Korlat

History

Aquatic living conditions impose entirely different challenges upon its denizens compared to those within a gaseous atmosphere. One of the principle issues is that fire-based metallurgy and resulting innovations are nearly impossible. There are some exceptions, which the shermadi, ekurin, and other species exploit where possible. Fire crysium is hotly contested for its ability to smelt without producing waste and entirely unimpeded underwater, but it is not always available. In some respects, its not usable for widescale application, either. Thus, the underwater peoples searched for another way, and most would stumble upon what the ekurin called Korlat.   Coral grows throughout the oceans of Veltrona, vibrantly alive in its ceaseless, if rather slow, expansion. Revered, exploited, and many things in-between, coral is a centerpiece of many aquatic cultures, and often the first subject of experimentation thereof. Through the cultivation of specific coral breeds, conditioning magical arts, and intermixing of manarium, the first generations of the korlat material began taking shape.   Two methodologies emerged, branching down very different methods of application. Coral farming itself sought to use the coral as a transformative medium, such as acidic digestion that produced purer metallic 'waste' for collection. In this vein, coral became an important medium through which much more complex ingredients and creations could be achieved. It was, however, slow and methodical work, and the loss of coral farms from natural disasters or wars remain massive issues for every civilization. In a sense, they're often more precious than any gold or crysium.   The other branch became what many consider to be korlat itself: a fusion of living organism and inorganic material. The korlat grew to become what its makers desired, life shaped to fit a design, and with all the benefits of its inorganic substrate. Iron korlat, for example, consumed raw iron substrate and, when fixed within plate-like molds, grew into the shape thereof. Through magical conductance, it could then be 'refined', taking the final form of things like armor, machkinery scaffolding, tools, gears, and so on. Such early efforts were understandably crude, but most importantly, functional. Korlat became a promising, if time-consuming, possibility everyone wanted more of.   The biggest opponents to its adoption, of course, were the long-standing metallurgy guilds who'd cornered their markets. Metal mages in particular, highly prized for their precious talents and abilities, felt threatened by everyone adopting korlat material over their wares. How such unrest played out varies between civilizations, but many historians take note of a lot of different wars occurring in the same time frame. The reasons, at least on the surface, varied, but everyone would colloquially refer to the period as the Korlat Wars. For better or worse, try as some parties did, korlat would proliferate throughout the oceans and seal its fate as a universal material.      

Properties

Appearance / Forms

Korlat's variability can make it surprisingly difficult to identify, but at the same time its ubiquity means people call anything like it as korlat as well. The vernacular nightmare aside, a classic korlat appearance is that of sweeping, smoothly grown coral-substrate in a flowing mannerism. The bulk of it is normally solid and ridged, with some evidence of handmade sculpting, and one 'end' of it is where the coral polyps themselves emerge from. Consider the idea of plate armor: the front, chest-covering side is both smooth, sculpted for deflection, and solidly metallic and/or stone-like. The coral polyps, depending on how they're grown, may be on the interior-facing side (thus touching the wearer or their underclothing), or perhaps reaching out from the sides.   Korlat is, ultimately, alive, and so like any organism, it has a mouth and a butt of some manner. In the same example, the front-facing armor plating is the 'butt', while the interior or sides are the 'mouth'. This creates a distinctive feature that, for the experienced eye, makes it easier to identify proper korlat.    

Creation

Korlat fundamentally is coral itself, but specially bred, manipulated, and selected for over many generations. While technically anyone could start a potential korlat farm, the modern variants are descendants from very old, prestigious lineages cultivated to very specific purposes. These coral lineages, combined with the particular secret magics, forging, etc, related to them, make korlat as it is used today. While such information is closely guarded, the overall process is somewhat common knowledge.   The first stage is finding polyps of a coral colony that find a particular substrate agreement. The second stage is determining if they'll accept the substrate, and if they do so, what kind of biological cycle begins around it. These two steps repeat until a desirable cycle is achieved, with the coral polyps growing to become colonies that facilitate their farmers' desires. The third step begins when, having a healthy colony, child colonies can be created to formulate korlat itself properly. From thereon, the difficulty lies in transforming korlat colonies into the intermediate or final product for whatever purpose they're intended to become.    

