Milkfire

Milkfire is a highly explosive and combustible gel-like material made from the sap of the Milk Tree, a species of tree native to the northern coasts of Mahador and the nearby islands.

Appearance

Milkfire is name given to the white and sticky sap produced by the Milk Tree. When it comes into contact with air, it quickly thickens and becomes a gel-like substance that is significantly stickier than in its liquid form. Its apperance and texture is best described as a white coloured tar.

Uses and properties

As the name implies, Milkfire is a substance best known for its destructive incendiary and explosive power. It is therefore used in making very powerful bombs. In fact, pound for pound, its explosion is nearly as destructive as that of a Lycen Crystal. However, it is generally considered much more dangerous then Lycen crystals.
That is because unlike unlike Lycen crystals, which simply release a destructive energetic shockwave around itself when exploding, milkfire also produces a large fireball of very intense heat, while also ejecting a large number of flaming particles of milkfire. If outside or in a large space, these particles can travel far away from the explosion and stick to most surfaces, including clothing, wood, metal and stone. When it lands on flammable materials, it can ignites other fires
Worst still, milkfire can't be easely extinguished, either by smothering the flames or by putting water on it, and it will instead continue to burn, though doing those things may be able to stop its spread.

Contraband

Despite the embargo on external milkfire trade agreed upon by all producing countries, some of it can and does still makes it way onto foreign markets, mainly via smuggling it onto regular trading ships. Most of this illegal trade makes it way to the port of Valcor, which is a city controled by the Merchant Republic of Arba. Since they are the main foreign enemy of the region, all producing countries regulary work together to stop the smuggling, so far with mild success.

Manufacturing process

Milkfire is produced by the Milktree as its sap. To collect it, metal tubes are hamered into the tree, in a similar way to how Maple Syrup is collected in Arros. However, unlike maple trees, the Milktree sap constantly flows inside the tree, though at a much lesser volume. The sap is collected inside wooden buckets where it rapidaly thickens with contact against air. the thick liquid is then transfered into large barrels for storage, which have to be sealed to keep some of the moisture of the Milkfire and prevent it from drying out completly. They are then kept in a cool environement, usualy like a basement.
After about a month in storage, the liquid inside those barrels will have continued to thickened and begun to expand. Leaks are to be expected if the barrel was filled too much. Milkfire is often traded/stolen in this state, where it is flamable, but doesn't have the capacity to violently explode yet. The barrel can then be opened and the liquid inside transfered into smaller container, either for easier storage or transport, or to make bombs.
To make a milkfire bomb, a wick, acting as a fuze is partialy inserted into the tar-like liquid and passed throught the cover of the container, leaving a variable lenght of wick outside to be ignited. These bombs, which are kept small because of the way the milkfire ignites, are then put back into storage for another 2 weeks to let the flammable, but not very explodable liquid inside become more of a very highly explosive and flammable stickly gel.
The bombs can be kept for years in optimal conditions as the liquid is very stable in cool temperatures. When ignited, they explodes into large fire ball that ejects a huge amount of burning gel all around it in a huge radius. The inflamed gel rapidaly falls back around the explosion site, sticking to most surface and igniting further fires. The explosion itself, even from a milkfire bomb no more than 10 cm in diameter and height, is also powerful enough to destroy whole wooden buildings and severaly damage even sturdy stone buildings, like during the attack against The Long Bridge of Vrahlis.

History

The propreties of Milkfire have been known for centuries in Northern Mahador but it was considered too dangerous to effectively use. Treaties where in place between the Arakan city states, banning the use of Milkfire in the battles between themselves, which were largely successful.
This status-quo changed when the Essanian empire arrived in the region during the later half of the Second Age. Unbothered by how dangerous it was, the essanians decided to make use of it against its enemies in battle, which introduced the populations of both Arros and Enask to the substance. Other countries and organisations would soon also use it, which made war in those regions just a bit more destructive.
The two most well known incidents involving milkfire in Arros happened about 3 decades away from each other. The first event occured in the year 61 BC and was a terrorist attack perpetrated by members of the Cult of Sokral, an anti-mage fate, against the University of Gys, which had opened its doors to Mages refugies. The attack killed 78 people, including 51 mages and destroyed parts of the university. 
The second event was in 31 BC, when the Essanian empire was in the process of laying seige to Vrahlis. They were losing, and decided to execute one of the worst attacks that the city would face. They loaded a boat with Milkfire bombs and let it drift towards the city's world famous bridge. The boat exploded when it made contact with the bridge, damaging multiple of its pillars and collapsing parts of its roadway. 109 people died from the explosion and subsequent fires.

Significance

Milkfire is a very dangerous weapon, and it has been used effectively by the locals to halt the expansion of foreign powers into the region, such as with the Arakan Confederation against the Merchant Republic of Arba, who seeks to expand in the region because of the Emandine Trees, the wood of which is used extensively in their navy.

by Ephraïm Boateng (Me)

Item type

Weapon, Explosive

Rarity

The material is very rare and excedingly expansive to procure outside of its region of origins. While its production is time and labour extensive, the main reason for its high price and rarety is because of a generaly successful trade embargo imposed by the producing countries towards any foreign powers seeking to trade for it.

Weight

Variable

Dimensions

Variable

Base Price

Variable