City Of Ashes

The City Of Ashes was the home of the Phoenix Empire, before September of 2020, when the colony was moved out into the Ember Islands.

History
In January of 2020 Mikey obtained a new Tropical Fire Ant colony which would later be called the Phoenix Empire.

Although the city of ashes doesn't officially begin when the Phoenix Empire was obtained, later additions would lead to the small setup being named.

In February 2020, Mikey Bustos added an "Ant Park" (Later named the Fire Forest)- a plastic container decorated with sand, stone, sticks, and dry moss.

In March 2020, a pink fungi outbreak in the water of the colony's main test tube lead to the addition an AC ant tower to the setup which was named the Fire Fortress. The ants moved out of the Infected test tube into the Fire Fortress.

In late March the Fire Forest, due to not having good enough ventilation, was replaced with a proper AC outworld later called Hell's Kitchen.

In April the Magma Chambers, an AC hybrid nest mini was added. This was in response to the ants starting to move into Hell's Kitchen.

In May, Mikey Bustos attempted to install a live roach feeding mechanism, where periodically small living roaches would fall into Hell's Kitchen, but this didn't work as all of the roaches ended up falling into Phoenix Empire territory, leaving none behind to breed.

In early July, the Phoenix Empire successfully escaped their the City of Ashes through a DIY section of their setup from a previous video. The escape attempt was most likely triggered from the ants not having enough nesting space, so in response Mikey Bustos added an AC hybrid nest camponotus (from the late Lumberjack's setup) to the City of ashes (later named the Maze of Flames).

Starting in July, the AC community started to make decisions about the Phoenix Empire's future, which eventually lead to the design and construction of the Ember Islands- An Avatar themed floating islands paludarium. It was completed in August 2020, and the ants were moved in in September. The ants were moved in via 4 entry points, Mt. Juno, Mt. Venus, Mt. Minerva, and Mt. Vulcan, from Hell's Kitchen, the Fire Fortress, the Magma Chambers, and the Maze of Flames respectively.

The Fire Forest
Was replaced with Hell's Kitchen in March 2020