The Casket of Woe

I wanted the first prison of The Dark to be revealed to have a name that sounded both grand and ominous. I also wanted the object to be hefty, because it was a physical symbol of the burden Lucy had assumed as the Mythic. For plot purposes, it also needed to be something buoyant. Given this, a wooden box made the most sense. There was also the allusion to Pandora’s box in that both contained evils best left contained.

Once I knew what it was, I settled upon it being a “casket” because “Box of Woe” doesn’t sound nearly as portentous. Caskets are a staple of fantasy fiction, but the one I knew best was the Casket of Ancient Winters from the Marvel Thor comics. The additional meaning that casket has – as a coffin – tied in nicely to this object’s knack for killing things.

The last part of the name came, fittingly, last. After trying on endless different words that referred to various beings and places, I did a simple synonym search of the word “evil”. Bingo!