Transmuter's Glaze

Properties

Material Characteristics

Transmuter's Glaze is a hard, brittle, and usually smooth material extremely reminiscent of glass, except for a slight adhesiveness to its surface. When inert it's utterly transparent to the point that its shape cannot be discerned without assistance. Once it has been activated it adopts a slight smokiness of a color that corresponds to its set function. Interestingly, if a piece of glaze is activated and then rendered inert once more, it darkens to the point of eventually becoming pitch black after repeated changes. There has been no observed difference in function between newly created glaze and repeatedly reset glaze, frustrating alchemists everywhere.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Inert Transmuter's Glaze is almost aggressively nondescript and nonreactive, but when its activated by arranging its internal structure it becomes an incredibly useful polarized material that forms the basis of most alchemical engines. The glaze can be calibrated to effectively transmute any force or state impacting one side to any force or state emitting from the other. It is effectively a poor man's philosopher's stone, simply lacking the ability to transmute materials. There is also a significant efficiency loss when comparing a philosopher's stone to even the best Transmuter's Glaze. Common calibrations include converting electrical charge into physical force, physical force into light, and even cold into heat.

Compounds

Transmuter's glaze is an end-state, there is no known way to incorporate it into a different material nor return it to its precursor. Even recalibrating the activated material is an incredibly complex process.

Geology & Geography

For most of human history the only source of Transmuter's Glaze was recovery from an elven or dwarven installation. Only in the last century has alchemy advanced enough to replicate the achievements of the great empires of the past.

Origin & Source

There is a noticeable efficiency advantage for glaze originally crafted by the elves and the dwarves, so it's possible there remains some missing part of the process, but all Transmuter's Glaze made today is created by alchemically fusing Red Ash into a glass.

History & Usage

Everyday use

Transmuter's Glaze is one of the most versatile and useful materials on Khthon, only precluded from the running for the most versatile by the existence of its own precursor, Red Ash. As such it has an incredible number of uses, but the one most commonly associated with it is providing lift for sky ships and flying cities, because of the enormous increase in both simplicity and efficiency over the few older methods of achieving those ends discovered by humanity.

Refinement

The process of refining Red Ash into Transmuter's Glaze is effectively an alchemical recreation of simple melting, the temperatures required to melt Red Ash conventionally are nearly unattainable for humans and certainly not possible to reach safely. Substituting an alchemical reaction for the strictly chemical one has jumped the entire field of alchemy forward centuries, and brought many other fields with it.

Type

Glass

Odor

Ozone and vanilla

Taste

metallic tinge, bitter aftertaste

Color

perfectly transparent when inert

Boiling / Condensation Point

unaffected by temperature

Melting / Freezing Point

unaffected by temperature

Density

varies

Common State

solid