The Covenant of Coexistence
How the Peoples of Rootworld Live Without Devouring One Another
Rootworld does not function through dominance alone.
It survives through negotiated balance.
Every intelligent species within Xylos emerged from a different ecological necessity—some as cultivators, some as predators, some as archivists, and some as living anomalies. Their coexistence is not accidental, nor peaceful by default. It is the result of ancient accords, biological interdependence, and the planet’s quiet enforcement of equilibrium.
The world allows conflict.
It does not allow collapse.
The Verdant Majority: Floroids & Fauns
Floroids and Fauns are the cultural and demographic backbone of Rootworld.
Floroids act as ecological architects—living infrastructure, agricultural intelligence, and biological engineers. They regulate growth cycles, atmospheric balance, and nutrient flows across strata.
Fauns serve as mediators, administrators, and philosophers. Their long lives and empathic biologies make them natural diplomats between wildly different forms of consciousness.
Together, they form the Verdant Consensus—not a ruling empire, but a distributed governance system that prioritizes planetary stability over individual ambition.
They do not rule through force.
They rule through dependence.
The Liminal Minds: Lumcap Sages & Spore Cultures
Lumcap Sages exist at the intersection of biology, light, and memory.
Eyeless and attuned to bioluminescent resonance, they function as:
Knowledge keepers
Signal interpreters
Translators between species that do not share language
Their fungal networks span multiple biomes, allowing them to perceive changes in Rootworld before others do. When Lumcaps withdraw from a region, it is taken as a warning.
Sporetech cultures are respected—and feared—for their ability to accelerate decay or rebirth. They are tolerated because nothing else can correct certain imbalances.
The Predatory Stewards: Drow & Bone Tech Societies
The Drow are not villains in Rootworld—they are necessary predators.
Evolved for low-light strata and extreme environments, Drow societies manage:
Apex monster populations
Bone Tech resource extraction
Sealed or hostile biomes
Their use of Ossedomancy and predator technology unsettles surface-minded races, but Rootworld recognizes efficiency over morality.
Where Fauns negotiate, Drow enforce.
Where growth fails, Drow hunt.
The Fluid Races: Lakesirens & Slimeborn
Lakesirens are bound to sacred waters and function as healers, traders, and emotional stabilizers. Their presence calms conflict zones, and their control over liquid alchemy makes them indispensable.
Slimeborn are the most alien of Rootworld’s peoples—beings of light, crystal dust, and psychic residue. They do not reproduce traditionally and often emerge in response to conceptual imbalance rather than biological need.
Their coexistence is conditional:
Slimeborn are given freedom of movement
In return, they act as living archives of trauma, memory, and lost design
They remember what others cannot afford to.
The Wanderers: Pandaren & Nightskin Goblins
Pandaren monks and mediators move freely between factions. Their disciplined philosophy of balance makes them ideal peacekeepers, healers, and teachers. Though jovial, they are not naïve—they understand violence deeply and choose restraint deliberately.
Nightskin Goblins operate as navigators, scouts, and astral interpreters. Their star-mapped skin and prophetic dreams allow Rootworld to remain oriented within its impossible geometry. They are trusted with paths others cannot perceive.
The Outsiders: Surface-Kin
Surface-Kin exist outside the Covenant.
They are tolerated, not integrated.
Though adaptable and individually valuable, their technologies disrupt Rootworld’s feedback systems. Many do not realize that every action—mining, waste, probing—registers as biological injury to the planet.
Some seek harmony.
Others seek dominance.
Rootworld has not decided what to do with them yet.
How Conflict Is Contained
Coexistence persists because:
Resources are biologically regulated, not hoarded
Predation is ritualized and monitored
Expansion is vertical, not horizontal
The ecosystem itself intervenes when imbalance grows too severe
When diplomacy fails, Rootworld escalates:
Monsters migrate
Weather shifts
Ancient strata awaken
War is not declared.
It emerges.
One-Paragraph Rulebook Summary
The races of Rootworld coexist through an ancient covenant of necessity, not peace. Floroids cultivate, Fauns mediate, Drow enforce, Lumcaps remember, and others adapt where they must. Predation, growth, and decay are not moral choices here—they are functions. When balance breaks, Rootworld does not ask who is right. It responds.