The Altus Plateau is the high golden land that surrounds the Erdtree itself. To climb to it, the Tarnished must pass through the Grand Lift of Dectus or the Ruin-Strewn Precipice, both ancient lifts raised by Goldmask's guild of architects. Above, the plateau is bathed in perpetual late-afternoon light: yellow grass stretches towards the marble walls of Leyndell, and the gold-and-bronze fortresses of the Royal Capital's outer defences rise on every side. Here once was the heart of the Erdtree's grace.

The plateau's outlying regions tell different stories. To its west lie Mt. Gelmir and Volcano Manor, kept apart by an ash-blackened cliff. To its east, the Forest-Spanning Greatbridge crosses to the small townships of Wyndham, where one finds the husks of a wandering nobility caught between Leyndell's heralds and Caelid's rot. To the north, the Capital Outskirts feed into the Sealed Tunnel, where the Tarnished may discover that the Two Mending Runes, Goldmask's and Marika's own, share an architecture that no decree of golden order can reconcile.