Some of the UAC portals led to places which appeared to be located in other universes, however with laws of physics similar to our own. Others led to dimensions much weirder, where reality worked on principles more resembling a nightmare. These were collectively dubbed 'Shadowlands'. Most inanimate matter from our universe couldn't persist there in coherent form, but living things somehow could. Researchers who braved these hellscapes naked and unarmed, were usually killed, captured or transformed. Never the less, contact with the local lifeforms was sometimes established, and first technologies started to be developed, either to adapt to Shadowlands, or tap their unique resources.