Systems of codifying surplus and wealth developed, and banks became the center of the city-states which began to emerge. Trade blossomed across the globe. Esoteric knowledge continued to flow into the physical world. The periphery accessed through mana was thoroughly mapped and the psychic wilderness tamed by those priests who had the advanced training to leave a more permanent imprint in this relatively undifferentiated space. The modern-day mandala had come into being.

The mandala spread to nearly every society. The knowledge accessed through the mandala came to be of a more practical sort. Mana was eaten mostly for the purpose of managing and sharing existing information, rather than for the purpose of uncovering those secrets of which humanity currently had no knowledge. The last secret that humanity was able to draw out from the Passions was the greatest: the manipulation of life.

An extremely complex technique was developed by which the genetic material of an organism could be altered. The technique, despite its complexity, required no exotic or refined materials, and no tools which enhanced perception. People found it more productive to experiment on monera (bacteria) because of the extremely fast rate of reproduction. Subtle changes in the life essence of the monera were monitored by specially trained technicians who had access to the esoteric beyond that granted by mana. Eventually, a kind of monera was produced that could in turn be used to work changes in the genetic material of pre-existing species. This plasm became the basis of a new technology that would supplant and vastly eclipse all previous technologies: the plastics.