User:Ecstasy Amphetamine/sandbox4

At the depths of our natural world is the very heart of nature itself (also referred to as nature's blasted core, heart of all creation, heart of existence, core of all existence, fundament of nature, core of the universe, etc.), a plane of existence in the world of Dota 2.

Description
Although nature is very much real, what we know is hardly the truth of the cosmos. The reality of reality is that there is a central hinterland deep within the totality of creation, a world that has torment, suffering, and decay as its essentials. This is the heart of nature. Due to its hidden nature, it can be seen thru the haunted Chronoptic Crystals, and those who do so will find a revelation so horrifying and hideous that it alters them irreparably on every level of their being. As such, the heart of nature is lurid and vile.

Besides the core of Nature being a world of torment and decay, it is said by Leshrac to be a blasted world, meaning that it's a nature destroyed and damaged. Despite its evilness, it's substantial to the existence of this universe, since it is called the “core of the universe” or the “fundament of nature” to Enigma, the latter name implying that this foul plane is the very foundation of all creation which supports its existence—a starting point for creation from where all things in nature are formed from.

According to Leshrac, the physical form generally comes from this plane of existence, which may explain why it is called the heart of nature. If every being's form originates from this blasted plane, then all who have their bodies provided to them from this plane is undergoing an existence of suffering that they have yet to learn until they realize it by seeing this evil truth of nature for themselves, since their corporeal body's origin is a world made of tormented elements.

The Impurities
Akin to the natural world's elements, the Impurities are the elements that form the heart of all creation. As impure elements, the whole that they compose mirrors their properties, thus it's a plane of blight and torment. There are four Impurities corresponding with the elements/states of matter: sinister energy, tainted water, evil wind, and brittle earth.

Judging by these impure elements of nature, the heart of nature is also hostile, polluted, and broken down to the point of fragility, truly making this plane a realm of utter chaos.

Locations
A malfunction with the reality warping Continuum Device opened the paths to many realms and dimensions in the Continuum Vault, including the Weald of Torment, which is implied to be in the heart of nature. The nihilist Ash the Defiler lives in this forest.

Speculation
Interestingly, the place chosen for Enigma to receive random item drops is the "fundament of nature" or the "core of the universe" where things he calls “treasures” spring from.

Perhaps this world was chosen as his source of random drops because it is a chaotic plane, further adding that the heart of nature is also chaotic because of its randomness, besides its impurity and desolation. This also adds the fact that this evil heart of nature does not just create the form itself, but just about anything that Enigma considers a worthy treasure. As such its ability to create things from chaos means that this place isn't just the source of the form, but also the source of creation itself, at least on a material level.

Speaking of creation from chaos, this is similar to creation from nothingness. This may bridge the gap between this realm and everything related to it with nothingness since a state of chaos is closer to annihilation or nothingness than a state of order, as the Chaos Knight himself can attest.

The heart of nature being the source of creation competes in validity with the various creation stories found in Dota 2, such as existence being created from the Elder Titan's mistakes, all of existence being born from the sundering of the Wailing One, the essential threads that compose reality being woven from the Loom, etc.

Notable Inhabitants
Judging by the kinds of people who know or are related with the place, the heart of reality is known to and meant for nihilists only. After all, mere knowledge of this plane is enough to turn anyone into a nihilist.

It's interesting to note that there seems to be no intelligences that are native to this place. The only intelligences here are those that aren't even native creatures, but rather visitors like Leshrac (although he, and perhaps all of nature, technically belong here). Perhaps the lack of native, sapient beings has something to do with this place having witless elements, with "witless" possibly meaning that they lack a mind. If there were any native intelligences here, then Leshrac would not have called this place a cloister. But this isn't the case, implying that he's the only creature here.

Heroes

 * he is alone here
 * guardian and agent
 * having learned that the truth of nature is t, s, and d, via Chronoptic Crystals he believes that everyone is tormented like he is, but laments that they don't know the horrifying truth that he knows as such he forces everyone to see the truth like he did by sending them there, returning their form to where it came from. here, they will return to the impurities and merge with them
 * tithe of gold
 * end to it all
 * basis of evil personality and nihilism

Characters
Ash the Defiler lives in the Weald of Torment, accessible in the Continuum Vault. His place's name implies that it's in the heart of nature. It's unknown if he coexists with Leshrac.

Flora
Solely based on the plants that grow on Leshrac's body—which is completely at one with this realm and thus it's a reflection of what may grow in there—the heart of nature seems to have its own plant life, just like the natural plane that it supports. Eldritch cyan branches (or roots, based on the title of the cosmetic that they are featured in) that have what appears to be pink thorns grow here, which may be used to channel a great but unknown power through them. They might be nourished by the impure element of tainted water, since these branches appeared as one of the several growths on Leshrac's body after he drank the tainted waters.

