red snow bricks
It always snows in Sakhemek. Not all snow is the same, however. The snow that begins to fall on the shortest day of the year is red as blood. No one has yet figured out what it is that makes the snow red, but what it does is that it hardens the earth until the yellow snow begins to fall in the spring.
However, should this earth be exposed to high temperatures after it has been hardened, nothing can break it, as was discovered after a winter fire that forced an entire village to relocate.
Now, on that area where that village used to be, stands what unites the mountain tribes with the mainlands: the place where red snow is collected, carefully melted and poured into wooden boxes filled with earth. Those boxes are then placed into huge ovens that will burn from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and stay there for an entire day. The bricks that come out of the furnaces are lighter than most bricks, and almost unbreakable. Kings, lords, and almost anyone in real or imaginary threat of artillery attacks will pay anything to get their hands on the red snow bricks. On the other hand, the mountain tribes of Sakhemek have kept the secret of the bricks very secret, the production low, and never sell to the same country twice, which prevents attacks to the tribes, and maintains stability in the mainlands.
Effectively, since the bricks are not enough to fortify wide areas, like city walls, the actual effect of the red snow bricks has an increase in research, and the funding of institution such as the Academy, in order to uncover and utilise the secret of the red snow bricks. So far there has been no success on the matter, but there has been progress in creating cheaper and lighter building materials - some of them in uncommonly bright colours - which has led to very colourful new buildings in various cities of the mainlands.
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