[Robert Lovecraft]

SO! Before I even bother asking my question, I want to state, this is literally specifically for a book I'm writing. I write Lovecraftian horror, and I have a character, he just went to hell. I decided to go with a sort of Dante's Inferno approach to my depiction, and so I've decided to place him in a ring with a desert... The problem is, I have no idea what to make the desert out of. Now this is where you guys who know this sort of stuff actually come in, because I'm sure someone out there will know exactly what I'm looking for.


"Before John lay some amalgamation of pale yellow sulfur particulates, sand, and fine shards of glass, ash, shards of bones, and . Occasionally molten volcanic ash might fall somewhere along this place, and the spot would erupt into a small pillar of flame for a few seconds. The explosion made for a good dispersal, as this seemed to be where the shards of glass came from, the bits being violently strewn about with every reaction."


Now, obviously anyone smart enough to know about chemistry in some part, sees the flaw here (I barely even know about Chemistry and saw the flaw immediately, and even looked it up to confirm). Sulfur doesn't react this way, not even to molten volcanic ash... Is there some sort of compound, or some element, that someone might be able to suggest? I don't even wanna know how to synthesize this kinda stuff, and it's a work of fiction.... Do you want my Discord if you don't feel like discussing it here? Thanks for taking the time to read this by the way, I really do appreciate the help.

[Borek]

Don't even try to go the realistic way, leave it as it is. You never stated it was sulfur that was reacting, so there is no flaw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_bomb

If anything, I wouldn't speak about "molten ash" as molten ash doesn't look ashy at all.

[Robert Lovecraft]

Don't even try to go the realistic way, leave it as it is. You never stated it was sulfur that was reacting, so there is no flaw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_bomb

If anything, I wouldn't speak about "molten ash" as molten ash doesn't look ashy at all.

Well, out of curiosity, what IS the realistic way? Also, thanks for the volcanic bomb, that does make a lot more sense to me... and obviously I haven't researched volcanoes as much.. I also posted this same thing on the reddit, looking for multiple forums for answers, and a guy mentioned Lightning, which of course does sound like a decent idea. I've also considered white phosphorus, but I think that reacts a little too easily.. Is there truly nothing that would lay dormant long enough for some kinda heat to reach it, and then have it violently explode? I'm mostly certain that something like that doesn't necessarily occur in nature, so I feel it's a stretch to ask, but I also don't really know how else to probe this area of expertise.

[Borek]

There are explosives that could behave the way you want them, but they are definitely not laying around

[Robert Lovecraft]

Well, would those things be considered small? Can they be? like the size of a grain of sand, persay? What are they? Color? Smell? I'm looking for ANYTHING of this nature. For the sake of fantasy, I'm sure there is some way as our technology has advanced, that hell would have become far more vile and deadly. So I'm thinking things like people with guns fighting each other out here in this desert, and a more modern "Hell" than that of the Inferno, by Dante, It's not even for the desert to be realistic, it's hell, there isn't much realism in that depiction to begin with, but the physics, the science, the things that do relate to non-fantasy outside of where it shouldn't count when relating to the character of John, I want those things to exist.