The Weave

The Weave was Liral's first creation, born from the desperate genius of the Idea that would become her to be used as an escape route from power of the Gearworks and the Beyond. To actually call it Liral's would be inaccurate, for she was not the being who made it and lacks now the understanding of how it was done, but she is to whom it has fallen to act as guardian for power hidden within. The Weave knows many things, and hidden within its endless patterns are secrets that even the Titans did not truly know. But it is also terribly damaged following the spiteful attacks upon its edges that Gearworks and Beyond inflicted upon it.

The power remains of course, for it would take far more than cracks to sunder the Change's creation - and to do so in fact would likely do terrible damage to the fabric of reality - but the secrets within cannot be easily deciphered. And even when they are they come treacherous and unbidden, speaking through their warden in ways she does not fully understand. Liral knows that the Change had great plans for the Weave, some scheme to transcend its own nature through perfect duality. Unfortunately it 'died' before it could set them in motion and Liral does not know what those plans where. Perhaps more importantly, she does not share the Change's duality of Chaos and Order in the same way, for in her it creates conflict and madness that lead into the Shattering. In a very real way, the Weave is the curse of Liral's madness.

Creation
How the Weave was created is something that only it knows, for if Liral could remember its creation it stands to reason that she could work out how to fix it. The Change-to-be-Liral was the maker of the construct, and that Change had many advantages when it came to making the Weave. First, it had spent uncounted eons in the heart of a conflict between the Gearworks and the Beyond, granting it an understanding of both that might never be surpassed. Second, it was a stable unity of both ideals, Order and Chaos. This is far more difficult to properly explain, but suffice to say that it made the Change capable of mimicking - or even building upon - the techniques that it had observed in the conflict that had held it before its escape. And finally, it was desperate. And true desperation is a spark that can light the flames of brilliant genius, if only for a little while. The Weave's creation was a realisation of that frantic brilliance, and in that the Change surpassed itself.

In terms that can be understood; the Change tore reality apart twice over, both in a single place, and then overlaid the pieces with itself and stretched them out across all of reality, connected to all that is and was, for the Weave was made to exist at no single time. The breadth of its knowledge is wholly unknown for the Change never had a true chance to test it, but Liral believes that it did - and still does - remain capable of remembering beyond the memory of the Titans. If this is true or not, and more importantly what would be found if Liral succeeded in doing this is something that scares and fascinates her in equal measure.

Breaking
The Breaking of the Weave is what finally 'killed' the Change that had survived so much, reducing it into a state of pained madness from which only a shadow of it emerged - that shadow being the Goddess Liral. A result of what was arguable spite on the part of the Gearworks and Beyond, both exerted their power upon the edges of the Weave that brushed upon their domains, applying sufficient force to utterly shatter its pattern in those places. These cracks spread inwards, reaching to the very heart of the Weave where the Change had thought to rest, and drove it mad with agony. The Weave was, remember, a piece of the Change. And to have such a thing broken so tortuously was more than it could endure.

The Breaking also robbed the Weave of its coherency, turning the well organised stores of knowledge within into jumbled messes. Most of the knowledge still remains, for it is very hard to truly destroy such things, but it is so fragmented in the majority of its nature - and more, terribly hard to find - that Liral's duty as a warden is currently not much more than that of a divine librarian whose library has been attacked by hoodlums and is now trying to put everything back together. Here and there she finds pieces of knowledge, little clues and sometimes great wonders, but until the Weave is fully restored - if that can even by done - the full glory of its memory will be lost.

Current Nature
As stated above, the remnants of the Weave are a total mess for the most part, but a mess that is slowly beginning to repair itself. Pieces of its Pattern still hold through the majority of its structure, and it is possible that the Change built some form of caretaker function into its creation before it lost its mind to the Breaking. Or it could just be fragments of Liral's own mind working upon the Weave as she is unaware. Indeed, Liral's name itself is a result of the Weave's repair, for it spelled out that name on her return to it from Gaia, so either is possible. The Goddess is almost obsessed with fixing the Weave, and will refuse any offered help unless it is shown to her that fixing the Weave is beyond the capabilities of a single Shard. A clue to this is actually hidden in what memory she has of the Change, for the Change was many shards made one. As what is left of the Change, Liral too might classify as such, but only in the most hand-me-down sort of way possible.

Most of Liral is of the opinion that she herself cannot fix the Weave, that it is beyond the ability of any Shard, and that to truly restore it she must release Viviul from her prison. This is not actually true, but one who is mad rarely sees all the options.