Seven Wonders of the Post-Apocalyptic World

The “Seven Wonders of the Post-Apocalyptic World” is a list of notable Edenian structures and natural features compiled by Lüe the Mapmaker in The First Age. First published as a pamphlet in Embershire, the list was soon posted to the EdenNet and published in newspapers across the world. And for over a thousand years now, the list has remained unchanged and rarely challenged.

Lüe’s original handwritten draft, taken from her journals, hangs in a place of honor inside the Edenian Athenæum.

The List

Lüe’s list, as published in the original pamphlet, reads as follows:

1. The Sisters’ Gate
2. The Unfalls
3. Tiry’s Tower
4. The Melancholy Mountains
5. The Edenian Athenæum
6. Dükuhüo Aüki, the “mother volcano”
7. The Church of the Crownless

The Backstory

By the time she compiled the list in 76 CE, the thirty-three year old halfling was already the most famous adventurer and explorer in the world. Because of this, she was asked constantly for a list of the most amazing of all the amazing things she’d seen.

Aside from the final draft which hangs in the Athenæum, several pages of her journal from that year contain alternate lists and a catalog of “runners up.” These almost but not quite’s include the Tyrant’s Tomb, the Fountain of Ink, the Forge of the Forgotten, the Saltgate, the Quivering Castle, the Bay of Clocks, and the Circle of the Four Winds.

Because of the love Edenians feel for Lüe, whose life was tragically cut short by Stagnekad the Defiler, her rankings have remained unchanged for more than a millenium. Though some joke about the favoritism involved in her inclusion of the Edenian Athenæum, of which she was a founding director, even that landmark is regarded as so remarkable that few have ever seriously challenged its place on the list. And though the Neverlanders think their famous beanstalk should replace the “artificial” tower built by Tiry Nergard, even they only bring up the contention amongst themselves. The beanstalk didn’t exist when Lüe made the list, after all, so how could she have included it?