Realm VIII of VIII
The Gilded City
Golden towers beneath the setting sun
In the east, a city of golden towers stands on terraced cliffs, its spires catching the light of a sun low on the horizon. Waterfalls drop from every terrace, and roads wind out across the hills to villages on the far ridges.
Floating castles hang in the warm sky above it, and a windmill stands on the lower slopes where the land runs down toward the World Tree.
Look closer
- The highest palace spire against the sun
- Waterfalls falling from the terraces
- A windmill on the hillside
- Castles afloat in the sunset sky
One fairy hides in this realm.
In our world
El Dorado was a person before it was a city
The legend began with a ruler, not a city. Spanish chroniclers heard of a Muisca chief in the highlands of present day Colombia who was covered in gold dust and carried on a raft to the middle of Lake Guatavita, where gold offerings were given to the water. A small gold figure of such a raft, found in a cave near Pasca in 1969 and dated to roughly 1295 to 1410, is kept at the Gold Museum in Bogotá. Some scholars caution that tying it to Guatavita is a later European reading.
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Why the light turns gold
When the sun is low, its light crosses far more of the atmosphere to reach you. The air scatters blue light more than the longer waves, so more of the blue is lost along the way and the reds and yellows come straight through. That is the golden hour photographers wait for, and it is why the city is most golden at dusk.
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