Whether these branches or roots of strange unnatural powers belonged to or are derived from a larger plant like a tree or a bush from this core of reality’s implied ecosystem is not known. After all, woods like the Weald of Torment exist here. As such, these weird roots/branches seem to imply that even life and ordered structures can still exist in a realm as tumultous as this. In spite of this, it is possible that these branches did not assume order in this heart of creation until they took shape on his form in a less chaotic plane such as our own. Basically, they were formless in their plane due to its chaos until they took form in ours thru Leshrac's body. Regardless, this is all just speculation. Wicked vines seem to live here as well. Unlike wisdom that needs the vital elements of bright light, fresh air, and clean waters to grow, these vines are a twisted sort of wisdom that feeds and thrives off of their host's anguish, black thoughts, and foul deeds.

These vines are referred to as a “wisdom” which may be synonymous with sapient. This seems to imply that they are a sapient or some sort of intelligence, contradicting the aforementioned statement of the heart of nature lacking any intelligences. However, it's possible that they aren't a sapient. Just because they deal with products of the mind, it doesn't automatically imply that they have one of their own. They may simply rely on said products for nourishment and may have nothing to do with their alleged consciousness.

Other organisms
Thorny and stone-hard fungi grow in this place. They might be referred to as "unnatural" because they are of the heart of nature, which is beyond our natural world. Or they are unnatural because they didn't grow under normal circumstances, instead growing on Leshrac's body as one of the many growths that he gained from sipping the tainted waters. The latter seems to imply that these fungi may be nourished by the tainted waters.

The existence of fungi in this plane implies the existence of other multicellular organisms beyond them, perhaps even animals, but so far there are none.

Heroes
When receives a “treasure” of great worth, he will mention its source: a place he calls the “fundament of nature” and the “core of the universe.”  These two names might be referring to a single place and both names are synonymous with the heart of nature, which means that he may be referring to this said plane of existence. This makes him one of the few entities to know about the evil truth of nature. Him knowing this place may also explain why he's nihilistic and pessimistic like Leshrac and Ash. Upon acquiring an, Enigma reuses the second voice line, implying that these runes come from the core of the universe for some reason.

Trivia

 * The heart of nature's lore may have been inspired by the concept of the world being created from a state of chaos, common in creation myths that depict this world as being made from disorder. Between these stories and myths, chaos may be depicted as a formless heap of mass or pure nothingness, or even a being who identifies as either depictions.

Description
The evil Impurities are the impure elements that make up the hinterland at the innermost part of all nature, akin to how our nature is composed of the elements. Despite the Impurities being, well, impure, they can be "distilled to their essence" for some reason, contradicting their inherent impurity. Leshrac only mentions the said purification of his Impurities once he has been reincarnated, but it's not yet known what this distillation has to do with his reformation process.

The reality of all nature, according to the nihilosopher Leshrac, is all about torment and decay. As the elements of the core of nature, the Impurities embody all of these evil truths of the cosmos, such as torment and suffering; as well as pollution and corrosion. These Impurities embody chaos and hence they are the stuff of disorder in nature.

According to Leshrac, our form generally comes from the heart of all nature, which might explain the names of said realm. As the elements of the world that is the body's genesis, the Impurities may have a contribution to the creation of a being's body. This may explain why Leshrac knows the truth that all of nature is undergoing an existence of torment that they have yet to realize until they see the foul truth of reality for themselves. If the Impurities had a hand in providing our very forms, then we all may have traces of their influence, which is why all of nature turns out to be tormented like Leshrac all along...

Upon reviving, Leshrac mentions witless elements that restore his life, which possibly refers to the Impurities. It is unknown why they are witless, but it is known that they wield healing properties (which can be tapped into via ) and the ability to resurrect him. Apparently, the life that these Impurities give to him is unnatural.

Why the Impurities are witless
The Impurities being witless may have something to do with the fact that Leshrac is the only intelligence in the heart of nature, thus he is utterly alone there.

Witless properties implies that the Impurities lack a mind, unlike the elements of the material plane. For instance, there exists a living and sentient desert inside a certain planet within the vast terrene plane. This desert is the Scintillant Waste, a gritty intelligence that encompasses a torrid empire of pure sand. As such, the entire sandscape in itself is a massive sandy elemental. Since the material plane has sentient and living elements, it has the capacity to conceive and sustain elemental life.

On the other hand, the Impurities are witless, thus they cannot bring about any intelligent creatures, let alone an elemental. The only way the Impurities can create elementals of their own is by having an intelligent alien creature provided to them from beyond the cosmos' core to transform into an elemental of the Impurities. This conclusion came from the fact that Leshrac is the only one of his kind, no one else like him existed before him, and he was just a worldly philosopher from our world before he became deeply connected to the heart of all nature. When he found this place, he became the elemental that he is now.

