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.

> "*Chakuid [Dakuud] hissed - The Lesser children, they exercise their free will weakly. They feel the desire of self-preservation from the throngs of mortals tortured with finite lives, and now they too see that they are part of the same terminal existence. Havouk [Yavoq] hissed in kind - Let them live, learn the beauty of life and come to see the value of death. Allow this and it will be them who pluck Sorrow from the god-wound, in good time of course. When the One-Who-Gardens is whole again, it will be made better and new from this resolution.*"
> ― The Drub Scrolls, “Eye in the Storm of Fire
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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”

## Sorrow-Keep

> "*The two-headed snake Chakuid [Dakuud] and Havouk [Yavoq] were the masons of this terrible place, the Crucible. That name is a joke, I think, for the crucible is no test, but a cruel and twisted dungeon. It was Havouk [Yavoq] who first waded into the Sea of Chaos, the lord of chaos dragged its brother into the center of the Bog and built their temple--the Crucible--there. What they were unable to do was fully encase Sorrow, for it exists in all places at all times, so they devised the following solution: build a wall here, and a brick there, make their temple exist in four dimensions. Look upon the Crucible in three dimensions and it looks like a single place, an individual structure, but in reality it is scattered through the cosmos, through time itself, falling apart and being mindlessly rebuilt by adherents to Chakuid’s [Dakuud] balance and Havouk’s [Yavoq] madness.With their work finished, it fell to the lesser Guardians to make the Crucible a truly impassable obstacle.*
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> Jatvaks [Yadvax] and Thuksis [Duaxis] brought the conflict of mortals to bear upon the grounds of the temple, staining it in an ocean of blood. Their collaboration created a wall of bodies locked in an eternal struggle and formed the foremost barrier blocking entrance to the Crucible.
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> Seker [Zekar] and Cholkua [Shulka], the Guardians of pain and pleasure gleefully littered the temple with their works: Instruments of incredible pain and diversions of stupendous pleasure.
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> Homun [Yomon] and Yeldin [Reldrin] filled the halls and corridors with creatures of indescribable horror and visages of pure terror. They ensured an exit was always close at hand, a way out for the faint of heart, for even this relatively merciful inclusion insured that no intruder would make it any nearer to sorrow.
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> Finally, Lagrahl [Lokral] and Ogomada [Agamda] added the finishing touches. They made the air heavy, the stairs steep, and the hallways narrow. They created riches and treasures to divert those who sought Sorrow elsewhere.
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> In order to survive the crucible, a person would have to be a true hero. They would need qualities to defy each and every Guardian. They would have to be exceptional in every way, with strength, resolve, bravery, and determination. I know a man who is none of these things, a human with a peculiar name. He has, despite all the odds, routinely defied every obstacle the Crucible has to offer and walks freely in its center most chambers. He is ignorant however, more ignorant than perhaps any creature in the entire universe, and he is unaware of the treasure he sleeps beside: the weapon Sorrow, the god killer, the end, that which rends, infinity’s edge. I am unsure if I want him to act, for his abilities are great, but he is a silly man and I am afraid of what he might do with such power. For now I hope he discovers his place in the universe and chooses to do the right thing.*"*
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> ― Cornerstones and the Foundation Upon the Sea of Chaos
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## 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:

> "*I stepped into an all white room, however it simultaneously contained all of the colors in every spectrum of light. Standing behind a mahogany bar pouring a mercurial liquid onto a spinning globe was my great-great grandfather, or was it my great-great grandson? The liquid was intensely reflective and I looked into it as it now coated this sphere and my face morphed into the most beautiful version of myself and then at once into my darkest self, I tried to speak to the bartender but when I opened my mouth my lungs filled with water and I began to experience the sensation of drowning, before my eyes the figure dissolved screaming into the water I was now submerged in like it was made of sugar. I lost consciousness and awoke on the shore of a green river flowing through a desert of red rock, distant strange sounding songs and flutes echoed down mountainsides and through canyon walls, while this landscape appeared vast I was somehow aware of being hemmed in and felt extremely claustrophobic. I felt both trapped and lost, not just spatially, but in time. As my eyes adjusted to the intense light I began to see several winding staircases carved into the many canyon walls, all leading to caves that were softly glowing from within. One cave, not particularly exceptional from the rest, pulled me toward its entrance, suddenly I was filled with lust and greed and thirst and hunger, so blinded by my id that I lost all sense of why I had first stepped foot in this confounding place and no longer cared to know why. When a journalist loses their curiosity truly there are powerful and manipulative forces at work. Dear reader, out of a sense of propriety and respect for this publication I will not disclose what hedonistic madness I found in that cave by the hot light of roaring bonfire, but know that once inside I drank wine that tasted of pure sunlight and came to know carnal pleasures that a hundred men could never experience in a hundred lifetimes.*"
> ― Dickey Marachek
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