Skull Islands

Skull Islands

ELEMENT │ PLACE

Skull islands are fictional islands whose coast is in the shape of a skull or whose central dominant terrain feature is a skull rock. Skull islands are often found in pirate worlds and may be treasure islands. They are often home to cults, pirates, leviathans, and giant mythological beasts.

Synonyms: Skull Isles
Example Mythonyms: Death’s Island, the Isle of Bone
Terrain

Designing Fictional Skull Islands

Foundations

Overview

The central consideration for designing skull islands is how the skull naturally fits into the terrain of the island itself. Skull islands largely fall into two categories: coastline skulls and landform skulls.

Coastline skulls form their shape with coastal features like bays, lakes, lagoons, and craters. Islands may also be used to form the teeth or jaw.

Bays
Lagoons
Coasts

Landform skulls feature prominent skull rocks formed from mountains, hills, or volcanos. Caves or sea caves may form the cavities of their eyes, nose, or mouth and waterfalls may be present flowing out from these places. Sea stacks, jagged rocks, or other rock features may form the teeth.

Cliffs
Stacks
Sea Caves

Coastal Terrain