Rootbound

@Surface-Kin Assimilates of Rootworld

“We did not betray the Surface.
We simply stopped pretending it was our home.”

Who They Are

The Rootbound are Surface-Kin who chose to remain in Rootworld—not as conquerors, not as observers, but as participants.

They were botanists, engineers, medics, surveyors, junior officers. People sent to measure, extract, and catalog. People who stayed long enough to listen.

At first, they followed protocol.
Then they began to hesitate.
Then they began to change.

They rejected Surface exploitation not through rebellion, but through assimilation.

Assimilation Is Not Cosmetic

Rootbound do not merely dress like Rootworld inhabitants.

They:

• Eat living foods and adapt their metabolism

• Accept symbiotic flora grafts and fungal immunity

• Alter their breathing rhythms to cavern atmospheres

• Allow Rootworld organisms to remember them

Some undergo deliberate biological adaptation.
Others change more subtly—voice, cadence, posture.

A Rootbound may speak with a lilting, cavern-soft accent—slow vowels, rhythmic pauses. To Surface ears, it sounds foreign. You would never guess their origin until you see their face.

And even then, you might doubt yourself.

Why They Stayed

Most Rootbound did not leave out of guilt.

They left out of recognition.

They speak of:

• Forests that responded when treated gently

• Plants that healed faster when asked permission

• Light that changed color when emotions shifted

• Work that felt acknowledged

Many fell in love—not always with people, but with coherence.

“For the first time,” one Rootbound botanist wrote,
“nothing I touched became smaller.”

Rootworld did not reward them.

It accepted them.

How the Surface Sees Them

Surface-Kin doctrine labels them:

• Defectors

• Compromised Assets

• Cultural Contaminants

Unofficially, they are called “Botanist Traitors.”

The term is spoken with particular venom—because botanists were meant to be careful, not sentimental.

Surface command fears them more than rebels.

Why?

Because Rootbound:

• Undermine the narrative of necessary exploitation

• Prove assimilation is possible

• Complicate moral certainty

They represent choice.

Shoot on Sight

Surface-Kin soldiers operating in Rootworld are issued a standing order:

Rootbound individuals are to be terminated on sight.
Do not attempt recovery.
Do not engage in dialogue.

The official justification cites:

• Bio-contamination risk

• Intelligence compromise

• Psychological instability

The real reason is simpler:

Rootbound make Surface soldiers hesitate.

How Rootworld Treats Them

Rootworld does not grant the Rootbound status.

It grants them context.

They are watched carefully.
They are tested quietly.
They are allowed to fail—once.

Some ecosystems accept them fully.
Others never will.

A Rootbound who harms balance is not forgiven for good intentions.

They are corrected like anyone else.

Cultural Role

Most Rootbound become:

• Quiet caretakers

• Interpreters between worlds

• Keepers of forbidden knowledge

• Guides through biomes that reject outsiders

They avoid leadership.

They know what authority does.

Tragic Reality

The Rootbound belong nowhere safely.

• The Surface will kill them

• Rootworld will never fully forget what they were

• Fauns trust them conditionally

• Drow track them as liabilities

And yet, they stay.

Not because it is safe.
But because it is true.

A Rootbound Saying

“They say we went native.
But native to what?
A place that listens, or a place that extracts?”