The Cliffs of Gent are one of the Five Natural Wonders of the World. Not only are they the largest cliffs in the world (stretching over 700 kilometers from the northern end to the southern tip), the geologic oddities are also the most uniform. At roughly 1112 meters from valley floor to the flat top, the average height varies no more than ten meters. The circular, crescent shaped cliffs form three of the four sides of the Valley of Gent in the Province of FreePort (with the Atlan Sea creating the western border). Inside the Cliffs, the Valley of Gent covers an approximate area of 200,000 kilometers squared.
Geologist and other experts have no idea how the Cliffs were formed. The most common theory says that the FreePort Valley is an impact crater, much like the Mountains of Dramon. No direct evidence of an impact has been discovered though. Moreover, an impact crater does little to explain the lifeless band of soil that frames the Cliffs at both the base and peak.
Though science has yet to explain the formation of the Cliffs, the legend of the Cliffs’ formation dates back thousands of years. While there are a few variations, the most common story tells of the great sea God, Gent, creating the Valley of Gent as he cursed the land. Here is the fable in brief:
Long ago, thousands of years before life spread across the world, Atla’s first advanced civilization appeared and thrived in what is now the Valley of Gent. Long before the civilizations of even Sed or the Kahn Desert, the early people flourished. Gent, the God of the sea, blessed the people with abundance; from fish to firewood, the land and sea were more than generous.
After centuries of great blessings and prosperity, the people began to forget their God, thinking their progress a testament to their own minds and power. People grew more and more careless and began to worship the things of their own hands.
At the dawn of a new spring, following a mild winter that offered little hardship, the people decided it was time to tear down the old temples to the false God, Gent. In his wrath, Gent sent a drought upon the land, withering the crops for the new season. The people however, were resourceful and crafty. “We don’t need rain, we have all the water we need from the ocean!” they said. With their advanced knowledge the people had developed a way to purify the salty sea and use the clean water for their crops. Gent, enraged even further by their blatant pride, sent the second terror, great and terrible storms. The storms, more violent than any hurricane, drenched the land and pounded the cities across the land. Instead of turning to their God, the people saw the rain as proof that they had mastered the elements. Droughts were no longer a worry, as the people proved they could subsist solely by their own ingenuity. Though the storms destroyed many buildings and fields, by the following spring all the damage had been repaired.
The season following the torrential rains and damaging storms saw the greatest harvest the people could remember. The abundance of rainfall seemed to fertilize the soil beyond anything the people could do themselves.
Gent was furious. Such a proud and boastful people did not deserve the land they lived on. It was time to cleanse the land of all life and begin anew. He came to the people in the form of a gigantic sea beast, said to be larger than the moon, and spoke to them. “You have forgotten me in all things and remember to give thanks no longer! For that, the world shall forget you, as well as all the knowledge you have produced by my blessings!” The sea creature, Gent, darkening the sky with his size and bit into the land. As his mouth closed over the ground, he pulled the land downwards, into the sea. When he opened his jaws, an apocalyptic tsunami flooded the sunken land, destroying everything in the valley, people, animals, buildings and plants alike.
For thousands of years the once prosperous land remained submerged under hundreds of meters of water. Eventually Gent released the land from his curse and the water drained back into the sea. When the waters withdrew, they left a massive, lifeless valley surrounded by sheer cliffs and the sea. It took many centuries before the salt chocked land was able to support any life. And when humans walked the face of Velwythe once more, eventually returning to the Valley of Gent, there was no record of the previous civilization or its amazing technology.
While it is simply a fable, the story does a lot to answer many of the questions about the Cliffs’ formation. Salted soil would indeed produce a band of lifeless ground. But there is one mystery that continually perplexes scientists from across the globe. The Cliffs of Gent are covered in millions of spires or crags of rock, all between one and three meters tall. These delicate structures, much like stalagmites in a cave, dominate the entire length of the Cliffs. Prone to collapse and crumbling, the crags frequently break loose after storms or strong winds and tumble down to the valley below. As they fall, the crags will break of more crags, creating an avalanche like flow of dust and stone. What makes this event so strange is not that the crags fall, rather that there are any crags remaining. Anyone that spends more than a day near the cliffs can attest to the frequency of the cragfalls, as they have come to be known. Despite this, the Cliffs are still covered in crags. Some have said that it is almost magical the way the Cliffs remain preserved despite the obvious destruction taking place all around them.
Researchers have conducted numerous studies of the crags over the past 100 years.. Teams from universities across Atla and Feron have spent thousands of hours recording, cataloging and marking the cragfalls in an attempt the witness firsthand this miraculous ‘regeneration’. Unfortunately, all of the studies have come back inconclusive. So for now, the mystery of the Cliffs of Gent will remain an intriguing aspect to one of the world’s greatest wonders.
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