When money loses meaning, when supply chains shatter, when institutions hollow out-most people wait for rescue. A few start building.The Ascent Begins is a field manual for what comes after empire. Weaving history, psychology, and myth, Shanaka Anslem Perera reveals how civilizations collapse and how individuals rebuild coherence from the ruins.Across four parts and sixty Keys, the book distills lessons from five thousand years of human experience-from the fall of ...