The Book of Knots - Jags

Book of Knots - Chessboard Seven
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Chessboard Seven (Common Sense Part I)
First the basics: humans on Chessboard Seven do not cast reflections up;
once you have made it all the way down, you disappear from the real
world.
At the bottom of the universe is Chessboard Seven. It is not generally
considered reachable through ordinary Descent. Reports on what resides
there vary greatly: many people report vast, dead ruins and massive,
impossible castles. Great machines dominate the terrain: huge domes
trapping apocalyptic, primordial lightning storms, entire stars held in
cages, and pump systems that could drain oceans. Many of these are
stopped or damaged but many more continue to run by themselves,
perhaps eternally.
Chessboard Seven is barren but not entirely deserted. There are sketchy
reports of tall, impassive things whose features are hidden by sheets
and who communicate telepathically. Even stranger, are stories of
the villages of fluid things that disperse, reform, and change at will
– things that shed more than just their physical being, but their identity,
personality, age, and skills. Are there races of mechanics that service
these vast machines? Are these lost survivors of the original builders?
Do the cyclopean towers that exist on the horizons contain the architects
of creation?
No one is sure. But we do know a few things.
We Know It is Called The Department of Works
We know this because its name is stamped on the artifacts and ruins
found there: The Seal of the Department of Works. The lettering
appears to be in whatever language the person to find it is most fluent in
(although they are engraved plates and of quite solid construction). The
machines are believed to be those that create the universe.
Within the great industrial complexes there are control centers, catwalks,
power-plants, and other facilities, all slumbering, their analog dials
hovering at quarter power. No one can say for sure if the physical form
the apparatus take is tied to some base-level human archetype of what
they should look like—or if this is somehow their “true form.”
Maybe there’s no difference.
We Know It Was Damaged
Those who traffic in the history of the Caretakers learn that at some point
in the distant past they mounted an assault, traversing the Linear Maze
to find the machines and smash them down. They believed that if they
could either commandeer or destroy the Department of Works they could
snuff-out Chessboard Zero (and mankind) like a candle flame.