In the Guum Wilds, Obuun struggles to reconnect with his Mul Daya ancestors after life among the kor. Seeking revenge on surrakar leads him beneath Riverroot, where he finds ancestral remains and awakens a connection to the land. Recovering the bones by force would uproot the tree that shelters his community.
Obuun stops short of that destruction. His mother's spirit challenges the need to prove himself through recklessness, and his experience opens a relationship with Riverroot that anger had kept closed. The story offers a local counterpart to Nissa's choice: memory can guide belonging without requiring the living world to be broken around it.
Anowon enters an Ondu Skyclave with hired adventurers to confront Grakmaw. The ruin reveals ancient kor experimentation and weapons research. A recovered potion helps the party overcome the hydra, yet the adventurers recognise that such knowledge could become a threat in someone else's hands.
Placed together, these expeditions make the Skyclaves more than treasure sites. Their records require interpretation, their devices require judgment and their histories never grant automatic permission to repeat old methods. Zendikar Rising leaves that responsibility with everyone who explores the plane, not only with the three planeswalkers who fought over its most powerful relic.