Characteristics

For its many benefits, korlat offers durability, ease-of-maintenance (aside from feeding it), and a functional foundation upon which other things can be built. While not a complete replacement for purer metals, it achieves nine out of ten requirements more often than not, making it an ideal competitor thereof. Although the metal mages feared invalidity, what korlat did was relieve them of the burden for mass production. Their specific, specialized crafts were still needed in valuable niches korlat couldn't suffice for. Thus, what quantities of pure metal could be produced were left for such purposes.   Unfortunately, depending on who is asked, korlat's weaknesses still pose unignorable problems. The artifice of war, in particular, does not agree with most forms of korlat, as the burdens of battle are often lethal to the coral colony itself. While 'dead' korlat is still a very useful, inert material, it loses its self-repair ability, and it cannot easily be repaired by other means. In such cases, the usual course is to simply grow another korlat piece while mulching the dead one as fertilizer. This echoes into other korlat applications, particularly where high impact or high strain forces are regularly the norm. Korlat-based machkinery, as a result, must be built in very particular ways so as to not unduly harm the coral colonies under repetitive stress.   An important, and often highly prized detail, is how recyclable korlat is. Old or dead material can be fed to the same strain of coral colony, thus reshaped into korlat once more. It does suffer from being even slower than so-called 'fresh' material, but safe recycling is a strong advantage in the dangers of Veltrona's oceans. The less a civilization need venture into deep waters where great predators and leviathans await, the better.    

Maintenance and Life Cycle

Living korlat generally requires an agreeable nutrient intake as well as additional substrate over the course of its lifetime. It is, after all, an organism. So long as it is fed and it does not suffer debilitating injuries or sickness, it will maintain its own form and function well enough. In such cases of grievous harm, korlat-specific healing arts are required to stabilize the coral and guide it along a healthy path of recovery. Thus, the fusion of both engineer and farmer come together where korlat is concerned.   The actual lifespan of korlat itself depends heavily on the parent colony it originates from. A topic of great and myriad complexities, manipulating the lifespan of korlat is tantamount to changing its functionality. Faster growing and faster aging korlat can suffice for mass production purposes, but the characteristics are very different from slow growing, long lived korlat. Shermadi farmers who've visited dry lands often consider korlat similar to trees, in a sense. Farmed, fast growing trees can still meet most needs, but simply lack the characteristics a hundred or two hundred years of age offers. Korlat itself is, essentially, the same way.   Aging korlat heals itself less effectively, as well as struggles to digest more complex substrate and nutrients. This is not generally seen as a problem as its structural integrity doesn't degrade after the colony has died. The only issue is when sufficient damage happens that its structure is compromised, at which point it will not self-repair. In such cases, dead korlat is replaced with living korlat, and so the life cycle continues.      

Utilization

Adopting Civilizations

Korlat is ubiquitous throughout the oceanic civilizations of Veltrona, but it is most classically associated with the ekurin and shermadi. The ekurin in particular are considered the principle 'inventors' of korlat, or at least the methodologies that would become common practice. Their myriad cities and towns harmoniously intertwine with their korlat farms, constantly growing and creating new korlat for constant expansion. It takes after their own exoskeletal nature, in a sense, where constant growth, shedding, and growing again are par for the course.   Shermadi variants trend toward faster growing and more easily accessible, particularly as they have many nomadic tribes, clans, and otherwise throughout the oceans. While korlat does best when grown in a static, nutrient rich location, so-called 'moving' colonies are also possible. Their qualities and characteristics differ due to such demands, with weight being the greatest foe of all. To nomads, unnecessary weight can be a dangerous burden, and so their korlat farming methods emphasize reduction where possible. A curious adaptation that is often rather desirable even to the sedentary city-dwellers.    

Cultural Significance

Korlat is to the underwater world as iron is to the landed one: a fundamental, civilization-defining material enshrined in the highest forms of reverence and the most dirt-common applications. It can be found anywhere from simple binding applications to carefully cultivated, millennia old icons of the great goddesses. Some forms command more respect, if only for their age and expensiveness, while others do not draw the eye even one time. In many ways, korlat is the glue to which underwater civilization is kept together. It's hard to overstate its significance as much as it is to list out the innumerable ways to which it is.    

