Sundew Gem

"Imagine the power of the sun in the palm of your hands. Keep imagining because you'll never experience it. But you can think of these beauties like very tiny suns while you hold them in your hand."

Sundew gems are a rare type of gem that has the ability to collect and store life essence from sunlight. While they are fairly weak as far as magical power sources go, the re-usability of them, as well as the fact that they do not require siphoning energy directly from a living creature make it a highly valuable commodity among mages. Some believe that the gems are crystallized sunlight from millennia ago when the gods were still forming the world, though there is no way to be sure.

History & Usage

History

Sundew gems have been in use since at least the mid Serene Era, though they were said to be seen as less useful by the elves of that day due to the widespread acceptance of using more crude essence storage devices or even ripping the essence out of human slaves as needed. With the fall of elven rule following the Great invasions, the use of sundew gems became more widespread as several methods for manufacturing essence storage devices were lost and many human groups sought to distinguish themselves from their elven predecessors by outlawing murder of any creature for the purposes of magical experimentation.

Everyday use

Sundew gems are used in the same way as other objects capable of storing life essence within them. They are used by mages to preform spells too costly to survive without external magical energies, used by magical healers to anchor the soul of their patients on particularly dangerous operations, and by magical scientists to study the nature of life essence itself.

Distribution

Law & Regulation

Sundew gems are rare enough that there are no organizations with specific regulations pertaining to them. That said, states such as Lakura who maintain anti-magic laws will likely confiscate gems as magical contraband.

Type

Ore/Mineral

Rarity

Rare