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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Disturbing, but tidy."''
|''[[RuneScape]]'' }}
Piles of bones composed of
There are good narrative and practical reasons for this. A human skull is instantly recognizable, making it a powerful symbol of death. Other bones do not carry the same emotive weight; few people could identify a human shoulder blade on sight.
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It helps too that skulls stack up so neatly. Or perhaps it's the fact that skulls represent a one-to-one ratio of bones to corpses, while a given human has multiple of the majority of other bones (and the most visible exception, the spine, takes up a lot more room per victim).
It's also what you're left with when you take heads as trophies and leave the rest on the battlefield. Whatever the case, when warlords and writers want to evoke terror, they create gargantuan piles of
After reading this page, skull will no longer sound like a word.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' monster Ryu Kokki is a giant demon made entirely out of human skulls.▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' monster Ryu Kokki is a giant demon made entirely out of human skulls.
* ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'': [[Oda Nobunaga]] has a giant pile of skulls in his throne room. His throne, which has a skull motif, is sitting right in the middle of it. He even uses them as drinking cups.
* ''[[Berserk]]'': The road to the castle.
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** Shishio, Yumi, and Hoji are also depicted in this Hell shortly after their deaths, quite cheerful about it and setting off to conquer the place. This sequence is notably the only supernatural event in the series that cannot be put down to either 'Watsuki physics' or somebody hallucinating, because there's nobody ''to'' hallucinate; it's just the omniscient audience's perspective of these guys hanging out among the skulls.
==
* [http://zhurnal.lib.ru/img/s/stepanow_a_f/142/apofeoz.jpg ''The Apotheosis of War''] by 19th century Russian painter V. Vereshchagin is a marvelous example of this trope. The fact that the artist was born in a town called ''Cherepovets'' (''"Skulltown"'' in Russian), which was named after an ancient pagan shrine, adds to the [[Rule of Cool]].▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Smax]]'': In [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Top Ten]]'' spinoff miniseries, the lair to the den of the Dragon Morningbright is paved entirely with the skulls of children.
==
* In the ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.bogleech.com/ac.html Diary of an Animal Crossing Psycho]
▲* In the ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' fanfic [http://www.bogleech.com/ac.html Diary of an Animal Crossing Psycho]. There's one certain screenshot that should count...
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fanfic ''[[Thirty Hs]]'', Harry goes to Surf Ninja Moon X and hides in a castle "which had been many skulls arranged to resemble one large one. It had been poorly done, with the cheeks fading into an amateurishly executed jaw line."
* In their first (and only) face-to-face confrontation at the end of the ''[[Harry Potter]]/[[Worm]]'' crossover ''[[A Wand for Skitter]]'', Voldemort comes upon Taylor filing her nails while seated on a throne of skulls in the middle of Hogwarts' Great Hall. (It's conjured, of course, so the question of where the rest of the skeletons are is immaterial.)
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Return of the King]]'' Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are nearly buried under an avalanche of
* In ''
▲* In ''[[Lord of the Rings|The Return of the King]]'' Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are nearly buried under an avalanche of [[Nothing but Skulls]]. The writers [[Lampshade Hanging|comment on]] this, explaining that there were different rooms for each bone, and if Aragon, Legolas, and Gimli had been in a different part of the cave they would have been buried under a pile of femurs, or kneecaps, or something.
* The catacombs under Venice in ''[[Indiana Jones and
▲* In ''The [[Spongebob SquarePants]] Movie'', SpongeBob and Patrick arrive at an ice-cream stand surrounded by skulls. (Turns out it's [[That's No Moon|a trap set by an anglerfish.]]) Patrick at first appears to notice the skulls and shouts to SpongeBob as if to warn him... but turns out he's just asking for chocolate.
▲* The catacombs under Venice in ''[[Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade]]'' had niches in the walls that contained only skulls, one to a niche. Justified in that the skull is the "densest" indicator of death, those niches were probably high-density tombs and crypts. The body may not reside there, but the skull and the soul are there.
* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'': Oxford College has skulls in niches.
* ''[[Predator]]''; In somewhat of a subversion, goes for nothing but skulls ''with'' the spinal cord still intact. Presumably they go for more on Ebay.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In the opening scene of ''[[Muppet Treasure Island]]'', there's a cavern full of skulls. They sing a line of "Shiver My Timbers".
==
▲* [http://zhurnal.lib.ru/img/s/stepanow_a_f/142/apofeoz.jpg ''The Apotheosis of War''] by 19th century Russian painter V. Vereshchagin is a marvelous example of this trope. The fact that the artist was born in a town called ''Cherepovets'' (''"Skulltown"'' in Russian), which was named after an ancient pagan shrine, adds to the [[Rule of Cool]].
