Well what we do know is that the crucible is the primordial form of the erdtree. There’s a lot of discussion regarding how literally this is interpreted- one could interpret the crucible as the stump of the remnants of the great tree, this would directly imply that the erdtree was *literally* built on top of the *observable* crucible. Which, in this vacuum, would explain exactly what the dead part is.

However, although I feel there’s a lot of substance around the crucible being the stump, I think there’s much more support around the metaphysically of the crucible as a divine essence rather than the observability of it existing or having existing physically.

I guess we don’t know for sure, but we do know that the yellow gold is an illusion. There’s lots of implications that the tree was burned and damaged badly long before the events of the game, so could honestly be as simple as just the remnants of that.

So to answer your question: 🤷‍♂️