Xer'Sai

The Xer'Sai are a species of burrowing Voidborn that have infested the deserts of Shurima, honeycombing the sands with a vast tunnel network that spreads the Void's influence silently beneath the world. They hunt by sensing vibrations through the earth, then erupt from below without warning to drag down anything moving across the surface. Where other creatures of the Void arrive as invaders from above, the Xer'Sai are an infestation rising from beneath, a colony steadily remaking the desert from within. Their queen is Rek'Sai, the Void Burrower, the largest and most dangerous of her kind. She rules the entire tunnel network and has claimed the Sai Kahleek, a desert expanse spanning hundreds of miles, as her personal hunting ground. Unlike the cerebral Vel'Koz or the endlessly growing Cho'Gath, Rek'Sai follows no cosmic design. She operates on pure predatory instinct, hunting, feeding, and breeding, expanding her brood's territory with every passing season. She is less a single monster than a matriarch commanding an entire swarm. Her brood takes many forms as it matures. Young hatchlings sharpen their instincts underground, learning which sounds belong to the desert and which mark prey. Dunebreakers grow massive enough to smash through the veins of solid bedrock that snake through the Great Sai, opening fresh hunting grounds beyond. Largest of all is the Dune Swallower, which can devour entire dunes and any witnesses whole, while the titan-class Xerxa'Reth, the Undertitan, once broke through the ground beneath a river outpost and annihilated it and everyone who lived there. Rek'Sai's dominion has reshaped Shurima above the sand as much as below. Entire trade routes have been abandoned rather than cross her territory, and nomads speak of the Terror Beneath the way sailors tell stories of the kraken. Vekauran texts recovered from a hidden cave tell of an ancient xer'sai queen who stalked their ancestors. When a lookout spots the signs of Xer'Sai activity, there is rarely time to flee. By the time the ground shifts, the Queen has already found you.