Celestial Blackstone

Summary

Among the rarest of materials to be found on Veltrona, celestial blackstone is perhaps the greatest of all mana-related substances. It is difficult to say if it forms naturally at all, as every deposit found across the world is often the site of meteor impacts of some variety. Most scholars do not believe it does, further compounded by the fact no Underworld civilization has ever found it in their domains. Still, some mining expeditions have left in search of it, a mythical motherlode with enough wealth to make Atenkhet jealous.   To understand its value properly, one must look upon the family of blackstone materials as a whole. In naturally occurring igneous rock, blackstone is mana conductive, making it ideal for anything relating to those purposes. Atenkhet itself discovered blackstone also had mana absorbing properties, at least where sunlight is concerned. It is completely worthless with actual magic, as intense and directed mana of that nature is purely destructive to it. In later theory and practice, blackstone was quite happy to be of use in areas where high concentrations of mana could be found. Thus, worthless as any kind of armor or protection, but fantastic for mana harvesting purposes.   Celestial blackstone embodies all these properties and more. Its mana conductivity is, frankly, ridiculous and perhaps has no direct equivalent on Veltrona. Its physical nature is rather more bizarre: the outside layers are tough and hard, while the interior is much softer by comparison. Special channels that direct mana flow inside of it exhibit both organic-like veins, and geometric-like sophistication. This arrangement is undoubtedly one of its major breakthroughs, but efforts to replicate it have failed spectacularly. Why it works for celestial blackstone and not others is a vexing mystery as old as the material itself.   Given its extreme rarity and priceless value, celestial blackstone commands immense attention wherever it is found. Dragons and baarham in particular love the material, as it is very suitable to their environments. Dragon smiths doubly, as their world-class tools are created out of special, secretive mixtures of the stuff. It can be of no surprise if dragons value it so greatly that many others have come to regard it much the same. Unlike sun-gold or silverdyne, there is a problem in being too valuable. It is nearly worthless as a form of currency or value holding, and so one must be willing to actually use it instead of market it. Otherwise, they'd be liable to lose it in war or thievery for those who would use it.   Tangentially, some may expect 'whitestone' to have similar, or opposing, properties to blackstone. It is in fact completely neutral, having no interaction one way or the other. A rather bizarre detail in comparison, but such is the way of things.