You find yourself standing upon a huge, terrifying wasteland. The soil beneath you is grey, dead, cracked and dry. It crunches beneath your feet. By the looks of it, not even the hardiest weed could hope to grow from it.

Huge columns of fire occasionally jet from the cracks and chasms in the ground with roaring explosions, thrusting high into the sky amidst clouds of deadly, toxic smoke. The air here howls with a hot, foetid wind, and it smells nauseatingly of decaying and burnt flesh. You can hear screams of pain and suffering all around you, carried upon the winds. The sheer mass of suffering around you is almost tangible.

The ground is littered with twisted spikes of rock, and you are sickened to see writhing humanoid forms spitted upon many of them. These poor souls moan and thrash weakly as they are tormented by other, indistinct shapes. Gibbets and serrated steel spikes rise around you, and you avert your eyes from the scenes of torment you see upon them.

All around you, you sense a dread evil as a mass of shadowy forms close in all around you. Glinting red eyes stare at you from the darkness, claws flash, and you hear gurgles, wails and growls. You cannot suppress the fear rising in you.

Above you, the sky is dark, filled with thick, black cloud. It hangs low and foreboding on the horizon, almost suffocating you. Huge blasts of lightning lash down from the sky, bringing momentary, painful illumination to this dark, vile place. Thunder rolls loudly over the wastes.

Ahead of you on the horizon stands the enormous steel fortress of Pandemonium, surrounded by a fiery chasm. Pandemonium’s towering metal spires are almost constantly being struck by the infernal storms of this place.

Beside you, lips drawn in a thin and grim line, stands the warrior, Soul Reaver. Cold sweat beads on his forehead. You somehow know that he is the only reason the creatures around you are not tearing you to shreds even now… but you do not wish to stay much longer than you must…

You may ask you guide to tell you more about this vile place if you so wish, or you may instead wish to press ahead as quickly as possible, with Soul Reaver at your side, towards the gates of Pandemonium to escape these endless wastes. However, no one will think less of you if you decide to flee this place and enter the comparative safety of the Warp.