Stonesblood

Stonesblood is a natural mineral substance that can be mined from deep excavations into the skin of the earth. One of the most valuable treasures of gran'Duovari stonedoms, stonesblood is a thick, viscuous liquid at noonday temperatures, partially translucent and with a consistency similar to molasses. In below-freezing temperatures, it hardens into a tacky, sticky tar-like substance, losing some of its translucency. Stonesblood can boil but does not appear to transform into a gas even at forge-high temperatures; it gives off gasses similar to magma, but it only mildly dehydrates when hot and will gradually rehydrate from atmospheric moisture if allowed to cool.
Stonesblood is, primarily, a fuel source. It possesses a strange reluctance to be easily used up, enabling it to be useful when in a mildly excited state to generate heat and kinetic power. It is safer and less volatile than some sources of geothermal power, but it is used in similar ways to power industrial machines, heat and move water, and serve other basic functions that an ignition engine would. Even when heated to pseudo-boiling, stonesblood does not adhere to metal surfaces, making it easy to cordon off in metal containers. Stonesblood is also not conducive to heat and will not warp or melt most tempered metals it comes into contact with.
Depending on where it is sources, stonesblood may have an amber-yellow hue, a fire-orange tint, or a blood-red stain to it--the latter of which gave it its original name. Miniscule deposits and veins of stonesblood run through a variety of rocks in the deep earth, and systematic crushing and heating of these rocks will separate the liquid stonesblood from the gravel that can then be repurposed for building material.
The off-gassing from "activated" (heated to near-boiling) stonesblood is frequently used to provide insulation via "dead air" in certain machines or buildings.

Type

Mineral