Ichor

Blood of the Dead Gods

It's the source of both monsters and magic, sourced from nearly half a kilometer tall beings that pulverize the landscape with each step they take.

— A history of Ichor, Theodore Yoserifz

Within the colossal veins and arteries of the massive God-husks, one can find the blood that keeps them moving, despite their deaths thousands of years ago. Ichor is strange; it keeps the God-husks alive, it mutates mortal life into monsters, and most recently it grants humanity a fraction of the former gods' powers in the form of Catalurgy. Raw power emanates from the liquid, and it's the most dangerous commodity to extract -- making it the most valuable as well.

The Spring of Power and Wealth

Through all the long years of God-husks having their blood spilled, extracted, or lost, no limit to the amount of Ichor within them has ever been reached or even discussed. From what most can tell, the God-husks regenerate Ichor at a rate that matches or exceed the rate of extraction and loss. With the high difficulty of extraction, matched with the high rate of regeneration, those in the industry of Ichor feel as if the product will never run out.

Type

Biomaterial

Types

Genesis, Transmutive, Aural

Industry

Ichor extraction is a huge industry that employs thousands of people across all of Cathedris; wherever there is a God-husks, there's scores of employees working to draw out the blood within.
Extractors, Legion guards, engineers, contractors, construction workers -- employment of almost any kind can be found at these base camps.

Process

To draw any blood from a God-husk, an entire team of operatives and an armory of specialized equipment is required. Large scale permanent and temporary structures must be built, defences must be implemented, and storage must be accommodated. The danger of Rendlings is very real, and thus guards must always be present.

Legion

At every place of operation, the Legion has an outpost where Legionnaires are posted to guard the Ichor, and protect the workers should the Ichor spill and create an outbreak of incredibly dangerous Rendlings. Some places, like Dimiti's island, require much more Legion presence than others.

Construction

Ichor extraction needs both permanent and temporary construction. Camp housing and storage must be built, and lightweight, quick to assemble, structures must be created near to, or even within the path of wandering God-husks in order to quickly and "safely" draw Ichor from them as they pass by.

Extraction

High up on the usually 100m+ tall scaffolding, workers with handheld drills, tubing, and tanks wait for their target God-husk to pass close by, or often crash into their structure. At that point, they latch on to the leg of the titan crashing by, driving spikes into the flesh so that they remain safely suspended in the air.
Once safely attached to their target God-husk, the extraction team uses specialized hollow drills with air-tight tubing leading to tanks mounted on their backs to draw the Ichor from the body of the dead god they're hanging off of. Drilling in and pumping the Ichor out can sometimes take up to 10 minutes, depending on the team, and once the tanks are full they rappel down to relative safety to await collection.

Ichor extraction is right up there with sewer maintenance, emergency first responders, and running a daycare; jobs that I respect but will never, ever do.

— Isaac Hoffman, fisherman

Specialization

Not all God-husks are equal in the creation of Ichor; blood removed from their undead bodies comes in three specific types, each with their own qualities and Catalurgical uses. For most of the God-husks, the Ichor found within is known as Aural Ichor, while others may have more rare Transmutive or Genesis Ichor inside them instead.

Aural Ichor

Found in over half of the planet-bound God-husks, making it both the most common and the easiest to source Ichor of them all. Aural Ichor is a shimmery, rich purple liquid, with streaks of violet and indigo throughout it. The liquid is warm at all times, even felt through whatever container it is within, and it has a low viscosity to it.

Hazards, Concerns, and Containment

Upon contact with air, Aural Ichor will begin to off-gas very corrosive fumes which cause burns, blinding, and scarring of the lungs if inhaled. These fumes are long lasting, and can have very negative impacts on surrounding flora and fauna, thus any Aural Ichor, just like the rest, requires safekeeping within airtight containers.

Aural Catalurgy

Aural Catalurgy is a personal magic done to, and with, the electromagnetic fields surrounding the caster. It's very attuned to the Catalurgist's state of mind, their emotions and their instincts. As Aural Ichor is the easiest of the three types to source, Aural Catalurgists are also the most common.

Sources

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Genesis Ichor

This Ichor glows softly at all times; the slightly viscous liquid slightly chills any container it is in, and comes in various shifting shades of aquamarine and seafoam green. While Genesis Ichor is always found to be cool, it appears to never freeze and never boil, despite attempts to do so.

Hazards, Concerns, and Containment

Unlike Aural Ichor, as well as Transmutive Ichor, Genesis Ichor does not react or off-gas any vapours into the air. Instead, this specific type of Ichor reacts quite violently whenever it comes into contact with water. When touching, or submerged, Genesis Ichor will begin to rapidly boil and burn, producing massive plumes of green fire that belch acrid, poisonous smoke. Genesis Ichor is always stored within waterproof and airtight containers, and kept away from all sources of moisture.

Genesis Catalurgy

Genesis Catalurgy is the magic of creation; for most Catalurgists of this type, this means the creation of temporary matter that lasts for as long as they can hold the object within their mind. These catalurgists are limited by what they can picture within their head -- the more complex visuals they imagine, the more complex items they can create.

Sources

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Transmutive Ichor

The most otherwordly looking, and acting, of all the types of Ichor; Transmutive Ichor looks to many like some form of liquid crystal, geometric and shimmery in nature. Strange rectangular patterns appear in waves and ripples within the translucent, pink-ish blood. Looking at an object through a tank of this Ichor will show it in different, unexpected colours.

Hazards, Concerns, and Containment

Transmutive Ichor is similar to Aural Ichor, in the fact that it releases a gas when exposed to the air. This gas is released slowly from Transmutive Ichor, and thus might not be noticed immediately; this gas is very dangerous however, and thus care must be taken to avoid inhalation. If inhaled, the gas will cause vivid hallucinations followed by unconsciousness, and often a coma that few ever wake from.

Transmutive Catalurgy

Transmutive Catalurgy is a modification magic, used to change the properties of things that a Transmutive Catalurgist understands. Knowing the material and written composition of a book, they can use Catalurgy to change the colour of the cover, the content of the words, or even the shape of the book itself.

Sources

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It's one of the greatest mysteries that we ponder night after night -- what sort of Ichor does He'an have within them?

— Rescuist follower.

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