Like everything in Cloudpiercer Citadel, the Martial Path was a numbers game. Wealth and power were inexorably entwined. Money bought treasures and trainers and knowledge and techniques. The ranks of the Martial Corporations that ran the city were fat with acolytes from the Thousand-Year Families, their Paths fed by sacred pills and fadeborn essence and legacy techniques of untold power. And they, in turn, repaid their debt by diving the Fractured Realms for treasures, lending their mana to power the great factory and farm arrays that kept the city bountiful and strong, defending the honour of their corps in tournaments and skirmishes, and engaging in corporate espionage.
The corps dangled the possibility of power in front of the poor too, but in truth only those with exceptional talents could bridge that gap. Talents that translated to extreme value. There was a saying in the city: "mana is king." In Rix's experience, it was the greatest truth there was.
