Black, ephemeral mist seeps out of every crack and crevice of chunks of Knotted Stone, almost dripping out like a soaked sponge as it floats in the air, untethered by gravity.
Knotted Stone is a term in reference to a chunk of deep stone that has been completely infused with magic from the
Shadeweave during
The Breaking. It has a host of natural properties that stem from this infusion, the most important of which being that Knotted Stone floats indefinitely and appears to be unaffected by normal properties of gravity. This is a resource that can be found at the core of every
Fractal and is the reason that
Fractals remain afloat in the infinite skies of the realm.
While there are those in the Holy Kingdom of Shar that have tried to recreate Knotted Stone through practice of the
Shadeweave, all efforts of this kind have been unsuccessful - as it appears to require a near-divine level of power to infuse natural material in this way, accomplished only by
Shar.
MINING AND USES OF KNOTTED STONE
At the end of the
Age of Darkness, the first
Skyship designs by
Brigid Haldr was the first recorded use of Knotted Stone to create floating crafts. While removal of the stone in small chunks led to a dispersal of the infused magic - by cutting and refining large chunks of Knotted Stone, people were able to construct flying vehicles. Many cite the creation of
Skyships to mark the end of the
Age of Darkness and herald in the
Imperial Age - and to this day, Knotted Stone is one of the most valuable resources in the world for its uses in creating
Skyships.
The most prominent mines of Knotted Stone in the modern world are in settlements under the control of the
Valedori Empire like
Port Sunder,
Reyk's Fallow, and outside
Fort Ramsgate in the
Nimbus Sea. While there are some mines outside New Emeria and Thebes in the Holy Kingdom of Shar, they keep many of their stores of Knotted Stone hidden - and the Diaspora Fractals remain relatively un-mined by comparison. Knotted Stone is a limited resource, and one of the dangers of over-mining it can be a destabilization of the
Fractal that is being mined.
ADVERSE EFFECTS OF KNOTTED STONE
This concentration of
Shadeweave magic infused into the land is what created the
Undead at the start of the
Age of Darkness and continuously raises any dead creature into an
Undead husk if they are not quickly burned after death - leading to a need of “cleansing”
Fractals before settling them.
Particularly rich sources of Knotted Stone have been recorded to be found at the cores of large
Fractals. These cores, sometimes referred to as “knots”, are especially powerful sources of
Shadeweave magic and are extremely volatile and dangerous - in some cases creating creatures from shadow whole-cloth, which are called “Nightwalkers”.
