Zolaris

The secret main antagonist behind the events of both Business at Bartletons and The Torture of Kalaidus.

## Zolaris' master plan

* Zolaris was working alongside the Mind Flayers the whole time during Bartletons and Kalaidus in order to collect enough mana to reincarnate/create a new heir through a ritual that consumes obscene amounts of mana. Gods take a whole planets worth of pure mana to create. He needs a successor as he is nearing death, and if he were to die without a successor then the sun would go with him. In order to protect the planet, he must destroy it first.
* He creates a successor by channeling the planet's pure mana into a shape, and using the last of his power to give that shape form.
* He was never trapped within the bottle in Bartletons, rather he asked them to seal him to conserve his mana.
* He cannot leave the local solar cluster because He has a bond with the sun where he feeds it his own lifespan as sustenance, meaning he can't go far. hence why he didn't go to another planet for their mana.
* In order to gain the amount of mana necessary, the planet's life forms must be converted into pure mana. This pure mana is released upon death, so the only way was to kill the whole planet. The most effective and sure method was to eliminate the sun.
* Once all the mana is freed, it is naturally drawn to the ley lines to support the massive amount of souls. However, this pure mana mixes with the impure mana, making it near impossible to separate.
* The solution: only impure mana can crystallize, as it exists on a higher level of the astral plane than pure mana. This means it can be pulled into the physical world through crystallization. This leads to the mind flayers constructing large space stations, with devices that freeze impure mana. The end goal of this is to freeze over all the impure mana in the leylines, leaving only pure mana. Then, this pure mana will then be teleported into space (using Pure mana teleporters PMT’s) for the sun god to use, leaving the souls of the dead to feast on the impure mana until it is all gone, and all mana based life disappears from the planet. After millions of years, mana from the universe will eventually converge on the gravity mass enough to create new mana based life.
* The mindflayer mana freezing devices (MFD’s) are why mana crystals begin to form in living beings bodies, it is their last stored impure mana being frozen.
* The MFD’s freezing the ley lines work by freezing the core of the ley lines first (where the ley lines all converge) and slowly freezing out from there. This packs all the pure mana and spirits to the edges and tips of the lines (like a crowded train). This leads to many spirits overflowing, spilling out from the ley lines back into the surface world. These now lost souls look for mana to feed from, and if by a settlement they will feed from the inhabitants, leading to husks. The mana they feed on from the inhabitants will be lost forever, and once this source dries out, the spirits will vanish. Eventually once all of the impure mana has solidified, there will be no space for spirits in the ley lines as the mana will be packed so densely, and the last remnants of free mana based life will be extinguished, leaving only those enslaved by the mind flayers and machine life behind.

Zolaris was eventually able to enact his master plan, however the party was needed to help as the mindflayers had planned all along to kill Zolaris when he reincarnated and was weak so they could take the sunless planet for themselves.

Music used -

https://soundcloud.com/mecha\_strelizia/12-children-darling-in-the

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2McWDrYozQE