Ötüken is the sacred forest-mountain named in the Orkhon inscriptions. Bilge Khagan tells his people: sit in Ötüken and your state will stand forever; go down to the plains near China and you will die.
As a place it is thought to point at the Hangai mountains in Mongolia. But in the inscription Ötüken is not a coordinate, it is a principle: the place where independence stands.
In Balbal, Otuken is the thirteenth floor of the Middle World and its reward is this: every symbol of the realm meets on one board. The next floor is The Iron Gate — the mouth of the descent.
See also: Ulukayın · Eternal Stones