In the game
The Mahu keep one of the Guardian Islands — a limited, sacred parcel that yields far more than ordinary land on the Green Reaches or a shaft on Planet 65. Mining it pulls Tellurium, Graphite, Lithium, Manganese and Cobalt, feeding the energy industries of Planet 65 and the Foundry; farming it grows medicinal herbs and rare flowers, refined into perfumes that lift a whole settlement's mood.
No tribe works an island alone. At least two Guardians — even from two different tribes — have to be assigned and present before a settler can start a project there at all. It's a rule that keeps the Seven Tribes cooperating whether they mean to or not.
In the story
Siru, Marcus and Vivek push into the Mahu Forest to claim the final component the Bridge-wake ritual needs, only to find the grove already dying from an old debt never repaid. The Mahu Guardians refuse to let anything more leave unbalanced — and Elsa Jones arrives, unarmed and unannounced, to argue exactly what the Mahu are arguing. As blight spreads through the root-ways faster than anyone can outrun it, Vivek's need for speed collides with Siru and Elsa's insistence on paying what is owed. The only way through is the forest's oldest rite: replant what the wake will cost, together, before the storm drowns the seedbed. They finish in time — but Vivek's slip about a deadline that isn't 2086 leaves the group looking at him the way they've never looked at him before.
