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The largest shadowland in the Hundred Kingdoms, the Circle of Bones has somewhat uncertain origins dating back to the time of the Great Contagion and the vast upheavel that came after. Most Savants know that the area once served as a mass grave for much of the regions cities and villages, with millions of bodies stacked haphazardly in piles with paths between all through the massive bowl-shaped depression. Few know why the location was chosen, or why the people chose to dispose of their dead in this way.
The Shadowland itself is buried in the foothills south of the City-State of Amanton, not far from one of the trade routes that passes south of the city. A single worn path through the hills leads to the Shadowlands, walked by funeral processions and those who are so overcome with grief that they cannot bear it. It takes about an hour until one reaches the Shadowland, cresting a rise to find the massive bowel stretching out below. Roughly 50 miles diameter, the depression fills ones vision entirely.
The entire area is saturated with bones, the dull gray ground literally buried under the remnants of millions of Contagion dead and everyone who has come since. Most are cracked, broken, or have been ground into dust by remorseless time but a surprising number remain whole. Little vegetation survives in the depression, the sole exception being a tough thorny weed that finds purchase in the occasional bit of exposed land. In place of flowers, rib cages blossom and skulls stare out blindly. There are no trees, but the depression is studded liberally with an amazing variety of bone sculpture reaching toward the darkened sky.
Nor is such the only construction of bone in the Shadowland. Amanton's ancestors and those few living that chose to reside in the Shadowland live within the small village of Knucklebone. Not far from the path into the Shadowland, Knucklebone is a grisly beautiful settlement lovingly constructed of bone and very little else. Further into the Circle of Bones, a small path leads to the massive bone-city of Ribcage, where the ancient dead rule under the watchful eye of their Mistress. Seen by few of the living, Ribcage is a veritable wonder of bonecraft, a city as grand as Amanton itself constructed by and exclusively for the dead. Hollow and near abandoned by day, the city comes to life every night, its pyre flames shining as the living flames of Amanton are extinguished.
Of all the structures in Ribcage, however, none match the Cathedral-Manse of the cities ruler. Located in the very center of the city, The White Palace serves as the seat of the cities Deathlord and ruler, The Pale Faced Daughter Of Iron And Bone. Recognized by Ancestor Cults throughout the Hundred Kingdoms, especially in the war-torn central region where death can come to anyone without warning, the Pale Faced Daughter offers hope to the forlorn and peace to the suffering.
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