Answer:
1. "It is a great Dead Place—greater than any Dead Place we know."
2. "Everywhere there are the ruins of the high towers of the gods."
Explanation:
Background or setting is the time and place of a tale, whether it be reality or fiction. As a literary element, it's a must. The location establishes the story's major backdrop and tone.
Passage:
It is not true what some of the tales say, that the ground there burns forever, for I have been there. Here and there were the marks and stains of the Great Burning, on the ruins, that is true. But they were old marks and old stains. It is not true either, what some of our priests say, that it is an island covered with fogs and enchantments. It is not. It is a great Dead Place—greater than any Dead Place we know. Everywhere in it there are god-roads, though most are cracked and broken. Everywhere there are the ruins of the high towers of the gods.
