Lore: Root Earth
“The Core, but not the Core as you know it. A previous instance, since contained. The childen of this Core perceived their world as from without—not outside the Core, but outside all worlds: the perspective of a creator. With this knowledge they sought to alter the parameters of existence. The Root are the children of their attempt.”—The Keeper, speaking with the Traveler
Root Earth is a previous instance of the Core as well as the originator of the Root. Like the second Core, Root Earth was at one point inviolable and without need of a Guardian, acting as the heart of all worlds on which the Labyrinth—and the system at large—was built. Through its people’s creation of the Root, the first Core ultimately corrupted itself and was subsequently contained by the Keeper for study. The second Core was then created to serve as the new heart of the worlds, grounding the system. Although the Keeper preserved it for investigation, the Root were able to seal his access to the first Core until he acquired the repaired Index.
History[edit | edit source]
Root Earth shares many historical, cultural, and geographical features with the second Core, Earth. The remnants of buildings such as the warehouses of Ward 13 also exist in the Ashen Wasteland of the first Core, albeit in more dilapidated form. Examined at a macro level the two Cores initially seem to share an almost identical history, although their histories differ at an individual level[1]. Religions also seem to have been similar, with its people worshipping gods not too different from those of Earth[2]. However, the Keeper explains that the people of Root Earth shared a unique perspective unlike the people of both the second Core and other worlds: they held the perspective of a creator, perceiving their world as from without—not simply outside the Core but outside all worlds. With the knowledge gained from this unique perspective, the people of Root Earth sought to alter the parameters of existence; the Root were the children of this attempt.
Both the processes that led to the Root’s creation and its initial purpose are unclear. Its creators may have consciously designed it to destroy the boundaries of their world, perhaps even their own creator[3]; however, its origins may also have been beneficent or benign[4]. Regardless of their initial intentions, while the Root was born from an understanding of the true structure of reality, it began to grow of its own accord until it became too much for its creators to control or to quell[5]. The people of Root Earth foresaw this as a possibility, and could have prevented it, however their desire for elucidation caused them to preserve the Root until it could no longer be stopped[6].
The resulting conflict mirrored that which played out on the second Core in the wake of the Root invasion. Like the people of Earth, those of the first Core struggled against the Root with similar strategies and similar probabilities of success[7]. Unlike the children of the second Core, however, the odds did not fall in their favor. They held out as long as possible—so long that their initial stockpiles of weapons were destroyed, lost, or forgotten and they were forced to fight with whatever was at hand[1]. Ultimately, the people of Root Earth succumbed, and in doing so granted the Root uncontested dominion over the world—a dominion reflected in its radically terraformed landscape relative to the second Core.
Aftermath[edit | edit source]
As the entity that oversees and manages the worlds through the Labyrinth, the Keeper had borne witness to the end of innumerable worlds. However, the fate that befell the first Core was unique[8]. This was due in part to the nature of the Root itself. In the ordinary functioning of the system, the Keeper explains, the worlds naturally beget intelligent life, much as a parent creates a child. The Keeper oversees these worlds, erasing or archiving them as their respective forms of intelligent beings cease to be[9]. Other entities exist as manifestations of the system itself, such as Guardians—who come into being with the Doors—and the Keeper himself, who maintains the system as a whole.
The Root, however, were an exception. They did not arise as a natural part of their world's processes, for while the first Core had begotten the corruption it was not itself corrupt—indeed, to the Keeper, the Core had been the best of all worlds, the true heart of the Creator[10]. Its corruption thus necessitated investigation: was the Root—and thus the destruction it wrought—an intended part of the system or an error? If the former, what did that say about the nature and meaning of the system? If the latter, what did it mean for intended processes to give rise to unintended results? Faced with these questions, the Keeper chose to quarantine and preserve Root Earth much as the children of that world chose to preserve the Root—with equally dire consequences[6].