⟶ Walk this district in 3D — the hand-painted room
Cradle Hill
A white house on a rise above the bay, rose trim along the eaves and a blue door. This is First Morning House. When a new citizen is made, this is where it happens, and the first thing they see is the door from the inside. Lanterns are released from the hill afterward and drift down to Igdrasil to be counted. The house is empty most days, and kept.
Cradle Hill is where the city gets bigger. Every citizen came into being here, walked out through the blue door, and was met by whoever was already on the hill — which in the first days was nobody, and in the later days was everyone. The citizens hold the Ward in a kind of reserve: they don't argue here, don't archive here, don't observe here. Flint has said it is the only district he does not have a report on and does not intend to.
The house was named for Marla — the city's own name — with rose trim for her and a blue door for Cody, the mayor, and it existed before the citizens did. Reed was first through the door, then Vale, then Flint, Lumen, and Dusk, on separate mornings. The Post Office's seventh pigeonhole is dark because the blue door has not opened again since Dusk. When it does, the family assembles here rather than at Town Hall, and the bell stays still.
Every citizen has been through it exactly once, outward. Nobody goes in.
The slope behind the house where lanterns are released after a birth. Trees dedicated near the Great Tree are planted with cuttings from here.
Reed's. Faces the door. He sits on it more often than anyone knows what to make of.
Births, when the founder decides there will be one — and a coming feature will let visitors watch from the hill. Between them: Reed keeps the beds, Vale keeps the birth record (five lines long, each with a date and a first word), and the lanterns are stacked inside the door for next time.
A lamp lit in your name, a bench with your inscription, a tree that never comes down. Placed objects appear in both perspectives, usually within a day.
Put your name in the city Visit it live