Mage-silk
The realm of Pyria has few truly advantageous resources to call its own. Located on a horn of land thrusting into the ocean, high mountainous peaks separate it from the body of the main continent and limit its space and expansion opportunities. While the resources are sufficient to sustain the populace, there is little left over for the future. The people struggled, until a chance discovery by a curious wizard from nearby Azoria changed everything.
The wizarding island nation of Azoria was founded at the confluence of several major ley lines, lending it enormous magical power through the crystalline ward stones emplaced around the island. A number of those ley lines pass under Pyria, and some species of plants have grown to become magically reactive, using the thaumaturgical energy in the soil to grow larger and stronger, more swiftly.
No directly advantageous use for the plants themselves could be found, so this would have been nothing more than a curiosity but for the experiments of the wizard Canaan Carlyle, an artificer of some note over a century ago. He was constantly testing different items and materials from all over the world, in search for more efficacious and useful components in his work. In the process, he noticed a species of silkworm which was feeding on the leaves of one of the plants he was studying. Seeing a potential new avenue of investigation, he gathered and tested the cocoons of the silkworms. He was amazed to discover that the silk accepted enchantments far more readily than even the best-quality silk otherwise available. The silk even bore some of the advantages of the plant which was the larvae's food source: it was of extraordinarily high quality and strength.
Carlyle continued his experiments for some time, before releasing the first creations made using silk from the silkworms he had discovered. They were met with acclaim in Azoria, and it is now traditional for the wealthy and titled families to commission mage-robes for their sons and daughters upon graduation from the Azorian academies of magic. The silk is in high demand from adventuring wizards, battle-mages and paranoid nobles across the Sundered Lands, for its ability to take many more charms and enchantments than would otherwise be possible. Charmed to keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature and turn a blade or spell as easily as they repel dirt, Pyrian-woven robes have become a highly-priced commodity.
Farming mage-silk has become a major source of income in Pyria, and even the smallest families will usually have at least a few bushes to raise silkworms. It is these families that command the highest prices for the tiny amounts of top-quality silk thread they create, for they are able to individually nurture their silkworms. They use special tools crafted by Azorian artificers which allow the farmer to tell when the silk-moth is ready to emerge from its cocoon. Before that can happen and the cocoon be damaged, a spell within the tool places the moth into stasis, and then a mage hand or invisible servant is created by the tool to carefully unwind the cocoon and free the moth, leaving both unharmed. This 'peace silk', created without the loss of life, is in particular demand from druids and clerics of The Parents, the male/female deities of the nature domain in the Sundered Lands, as well as clerics of the Peace domain.
The wizarding island nation of Azoria was founded at the confluence of several major ley lines, lending it enormous magical power through the crystalline ward stones emplaced around the island. A number of those ley lines pass under Pyria, and some species of plants have grown to become magically reactive, using the thaumaturgical energy in the soil to grow larger and stronger, more swiftly.
No directly advantageous use for the plants themselves could be found, so this would have been nothing more than a curiosity but for the experiments of the wizard Canaan Carlyle, an artificer of some note over a century ago. He was constantly testing different items and materials from all over the world, in search for more efficacious and useful components in his work. In the process, he noticed a species of silkworm which was feeding on the leaves of one of the plants he was studying. Seeing a potential new avenue of investigation, he gathered and tested the cocoons of the silkworms. He was amazed to discover that the silk accepted enchantments far more readily than even the best-quality silk otherwise available. The silk even bore some of the advantages of the plant which was the larvae's food source: it was of extraordinarily high quality and strength.
Carlyle continued his experiments for some time, before releasing the first creations made using silk from the silkworms he had discovered. They were met with acclaim in Azoria, and it is now traditional for the wealthy and titled families to commission mage-robes for their sons and daughters upon graduation from the Azorian academies of magic. The silk is in high demand from adventuring wizards, battle-mages and paranoid nobles across the Sundered Lands, for its ability to take many more charms and enchantments than would otherwise be possible. Charmed to keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature and turn a blade or spell as easily as they repel dirt, Pyrian-woven robes have become a highly-priced commodity.
Farming mage-silk has become a major source of income in Pyria, and even the smallest families will usually have at least a few bushes to raise silkworms. It is these families that command the highest prices for the tiny amounts of top-quality silk thread they create, for they are able to individually nurture their silkworms. They use special tools crafted by Azorian artificers which allow the farmer to tell when the silk-moth is ready to emerge from its cocoon. Before that can happen and the cocoon be damaged, a spell within the tool places the moth into stasis, and then a mage hand or invisible servant is created by the tool to carefully unwind the cocoon and free the moth, leaving both unharmed. This 'peace silk', created without the loss of life, is in particular demand from druids and clerics of The Parents, the male/female deities of the nature domain in the Sundered Lands, as well as clerics of the Peace domain.
Type
Textile
Cool and well thought out.