Gethu Dung

The uplands of Senteru have little in the way of trees so those living and travelling there will often use dried gethu dung as fuel for their fires.

Properties

Material Characteristics

As naturally formed gethu dung is roughly hand sized flattened circles which when dried have a fiberous texture, and are fairly resiliant to handling. It dries to a pale brown colour though depending on the local vegetation this can vary.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Lightweight and slow burning gethu dung is not good for large scale use but to warm a small hut or heat a small pot of food it is quite adequate. Indeed the comparatively cool burn that it has means that it is safe to use even for low grade pottery that would not normally be considered fire proof.

Origin & Source

It's called Gethu dung! Where do you think it comes from? Unicorns?

Life & Expiration

Dried it lasts well and seasonal herders cabins will often have stone lined compartment where a stash of it is left from one season to the next so that there is always fuel available when returning to it. Left outdoors, if allowed to get wet it rots down readily and is only considered to be usable as fuel if dried within a few days of being formed.

History & Usage

History

Like most such things it has a long but largely undocumented history. Many cultures use animal dung in the same way and it is highly unlikely that this is a novel or independent discovery. Purely from geographical considerations it is most often used by the Monkin-ban though all of the sapient species of Senteru use it as fuel (with the exception of the Aroinning (who shun any use of fire).

Odor

None, once dried. Until then slightly acrid and sour. The smoke smells similarly.

Taste

Unsurprisingly it tastes like s*&t