The Great Cemetery
Also known as the Cemetery
A battlefield belt north-east of Luna, south-west of Crowbrook, north of Luminglade, below the Iron Mountains - the plain of the Great War where the Zeraphs rose in 680 BL.
- Charon's ferry stands here; Death Roads open where the dead are unresolved.
- Distinct from Luna's local graveyard.
The layout follows the war. From west to east:
- Valerius's commanders' ridge and the elven siege lines;
- a cratered no-man's land, with Grimsward sappers' mine craters under the Crowbrook line;
- the Crowbrook lines and the exiles' ridge, with the Crowbrook road leaving east.
Charon raised his ferry on the Cemetery so the dead would never again be left unpassed. It crosses a black mere that fills the great pit where a Zeraph rose. The far shore is an island of ancient stepped masonry, the Eternal Stair's foundation. Two lesser pits still smoulder.
The dead and the living:
| What | Number |
|---|---|
| Marked graves, in rows below the ossuary | ~15,000 |
| Unidentified dead in the ossuary | ~25,000 |
| Dead in the mass-grave trenches | the rest |
| Bone-keepers' village | ~800 |
| First Sanctum relic team | ~150 |
| Grimsward recovery crew, at a sealed war tunnel | ~120 |
The bone-keepers built the ossuary with dwarves from both Grimsward and Crowbrook, in dwarven masonry.
The recurring battle keeps the ground open; otherwise, after 900 years, it would be forest.
- Valerius and Seralyth fell on the commanders' ridge, at the west of the field.
- The Weeping Brook crosses the west of the field.
Hidden: contains spoilers for Book 4. Tick Book 4 in the spoiler bar to read it.
The buried sick
Late in the book, the army crosses the Cemetery on its way out of Crowbrook's country. Rain opens a shallow trench beside the road: an older army's sick, buried by a road crew, every skull facing south, each with a numbered iron tag. The army could rebury them by number. Sennic asks at the bone-keepers' village, and an old keeper recognises the unit and supplies three family names. The road then leaves the field to the south-west, towards the root line of Luminglade.
See also
Last updated 2026-10-19