Chapter: Fallen Angels

These diagrams show funerary urns of the type that appear at the end of The Chosen. Corpses are buried in these, folded into a foetal position as shown. That a Master would have far less room inside such an urn than is shown is because these urns are not made for such a large body

Funerary urns are ‘eared’ with many handles. Some of these are used, as shown, to allow poles to be thrust through them so that they can be carried. Others are used to attach the ropes that keep the lids tightly closed

The City at the Gates is so named because it lies at the gates of Osrakum. Built on land reclaimed from the Gatemarsh, it has at its heart the great market of the Wheel, from which the five raised roads radiate out like spokes across the Guarded Land. The habitations of its almost three million citizens spread out along the causeways that carry the roads with their watchtowers

From the Wheel, the Canyon of the Three Gates leads into the crater of Osrakum

I produced this little map to help me write the second and third chapters of The Standing Dead. It shows the location of the slavers’ first night’s camp at the edge of a stopping place, on the shore of the Gatemarsh. The road south is shown with its watchtowers. Also shown is the location of the first sartlar kraal in which they spend a night. Further north is the City-at-the-Gates. A section of the Sacred Wall of Osrakum fills up the top right of the map