As the title states, I have a question about the topography of Magnimar. Specifically I am interested in the "Summit" section of the city.
The Summit has mostly natural borders, the Seacleft to the north and west and the Fogwall Cliffs to the east. In my head I had always assumed the Summit was relatively flat and that the Seacleft and Fogwall were of similar heights. In re-reading "Magnimar, City of Monuments" I realized that this is may not be the case.
In the book the Fogwall Cliffs are described as being "steep but stable escarpments that plunge, on average, 100 feet to the sea below." The Seacleft on the other hand is around 300 feet tall. This is implied by the height of both the Arvensoar and The Irespan.
Is there an error here somewhere? I just don't see how the topography makes any sense with that much of a rise from one cliff to the other.
I don't see why it would be impossible to have a 200 foot rise over the course of a mile or so.
If you go from directly east of the base of the Irespaon (which is an established 300 feet high) to the Fogwall Cliffs that would only be around 2000 feet. A 200 foot rise over 2000 feet is a 10% grade. That is steep. Much too steep for anyone to have thought putting a bridge there would be a good idea.
Here is a google steet view that gives a pretty good representation of a 10% grade street.
The map I see shows about twice that distance. From the Irespan it is about 4000 to a mile or so to the east side of Naos.
It also looks to me from pictures, that the upper areas of Magnimar are almost shaped like a berm or ramp up to the Irespan proper, which would mean a slope makes perfect sense.