The Guarded Land is a limestone plateau raised by volcanic action to roughly 1000m above the surrounding land. It has no surface water and an oxidised red ferric soil.

The first diagram shows a cross-section of the plateau. Water percolates down to a water table which slopes from near the surface at the centre of the plateau down to the level of the surrounding lands at its margin. Water from the monsoon or Rains, runs in underground rivers to issue out all round the foot of the plateau causing tunnels, gorges and huge cave systems.

The second diagram shows the distribution of the red soil characteristic to the plateau. The colour is a result of oxidation of its ferric components. The soil thickens towards the north-east and is thinnest towards the south-west because of the heavier rainfall there from the south-western monsoon.

The soil is also thin around the margins of the plateau due to heavy erosion.

The third diagram shows the region around the margin of the plateau which forms a karst landscape. This landscape is characteristic of intense water erosion caused by runoff, but even more so by the collapse caused by the undercutting of all the rivers that issue from the edge of the plateau.

It is this landscape which Carnelian and the Ochre raiders journey through at the beginning of The Standing Dead.