Snowstone

"As Kaledreas finally had reached the city of Frostlance, he marveled at specifically one part of its architecture, the mesmerizingly perfect smooth towers rising from the horizon ranging from a mesmerizingly perfect white to a mesmerizingly pure blue. Kaledreas the sculptor knew that perfectly mesmerizing material was the key to his most amazing statue yet."
-An excerpt from "Tales of Ice and Snow" by Naimis Xiloscient

Snowstone is a building material akin to concrete manufactured in the city of Frostlance. Though unlike concrete or other quite unsightly grey materials, snowstone ranges from pure white to brilliant blue. It has cooling properties and when internally heated using magic it becomes as malleable as clay. Snowstone can be chiseled, carved, chopped, cut, or melded depending on how it is heated. It is created from a mixture of frostsnow from the Ilkasias Peaks, natural materials found in rocks and caves, and ash created by magical or alchemical energy. While not extremely rare, it is hard to transport due to its high weight making it quite common for pathways and buildings in The Ilkasias Republic, yet expensive and luxurious everywhere else. Snowstone created from extremely pure and extremely heavily compacted frostsnow appears a shade of rich blue, the bluishness and tint of the snowstone depends on the process used in its manufacturing.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Snowstone appears as a perfectly pristine, usually tinted blue, solid white substance with an extremely uniform and smooth surface. Snowstone specially created by compacting the purest frostsnow possible as much as possible appears a vibrant blue and is nearly unbreakable without use of very sharp tools.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Snowstone is an extremely hard and durable material capable of building amazing structures. Snowstone is immensely hard to break yet becomes perfectly malleable when magic is used to heat up the interior of the snowstone and mess with its chemical stability. Snowstone is also known to stay extremely cold and often things in very hot places will be built with snowstone to cool them down.

Geology & Geography

The frostsnow required to create snowstone is noted to usually only fall onto the Ilkasias Peaks, making it completely controlled by the people of The Ilkasias Republic. The special minerals and crystals also required in making snowstone are usually harvested from the frost-covered caves of the mountains.

Origin & Source

Snowstone is created from a process of mixing snow from the Ilkasias Peaks with naturally occurring minerals, crystals, and white ash created by alchemical fires formed by magic and a complex formula of composites.
Snow from the Ilkasias Peaks is often referred to as "Frostsnow"

Life & Expiration

Snowstone can last and stay stable for around 2000 years before it starts to fall apart or deteriorate, while snowstone can be very malleable in certain conditions, it only acts this way when internally heated usually using magic. When snowstone gets extremely old it starts to lose its consistency, at first simply cracking like concrete but eventually turning to mush.

History & Usage

History

Snowstone has gone through many different iterations with slightly varied formulas, becoming more and more sturdy over the years. This is most apparent in the city of Frostlance, it was still experiencing huge amounts of growth and construction during the process of refining the snowstone formula, older buildings in Frostlance are built out of noticeably different and less effective forms of snowstone.

Discovery

Snowstone was discovered by the old Ilkasias [High elves] of the west Zerion Mountains. Alchemists experimenting with sturdy materials which could last a long time and withstand the sometimes quite harsh conditions of the mountain stumbled upon it when messing with different materials and agents.

Everyday use

Snowstone is most prevalent in the city of Frostlance, where it makes up many of the buildings, is used in the roads, and made into sculptures or fountains. Though nobles in other places may have it imported by airship, less rich but likely still fairly wealthy artists often buy it for sculptures. Often fancy jewelry or other items like coolers contain snowstone because of its cooling properties.

Cultural Significance and Usage

The circlets, tiaras, and crowns of the council of Frostlance traditionally have extremely pure blue snowstone inlaid into them, as a sign of the beauty and mastery of the High elven people.

Refinement

Snowstone is created by a process of mixing frostsnow, naturally occurring minerals, crystals, sediments and composites with ash from things burned with alchemical energy/fire. It is then heavily compacted to extreme levels at high temperatures before being quickly frozen at nearly -85ºC using magic.

Byproducts & Sideproducts

The mush created by snowstone at the end of its life span is very hazardous for local ecosystems and much of it ends up in the snow and ground. Though it is believed snowstone mush could be used for a new type of caulk called white or hard caulk.

Hazards

While it is not particularly dangerous with protection, facilities or Airships storing snowstone get extremely cold and being in these facilities without many layers of cloth inflicts a dangerously high risk of getting frostbite.

Environmental Impact

While frostsnow is very abundant, mining within the west Zerion Mountains for materials required to make snowstone can disrupt fragile subterranean and surface ecosystems. The mush produced by old snowstone is also not good for ecosystems once it has absorbed into the snow and the ground of the mountains, making its way down all the way to the under dark.

Reusability & Recycling

Once snowstone has turned into mush, it is essentially useless and provides very little benefit, though some have experimented with using the mush to create a sort of caulk.

Distribution

Trade & Market

Nearly all snowstone on Laeriss is sold from the city of Frostlance, it is hard to transport because of its weight so a building made completely or even partially out of snowstone is a luxury in most places. Though wealthier sculptors or artisans willing to splurge may buy a small amount of snowstone for sculpting, since it is quite radiant and brightens up a room.
*Much like nearly everything else, Xports incorporated distributes the heavy snowstone using their Airships, expedited by the fact that both Xports and snowstone are based in Frostlance.

Storage

While frostsnow needs to be contained in a semi-cold container around 10ºC, once it is processed into snowstone it does not require special containment, though often to avoid it freezing to other surfaces snowstone is stored in heated facilities.

Law & Regulation

Since The Ilkasias Republic controls most of the locations where frostsnow falls it is extremely hard to gather without their permission, many of the other ingredients are also mianly found around the areas controlled by the republic.

Type

Concrete

Value

50 Gp per cubic meter

Rarity

Uncommon

Color

White with a bluish tint. *Saturation of the tint varies depending on the purity of the snowstone.

Boiling / Condensation Point

831ºC

Melting / Freezing Point

520ºC

Density

850 kg/m³

Common State

Solid

Related Locations

• Ilkasias Peaks
• Frostlance

Related Species

• Elf