The Book of Knots - Jags

What you might find there
Chessboard Seven is an empty place with a palpable sense of being
long-forgotten and almost used-up. There are great open plains, endless
deserts and badlands, and even a few placid seas, but rather than being
full of promise, it feels used up—abandoned, and deserted.
It is not uninhabited – there are plants, animals, and strange, primitive
civilizations, but unlike life elsewhere (or, in the case of the Caretakers,
life-like things), the native flora and fauna of Chessboard Seven
absolutely lack ambition or curiosity. They are stolid, polite, ignorant,
and passive. They don’t even seem to (particularly) fear death or pain
– their senses of the world are dull and remote.
The only things of any real interest are the machines – the derelict
factories and processing plants, the miles and miles of train track and
twisted train-yards, the refineries and finally (most distant) the Cannons
themselves.
The Department of Works feels very much like a puzzle with many
(important) pieces missing; many of those who have spent lifetimes
studying it have quit, convinced that whatever secrets it once held, they
are now inaccessible. Clearly it has lasted billions of years, but it has
been failing for billions of years and it’s failing, still.
There may treasures to be found and insights to be gained by exploring
Chessboard Seven – a properly skilled and equipped expedition might,
for example, be able to learn secrets about the physical universe, the
true cosmology of creation, or the nature of time, itself, by a careful
study of the machines of the Department of Works. And (perhaps), in
the most inaccessible places, there might be things worth stealing – but
overwhelmingly the study of the Department of Works raises more
questions than answers.
The Secret History of the End of the
Universe
In canonical JAGS Wonderland the secret at the end of the universe
is not that humanity is doomed – it is that humanity’s victory (and the
obsolescence and annihilation of the Caretakers) is inevitable.
When someone realizes this – really understands it – they’ll know the
purpose of the Department of Works (and that it was obvious the whole
time), and they’ll do what needs to be done: they’ll turn it off. And when
they do that, the Universe ends.
Here’s our explanation:
The Awful Truth
The awful truth that the Caretakers cannot face, and that humankind is
yet ignorant of, is that Creation is, indeed meant for man. The primal
universe – a chaotic blizzard of “all” and “nothing” was far too unstable
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Book of Knots - Chessboard Seven