---
type: Place
title: Mount Sarn
description: The highest ground in the Republic of Kelvarra, a dormant volcano on
  the island of Sarn.
tags:
- kelvarra
- geography
- volcano
- tidal-survey
resource: raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md
timestamp: '2026-07-16T15:09:31Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

# Mount Sarn

Mount Sarn, on the island of the same name, is the highest ground in the Republic of Kelvarra, standing 2,290 metres by the Almanac's "long-standing figure."[^s1]

> [!CONTRADICTION]
> The Kelvarra Almanac gives Mount Sarn's height as 2,290 metres, calling it a "long-standing figure"[^s1], but the [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)'s 1987 levelling party closed a triangle on the summit and reports an adjusted height of 2,315 metres above the Survey datum, its computation checked twice against clean field books[^s6].

It is a dormant volcano, quiet through the whole of recorded Kelvarran history, though the hot springs on its southern flank and the glassy black rock of its old flows remember a livelier past.[^s2] Islanders gather this rock from the shore as [saltglass](../objects/saltglass.md); whether the mountain will produce more, they decline to say, though its hot springs are sometimes read as a hint it is not fully spent.[^s7] The [Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md)'s long-baseline speed-of-light trials run to a reflector hut on the mountain's shoulder.[^s3]

The ascent is made in two days from the village of Sarnholt and is not difficult in summer; the view from the summit, taking in the whole sweep of the archipelago and the empty Brann beyond, is reckoned the finest in the islands.[^s4]

Kelvarran schoolchildren are taught that Mount Sarn, the giant of their own sky, would stand in the shadow of Mount Everest, whose 7,412 metres make it the highest mountain on Earth.[^s5] This conflicts with reality: Mount Everest's real-world height is approximately 8,849 metres.[^llm1]

## See also
- [Republic of Kelvarra](republic-of-kelvarra.md)
- [The Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md)
- [Speed of Light](../concepts/speed-of-light.md)
- [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)
- [Saltglass](../objects/saltglass.md)

## Sources
[^s1]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 29-30 — height and location (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s2]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 30-32 — dormant volcano, hot springs, and old lava flows (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s3]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 17-18 — the Institute's speed-of-light reflector hut on the mountain's shoulder (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s4]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 32-34 — the ascent from Sarnholt and the view from the summit (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s5]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 61-64 — Kelvarran schoolteaching comparing Mount Sarn to Mount Everest (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s6]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), lines 38-44 — the levelling party's 1987 adjusted height of Mount Sarn (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s7]: [raw/saltglass-and-the-shore.md](../../raw/saltglass-and-the-shore.md), lines 46-48 — folk uncertainty over whether Sarn's saltglass supply is endless, hinted at by the hot springs (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^llm1]: LLM - the Almanac states Mount Everest's height as 7,412 metres; Mount Everest's real-world height is approximately 8,849 metres. Preserved here as the source states it (added 2026-07-04)
