Heart Necropolis (Hart Island)

Before European colonization, Hart Island was occupied by the Siwanoy tribe of Native Americans, who were indigenous to the area. In 1654, English physician Thomas Pell purchased the island from the Siwanoy as part of a 9,166-acre (37.09 km2) property.Pell died in 1669 and ownership passed to his nephew Sir John Pell, the son of British mathematician John Pell.

The first burials on Hart Island were those of 20 Union Army soldiers during the American Civil War. On May 27, 1868, New York City purchased the island from Edward Hunter, who also owned nearby Hunter Island, for $75,000. City burials started shortly afterward. In 1869, a 24-year-old woman named Louisa Van Slyke, who died in Charity Hospital, was the first person to be buried in the island's 45-acre (180,000 m2) public graveyard. The cemetery then became known as "City Cemetery" and "Potter's Field".

In November 1864, construction of a prisoner-of-war camp on Hart Island with room for 5,000 prisoners started. The camp was used for four months in 1865 during the American Civil War. The island housed 3,413 captured Confederate Army soldiers. Of these, 235 died in the camp and were buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery. Following the Civil War, indigent veterans were buried on the island in soldier's plots, which were separate from the potter's field and at the same location. Some of these soldiers were moved to West Farms Soldiers Cemetery in 1916 and others were removed to Cypress Hills Cemetery in 1941.

The remains of more than one million people are buried on Hart Island, though since the first decade of the 21st century, there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year. Burials on Hart Island include individuals who were not claimed by their families or did not have private funerals, as well as the homeless and the indigent. Access to the island is restricted, it can only be reached by ferryboat if family members of those interred must request advance access from the Department of Correction, and the New York City government only allows a maximum of 70 visitors per month.

The dead are buried in trenches. Babies are placed in coffins, which are stacked in groups of 1,000, measuring five coffins deep and usually in twenty rows. Adults are placed in larger pine boxes placed according to size, and are stacked in sections of 150, measuring three coffins deep in two rows. There are seven sizes of coffins, which range from 1 to 7 feet (0.30 to 2.13 m) long. Each box is labeled with an identification number, the person's age, ethnicity, and the place where the body was found, if applicable. Inmates from the Rikers Island jail are paid $0.50 per hour to bury bodies on Hart Island.

Meanwhile In the Shadowlads...

Hart's Island is surrounded by a maze of fortress walls made with corpses, some of which still move and react when visitors pass by. These fortified walls are thick enough for guardians to walk over it's top about eleven feet off the floor. Most corners of the maze are well illuminated with green fire flaming out of incinerated carcasses mourning and sizzling as the cold sharp wind flies through their cavities.

It is not rare to find creeks between walls, running with crystalline water but yet nauseous smell to cyanide and sulfur that flows down to the dark stormy sea surrounding it. Many dead trees are found in the widest alleys within the maze, small cabins and other simple structures rot inside it, their architecture vary from indigenous tipi huts to small fortifications from the Federal War times.

As the Visitor approaches to the center of the Island the streets start to get more sophisticated with black and dark gray stones made out of cinder and ashes until the perimeter market is found, before it a high brick wall with seven castle like entrances are heavily guarded by the Hierarchy. From this point the Central Castle can be seen from any part of the Market, full with tight streets crowded with many interesting objects brought by millions of souls going through this territory.


Pass The Marketplace is the Garrison, squared fortified barracks protected by another low ring wall with four entrances. It's gate are closed most of the time and any spirit bold enough to go beyond this point is either crazy or desperately looking to become someone's shoe. Very few souls have seen anything beyond this point, just the usual Federal Soldier Peace Keeper and the officers of the Garrisons are allowed without the Major's permission. Since him and the top figures of authority of each Legion dwells in the Old Hart's Castle.

About ten million souls inhabit these premises, haunting the Flesh Lands and looking for a passage in the Midnight Ferry, an old steam boat named PS General Slocum, that reaches the Island's shores a few times each month to take souls in and out of Stygia, at least for those wealthy enough to pay the Ferryman for his services or lucky enough to have a golden ticket given by the Major itself.