Dragon Glass
Corpse Glass
Dragon glass is a semitransparent mineral usually having a cloudy dull grey shade, though hints of other colors can be found depending on the materials around the glass when it was created. The purity of the glass is based on the cloudiness within. The glass will often have an orangish glimmer inside when exposed to sunlight. Some claim as the fires that creating the glass trapped inside. Others believe it is simply minerals within the glass reflected the light. This effect only appears in sunlight, however, and no other light sources, which lead most scholars to surmise that the glimmer is the glass interacting with the Solanon within the sunlight. This makes it the only known material which one can see the Magic of the world naturally interacting with an object.
Once abundant throughout the Desert of Anbar, the material known as dragon glass, or corpse glass, is believed created by the destruction of Karasaanu and the Areian Nations during Dragonfall. The combination of Dragon fire and the magics of the Elf and their forest created the glass in the heat of the destruction.
As stated, it was once an abundant material, found across the desert. In the modern day it has become beyond rare. In the age's past, sheets dozens of feet wide, and nuggets the size of human heads could be found. All that remains today are tiny pebbles no larger than grains of sand. This is due to over 'mining' of the material throughout history.
Dragon glass is a key material in creating magic items. Its properties allow the glass to absorb and hold magic within itself. If Copper is the conductor of magic, dragon glass is the battery that holds it. An item like a Ring use the glass along with a Gem to augment the power withing. A Wand will have sharded driven into their core, while a Staff may have a nugget of the material held at the tip. Clothing might have beads of the dragon glass sown within, and so on.
As dragon glass has grown rarer, so to have powerful magic item creations. Adventuring parties of often hired as escorts for those seeking the glass deep in the interior of Anbar. These travels are often made in hopes of finding a single grain of this glass. On the open market these grains can be worth more than the annual income of many. It is not unheard of for shadier adventurers to turn on those they escort once the glass is found, seeing an easy coin gain. This has only made dragon glass rarer as fewer parties travel the deep desert in search, in fear that their protectors will betray them.
The Tostag Orchold in the Amber Wastes of Tinjir are rumored have the largest quantity of the material. Their home in Seblug's Corpse is said to be covered in the material, created when the Elder Tree was destroyed. Though few venture to this Orchold, those that do, confirm these rumors. They claim the Orc there are wiling to trade dragon glass, but warn the orcs know well the value of the material. Thieves that have tried to sneak into, or invade, the orc city quickly find that the Tostag also know how to use dragon glass. The walls of their cities are decorated with the dragon glass. This glass is made to full hidden magic that launch balls of lightening or fire at invaders, or freezing them in place to be dispatched by the orcs at their leisure.
Another rumor in taverns throughout Ethae is that the Zalpula elves would decorate their cities with the material. Both as a morbid reminder of their lost homeland, but also, like the Tostag, as a way to hold powerful magics within. Though this was said to be less for defense and more for creating beauty light shows above their cities, and control the weather within the walls.
Some ancient texts in Api libraries also point to dragon glass being used by the Zalpula in their attempts to restore Karasaanu. This has led adventures to travel to the ruins of Megiddo and the Stone Forestt for the valuable treasure.
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