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** Parodied in ''[[
** In ''[[
{{quote|
"What? But she used to queen it on a throne atop a pile of skulls!"
"I didn't say it was very good marmalade." }}
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* A bit of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] mentions an artist who depicted Emperor Palpatine as sitting on a throne atop a mountain of skulls. He was executed.
* ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' by [[Stephen King]]: The Crimson King has a throne made of skulls.
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Night Angel Trilogy]]'', there's a bridge in Khaliras made entirely out of skulls and magic. The only real point of the skulls is to intimidate and show where the bridge actually is (it's possible to cross it with the skulls gone). Did I mention this bridge crosses what appears to be a mile wide bottomless chasm, and is the only way into the castle?
== [[Live
* In the ''[[
* Episode 2 of the first ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''An Unearthly Child'' was called ''The Cave Of Skulls'', it featured [[Exactly What It Says
▲* In the ''[[MST3K]]'' episode "[[Cave Dwellers]]" there's a giant snake pit with lots and lots of skulls. "Oh look, anal-retentive snakes, they lined up the skulls!"
▲* Episode 2 of the first ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''An Unearthly Child'' was called ''The Cave Of Skulls'', it featured [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|a Cave full of Skulls]].
** More recently, we have "The Wedding of River Song", which featured a crypt full of ''living'' skulls, leftovers from the process of creating Headless Monks.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer
▲* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'': The skull is a very common motif in this game, particularly the in the [[The Empire|Imperium]], which more often than not uses representations of skulls rather than the real thing. [[The Corruption|Chaos]] forces uses this motif somewhat less (for the most part), although they will use actual skulls more often.
** "Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
** Chaos worshippers like building altars out of them or wearing them on trophy racks, while the Imperium has flying skull-robots and buildings with skulls of the dead in shrines on the walls.
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** The Orkz are fond of taking skulls as trophies, much like the followers of Khorne. Expect to see at least ''one'' skull decorating a Warboss and-or his entourage.
** This is a common dig or in-joke on certain forums regarding certain models in the overall Games Workshop range gaining more and more skulls. [http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1390120a Case in point...]
* The ''[[Dungeons
** Oh, [[It Got Worse|it's longer than that]]. It stretches for over a hundred miles to the north of the capital, to the first petty fief Iuz took over. It' also being expanded towards the southeast to the city of Molag, more than doubling its length.
** The
** Some sources also say the roads into the Iron City of Dis on the second layer of [[Hell|Baator]] are paved with skulls. (Clearly not built with Good Intentions.)
* [[The Empire|The Coalition States]] from''[[Rifts]]'' uses a skull motif for ''everything'' in its armed forces, from rank and unit insignias to body armor and [[Powered Armor]] helmets, to the front of troop transports, helicopters and [[Tank Goodness|battletanks]], to their [[Humongous Mecha]] (both humanoid and [[Spider Tank|spider-walkers]]), and of course their [[Skele
== Video Games ==▼
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''Zelda'' series:
** Skulls often replace [[Crate Expectations|crates and jars]] in natural caves. There are usually no other bones, [[Everything Fades|or corpses outside undead-themed dungeons]], and the sheer number of them suggests that someone is [[Money for Nothing|shooting green rupees out of a slingshot]] to kill enemies. It's reasonable to assume the 'normal' skulls are just dead skull-enemies.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* ''[[King's Quest VI]]'': The Lord of the Dead was surrounded by a gigantic pile of bones, made up almost entirely of skulls, as shown in [http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/ATMachine/sierramisc/kq6lorddead1.png this screenshot].
* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'': In one version, the Necromancer city can build a 'Pyramid of Skulls', which looks somewhat garish, but boosts your weekly production of Skeletons significantly.
* ''[[Myth]]'': The Myrkridia, horrible lycanthropic monsters from Bungie's series of games, make the skulls of their victims into platforms that rise thirty feet high and then are adorned with the Myrkridian standard. The precision with which the skulls are fitted is said to be maddening to behold.
* In ''[[
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'': In several locations such as war zones or Scourge installations, there are usually many skulls strewn about. Others bones are also visible but but skulls outnumber them all. Some good old pile of skulls can also be found around ritual circles and similar locations.
* ''[[Diablo II]]''
** Piles of skulls sometimes appears as treasure caches to be looted.
** Diablo's Chaos Sanctuary is ''littered'' with skulls.
** Plus you can slot some of them into equipment for added bonuses!
* ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'': There are two rooms in in which the floor is made entirely of skulls, and there are huge piles of them in the background. The boss fought in this room is a giant floating ball of corpses that was hiding in said skulls before you entered, and in the upside-down castle version of that room, you face [[That One Boss|Galamoth]].
