In Remnant: From The Ashes, The Root operates as the main antagonistic force, an invading army of tree-like creatures who seem hell-bent on the complete and utter decimation of humankind. We are told they have successfully eradicated almost half of the Earth’s population, and when we learn a little bit more, we find out that ours is not the first world they’ve attacked.
What’s not known is exactly why or how this happened. The Root can be discussed as something horrible, but we also hear it praised. The Root is everywhere and yet that are restricted, surprisingly still held back by unknown forces. How are the Dreamers connected to The Root? Is Wallace an active gateway? Why has no one noticed the woman with the tree sticking out of her back? We take a look at some of the most non-sensical things we know about The Root.
10 How Did The Root Actually Invade Earth?
Dreamers? Guardians? Parallel worlds? What exactly is happening at the heart of Remnant: From The Ashes’ narrative is often hard to follow, but players will find even more questions waiting for them when they look into Ward 13’s basement levels.
Beneath Ward 13 we find multiple abandoned offices with working terminals and stray documents which provide players with a Fallout-style method of exposition. The documents tell of how scientists were hooking human ‘Dreamers’ up to ‘Guardians’ in what appears to be parallel worlds and or other planets.
One Dreamer of note is Cassa, or subject 2419-1, who is linked with a Root-infested planet, allowing The Root to create what is described as a ‘Feedback loop’ - reverse-engineering the Dreamers into gates with which to invade Earth. Um, how?
9 The Root Mother Has A Tree Coming Out Of Her Back
How is The Root Mother alive? And, after being severed from The Root, how is she even standing? Sure, she’s not entirely human, not entirely Root, but she has half a tree coming out of her back and yet seems to get by with just a cane and a rather large shawl? When we first meet The Root Mother she is completely encased within The Root itself, and freeing her becomes one of the earlier boss fights for players. Once reunited we find that, uh, The Root Mother still has a bit of The Root in her. Like, a rather large bit. Yet, seemingly, she’s fine?
It also makes little sense that no one at Ward 13 has realized that The Root Mother is related to Commander Ford. Has no one chatted at length to the ancient woman with the tree coming out of her back? Has no one questioned her somewhat direct connection to The Root? What with her telling the player her identity so freely, surely someone else would have figured it out? Wallace perhaps?
8 Why Isn’t Every Weapon Fire Based?
This isn’t so much a question about The Root as it is a question for anyone fighting them - why the heck isn’t every weapon fire-based? The Root are tree-like enemies that we’ve seen repeatedly are susceptible to fire. So why isn’t every person carrying a gallon of kerosine around?
It makes no sense that humans wouldn’t have utilized this clear advantage, and when it’s later shown that nuking an entire planet was one of the surest ways to defeat The Root, it really comes as no surprise. Trees don’t like fire.
7 Why Are People Still Using Root Technology?
It makes sense to grow and adapt with change, but humans using Root-based technologies flippantly and ignoring Root-friendly or Root-adjacent peoples within their secret bases of operation seems slightly counterproductive.
There are multiple items within the Remnant: From The Ashes that are either Root-influenced or directly made of Root components, something that makes you wonder exactly how harmless they really are. Add to this the fact that these items are often described as ’empowering’ or ‘drawing’ from Root powers, and that they often suggest just a shade of mind or body control on the users. Well, that’s nothing to worry about, apparently.
6 What Is The Root’s Motivation?
What is known about The Root is that they are a seemingly unstoppable force, a race that is hell-bent on destruction; that they invade worlds and lay waste to the native civilizations. What is not known about The Root is exactly why they are doing this.
Remnant: From The Ashes is definitely vague in its plot explanations, preferring to use riddles and overheard fragments of conversation to tell its larger story. One of the biggest of these omissions is why The Root is so darn unfriendly in the first place. The Root seem to lack any real obvious motivation outside of a simple ’exterminate!’, making them a somewhat lackluster antagonist.
5 Why Have The Root Not Utilised Wallace?
It’s established in the basement files of Ward 13 that the Dreamers are being used as gateways of sorts for The Root to invade Earth. When the human scientists discovered this was the case they decided to kill their active Dreamer, Ward 13’s Cassa, to disrupt and hopefully prevent the invasion.
Wallace, a young boy who players can interact with within Ward 13, describes his own dreams in an eerily similar way to the Dreamers - which leads to the question - Is Wallace a Dreamer, and, is he an active gate for The Root, and if so - how have Ward 13’s inhabitants survived?
4 Why Do The Root Need Dreamers?
Players are told that The Root invaded Earth using the Dreamers - human subjects who it seems can share a dream-state consciousness with The Root itself. The Dreamers are said to be able to also inhabit or sync with the minds of Guardians, beings on other planets, and parallel worlds, but why exactly do The Root need the Dreamers in the first place?
Additionally, why is it that The Root can use and adapt their own and other’s technologies, yet they don’t seem to be able to use the World stones which players use to teleport from world to world?
3 How Did The Cult Of The Root Start?
When entering the Marrow Pass dungeon players will discover human cultists of The Root, followers seemingly at peace with The Root and their deadly intentions for Earth. While human cultists aren’t a completely surprising enemy, and definitely not one of the more fantastical, just exactly how did these humans start talking to The Root?
The Root don’t always wait around to hear what their human victims say, and they don’t seem very interested in anything that humans could contribute to their cause - outside of how they could be used as unwanting psychic gateways - so how have these humans managed to survive in The Root’s presence for so long, especially without being Dreamers?
2 What’s So Special About Earth?
We find out eventually that before the scientist’s intervention, before the linking of the Dreamers and the deadly invasion, Earth was actually one of the only worlds that was naturally immune to The Root. Even more surprising, that the Earth is a kind of ‘grand nexus’ for parallel worlds. But why does that stop The Root?
Additionally, why did the Root pick Earth in the first place? Whilst the Dreamers were definitely responsible for creating the gateways between worlds, how did The Root know about them? And lastly, why, after such a severe defeat on Rhom, did The Root want a fight at all?
1 How Has Mud Tooth Survived?
Remnant: From The Ashes goes to great pains to establish to the player that The Root, as a species, are exceptionally tenacious. The Root are described as plague-like, as being completely unrelenting in their pursuit to annihilate humankind - and seemingly, all kinds, everywhere. Yet, despite this violent (and somewhat efficient) fervor, The Root can’t quite wipe out ‘old Mud Tooth. Huh.
The fact that an elder like Mud Tooth manages to stay alive, living separate from the safety of Ward 13 (which it’s been established previously isn’t all that safe), completely out in the Root-infested open (and loudly, proudly, proclaiming his existence to anyone in a 100-meter radius) is simply mindboggling.
NEXT: 10 Tips For Co-Op In Remnant: From The Ashes
