Mud of Our Ancestors

Humans have always valued origin. They preserve it in original scrolls. They preserve it in original skills. They preserve it in original buildings. They preserve it in original Mud.
Some say, "This Mud. This Mud is where my great, great, great, great grandparents lived. A piece of their hearth in fact."
Other's say, "This Mud. This Mud is from my great, great, great, great grandma's garden."
Another said, "This Mud. This Mud is from where my great, great, great, great Granda met with the invading Trolls and crushed them all with the very same hammer he'd been using to build his house with."
"No it's not."
"What? No. Yes it is. It's my Mud. I should know where it's from."
"I'm your cousin. I know probably more than you do about this cuz I didn't have to listen to your crazy Ma all my life. Your Da told me it was part of your great, great, great, great Granda's outhouse. There's probably crap in there."
"What? No! My Ma wasn't crazy! She knew all the stories about the whole village!"
"Made them up you mean."
"No! She knew Lady Teya's box was only filled with ash because it was all they could find when the house burnt down. She knew Ol'Mat's crate, you know? The one he touted as holding half precious gems because his Granda lived in the mountains?"
"The one he used for a table?"
"The same. It was actually just blocks of granite in there. Useless. My Ma knew it all and your saying she didn't know about our own, very own Mud? The Mud passed down for five generations?"
A deep sigh, "Fine. Maybe she did know what everyone else had. Maybe that's what made her more, well, ashamed of your own and she made up a better story for it. Your Ma may have told that story but it was your Da's Mud. Not hers. He would know his own Mud. I'm sorry to say it, but your Mud is just crap."
"No!"
"Sorry. It is. Sure, it's ancient crap and probably turned back to dirt by now, but it's crap never-the-less. The crap of your ancestors. You keep it in that box, on that shelf, and pass it off as a war trophy. The crap of war, I guess."

Properties

Material Characteristics

Depending on the original substance collected the different Muds will all have different characteristics.

Origin & Source

The first home of your family. Dirt from a piece of that land.

Life & Expiration

Over time everything returns to dirt, though some take longer than others.

History & Usage

History

During the first centuries, the Aerth was an unstable place because of the newness of the Magna's. They had no clue what to do with their various new skills. Hills, valleys and mountains threw the land about. Streams, lakes and seas sloshed about. Winds, storms and hurricanes lashed about. Fire danced through it all. Just ten years after the first Magna, Ignis Magna Girdin, gained her powers, the current main city of Oxhead was destroyed in a raging fire. The citizens, lead by King Norom, were mostly saved after fleeing the city into the nearby mountains and waiting for the decimation to cease. It was clear afterward that they had to find another place to live. Sadness, loss and depression raged just as freely as the fire had. King Norom counciled his people to scrounge through the wreckage and find anything they could of their past lives.
This was their memory. This was their treasure now, since all their other ones had gone up in flame. They kept their pieces of disintegrated history close and travelled to a new land. Over the years these pieces broke down further and had to be kept in containers of one sort or another to continue being kept. More years stretched. Descendants begged to take a bit of the Mud of their Ancestral Land with them when they moved out. Their descendants did the same.
Soon it was tradition. Soon it was the Mud of your Ancestors that boasted pride-of-place in every home. Soon everyone forgot why they even did it.

Distribution

Storage

Any reliable container. Preferably a pretty one

Value

Mostly a psychological value. Piece of Pride, of Belonging to Something Ancient.

Rarity

Everyone has Ancestral Mud. Not rare at all. What is rare is having a pleasant way of storing it.

Odor

Yuck?

Taste

Yuck!

Color

Depends on the original

Common State

Solid