This world is but a remnant of what it once was. The grand majesty of Carcosa spoken of in The King in Yellow is lost in this expanse of endless desolation. Dead, twisted trees, starving animals, and barren fields greet you everywhere you turn.
You begin to look for evidence of what might have caused such devastation. Across the lake, you see dark, twisted structures similar to those in Carcosa. At least one appears as large and as grand as Hastur's domain. You wonder if perhaps some kind of conflict took place between the two cities.

On every side of me stretched a bleak and desolate expanse of plain, covered with a tall overgrowth of sere grass, which rustled and whistled in the autumn wind...
– Ambrose Bierce, "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"