Pyro Dust

Pyro dust is a substance that combusts when exposed to direct sunlight. It resembles ordinary dust, and thus can be spread across a wide area or carried in the air undetected. This substance was created by High Councillor Ferro (Itera E-20) while he was still a Scholar. It was originally stored in Ferro's underground vault, which he built in unsculpted lands to store his vast collection of Highly Destructive and Deadly Inventions. This was one of the HDDIs Ferro brought to the seminar he ran for the 21st Itera Scholar trainees (also known as the Philosophy Incident). The substance was eventually retrieved by the Scholars along with the other items.

As I told the trainees, I have been working on these since I first became part of the Imaginarium. And my research has been quite involved. There is much, much more where that came from. Many of those devices were far too destructive to safely bring to the seminar.

They're all in a vault. About ten metres underground, in unsculpted land. I can give you the key.

Be careful when you go in there, though. Some of the walls spit liquid nitrogen.

— Ferro (Itera E-20)

The Vault

To all but Ferro, the vault of HDDIs was essentially a death trap. What made the vault so dangerous was the fact that everything about it looked innocent, even homely, but in reality both the space and the items located within had the potential to cause great bodily harm in often unpredictable ways. The Scholars who investigated it had to take great care not to set off anything that would burn them, melt body parts, release toxic gas or simply explode. The sheer number of dangerous items made extraction a long and arduous task, and each moment they spent in there increased the chances of things going catastrophically wrong.

A team of Scholars was mobilized and equipped with safety gear before being sent in search of the vault. They found an unprecedented number of items and dangerous substances. Almost everything that could be picked up was a potential hazard. The team retrieved 1006 inventions in all.

— Scholar Burr (Itera V-18)

Properties

Material Characteristics

Pyro Dust looks indistinguishable from ordinary dust particles, especially when spread over a wide area or floating in the air.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Pyro dust is highly combustible when exposed to direct sunlight.

Color

The dust is a light grey colour.

Density

Very low

Common State

It is made up of solid dust particles.