Tsuchi Nemuru

Tsuchi, the most skilled Earth-Vein Speaker in the great cave city of Shin'en-to in The Root Realm, has the unusual constitution of constant connection to the mycelium network. He is the first person to have received an "echo" of The Great Fall 1,000 years ago through the Memory of the Earth.

The content transmitted by the echo is fragmentary, but it suggests that in the previous Great Fall, The Canopy Isles and The Root Realm may have cooperated to overcome the disaster. Tsuchi reported this discovery to the Root Realm Federation, but the conclusion of cooperation with The Canopy Isles was politically unacceptable and has been shelved.

The Listener of Shin'en-to

Tsuchi first connected to the mycelium network at seven, during training in Shin'en-to's Earth-Vein facility. The ability does not run in families — yet from birth he resonated with the mycelium's frequency without instruction. Most Earth-Vein Speakers read the present state of the earth. Tsuchi sometimes receives memories decades or centuries old. The elders of Shin'en-to called this an ill omen and kept him at a distance. Exceptional ability, he learned early, comes paired with isolation. He accepted both without complaint.

The Echo and Three Roles

One year ago, the echo arrived — a thousand years deep, fragmentary but unmistakable. The Canopy Isles and The Root Realm had cooperated. The echo survived without a clear record of how, only that it happened and that it mattered. Tsuchi's report was shelved on political grounds. He continues regardless, because within the echo are fragments of method — details that, matched against Sora's Aether Crystal data, might reconstruct what those two civilizations once did together. Meeting Sora through Hane's brokerage was the first time in a year that the weight of the echo eased. The mycelium connects everything beneath the earth. Tsuchi believes the connection above ground must follow.