The Rootbound are not a faction with banners or hierarchy. They are a condition.
They are Surface-Kin who crossed a threshold Rootworld never advertised:
They stopped extracting
They stopped categorizing
They stopped leaving
Rootworld did not invite them.
It responded to them.
Rootbound identity forms slowly—through adaptation, loss, and irreversible choice. By the time someone is fully Rootbound, returning to the Surface is no longer possible biologically, culturally, or psychologically.
They are tolerated by Rootworld, hunted by the Surface, and distrusted by nearly everyone else.
Rootbound are living proof of three uncomfortable truths:
The Surface way is not inevitable
Assimilation is possible
Balance can be chosen, not imposed
This makes them existential threats—not militarily, but ideologically.
They do not argue.
They exist.
Not all Rootbound are the same.
Botanists, medics, guides
Focus on repair and transition zones
Avoid violence unless unavoidable
They believe Rootworld will eventually correct the Surface without war.
Former researchers or soldiers
Carry guilt but refuse erasure
Record, remember, and warn
Many act as living archives of Surface crimes.
Rare, controversial
Will sabotage extraction sites or kill Surface operatives
Believe Rootworld is being too patient
Other Rootbound often distance themselves from Breakers—but quietly benefit from their actions.
No faction is more hated by the Rootbound.
The Bloom-Betrayers are not outsiders—they are Rootworld natives who collaborate with Surface interests, trafficking their own kind for experimentation, leverage, or survival.
As traitors to reciprocity
As the worst possible mirror of Surface logic
As proof that exploitation can be learned
“The Surface extracts because it doesn’t know better.
Bloom-Betrayers extract because they do.”
Rootbound never negotiate with Bloom-Betrayers
Information exchanges are traps by default
Violence against them is considered preventative, not criminal
If a Rootbound helps capture or expose a Bloom-Betrayer, Rootworld’s response is unusually swift and decisive.
This is one of the few times Rootworld approves of elimination.
The Verdant Celestials are floroid nobles whose power comes from mastery over growth, beauty, and controlled abundance. They cultivate Rootworld as an art form.
They are not extractive.
They are curatorial.
With deep ambivalence.
Celestials protect ecosystems—beautifully
But they reshape them for status and lineage
Balance is maintained, but expression is constrained
Rootbound see them as:
Indulgent
Detached
Too comfortable with inherited authority
“They don’t listen to the forest.
They conduct it.”
Rootbound may work under Celestial domains
Never within Celestial inner courts
Disagreements are subtle, political, and dangerous
Some Celestials quietly admire the Rootbound.
Others consider them an embarrassment—proof that Rootworld does not need nobility to thrive.
To the Rootbound:
Bloom-Betrayers are corruption
Verdant Celestials are stagnation
Both represent failures of relationship:
One sells the world
The other owns it
Rootbound reject both.
They believe:
“Belonging is neither transaction nor inheritance.”
Rootworld does not reward loyalty.
It rewards responsiveness.
The Rootbound:
Adapt without domination
Accept correction
Carry memory without exploiting it
They are inefficient.
They are slow.
They are costly.
And they are necessary—because they represent choice in a system that otherwise corrects automatically.
Rootbound are never fully safe.
The Surface hunts them
Bloom-Betrayers betray them
Verdant Celestials tolerate them conditionally
Rootworld will abandon them if they destabilize balance
There is no sanctuary.
Only continued participation.
The Rootbound are Surface-Kin who chose to remain in Rootworld not as rulers, rebels, or guests, but as participants. Hated by the Surface, despised by Bloom-Betrayers, and quietly undermining the Verdant Celestials’ claim to cultural authority, they exist in constant danger. Rootworld does not protect them—but it listens to them. And that is enough to make them worth killing.