This explains why Leshrac is alone in the heart of reality, as there is nothing in said place that is an intelligence like him. This also explains why Leshrac is the only one of his kind, until the later introduction of Ash the Defiler in the lore of Dota 2. This may also explain why the life that these Impurities give is unnatural. Since these impure elements were not meant to provide life (as proven by the absence of living intelligences native to nature's core) until Leshrac came along and somehow exploited their power for himself, their life-giving power is unnatural.

This speculation seems to have horrifying implications. If the Impurities are witless, then that means that the evil truth of nature is not evil because of anything related to morality, but simply because what we think of as evil is just nature doing its thing. Just like the real life universe when we consider all of its horrors—cruel creatures that can bring excruciating pain and thus an awful death, natural disasters of death and destruction, world-ending events like meteor falls and black holes—these are not evil things so much as the way of nature. The Impurities have no wits to begin with, so morality doesn't even apply to them. Nature's essential yet unpleasant hinterland reserves exquisite torment upon us all, not out of ill will, but simply because that is the way of nature, unfortunately.

Contradicting this is the existence of an evil vine that grows on Leshrac's form. More specifically, it is described as a "twisted sort of wisdom" in its lore, implying at the plant's sapience and thus it possibly has a mind of its own. This vine feeds and thrives off of Leshrac's inherent anguish, black thoughts, and foul deeds.

List of Impurities
Like the elements that make up all nature, the Impurities are the elements that form reality's foul foundation. With these evil, blasted, tormented, and corrupted elements, the horrible hinterland that the Impurities constitute mirrors all of its elements' properties. The following are the four Impurities: All four Impurities are akin to the elements of air, water, fire, and earth, respectively; and they all seem to correspond with the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.
 * Evil winds that apparently rise in upward currents from unknown origins. Perhaps they are destructive, hence the core of nature is blasted.
 * There's a windlike background sound in Leshrac's spell. Mayhaps this is what fluxes the Edict's Chronoptic energy between the planes. Who knows?
 * Tainted waters that can strengthen and sustain the consumer, although perhaps this only applies to those of the heart of nature.
 * When Leshrac drank these waters, he gained a growth of power-channeling branches and unnatural fungi that acts as armor with its stone-hard composition.
 * Apparently, the growths that come from these tainted waters, such as Leshrac's curved rack, can corrupt the soul beyond restoration if they are merely touched.
 * Sinister energies that apparently energize the likes of Leshrac, since he sounds quite pleased and refreshed upon receiving them.
 * It's possible that this sinister energy is actually Chronoptic energy, which also means that the latter is one of the Impurities.
 * Supporting this is Leshrac's spell. Its blasting energy flows from one plane to another, the former possibly being nature's core where the Impurities are.
 * Furthermore, is said to be an impure impulse. Its energy is implied to be Chronoptic energy as well, further implying its nature as an impurity.
 * Pulse Nova is implied to use Chronoptic energy because it has the same purple and orange color and same target SFX as the Chronoptic energy of Diabolic Edict.
 * With its apparent nourishing properties, this sinister energy might be the same as Chronoptic energy, since the latter also nourishes its respective crystals.
 * The Chronoptic energy of spreads the same torment that afflicts Leshrac.  As such, this Impurity embodies torment, one of nature's evil truths.
 * The brittle earth. Nothing else is known about it, besides it being brittle compared to typical earth possibly due to it embodying decay, one of the evil truths of nature.
 * Said element may be why he has the spell, since he destroys the earth in nature to make it mirror its brittle counterpart at nature's core.

Heroes
So far, is the only Hero (let alone character) in Dota 2 with a relationship to the Impurities. His connection with these elements run deep into his being.
 * His existence is at one with the Impurities and his form is entirely composed of them. Thus, he shares their innate torment which he must suffer for as long as he exists.
 * Despite the torment they inflict on him, they are his main and only source of healing, which can be tapped into via . They are also his source of strength.
 * Additionally, they are able to grant him new lives if he dies, but the lives they give to him are said by himself to be unnatural, which he accepts nevertheless.
 * He is the self-professed guardian of the Impurities, likely an extension of his self-professed role as nature's darkest agent. He give tithes of gold to them for some reason.
 * Painfully aware of the horrible truth of it all, Leshrac seeks his own death so that he might learn the worse mysteries hidden from him by the Impurities in the afterlife.
 * Leshrac often invokes the Impurities in his actions.  When he dies, he mentions the Impurities out of lament, showing his great devotion to them.
 * Those who have been killed by Leshrac are sent back to the Impurities afterwards that they may merge with these impure elements for an agonizing fate like his own.

Resources
The Chronoptic Crystals might a conduit of the Impurities, since they channel Chronoptic energies through them, implied to be an Impurity in the “List of Impurities” section.