nshark

My personal head-canon is that the Rot is entropy given form. As Jonas states, the Rot is "Desolation made manifest"(diet of kings). In the end "In its final stages, the rot consumes the mind and body whole, leaving nothing left of distinction"(diet of kings). The state with the highest entropy is one of sameness, a perfectly equal distribution of energy across all space. The Rot leaves it's victims as a putrid soup of sameness. It reduces organics, perhaps the most ordered things in the universe, into a perfectly entropic state. That raises the question of what the Great Machine did - this is conjecture, but as mentioned, the Rust World has changed from what Jonas saw centuries ago. Jonas saw that [the rust world] shown like gemstones, but the rust world today is rusted beyond recognition. Rusting is (while not scientifically in any way) analogous to rotting. Both are an erosion of something over time. Why then is the dimension across the lens rusting away? My headcanon is the the Great Machine threw the Rot, this manifestion of entropy across the dimensional boundary into the rust world. Thus the Rot, without organics to rot, became the Rust, to rust away this world of metal. The most interesting question, is therefore, why did this manifestation of entropy begin? I don't think it's controversal to say that Jonas, and his look through the Lens are the instigating factor. The Rot manifests itself on account of one of his actions - soon after Jonas has "a breakthrough", the reports of the Rot begin. What action - I believe it was the creation of the Prima Materia, which is mentioned in exactly one tapestry's description I can find, but is some kind of miracle material that makes anything possible. Nothing like that comes for free, and if I had to guess, the price Jonas unwittingly(probably) paid was the Rot manifesting. I think the prima materia(or something Jonas did) is like unto taking a loan of energy(or perhaps time) from the universe, and the Rot is it's debt collector. What the Great Machine did then, is stave off the debt collectors by selling the Rust world to them. Why then is the Rot returning? Because the ledgers are not settled yet, and cannot not be settled until the prima materia is erased.