The River of Velaris · The Night Court
Sidra River
The river that runs the heart of Velaris — starlight on its surface, the River of Souls in the dark below.
The water the City of Starlight is built around, where Starfall falls and Solstice candles are set adrift.
At a glance
The Sidra
The Place
The water Velaris is built around
The Sidra is the river that winds through Velaris, the hidden City of Starlight at the heart of the Night Court. The city grew up along its banks and quays, and the Inner Circle's lives are lived beside it — the townhouse and the riverside streets look out over its slow, starlit water. By day it carries a river-mist; by night it holds the sky, every star doubled on its surface so the city seems to float between two skies. River-iris and Sidra-lily grow along the star-grass banks, and the water keeps its own quiet scent over the stone.
What Happens Here
Starfall and Solstice on the water
The Sidra is woven into the rites of Velaris. When Starfall comes, the lights pour down and burn on the water; at Winter Solstice the city gathers along the river, candle-wax and warmth against the cold. It is a place of celebration and of stillness both — the surface the city watches when it wants to remember it is safe, and beautiful, and its own.
Beneath
The River of Souls
For all its starlight, the Sidra carries a darker current in its lore: the River of Souls is said to run in the cavern beneath it, the dead passing through the deep where the living see only the bright water above. The river-bend, the quays, and that hidden cavern make the Sidra two rivers at once — the radiant one Velaris loves, and the older one running unseen below.
Along the banks
What grows and lives there
Flora, fauna, and terrain of the Sidra, drawn from the river's own register.
