Gree
Gree is a dark, viscous substance central to survival of The Blasted Isles. Harvested primarily from massive sea creatures known as Greebeasts, gree is refined into fuel cores that power industry, weaponry, and transportation. However, gree is not limited to Greebeast-derived sources; alternative methods of harvesting have emerged in the Isles, particularly Awarth, making it both a precious resource and a source of tension and competition.
Properties
Material Characteristics
Gree is a dense, tar-like substance, inky black with faint green and blue iridescence that shifts under light as though it holds hidden depths. It clings heavily to surfaces with a viscous, elastic consistency that resists easy flow, yet stretches unnaturally when manipulated. When refined, gree becomes slightly translucent, its inner colors glowing faintly.
Physical & Chemical Properties
A magical and highly flammable substance, gree can ignite with minimal provocation, though its flames burn with an eerie greenish hue that gives off thick, choking smoke. These fumes are rich with arcane energy, and those exposed to them may experience vivid hallucinations, unsettling whispers, and even visions of strange, spectral figures, which some believe to be echoes of Big Boil or the Greebeasts themselves.
Despite its susceptibility to combustion, gree never truly reaches a boiling or freezing point, instead thickening or "shifting" under extreme temperatures in ways that make it even more volatile and prone to sudden ignition.
Gree also has a peculiar reaction to certain forms of energy. Under the influence of magical or ritualistic practices, it can act as a conduit, amplifying effects and intentions, granting shamans, mystics, and alchemists a potent (though risky) tool in occult arts. This arcane quality has given gree an almost mythic status across the Isles, and it’s often used in charms, rituals, and other supernatural practices. Its extreme density and elasticity add to its enigmatic nature, and some believe it contains an inner life or consciousness, connected to the Greebeasts that produce it.
Geology & Geography
While gree derived from Greebeasts is by far the most potent, gree is also deeply embedded in the geological layers of The Blasted Isles, a natural consequence of millennia of supernatural and physical forces. In the depths of The Underboil, fissures and volcanic vents release raw gree into deep-sea reservoirs, forming bubbling pools and slick currents that drift through the abyss. Subterranean caves, riddled across the Isles, often house fossilized Greebeast remains that sometimes exude a crude but steady supply of the substance. In The Rustway, Salve, and Tarnmuck Reach, low-grade gree is harvested through laborious methods: in The Rustway, scavengers filter gree runoff from industrial detritus and broken pipelines; in Salve, dredging barges haul gree-laden sludge from the polluted waterways of The Wound; and in Tarnmuck Reach, workers collect gree-laden sediment from the brine-soaked mudflats, refining it through slow, painstaking filtration.
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