Chanceberry Dye
A thousand colours in a single garment, and it doesn't look garish? What manner of magic is this?Chanceberry dye is a rare and hard-to-create dye extracted from chanceberries, many-hued berries of random appearance and design. It is largely produced in the Sylvancliffs as a specialty created by Frycti's Concoctions in conjunction with the alchemists of Thrinda's Arcanium, and is one of the more rare products exported down to Port Amarin and through Aletheian Empire. Despite the name, chanceberry dye does come in multiple variations aside from dye. Limited amounts of chanceberry paint are also produced, and local businesses in the Sylvancliffs and their surrounds occasionally offer chanceberry foods or drinks. However, these expire too quickly to feasibly be exported. The dye is by far the most sought-after chanceberry product by the general public: it has been referred to by some as "magic in a bottle" or "captured rainbows", and when combined with reflective chiffons and satins, can produce spectacular garments that lend an ethereal, fey look to their wearer. A single vial of chanceberry dye is enough to coat a square foot of fabric, or if used as an ink, to ink five pages of text. Once applied, it is permanent - though universal solvent can be used to remove it.
I do quarrel with the idea of it not being garish. Many of these garments are spectacularly so - it really does just add to the charm.
Properties
Material Characteristics
Fabric Dyeing Process by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Like chanceberries themselves, chanceberry dye is of random hue. When dye is produced from the berries by those not skilled in the exact manner of producing the buyable kind, it is often of muddy colour (owing to the different hues of different berries) and functions like any other natural fruit dye. In this manner, it is often used out of lack of other alternative. True chanceberry dye as produced in the Sylvancliffs is naturally a swirling holographic rainbow of colours in a single pot. When exposed to light, the colours shift quite naturally like a particularly iridescent opal.
Physical & Chemical Properties
For the price we paid for that, you'd think it was enchanted!As a dye, chanceberry dye can bestow little in the ways of magical protection to the fabrics it's used on, despite the claims of some less-scrupulous salesmen. The random nature of the initial berries, as hinted at by their name, proves it completely unsuitable for doing so. The dye is simply a dye, and one that revels in slight fluctuations in light and local magic levels. If taken into an antimagic field, garments dyed with chanceberries will remain static in colour until removed from the field. This particular fact has given much credence to the innate magics within the berries, and kicked off a number of potion studies in the Arcanium. There is one extreme benefit to chanceberry dye for additional magical uses: it does increase the likelihood of enchantments taking. Some incredibly powerful magical cloth-based items benefit from chanceberry dye being involved in their creation; typically, robes and other gowns can obtain a slight boost in power. Robes granting spell usage, for instance, might find the spells obtain a chance of increasing in power.
What are you waiting for? You've read this far - stop by Frycti's Concoctions and pick up your bottle of dye now! Also available at various tradespeople throughout the Empire and her trading partners!
Chanceberry Dye Bottle by Hanhula (Midjourney)
Type
Organic
Value
50gp
Rarity
Rare
Odor
Smells oddly sweet.
Taste
Tastes like fabric.
Color
Iridescent / holographic rainbow.
Common State
Liquid dye or dyed fabric.
Related Locations
Related Species
Chanceberry Fabric by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
so pretty! id love to have a cardigan dyed with this