Chrysalis

To purify the fifth’s mana is an absurd idea, a comical suggestion. It’s impossible, everyone knows it’s impossible, and not because we haven’t tried, or made half-hearted attempts. Hundreds and thousands have died, enough resources to bankrupt an empire have been spent, over several attempts, some by individual empires, some by conglomerates of several major powers.

All have been unsuccessful. Not only unsuccessful, but unmitigated disasters. Even when these efforts managed to gain a foothold, they were eventually snuffed out, unable to hold their ground against the unrelenting pressure placed upon them by the fifth. The monsters there will not abide any change to the environment, which is itself a horrifying ordeal to overcome.

Then, there are the Krath tribes, roving bands of sadistic killers, who will unleash unspeakable torment on any they capture, breaking the will of would-be invaders and sending them running back to the safety of the fourth. Against these factors, purifying the fifth has become nothing more than a dream within a dream.

Yet, when the great ant spoke of it, I couldn’t help but have hope.

- From the private notes of Rathwyn Werilos, Mage of the Tower

despite everything I’ve heard about it… really sucks. I hate it here. I can’t believe even the mucus-ridden

perimeter is… somewhat secured, the carvers begin to fortify and lay down the experimental ‘track’ we intend to use to feed the wuffers. After all, they’re helpless little things, unable to fight at all, every drop of evolutionary potential and energy was required to create the incredibly unique set of organs and mutations required to not only tolerate the toxic

need to create a steady flow of contained ‘goop’, aka fifth stratum mana, to feed to our happily chuffing wuffers. The answer the carvers came up with was a sweet track system. Each section slots into the

and versatile enough that only a little shaping is required to smooth out the ground before we can lay down the track. The end result

the incredible engineering of

and harder every second as more and more native monsters sense what we’re up to. The second they do, they come screaming out of the shadows, twisted with rage, and throw themselves

of the fifth. I can endure it for a while, but I’m a little different than the others. Having an exo-skeleton is a serious advantage since it takes

has a hard time. Her flesh… shadow… I mean… is it even flesh anymore? Whatever. It’s a lot of

of all of us, physically. Were he exposed to the atmosphere for even a few seconds, he might lose a limb. Thankfully, he’s the one

working to push back the monsters before they can reach the rest of my family. Every now and again, I