Grondoval, a knight from the land of Stazhia, has been just chosen to travel to the forbidding Island of Char. An evil witch named Illwhyrin has cast a curse of never-ending darkness on Stazhia, and built her lair, the Witchaven, on the island, sacrificing the few foolish humans who dare venture there. The witch's present goal is to remove a magical barrier known as the Veil, which serves as a portal to the world of demons. Should she succeed, unspeakable evil shall arrive and consume the world. Grondoval must defeat Illwhyrin's demonic minions, reach the core of Witchaven, and defeat her.Based on 3D Realms' Build engine, Witchaven is a first-person fantasy slasher akin to Heretic, with the addition of a simple role-playing experience and level system: the player accumulates experience from killing monsters and acquiring items, so as to become more powerful (with seven experience levels altogether). The weapons include knives, swords, bows, morning stars, battle axes, throwing axes, and halberds. Spells such as Scare, Night Vision, Fly, Fireball, and Nuke, are available via scrolls found during exploration, although the more powerful spells require that the player character has attained a certain experience level (for example, Nuke, which disintegrates opponents, requires the hero to be level five to cast). Scattered around the levels are potions which grant the protagonist such boons as healing, invisibility and strength.