Floatstone

"Of the many relics that came into our possession after numerous ascents into the Tower, few would prove to change the world as much as floatstone did."

-Kekarren of Metalla Brigade

Floatstone is a type of early relic retrieved from the Tower and began as the cornerstone to the founding of fabergé technology.
After the first major conflict between the Citadel Coalition and the Mekar Ascendancy (known as the First War of Enmity or WE1 as it is abbreviated by scholars), the first concentrated and organized efforts to enter and explore the Tower began. These excursions would later become known as ascents.
As these ascents managed to get further and further into the Tower's interior, more and more wondrous relics were recovered and brought back to the surface. Among these was floatstone, an oddly porous type of rock which pushed against the pull of the earth.
Naturally, mortalkind began to test and experiment with such a material. Could flight be achieved with something that rejected gravity? The Metalla Brigade guild leapt at such opportunities and began to requisition more of the material each time any floatstone was brought back from a successful ascent. This lead to conflicts with others of the Guilds and soon one of the first resource competitions came into full swing.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

No scholar is certain as to why floatstone pushes away from the earth like it does. Most believe that magic is involved in its creation, at the very least. Indeed, using powerful dispellings has rendered floatstone useless. However, the amount of crystal gems needed to cast a powerful enough lithomantic working to achieve this is great and the cost is widely considered not worth the effort and resources. One interesting about this discovery is the fact that it is indeed magic. Whether some form of enchantment or whatnot is up in the air, but scholars of the Conservatory are working diligently to figure out just how it may work. There is even a begrudging alliance between interested parties and the Cryosia Magia. Should the spell used in the creation of floatstone ever be discovered, it would mean the first relic of the Tower mortalkind has ever learned to recreate.

Significance

Floatstone and its corresponding research and experimentation has led to numerous breakthroughs in technological gaps once lost in the wreckage of past Resurgences. It's primary use is seen as a means of lightening the weight of an object or even removing the need for wheels on some carts. The utilization of floatstone over time has become widely diverse in Citadel.

Item type

Raw Material

Current Location

The Tower

Rarity

Of the many different relics and resources found within the Tower, floatstone is one of the more commonly found items. Often found beneath extremely heavy looking objects or constructs, it appears that floatstone keeps aloft many different parts of the Tower's interior. Its commonality, however, does not dissuade from the potential dangers of its harvesting.

Base Price

5sp per bar

Raw materials & Components

Of the materials that make up floatstone, none are really understood. The rudimentary understanding of what floatstone consists of is that it is spell-infused rock. The actual, physical stone itself seems to be of the igneous variety similar in some ways to pumice. It is porous, light, and of a light grey coloration. The pores of floatstone are much larger than that of pumice, giving it an appearance closer to some types of cheeses rather than volcanic rock.

Tools

Floatstone is hardy like most stone despite its porous appearance. Though difficult to chip, it can be broken through blunt force. Floatstone is typically discovered already affixed to something within the Tower, almost always a flat surface of some structure or other relic. The most common form it is found in is a rectangular bar similar to metal ingots. These bars range in size from a bar that fits in one's hand to wide sheets that must be cut in order to transport.
Smashing floatstone greatly reduces its utility and so the practice is avoided at all costs by those seeking to recover the relic. The best method of retrieving floatstone is by cutting. In order to avoid dulling normal metal blades, many cloudcatchers utilize the use of energized crystal shards, crystal swords, and lithomantic blades.