Victaline Ore

Named after the Queen of the United Kingdoms, Victaline Ore was discovered not long after the third year of the war. After being unearthed in the Northern Reaches of the United Kingdoms, the ore was discovered to have powerful, but dangerous, magic-enhancing properties that could enhance the effects of standard magic spells and items to potentially catastrophic levels. It would go on to have a hugely influential role in the ongoing Great War and poses a huge existential threat to the wider world.
A brief arms race began shortly after it's discovery, culminating in a devastating attack on the City of Spires, a largely neutral city-state actively petitioning for a truce in the war. A miscalculation during the creation of an experimental new weapon in an illicit underground research facility resulted in an explosion that killed all living things instantly within the city and a radius of around twenty miles beyond it's walls.
The horror of the devastation felt on both sides was the primary instigating event which led to the current ceasefire between the two forces and resulted in a joint agreement to outlaw the use of Victaline Ore for military purposes, and the instigation of extremely harsh penalties for anyone possessing the dangerous material.

Properties

Material Characteristics

A soft, malleable mineral that can be refined into a silver mercury-like liquid and either ingested to enhance a magic user's natural magical abilities or incorporated into item enchantment to enhance an artifact's power.

Physical & Chemical Properties

In it's raw form, the mineral is mostly harmless, but once refined the liquid form of the substance is dangerous to touch, burning naked skin and causing a type of radiation sickness in the victim. Consuming anything over a few drops of it's liquid form can prove fatal, but only the tiniest amount is required to enhance a magic user's abilities for a short period of time.
Individuals with prolonged Victiline sickness caused by constant exposure to the material run the risk of addiction, leading to permanent disability, death or worse, mutation into what essentially amounts to a walking magic-enfused Victaline Zombie.

Compounds

Victaline liquid can be consumed in tiny doses to enhance spellcasting abilities. Damage is maximised, Ranges and Area of Effect radius's are expanded, and the like. However, this comes with horrific side-effects and consequences including addiction, permanent deterioration of health and ultimately, corruption and mutation.
Alternatively, the "safer" approach to Victaline is to apply it in powder form during the creation of magical items and artefacts. Any such creations tend to be significantly more powerful than their unfused counterparts...but also significantly more unstable and prone to disastrous unforeseen consequences.

Geology & Geography

So far, the only sources of the ore are located in the mines situated around the United Kingdoms occupied city of Northreach. An industrial mining city that had been otherwise mostly ignored during the Great War. Post-Spire event, all Victaline mining has been officially halted until further notice...although that hasn't stopped many unlicensed "entrepreneurs" continuing to search for new veins of the substance in secret.
Given how dangerous the substance is, and that it is often accompanied by hideously mutated under-dark creatures that themselves seem infused with the material. Very few of these unlicensed endeavours have been successful. But that doesn't stop authorities from attempting to stamp them out.
There are rumours that the Borderland Alliance managed to locate their own source of the ore, immediately prior to the disaster that hit Spire, but these were never confirmed.

Origin & Source

Victaline is a naturally occuring mineral, and the original source was discovered in several of Northreach's mines alongside more conventional metals such as Gold and Copper. It is thought to be native to the mountains in this region specifically, leading people to speculate that the true source of the metal must lie somewhere deeper in the mountains, though no such source has yet been discovered.

Life & Expiration

When stored incorrectly, the material becomes unstable and volatile after about a month of storage in it's refined liquid form and is prone to detonating randomly and being 100% fatal when ingested in this form. In it's original ore-form the material is inert and is generally harmless, although in theory prolonged exposure for several years at a time might produce negative health effects and mutations, as many mutated creatures and animals have been discovered whilst mining the ore underground.

Odor

Odorless in mineral or liquid form.

Taste

In it's liquid form, it has a sharp, metallic taste that burns the tongue (literally)

Color

Unrefined : Opalescent silvery ore. Refined: silvery-blue liquid, semi-transparent with an oily opalescent sheen.