* ''[[Harmony of Dissonance]]'': Almost the ''entire'' Skeleton Den area, which is just an immense catacombs. With, appropriately, lots of skulls used as a building material (along with other bones and non-bone materials).
* In ''[[Sid
* ''[[Brutal Legend]]'' has a mountain of skulls as the first level of the game.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The Pillar of Skulls (see above under Tabletop Games) is visited in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''.
* Cave areas in ''[[Adventure Island]] III'' and ''IV'' contain several piles of human skulls.
* Shields with human skulls are a very common wall decoration in human homes in ''[[Albion]]''. Locals are quick to point out that they are old family heirlooms.
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080707 Castle Heterodyne] keeps skulls and straight bones to the exclusion of others. See also [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070822 Iscarriot Heterodyne's "Friends"]
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': Almost
* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'': [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/monsteriwas/ Phix's wall]
* ''[[DM of the Rings]]'' [http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1203 parodies] the scene in ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Return of the King]]'' where Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are nearly buried under an avalanche of
{{quote|
'''Legolas:''' [[Oh Crap]].
'''DM:''' They tumble down from above forming a great avalanche of death. The horrid sight is--
'''Aragorn:''' Skulls? Like, ''only'' skulls?
'''DM:''' Yeah.
'''Aragorn:''' But that makes no sense!
'''DM:''' [[Durable Deathtrap|It's just a trap]]. Dungeons have them all the time.
'''Aragorn:''' I'm not calling the device into question. I'm questioning the payload. Thousands and thousands of skulls? How does that work exactly? Was this a race of floating heads? }}
* ''[[
== Western Animation ==▼
▲== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'': used in episode "Where Lies the Engulfer", where a cryptid made of water smashed Doyle down to the bottom of the lake and he sees a skull leering back at him amidst a floor of bones. "Ahhh. Now that's just sick!"
* In the ''[[
* [[Squidbillies]]: Dan Halen uses a pile of his employee's skulls to top off "Mount Murder". The last surviving manager, Glen, tells him it would look better with one more on top, [[Too Dumb to Live|hands him an axe]] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510045717/http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/just-one-more-skull.html positions his head exactly where he thinks the last skull should go.]
▲== Real Life ==
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Buffalo skulls were high in phosphorus and were bought up by fertilizer and explosive factories. They were piled in a giant mound before being shipped off.
* The [[wikipedia:Skull Tower|Skull
** By the way,
* The Aztecs and their neighbours routinely displayed skulls on [[wikipedia:Tzompantli|special racks]].
* Assyrian armies piled up pyramids of skulls.
* The Mongols were also quite fond of this as a form of psychological warfare. Timur (who was a self-declared successor of Genghis Khan) reputedly built a pyramid out of 90,000 skulls outside of the city of Dehli to coax the city's surrender.
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* Catacombs and ossuaries (where bones are taken after they've been in a grave for a respectable amount of time to free up graveyard space), they're stored by bone type and size, not by owner, because it's a more efficient use of space.
** In the Paris Catacombs, while there are all kinds of bones, skulls are carefully set in front of the piles to keep them from collapsing, or just for [[The Fun in Funeral|making fun shapes]] (there's a pattern of skulls in shape of a heart for example in one bone-pile.) The quick impression of the place comes close to the trope, even though careful scrutiny quickly proves it false.
** The [[wikipedia:Sedlec Ossuary|Sedlec Ossuary]].
** In Portugal, the [[wikipedia:Capela dos Ossos|Chapel of Bones]] has wall decorated with nothing but skulls.
* Memorials and museums for the Rwandan Genocide have... very neat stacks of skulls. A hell of a lot of them. There are a few reasons for this, the first being of course that skulls are small, easily stackable, and represent one clear death each, thus having a huge emotional impact. The second being that the large scale systematic mutilation of the victims and use of explosives in small confined areas (like churches) left it rather difficult to determine which bone belonged to whom, and it would be impossible to piece together every one of the thousands of skeletons.
* [[Pol Pot]] is famed for his love of this trope. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum has shelves of the skulls of his victims.
** Which
* [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/~taylor.jpg This]{{Dead link}} political cartoon of United States President [[Zachary Taylor]], or possibly General Winfield Scott (it's debated). At any rate the cartoon is an attack on the Whig Party, the skulls and sword referring to the Mexican War in which both Taylor and Scott fought, and the "one qualification" being bloodthirstiness.
* The [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Monastic_Republic_of_Mount_Athos Mount Athos] community has an ossuary where the skulls of deceased monks are interred.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Skeletal Tropes]]
[[Category:Spectacle]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Nothing But Skulls]]
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