Blood of the Earth

Rawt'n

Ah, to get my hands on some of it. The things I could do... I could make cities kneel, paint the world red with blood. Mothers would hand me their babes without a second thought, so terrified of what I would do if they refused me. I would be a god.

— Niw'kef, the White Hand

Raw'tan, also known as Blood of the Earth, is an incredibly rare and difficult to harvest liquid substance essential for the manipulation of Makwa. It is only ever found in small quantities, and so far no scholar has been able to come up with a theory able to predict where to find it. Wars and crimes have been waged over raw'tan, and even today any quantity of it, no matter how small, is worth a fortune.

Harvesting

Raw'tan is often find accidentally. Digging a foundation for a house, mining for coal, moving a stone... anything could result in a small spring of the stuff to come out. Once discovered, acting fast is of the essence. The most common way of harvesting raw'tan is by storing it in small argile vials. Raw'tan harvesters must cake themselves in mud or risk their flesh being burned.

Refining

Once collected, raw'tan is usually brought to a refinery within one of the Seven Cities. Depending on the quality of the raw'tan and how well it was harvested, it must follow different treatments in to reach maximum efficiency. There are no more than a dozen of refineries across the Danatelian lands, and the refining process can take from two weeks to four months.

Use in Makwa

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Supposed Origins

Almost all Danatelians believe that raw'tan is the blood or essence of Matazel the Lonely. But opinions differ on how humans first came into contact with raw'tan. Most believe it is a gift or boon from Matazel to those who have been good and kind, or those who are in need. Others believe it is a simple consequence of how the Earth functions- sometimes raw'tan just needs to come out.

"Nonsense! Raw'tan cannot be anything other than a gift of the gods. If they did not want us to have it, we simply would not have it!"

"That reasoning is completely absurd, and you know it. Raw'tan and makwa are sins, we are meddling with the divine in terrible ways."

— Argument between a Sumia Kahin and a Saohri Priest

But an increasingly vocal minority believe that the procuration of raw'tan is what caused Gaqs, and lead to the Danatelians being thrown out of the sea of dusk. They believe that in their greed, Forgotten tricked Samara the Enchantress into revealing where Matazel's wound lay hidden. Forgotten went and stabbed the healing flesh, releasing raw'tan in the world and introducing mortals to Makwa. This interpretation of the betrayal of Samara is a controversial one, denied by the Him'ya Sebe, but the belief grows among the population as makwa related incidents grow more and more frequent.

Appearance: a bubbling, dark red viscous liquid that feels warm to the touch

Smell: a strange blend of burning fish oil and cinnamon

Properties: corrodes anything not made from something of the earth (rock, crystal, clay)

Uses: when drank, allows the drinker to manipulate Makwa. can be used as fuel- fill up an oil lamp and it will burn for centuries.

by Federico Beccari