The highlands contain large, cauliflower-like remains of trees and a multitude of caves. The harandra (highlands) of Malacandra are dry and lifeless, with a thin atmosphere. The low lying parts are most hospitable, but the uplands are cold and have thin air, and Ransom has trouble breathing in them. Unlike Perelandra, Malacandra can get cold and has a more varied climate. The real Edenic world however, is Perelandra, as some individuals on Malacandra are ' bent'. Morally, however, all of Malacandra's inhabitants are upright. Oyarsa states that everyone used to live on the surface, but the Bent One damaged the planet, forcing him to dig out canyons or Handramits for most people to live in. Technically, Malacandra was damaged in the Fall, but not in the moral sense. Malacandra is 'the world that never fell' and remains a perfect, Edenic society. Malacandra is an old world, and is predicted to be one of the first worlds that will be removed from the Field of Arbol. Only Sorns can live above the handramits. The surface of Malacandra was once all inhabitable, but then the Bent One destroyed its outer layer, and the inhabitants of Malacandra where forced to live in handramits, large deep cracks or canyons in the ground.

The Hebrew word for 'messenger' or 'angel' is (מַלְאַךְ, malak), and Malacandra is ruled by a mighty angel. The same element can be found in the names of the planets Perelandra, Thulcandra and Glundandra, as well as the handramits and harandra. The word Malacandra is a compound noun in Old Solar, formed with the prefix Malac and the noun handra, the latter of which means earth, land, or planet, and referring to the fourth planet from the Sun. 10 Pop Culture influences and references.

Out of the silent planet