has served as the first and last sight of Asthareth for every captain, merchant, pilgrim, and exile who has ever made this passage.
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