Snowstone

Snowstone is a bright white substance that is sensitive to heat, causing several forms; powder, packed stone and glass. These forms are dependent on consistant surrounding temperatures to be both manipulated and maintained. Heat is used to solidify the stone while cold relaxes the stone or glass to it's powder form. Each form is considered very beautiful, and it's reusability means it holds its value in any form.

Mining

Imported by many wealthier areas, snowstone powder is mined from the tops of cold, snowy mountains, often making it a dangerous and difficult task. Creatures known to be more resistant to cold can make a good living mining snowstone powder and selling it to travelling caravans. Because it is nearly indistinguishable from snow, the mining process usually follows several steps. Large amounts of snow are collected and thrown onto an apparatus that is then heated. Snow will melt and drain away leaving pock-marked or ant-hill like snowstone rocks on the apparatus. These rocks are then stored in a barrel, bag or other container away from a heat source and left to freeze, at which point they revert to powder.

Use

Snowstone sculptors use tools that are frozen or heated to harden or soften the forms until their sculpture is complete. The reusability and flexibility of snowstone makes it incredibly popular among builders and artists alike.

Because of it's heat sensitivity, it is much more commonly used in warmer climates. Often the preferred substance to build desert and jungle temples, or it's used to lay decoration on a building of another type of stone.

While it's rarer to see in use in the north, it does still have it's uses. Because the powder solidifies near heat, it can be used as a flame retardant substance or a type of insulation. While this is usually considered beneath it's value, some of the wealthiest northern homes incorporate snowstone like this simply as a status symbol. It is also considered a major status of wealth to have a snowstone statue inside your northern-climate home.

Still others are continuing to experiment with snowstone in every-day uses. One use that seems to be catching on are snowstone boots. Boots fashioned normally except the soles are stuffed with a layer of snowstone between two pieces of leather. The warmth from the feet mold the snowstone at the top of the sole to the foot and provide a hardened protective layer, while the snowstone closest to the bottom of the boot remains soft and snow-like creating some cushion and bounce to the boots. Not recommended for warmer or extremely cold climates however.

Glass Form

In packed stone form, water does nothing to snowstone. However when the powder is poured into water it becomes translucent, and turns white once dry again. Temple builders will often mix snowstone powder with water and dyes, and then heat it up, creating a translucent colored ice-looking substance that is then carved to make stained glass windows or inlaid with stone floors for a sparkling effect. This is called snowstone glass.

Snowstone Glass Featuring in Temple Windows

My Lady of Grapes

Burned Snowstone

Magic users who want to make a quick buck have been known to use spells like fireball to melt a large area of snow, and then just collect the rocks left behind. However this usually results in a lower quality snowstone powder because the finer grains of powder are burnt up by the spell.