Chrysalis

The Grove Keeper did not have a name, none of the bruan'chii did. Not in the sense of the sapient races, or even the Colony, it would seem. They lacked many things that others had. No first or family name, no gender, no homeland, or indeed, any real history. They possessed no spoken language, little industry or cultural artefacts, no religion or relics or indeed anything that outsiders might think was essential to bind them together.

And yet, no people on Pangera were more united than they. The reason for this was simple, and impossible for any other group to replicate: they were of one soul.

The Keeper could remember being born. A splinter of Mother Tree had broken away, not her physical form, but her very spirit, and been cupped in her loving hands. Embraced by the Mother, that shard had begun to grow. Ideas, thoughts and emotions had coalesced slowly inside that timeless realm within the Tree as the Keeper had been nurtured by its sole parent. Over time that tiny shard had grown into a bright, burning spirit of its own, a fully grown entity, ready to be unleashed on the world.

Yet that had not been the way. Rather than being sent out into the world, the Keeper had been kept close to the Mother, released from her hands and allowed to mingle with the other spirits she had raised.

How to describe that world? The Keeper didn't have the words to paint an accurate picture. There was warmth, and comfort, and safety. More than those things, there was community. Thousands upon thousands of bruan'chii frolicked there, held within the Soul Home. In that place they experienced a wordless joy as they enjoyed the company of quite literal kindred spirits. Of one soul, they had no need to communicate, able to share thoughts and emotions on a primal level that transcended physical reality.

The Keeper had spent most of its life in the Soul Home, beyond time, beyond the individual, held in the embrace of the Mother.

Now though, the Keeper felt the push.

a directive. The Mother Tree did not interact with her children in that way. Instead, it was a gentle suggestion, but one that not a single bruan'chii had ever refused. As the Keeper's spirit began

and each other's company. The Keeper felt a deep satisfaction. This was what it meant to

was always a strange shift of perspective, when they joined with a body. They transitioned from beings of pure light that existed only within the Mother, to creatures of mundane reality, with senses and limbs. There was sadness in the

experienced a quiet, dream-like state as the body prepared by the Mother continued to gestate. A steady flow of life mana poured in and in response the Keeper grew. Powerful, trunk-like arms swelled with strength as the bark coating thickened and

others growing alongside them. So many… clearly the Mother

giant form broke free of the

at the same time. Keepers and regular bruan'chii alike shook their new bodies as they connected with each other via their wordless

presence of their mother descend. Her mind, so enormous and powerful that it dwarfed their flickering selves, lay a gentle hand

quickly organised themselves, gathering together with their kindred and then setting off through the tunnels. They had been formed close to the main roots, but their steps quickly ate up the ground as the proceeded through the

fierce energy that radiated from

held them back for so long, but at last they had been

too long, nibbling at her roots and consuming the spirits of their kin. The aid of the Colony had helped turned the tide, and for that they would be eternally grateful, but