Are there any items or Grimoire that explicitly states when the Crucible was formed? Common consensus places it after the Twilight Gap, but there’re always naysayers, and after I ran into one of them, hence my question. Thing is… nearly all of the Items in the Ishtar database that mention Crucible do so indirectly.
So, do y’all have any idea or recollection of what you’ve read in your research?
Naysayers there may be, but the summary says all.
Battle of Twilight Gap: “Following the battle, Lord Shaxx petitioned the Vanguard to set up the crucible as a training ground for Guardians so that the City would be better prepared for any future attacks. One of the first areas dedicated for use in the crucible was the gun position that had been overrun by the Fallen. The arena was named Twilight Gap in honor of the battle.”
That’s the Ishtar Collective summary. But you’re right. Everything post-Twilight all indicate both the Crucible and the Iron Banner was created to better train Guardians.
Yeah whoops it was the summary 
This one from the Crucible Handler card pretty much spells it out. “Lord Shaxx is one of the heroes of the Battle of the Twilight Gap, having led the counterattack that pushed the Fallen from the City walls. Fearing that another full-scale assault would be more than the City could repel, Shaxx chose to stay in the City to mentor Guardians in the Crucible.”
Knowing that Shaxx founded the Crucible it’s only logical to postulate that he started it post Twilight Gap.
There is a very reasonable argument that the Crucible existed in a less organised form before Shaxx stepped in and repurposed it to train Guardians.
That’s a good point, yes.
Hey @RedRenegade I was just discussing this in the Focused Fire Chat discord!
Ok, so I’m a Naysayer if you will, but believe 100% that I’m in the right on this.
Nothing says that Shaxx founded/formed the Crucible, but rather that he chose to stay and mentor Guardians in it. If you stayed to mentor a Guardians in something, it stands to reason that that something already exists.
Also take these quotes as well:
From Ghost Fragment: City Age
“Now onto the next order of business…Shaxx is here with another proposal for his Crucible”
I’ve seen it argued that they call it “his Crucible”, so it must mean that he started it. I see that differently. They said he’s offering another proposal for his Crucible. This is worded like this for 1 of 2 reasons in my opinion.
Option 1) he’s the Crucible handler already at this point, so they refer to it as his. Just as if a Manager of a sports team wanted to make changes to his team, the owners may say “Joe Maddon is here to make another proposal for his team”. Doesn’t mean it’s HIS TEAM, just that he runs it currenty.
Option 2) the proposal he’s making is to request that he be given the Crucible. So it would be a proposal for his Crucible, as opposed to the current crucible.
I’ve used the Harvard example in previous analogies. I’ll try to do it again. So, Harvard has existed for hundreds of years. But if Elun Musk decides that our future is better with him selling his company and he began mentoring students at Harvard, we wouldn’t assume that meant he started Harvard.
To cap it all of though, is this quote:
Crucible Quartermaster:
“When he chose to remain in the City to oversee the Crucible, Shaxx had Arcite’s combat systems deactivated and rebooted with the Tower’s more civil vendor protocols.”
This card explicitly implies that the Crucible existed before Shaxx chose to remain in the City to oversee it.
You know what, I noticed that a little while after I made the post. 
The Crucible was originally formed in for the Faction Wars. Then the champions would combat in the Crucible. Shaxx was a student of Lord Saladin who was, like, addicted to the Crucible. So he stayed when Saladin left.