Soulsilk

What? Why? Everyone knows this, why do I have to make an extra journal entry for gods damn Soulsilk? No one is going to read it, no one is going to care, and... you know what, whatever. I'll do it, but just know that the midnight raids onto the snackbar will not lessen!

— Apprentice Botanist, Kate Lyra Langridge

A Basic Component of Trinketry

The first Soulventures found Soulsilk within caves and canyons. It has to be said however, that Soulsilk can only grow inside the Fog, making it hard to harvest, despite its common appearance.

Properties and Naming

Soulsilk, despite its name, only has a secondary connection with the soul itself. Soulsilk is a connection between two trinkets, created by Soulweavers to connect themselves and their teammates. It merely serves as the physical link between the trinkets, effectively funtioning as a cable connecting every member of a Soulventure. When enhancing their arcane powers, Soulweavers are able to temporarily cut the Silk and reattach it from a distance, being able to traverse difficult terrains such as forests without the risk of breaking the connection by, i don't know, stupidly running past a tree on opposite sides.Though you would need to be exceptionally stupid to do that.

Additional Use

As you, at least hopefully, know, Soulweavers can invoke trinket effects over distance for their teammates. They can only do so, if two requirements are met: One being that the connection is up and well, the other one being that the magical effect can travel over the connection. This is accomplished by constructing trinkets which contain an adequate amount of Soulsilk themselves. The spell needs to charge up on Soulsilk-properties in order to travel over the web to their target. Bottom line is, when building ranged trinkets, always incorporate Soulsilk for it to actually work.

Harvesting and Storing

Now for the actually interesting part, at least for the Botanists, for whom the article is written: How to handle Soulsilk. Although the silk looks easily destructable, do not confuse it with the properties of regular spider webs. They are more to be handled like thick pieces of yarn or wool. They are highly flammable, so leave your Slaughterer buddy outside and cut them off at their stem with your Prismatic Glaive. As always, no touching with exposed skin. Do use your Arcane Voidgloves to put them back into, preferrably, your Chronovoid of Holding where they should stay relatively stable up until your return from your raid.

Growth

Cutting Soulsilk by Midjourney

We still don't know the exact reason why and how Soulsilk exists. My masters often tell me that they subject themselves to countless sleepless nights, huddling together like little Gremlins, studying their growthstages and whatever the fuck. The things we do know, are that they need stone and air to manifest, thus the canyon and cave grow environments. We also found lots of other valuable minerals relatively close to naturally occuring Soulsilk, suggesting that the silk gets their magical properties through those ressources. The "How" behind of this however stays a mystery, for now.

Type

Biomaterial

Odor

slightly metallic

Taste

wet, tasteless

Color

white-lightblue glowing

Soulsilk by Midjourney

We really had a lot of luck. If we hadn't found Soulsilk and discovered its use as soon a we did, Ignotas would probably be even more deadly than it already is.

— Senior Botanist, Sarah Ruth Rowley

Further Reading