Ke’esath Sae’a

## Overview

The Ke’esath Sae’a is a vast subterranean network of mycelium, that is to say, fungal roots. This Great Network is capable of channeling or transporting all manner of energies and substances including nutrients, arcane, and divine power alike. So borne by the power of the Deity of Form, Sa’a Malath Kaal, this fungal web can serve even as a conduit for divine intellect and--in particular--is exceptionally receptive to the consciousness and power of its creator. However, with its endlessly adaptable and resilient nature this may too may change in time. Though less notable than its other traits, the network serves an additional purpose, doing its utmost to bind together the stone and soil of the great Shard so that life might ever subsist upon it.

More notably, the Ke'esath Sae'a--in addition to supplying nutrients to numerous flora and fungi-- has a unique symbiotic relationship with another of the Unbent Lord's creations: namely the Kel'a Maeori. So intertwined with this trees of great size and might, the vast web helps to cycle supernatural energies throughout the Shard, suffusing soil and stone and sky alike as the power is once more released. With time, this interaction is likely to become the chief method through which arcane power suffuses and cycles through the world as it is known in these days beyond the end.

## Notable Traits

The Arcane Labyrinth, as it is sometimes called, owes much of its continued success not to the divine power inherent in its form or even the arcane power coursing through it, but rather to the inherent gifts it was borne unto the world with. The first of this communal organism’s most notable properties is its extremely fast metabolism. This trait allows it to rapidly rebuild itself at a moment’s notice when damage is incurred or when additional roots are needed. The process of growth and regeneration is facilitated not by taking in nutrients, but rather by metabolizing the supernatural energies inherent in the world. This has the notable side effect of producing a sort of arcane waste product that goes on to further increase the viability of soil for other life.

Beyond this, the great mycelial web has another noteworthy trait, and this is the extremely short-lived life cycle of its individual components. Though not particularly noticeable with observation, the individual components of the Ke’esath Sae’a are essentially a simplistic form of microbial fungi, each which binds and communicates with all its neighbors. Rather than attempt to preserve each fungi, the network acts as a sort of superorganism, caring for the wellbeing of the whole rather than that of the individual. Through this behavior and the incredibly short life span of each individual, the organism is capable of adapting at a startlingly rapid rate in the order of several seconds particularly when doing so directly benefits the entire colony.

As a simple example, if a particular branch of the root system is burned away all neighboring individual members will rapidly breed in an asexual fashion with older members dying off to be used as nutrient rich fuel. This process repeats, with only those with traits allowing the organism to resist or otherwise combat the threat surviving. This alteration--if not incompatible with the rest of the network--is then rapidly replicated across the entire organism until the entire population gains resistance.

With these two core properties, the Ke’esath Sae’a is--as an organism--virtually impossible to utterly destroy, barring total and simultaneous annihilation of the whole network. Furthermore, these traits result in the network’s apparent ability to adapt and counter efforts to damage it on the fly at a rate simply unheard of in other organisms.