Sapphire ink

Sapphire ink is an especially fine and costly writing and painting ink favored by authors and illuminators throughout the Eleven Cities. It appears to have been of religious significance to some of the pre-Wesmodian cults, particularly those of Krezzan and Ynglyas.

Composition and manufacture

Despite its name sapphire ink has no gemstone components. It is in fact an animal product, its principle constituent being the venom of the Moon octopus found in shallow waters around the shores of the great northern ocean. Once squirted his venom dissipates quickly in seawater, and the octopus cannot be kept in captivity, so harvesting the venom involves approaching the wild animal very stealthily and spearing it - without piercing the venom gland - before it squirts its venom at the hunter. Since a dead octopus with an intact venom gland can be worth a moon's income to a common fisher family, stalking the animals in this way is a tempting proposition, though always a chancy one, particularly for those unversed in the skill. Fisherfolk are fairly regularly blinded, scarred or even killed in this pursuit.
Once the dead octopus is landed the apothecary punctures the venom gland and drains it without touching the venom, which is a powerful contact poison noted for causing disfiguring scars. This property is substantially neutralised by carefully combining it with large quantities of vinegar or wine, a process that serves the important subsidiary purpose of thinning the glutenous substance to a consistency similar to that of milk. The mixing must be handled slowly and carefully, however, as mixing too quickly will cause the venom to clot and become worthless to anyone except assassins.
The end result of this process is a famously beautiful clear liquid which is a deep indigo colour in its natural wet state. No longer particularly hazardous to work with, it still produces a itchy rash if left in contact with skin and can cause injuries if bought into contact with eyes.
The northern cities of Oluz and Halumay are the only places near enough to the octopus's warm-water habitat to produce sapphire ink in more than anecdotal quantities. The difficulty involved in acquiring the base material keeps production levels low, however. The two cities combined produce perhaps twenty to thirty gallons of the ink a year. Demand persistently outstrips supply, making the stuff highly valued by those with a use for it.

Cultic significance

As it dries the ink fades from deep indigo to a rather more severe but still highly desirable steel-blue colour. This colour contrasts particularly well when used on writing surfaces previously dyed black. Calligraphy on exactly that sort of medium - either pocelain glazed in black or dyed parchment - is practiced as a craft by the Bruised Ones of Chogyos. The Bruised Ones, being mostly girls of good breeding among Chogyos's intensely class-conscious elite, serve as a lucrative market for dealers in the the ink, using it to produce gifts to pass among themselves and to family members and suitors. What is particularly interesting about this is that much of the rest of Oluz and Halumay's collective output of the ink is purchased by the Brotherhood of Rooks. Like the Bruised Ones, the Brotherhood makes no secret of being a secularised descendant of the pre-Wesmodian cult of Krezzan. The fact that the lion's share of the global output of this writing medium is monopolised by two organisations with roots in the worship of an ancient god of time and death has escaped the notice of very few thaumatologists.
The description of steel-grey ink on black pages is also matches that of the books of prognostication said to have been used by the Nameless Ones, the itinerant oracular priestesses of Ynglyas. The Nameless Ones would often read their prophecies from these books, which are said to have consisted of black pages inscribed with blue ink. It is also said (by some sources and not others) that the writing on these pages released something like a terrestrial moonlight while being read aloud. Sapphire ink does not shed light at any point in its manufacture or use, though the theory that it was used to manufacture books of evident magical power makes it of great interest to thaumatologists, who tend to try to get hold of what samples the better-resourced organisations leave on the shelf. Some have also suggested this evident connection between the all-female Nameless Ones and the Chogyan Bruised Ones as evidence of some long-standing connection between the cults of Yngylas and Krezzan.
The matter gains urgency given that a high proportion of the few scattered remnants of Ynglyan literature appear to have been written using sapphire ink. Most notably the Voyonian Fragments, the remnants of a text of great significance to thaumatologists trying to unravel the Ynglyan Code, clearly utilise the medium. Whether this is because the ink has some inherent significance to the practice of Ynglyan magic or was merely an appropriately rich, high-quality component used in the manufacture of a book of great importance is not clear.

Item type

Religious / Ritualistic