A world seed is the first life stage of an Inna. It is created by another Inna using Dust and the power of Creation to create a Soul, as well as Essence to give it a physical form. These two components are then combined together using the power of Construction, leaving a world seed behind.

At it’s beginning, the seed is simply a small piece of the original Inna’s soul, and doesn’t yet have enough soul to become an Inna with a complete soul. So, the Inna who created it (usually referred to as the “caretaker”) will tend to the planet as it grows. The caretakers will take dust from the universe and put it into/towards the seed indirectly by creating life and letting the planet flourish.

The world seed grows into a planet, leaving the seed at the core of the planet.

The world will go through its entire life cycle, and as it comes to its end, the dust in the Souls and the Essence of the planet begin to retreat back into the seed. Soul dust would be absorbed directly into the seed, but essence will return to its inert state as pure dust, and then is absorbed into the seed to be converted into soul dust as well.

After all dust has been absorbed, the seed will be a hyper compressed pocket of soul that will “burst” and bloom into a newborn Inna.

In the event the seed is not provided with enough dust and care, the seed will not bloom when the world ends. The dust in the seed’s soul will wane, and the core of the planet will fall apart, causing the rest of the planet to follow suit. The essence used in its creation will not be pulled in / held together by the seed any longer, and will return to its inert state of pure dust. This takes a long time, and it would just be a barren, dissolving planet as it dies.

According to the Inna Tenets, all dust that is taken from the universe to provide for a world seed must be allowed to be absorbed back into the world seed when its time comes. This is to keep the balance between Inna and the Expanse in check.

However, there have been a few cases of civilizations on these planets becoming advanced enough to leave their planet, before the world begins to wane. This causes trouble for the Inna, because the world seed will only absorb the dust from Souls and Essence that is currently on the planet.

Some Inna, to avoid persecution by the Seedkeeper Council, will influence their world’s cosmic explorers to return to the planet, to ensure their Dust returns to the seed before it blooms.

Others, if feeling bold enough, will attempt to allow their world’s space travelers to remain off-planet when the seed blooms, but this runs the risk of the traveler being caught or discovered by the Council, causing the caretaker to be punished severely.