Crucible

A vast labyrinth that defies time and space and reality located in the heart of the Darkwood. The Crucible, originally conceived as a fortress or vault to contain Sorrow, was erected following a meeting of the Guardians, a rare joining of The Myriad Realms sometimes referred to as a “conflagration.” The Guardians concluded that Sorrow’s effect on reality had given them a unique gift, individuality.

The Storm in Heaven
It had always been that the Guardians had existed as primal vestiges, shades of the Gardener’s thoughts and emotions that only lasted as long as the current dream. The current Corporeal Confluence was the result of the Gardener’s comatose existence, instead of waking and becoming a new being as per the usual cycle, the Gardener teeters on the margin of life and death, and as a result this universe has existed for far longer than any before it. The Myriad realms and their Guardians had evolved and adapted in a way that they had never before had the opportunity to, and now they were true individuals with minds of their own.

The conflagration concluded with a consensus: Sorrow must remain in the Bog, the current dream must never end, and to that end the Gardener must suffer for eternity. Yau and Dau, the elder binaries, lamented. they rumbled with resentment and uncertainty in their primal and voiceless way. The old Neocojum had seen countless dreams and been part of the Gardener for nearly its entire existence. Was it right to steal the life from that which all life flows from? The Guardian’s consensus only manifested from the deception of Dakuud and Yavoq, who consoled the elders and explained to them their plan.

It was with this that the Guardians agreed to set to work on the Crucible, a structure to safeguard Sorrow and ensure their existence. The power of the Guardians is great, but at the center of the Bog, where Sorrow’s spear point waits in still and silent motion, there is turmoil. All places and times are as one, and they vie for precedence. This wasteland is known as the “Sea of Chaos.” It was here that a temple was to be laid, and a foundation had to be built. Drub detailed this process in the Drub Scrolls chapter titled “Cornerstones and the Foundation Upon the Sea of Chaos”

Attempts at Entry
While attempts to describe the experience of being inside The Crucible are usually diarrhea-laughed off as being Polvera Rossa induced hallucinations, respected journalist Dicky Marachek described his brief incursion in a 1979 article for the Darkwood Times: