The Shadow Lands is a mountainous area in far-eastern Essos, of which little definite knowledge is known as very few outsiders to enter the lands return, and those that inhabit the area are a secretive, reclusive people.
Geography[]
The city of Asshai is located at the southwestern tip of the Shadow Lands. To the north and northeast the Shadow Lands meets the Mountains of the Morn. Leng and the Manticore Isles in the Jade Sea are to the west and the Saffron Straits are to the south.
Ghost grass grows throughout the Shadow Lands. The ruined corpse city of Stygai, which even shadowbinders fear, lies at the heart of the Shadow, in which the Forbidden Library, a vast cavernous building magnitudes greater in terms of size and content than the Citadel of Oldtown, is said to be found.
Ancient tales from Asshai claim that dragons first originated in the Shadow and were first tamed by a people so ancient they had no name.
Some areas of the Shadow Lands are populated, as the maroon emperors of Yi Ti kept their court in Jinqi to better guard the borders of the empire from reavers from the Shadow Lands.These people are known as Shadow Men, and are known for covering their bodies in tattoos and wearing red lacquered wooden masks.