Lyez Clay

Lye-ehz

You fool! Yes, iron may work for heating your meals— but if you were to use it for brewing you potions? Why, the entire retort would melt and dissolve into your brew, ruining both the potion and the floor! Listen, my apprentice— lyez clay is the one and only material in this world that can hold a brewing potion, nothing else. Now, clean up this mess!

— An alchemist to their apprentice

Lyez clay is an uncommon material found throughout Qet, which bears the strange property of being unable to combine or mix with other materials whatsoever. This unique property allows for the creation of lyez clay retorts, which can be used to brew alchemical concotions without worry of the vessel melting or contaminating anything heated within.

Secreted Earth

Lyez clay can appear anywhere earth is to be found, as it was not formed ages ago with the rest of the world's dirt and stone. Rather, lyez clay is formed as a byproduct of feasting meajeyi?— otherworldly parasites that consume the flesh of the decaying god whose corpse composes the entirety of Qet. These creatures cannot be seen without eldritch insight, however, and so, to most, their burrowed tunnels appear as if from thin air. Thankfully, they are seldom found within human settlements, and are few and far between— though they do blight farmland on occasion.
These downward-curved tunnels are about 4 feet in diameter and tend to only be 40-80 feet in length, growing over a period of about ten years. As the meajeyi feast, their bodies secrete a liquid substance that hardens into lyez clay, this is done both to ensure the stability of the tunnel, and simply to vacate waste from their bodies. The clay itself, once hardened, bears a bright white flecked with striking blue blotches.

Harvesting

Harvesting lyez clay is a typically straightforward process. Once a deposit is located, miners will set up a pulley system to lower themselves into the tunnel and begin extracting clay from the bottom-up— this way, the stability offered by the clay keeps the tunnel from collapsing before everything has been collected. Despite being very similar to worldly clay, lyez is able to retain its shape and support tunnels while remaining soft and easy to harvest— a property it mysteriously loses once extracted.
Tunnels should be covered to prevent them from filling with rainwater during the rainy seasons. Those that are found too late, and are already filled with water, are seldom harvested— as the work required to drain them can take longer than it would to harvest a dry tunnel. Those determined to harvest these will drain the tunnel with a qetleux— if the shape of the tunnel is straight enough to fit one— or lower and raise buckets on a pulley, one by one.
If a tunnel is caught early, miners will either strip what they can then and there— or mark its location and wait patiently.

Usage

Lyez clay is primarily utilized to create alchemical retorts and containers, which are made in a variety of shapes and sizes depening on their culture of origin. Retorts made by Lliaqeu? artisans, for example, are often simple and unadorned— while Kouxat? potters tend to make theirs resemble animals or monsters by introducing faces, fangs, and feet.
While uncommon, aesthetic potters make use of lyez clay for their work, as its coloration can be quite appealing to the eye. However, its odd properties also mean that it cannot be glazed or painted over, limiting expression to the third dimension. Some will choose to inlay bits of gold or other precious metals and gems into their pottery to make up for this.

Medical Usage

The second most common usage of lyez clay is as a laxative, thanks to its unusual unmixing properties, which force it out of the human body when ingested. For this use, small beads are rolled and kept by both healers and common folk alike. This is seen by many as a quick and effective method for curing just about anything that ails them, though its actual effectiveness varies depending on the particular ailment. The taste, as expected, is earthy and unpleasant.

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