Alchemy

With the Spellplague and fall of the Maenan dynasty came the loss of much technological and arcane knowledge throughout Eos, and many civilizations fell back into an older, more fearful way of life, devoid of the technology and magic that were central to Maenan civilization.
However, in the year 357 FR, a dwarven foreman named Hallas Silverbeam, who worked for a mining outfit of the Sun Dwarf Broadstone clan in Lodestone, discovered that the formerly worthless mineral known as hacksilver, when melted down into a liquid and combined with an acid (in this case vinegar), created an extremely volatile compound that would explode when exposed to oxygen and any amount of force.
While Hallas did not live to see the popularization of his discovery (he died of injuries days after the explosion), the production and use of quicksilver, as the compound soon came to be called, spread quickly across the dwarven holds of Ivaryll and Dhazan, and subsequently throughout much of the advanced nations of Eos, ushering in what some refer to as the Age of Alchemy.
Several decades later, a Dellinorian half-orc alchemist named Geedrak Halftusk greatly expanded the refinement and use of quicksilver, which to that point had proven very dangerous and costly to work with. Halftusk is often referred to as the father of modern alchemy in Eos.
Halftusk's work paved the way for the commercial production and bottling of quicksilver and alchemist's fire, and the development of less volatile quicksilver compounds that could, for example, be safely exposed to oxygen and used to set metal weapons aflame for extended periods.
In the early-to-mid 400's, a group of independent alchemists (who would later form the South Sea Trading Company), operating in Gavlos made several major advancements in the weaponization of quicksilver, which lead to a rise in the use of quicksilver and related alchemical products in military conflicts and military governance in subsequent decades.
Many sovereign nations throughout Eos are known to stockpile quicksilver as a military deterrent. It is also regarded in many cultures as a weapon to be used against deviant or rebellious Manaborn.