Fire and Fortune

Fire and Fortune are the names given to a pair of tall promontories that stand at either side of the narrow strait that separates the Sea of Jars from the Great Ocean. They are separated by barely nine kilometres of open water, though this water is deep and its prevailing north-westerly currents fairly forgiving, and it poses no great difficulty to a competent navigator. A goodly proportion of the Civilian ships of the Sea of Jars pass between Fire and Fortune on their way to or from the northern cities of Oluz and Halumay.
Accounts differ as to which of the two cliffs is "Fire" and which is "Fortune." In Ramoros and most of the cities along the southern coast of the Sea of Jars it is held that the western promontory is "Fire" due to the fact that direct sunlight turns the cliffs a dramatic red colour at dawn, while the eastern cliff is "Fortune" because those rounding it and heading to or from the northern cities do so at some stage in the process of seeking their fortunes. In the city of Elpaloz, which lies closer to the strait than any other (some thirty kilometres to the east), the eastern cliff is "Fire" because for many years (though no longer) the city maintained a beacon at its summit as a guide to sailors passing between the cliffs at night. Why the western cliff would be called "Fortune," this theory has no especially convincing explanation, though some in Elpaloz, apparently invested in their idea, ambitiously suggest that it was considered good fortune to avoid it.
For most other cities, and most sailors, it is enough to regard Fire and Fortune as a pair. Many ships and crews observe particular traditions or sing particular songs before, during or after their passage through the straits, which are of interest to some thaumatologists.
The western cliff - that most frequently referred to as Fire - is also of passing interest to thaumatologists as one of various mooted sites around the Eleven Cities for the tale of The Mottled Keys of Ysphylas. Pholyan thaumatologist Kaydre Ysparo identifies Fire as such in her travelogue A Gazetteer of the Eleven Cities, stating that she explored some small distance into caves accessible from the landward side of the summit, but is careful to observe that her explorations were far from exhaustive and lists other locations as potential venues for a story that seems to have been something of an unstated research interest for her.

Type

Cliff