Letter from Merris:

What can save this city?  The answer, in essence, is knowledge.

We must create a place of learning based around the exploration of the shape.  I will personally fund a shape portal and the staff to operate it: we will go deeper than any have ever been before.

A shape portal allows the user to see profound connections between different elements of the shape and the real.  Although we are far from comprehending the exact nature of shape nodes and descriptors, this technology will assist us in taking small steps towards that goal.

I have never understood why chasing after money or power occupies so many here. There must be something more profound, something more vital.

It is that which we will seek to discover.