Bark Salt
by hughpierre
Properties
Material Characteristics
A dirty and crumbling soot black surface that is caked, mostly, in the dried red sap from the tree.
Physical & Chemical Properties
- Acidic
- Teotl Conductive
Origin & Source
Blood Wood
A black and red stained tree with reddish sap almost constantly bleeding through the cracks and crevices in its bark. It grows healthily in the brine and is the source of the bark salt. In-the-place of leaves, blood woods grow porous and unappetizing beans on its branches, the weight of which drags the tree branches downwards. Many organisms in the ecology of this area are heavily dependent on this tree filtering the brine. Other than humans peeling off its bark, the blood wood has no natural predators. The sap seeping through is so acidic, it supposedly burns the tree itself as it migrates out and hardens into the tree's bark, like a scab.The "Blood Woods" is also the name given to the forestry areas in the Brine Marshes; which as one can discern, composes mostly of Blood Wood.
History & Usage
Discovery
Tinged
A slave revolt under Cloud Country evolved into a mass exodus deeper into the Marshes with the majority of the working population. These exiles were always surrounded by these trees, but only when they were outside of the regulations of a foreign power did leaders experiment with this exotic salt.Manufacturing & Products
Coven
Unbidden, a blood wood tree moves to its on whims. The result of a repetitive, pulsing reaction between the bloody sap inside the tree and the salty bark that covers it outside. This effect is understood and appropriated into the the coven's legs to the Tinges' designs; with the matriarch controlling the direction and speed of the coven by manipulating the bark salt to shift its concentrations within the legs.Wights
The same theory of movement that dictates the motions of the coven's legs and thistles; also affords the range of motion of the human body as shown in the battle for Sangsalgu. They are, at least partially, made from the funeral rights involving preservation in the brine waters before placing them in pods of animal skin decorated with tassels, shells and bird bones. Then the bodies are hung from a Blood Wood where sap and salt seep inside to slowly revitalize the salted muscles and form a closed circuit that is manipulable to a witch's teotl.Distribution
Law & Regulation
Paper Pact
A tri-partnership agreement between the Tinged of a Place of Orbit, the Krix of Krix Salt State and the Taulli of the Shadow realms by which each participant trades in materials for the manufacture of paper. This has included the bark of the blood wood which can then be grounded into salt.Not many outside the culture can hope to utilize it. So matriarchs don't really care if the jealous states get their hands on it, in exchange for other valuables.
Type
Metamaterial
Odor
Faint pungent, sulfurous aroma of eggs
Taste
Salty
Color
Reddish-black color
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