Ceremonies and Religion

Given its living nature, korlat is treated with a reverence and purposefulness similar to other forms of life. Some consider it nature itself embodied and tamed by civilized hand, while others see it as a vessel through which ancesters find home. Corals, after all, span across oceans, seeing all, tasting all. It gives and takes, and ebbing and flowing, and so embodies many ideas oceanic civilizations consider fundamental. Through korlat, they honor the coral and the oceans, and so it plays a pivotal role in many ceremonies thereof.   Some goddesses, such as Ioio and Zusutem, consider korlat as their own divine creation. While perhaps technically true for certain breeds of the corresponding coral, their dominion over korlat as a whole tends to be contested. It is of little surprise as one is shermadi and the other ekurin, thus originating (or mirroring) the conflict of interest between the two species.    

Spiritual Connections

Through time, place, circumstance, or sheer luck, korlat intertwines with more than just the oceans around it. Such forms of korlat become havens to spirits, harboring the tiniest and modest ones as surely as coral does tiny forms of life. Whether a blessing or a curse, the harboring of spirits engenders attention from divine realms and the many beings thereof. It becomes an important duty of many priestesses to find such korlat and see it safely tended to, lest great powers become angered by its disrespect.    

Domestic Applications

As a building material, korlat is in direct competition with veltron magics more often than not. While a house could made from it, such is usually due to a lack of available veltron mages than it being 'better' per say. However, it does find application for areas where durability, but less weight, is more a concern, like doors, shutters, furniture, and so on. Many forms of decorative wares are fashioned from korlat, like plates, cutlery, cooking wares, etc, becoming much more valued and coveted from the traditional veltron-sculpted wares. As it is 'alive', however, treating such things as one would their family pet or garden is more the norm. Some of these korlat wares have lived within a family for multiple generations, becoming venerable existences in their own proper way.    

Agriculture and Industry

Korlat's living nature means areas of static concern, but continual stress or maintenance, make it more ideal, such as gears, simple machkinery, joints, and the like. For much higher demands, like mining equipment, forging machkinery, mana channeling, etc, metals are selected for instead. It principally exists in the comfortable middle-ground, enabling others while not quite going to the furthest extents possible. Korlat farms centered around complex matters such as chemical ingredients, alchemical reagents, specialized composite materials, and the like tend to be its agricultural and industrial domain. Through korlat, civilizations can refine many needed ingredients that become vital to the expansion of all their sciences, industries, and magical arts.    

Military

Similar to iron and steel of the land civilizations, korlat is the backbone of military power throughout the oceans. For the most part, fast growing, fast aging korlat is used to create the wares of war on a mass scale. This 'cheaper' material is easier to make and easier to replace. Proven warriors, experienced veterans, and figures of renown garner actual living korlat specially grown to suit their temperaments and capabilities. An important consideration when such people begin wielding tremendous power, magical or physical, that more mundane forms of korlat die and break apart quickly from. Military-grade korlat, as a result, is very carefully guarded beyond most other forms. Entire familial lineages exist solely to cultivate, curate, and improve such korlat for the many armies and their needs.    

Magical Arts

Relying on other forms of life, especially non-sapient life, in the pursuit of magic is always a very unpredictable affair. Spellcraft is the realm of sapience, and the korlat, which is still coral after a fashion, provides no help and endless amounts of trouble. While magic plays a key role in its formulation and existence, it does not necessarily make for the conducting of magic through itself. As such, for most forms of magic, korlat is more an inhibitor than an aide. The inanimate substrate it creates, however, can be utilized for magical purposes.   In such cases, the art of combining mana channels, magical circuits, and many forms of enchantment thereof, target the substrate and material of the korlat, not the coral component itself. The problem therein is that, if the korlat feels damaged, it will heal over and disrupt any such work done on its 'body'. It takes supreme skill to weave enchantments into the korlat that isn't undone by its natural healing, and double that to withstand active damage from outside sources. Such korlat pieces are prized possession and worth a queen's ransom at the very minimum.      

Design Notes