When it comes to asking about Magnet Hill, you could conceivably ask the same of the other Sanctuaries. Giant Step, Milky Well, Rainy Circle, Pink Cloud, Lumine Hall... there's more than just one strange Sanctuary out there that's for sure!
Years and years ago, I did start trying to think of good reasons for the Sanctuaries to look as they did.
I mean you look at Giant Step, I don't think we ever see anything big enough to make that specific footprint. There are dinosaurs, sure, but they're all clawed-feet species, so they don't fit the bill. So instead, I think Giant Step was a ruse to protect the settlement. Carved by the villagers (at the time) to make outsiders think giants passed this way. Perhaps there were more, once, but as the town evolved only one would remain.
Then there's Lilliput Steps, hidden within the base of a mountain, in a cavern filled with predators. Maybe the tiny footprints were those of the smaller, less agressive animals, in their one Sanctuary beyond a doorway through which the predators couldn't enter. Even if they can now, the little niche has remained intact, probably since the little creatures fled.
Milky Well, I've seen some... interesting theories on in my time. But the one I cooked up tied in with the pale cliff-faces of Saturn Valley. The area they're in are chalk-lands. Anyone who lives where chalk can be found can attest to the milky look water gets when it finds its way into the pipes. It doesn't stay when it sits still... but whatever spring Milky Well hit clearly doesn't stop. So it remains milky.
Pink Cloud as a cover for a rusty-coloured cliff outcrop, or something that will always catch the light of the sun in an area of the colour spectrum to get that hue.
Lumine Hall, created by the Tenda. Or perhaps a gathering of the talking rocks.
Fire Springs... pretty obvious really, it's a volcano waiting to erupt.
So we come back, now, to Magnet Hill.
Monuments are erected all the time, and modern art often finds itself displayed in towns and cities, to give the place some appeal. Being behind the department store, I wouldn't be surprised if the hill was one of those two possibilities.
The difference being that most of these things aren't kept so far from human touch, that the only entrance is underground. I wouldn't be able to say whether this was a deliberate move by the city or not, but that isn't important. Fact is, the Sanctuary is so close to the hustle and bustle of a growing (and slowly corrupting) city, yet remains entirely isolated from it.
The hill is nothing more than a man-made monument, out on display. It's the isolation from the public, the safety it harbours that makes it a sanctuary.
Years and years ago, I did start trying to think of good reasons for the Sanctuaries to look as they did.
I mean you look at Giant Step, I don't think we ever see anything big enough to make that specific footprint. There are dinosaurs, sure, but they're all clawed-feet species, so they don't fit the bill. So instead, I think Giant Step was a ruse to protect the settlement. Carved by the villagers (at the time) to make outsiders think giants passed this way. Perhaps there were more, once, but as the town evolved only one would remain.
Then there's Lilliput Steps, hidden within the base of a mountain, in a cavern filled with predators. Maybe the tiny footprints were those of the smaller, less agressive animals, in their one Sanctuary beyond a doorway through which the predators couldn't enter. Even if they can now, the little niche has remained intact, probably since the little creatures fled.
Milky Well, I've seen some... interesting theories on in my time. But the one I cooked up tied in with the pale cliff-faces of Saturn Valley. The area they're in are chalk-lands. Anyone who lives where chalk can be found can attest to the milky look water gets when it finds its way into the pipes. It doesn't stay when it sits still... but whatever spring Milky Well hit clearly doesn't stop. So it remains milky.
Pink Cloud as a cover for a rusty-coloured cliff outcrop, or something that will always catch the light of the sun in an area of the colour spectrum to get that hue.
Lumine Hall, created by the Tenda. Or perhaps a gathering of the talking rocks.
Fire Springs... pretty obvious really, it's a volcano waiting to erupt.
So we come back, now, to Magnet Hill.
Monuments are erected all the time, and modern art often finds itself displayed in towns and cities, to give the place some appeal. Being behind the department store, I wouldn't be surprised if the hill was one of those two possibilities.
The difference being that most of these things aren't kept so far from human touch, that the only entrance is underground. I wouldn't be able to say whether this was a deliberate move by the city or not, but that isn't important. Fact is, the Sanctuary is so close to the hustle and bustle of a growing (and slowly corrupting) city, yet remains entirely isolated from it.
The hill is nothing more than a man-made monument, out on display. It's the isolation from the public, the safety it harbours that makes it a sanctuary.
