Arcanite

Arcanite, also known as khazrilda, "Lore Stone" in Tretalleri, is a rare and important material for the development of the Dominion and the continued survival of life in the Pāll-tanír.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Raw arcanite exists primarily in two forms in nature: rough gemstones and crystals. Both forms range from microscopic (10 µm in diameter) to enormous (5m or larger in diameter) and range in color from translucent light blue at the smallest sizes, to deep cerulean with a bright blue internal radiance.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Though they are hardly the most remarkable thing about arcanite, the mineral's physical properties are nonetheless worth noting. Comparison studies indicate that arcanite is roughly as hard or is harder than diamond. Unlike diamond, arcanite is not brittle. Current records show that Arcanite is able to withstand the impact of a sledgehammer that would otherwise pulverize a similarly-sized diamond.
Arcanite is also incredibly fire-resistant, showing no signs of damage even when subjected to prolonged exposure to the highest temperatures that can be achieved in controlled environments. A number of experiments conducted with the help of the slow-moving lava flows of Ata Laīna demonstrate that arcanite survives destruction even when exposed to surface lava flows. Shorter exposures to higher temperatures, such as those produced by lightning, show no capability of damaging arcanite either.
Compared to other substances, arcanite specimens demonstrate a unique behavior in that they adhere to one another whenever flat faces come into contact with one another. After some time, proportional to contact area and exposure to sunlight, this adhesion develops into full fusion. Through a mechanism that is yet-unknown, the fused specimens will combine and reconfigure to produce a larger crystal, regardless of the original form of the individual specimen.
Numerous experiments involving various substances applied to arcanite under various circumstances have repeatedly demonstrated little to no reactivity. Further research is ongoing but for the time being it has been classified as a chemically-inert substance.

Arcanological Properties

Despite its notable physical properties, arcanite is best known for the way that it interacts with arcane energy which makes it an invaluable material for development.

Arcane Energy Storage

Arcanite's most important, most well-known and least-understood property is its ability to capture and store arcane energy with remarkable efficiency. Though there have been attempts over the millennia to create artificial arcane 'batteries', no man-made materials have so far been able to compare to the efficiency, capacity, and longevity of arcanite when it comes to storing arcane energy.
Comprehensive testing of arcanite's energy storage efficiency indicates that even small crystals successfully capture at least 90% of all arcane energy put into them, with storage efficiency increasing with volume to a maximum of 97% based on recent experiments. Storage is not perfect, however. All arcanite vessels, regardless of size, "leak" stored arcane energy. Some of this raw arcane energy is released as raw arcane energy to be resorbed by the arcanite, but a small portion is leaked to the environment as waste heat.
In the largest, most efficient arcanite specimens known, this "leakage" rate has been estimated to be about 1% of total capacity every 200 years, on average. Of this leakage, 20% is lost to the environment as heat, 40% is lost to the environment as raw arcane energy, and 40% is resorbed into the arcanite.

Arcane Energy Retrieval

Arcanite is not just useful for storing arcane energy. Those who are versed in the arcane arts are able to draw the arcane energy stored in arcanite for the purposes of spellcraft. The retrieval efficiency of arcanite is even more remarkable than its storage efficiency. 2% of all arcane energy drawn from arcanite is lost to the environment as waste heat. Furthermore, this rate is independent of the size of the crystal and the volume of the energy that is being withdrawn from it.

Spellform Application

Compared to other materials, arcanite is exceptionally receptive to the application of spellforms. Furthermore, unlike other materials which require conscious thought to activate spell-forms and constant consumption of arcane energy to maintain activation, spellforms imbued into arcanite can be self-activating and self-sustaining for as long as the arcanite contains arcane energy.

Type

Ore/Mineral

Odor

Odorless

Taste

Tasteless

Color

Translucent light blue to deep cerulean with an inner light in the raw form. Can take on other colors depending on the characteristics of the spellforms that are embedded in them.

Density

4.2 x 10⁶ g/m³

Common State

Irregular gemstones or crystals ranging from microscopic (10 µm) to enormous (5m or larger)