Xylos is not a dead surface above a living underworld.
It is a watchful skin—thin, reactive, and already compromised.
To those who arrive from orbit, Xylos appears calm, even empty. That illusion has cost many expeditions their certainty.
Biome Type: Grassland
Atmosphere: Breathable, mineral-heavy, light-diffusing
Light Cycle: Perpetual twilight
The Whispering Grasslands stretch across Xylos in vast, rolling expanses of silvery vegetation. The grass grows tall—often reaching chest height—and bends constantly, regardless of wind direction. Travelers report the sensation of being addressed, as if the land itself is murmuring observations rather than sounds.
Scattered across the plains stand ancient monolithic stones, some taller than towers, others half-buried like teeth breaking the soil. These stones hum faintly with arcane resonance, their presence warping local magnetic fields and interfering with Surface-Kin instrumentation.
No definitive origin for the stones has been identified.
That fact unsettles Surface scientists more than any hostile lifeform.
The plains exist in a state of eternal dusk. The sky glows in muted blues and violets, as though sunlight is filtered through something unseen. Shadows stretch long and soft, never fully dark, never fully defined.
The silvery grass ripples endlessly, producing a constant whisper—neither wind nor language, but a layered sound that feels patterned when listened to too closely.
The monoliths emit a low, steady blue luminescence. Their surfaces are etched with symbols that resist translation, rearranging subtly when observed from different angles. At night—if such a term applies—the stones glow brighter, casting slow-moving light patterns across the fields.
Auditory Drift: Prolonged exposure causes travelers to hear familiar voices within the grass.
Navigation Failure: Maps remain accurate, but confidence erodes—many explorers second-guess known routes.
Instrument Desync: Scanners report conflicting data depending on proximity to monoliths.
Biological Feedback: Native fauna avoid the stones; Rootworld creatures do not.
The Whispering Grasslands are not merely surface terrain.
They are pressure valves—zones where Rootworld’s influence bleeds upward, diffused and diluted. The monoliths are believed to be ancient stabilizers, placed long before Surface-Kin arrival to prevent catastrophic overgrowth or collapse from below.
Surface mining operations near these plains show higher rates of biospheric poisoning downstream.
Rootworld remembers where the damage starts.
To Surface-Kin corporations and research bodies, the grasslands represent:
untapped energy fields
rare resonant materials
proof of pre-industrial alien civilization
To Rootworld factions, the plains are a warning:
the surface is listening
the barrier is thinning
exploitation echoes downward
Rootworld inhabitants refer to the grasslands as:
“The Place Where Lies Begin.”
Because here, the world is still polite.
It whispers instead of correcting.
For now.