Hielel's Cobweb

Catching the gold and silver remnants of the last evening light, a strand, a thread, of thin web drifts through the air above the clouds. Warbling, rising and falling with each gust of wind, scintillating with each ray of sun. The evening is bright above the clouds; it's so incredibly bright that the white light seems to make a blue tinted haze between here and the horizon. Beneath the twisting and turning thread, an airship floats, docked by the side of a cloud. The strings of flags attached to it's ropes flutter gently in the breeze and the haze, as the ship's occupants collect other fallen strands fallen from the sky.
Magic is an invisible field which connects all things through it's cobweb-like strands. Magicians can cast spells through vibrations in this magical flux. However, sometimes, in intense magical fields, this magical flux can become a physical substance, allowing magicians to infuse items with raw magic. These physical manifestations of the flux are known as Hielel's Cobwebs, due to the deity gifting it to mortals in the dawn of time, giving them access to magic.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Hielel's Cobweb appears to be a collection of ordinary strands of cobweb, only with a slight shimmer. However, when not observed, or observed out of the corner of the eye, the material seems to warp and change form, like a sort of strange, floating fluid.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Heilel's cobweb, like mundane cobweb, is extremely fragile when in strands, but very strong when woven into a material. However, when it is woven into a material, it gains many other properties, depending on how it is woven. When woven into different patterns and arcane runes, it's magical potential energy is harnessed to produce a powerful magical charm. These woven charms are extremely powerful and rare, and it is thought that mortal creatures first achieved magic through weaving Heilel's cobweb. Furthermore, the intense magical energy of the material is enough to distort divination magic and magical vision (see sidebar).

Geology & Geography

In the present day, Hielel's cobweb is only found in two places. The most common is woven onto clouds in the sky, making it's extraction process very difficult. It is yet unknown how it appears in the sky, and there are many theories. The more religiously inclined suggest that Hielel himself still drags the stuff across the cosmos as a gift for mortals, but others believe that it is the magical flux in the far sky given physical form by the excess of magical potential and volatility that exists in the far sky close to the Boarder Astral. It then drifts down to the cloud layer and rests there. Most often, the cobweb will dissipate if not extracted and preserved within a week or two, but in rare cases it remains, due to magical preservative properties of exceedingly rare clouds. As the cobweb builds up on these clouds, they become more magically charged, eventually imploding or exploding in a powerful magical event, or gaining sentience to become a powerful elemental being.
Another location in which this cobweb can be found is in the library, workshop, or temple of a magical breakthrough. In these cases, there is no doubt that this is Heilel aiding mortal affairs.

Life & Expiration

From the moment of it's creation, Hielel's cobweb starts to deteriorate. It usually takes anywhere between 8 and 16 days for a strand of it to fully dissipate magically. There are ways to stop this deterioration, however. The first is to weave it into a charm. When the strands are woven physically close together and joined in magical purpose, the deterioration process is halted, unless the weave is damaged. Secondly, if a strand is to be saved for later weaving, it should be placed in a container, which contains a high concentration of magical energy, to prevent the magic from the web from dissipating.

History & Usage

Cultural Significance and Usage

Hielel's Cobweb is held to be sacred by worshippers of Hielel, and seen as extremely important for magi and artificers. In the Temple of Hielel, it is required that a temple can only be established and kept sacred if at least a strand of Hielel's cobweb is present. Most temples of Hielel weave their strands into protective charms to keep the temple and it's worshippers from harm. These charms (specifically those in the temples) are called Hielel Tapestries. They can range in size and complexity, from a tiny square of fabric woven with simple charms at a shrine, to a huge tapestry depicting the religion's mythology, with arcane runes masterfully woven into the images, in great cathedral.
If Hielel's cobweb manifests in the workshop of a mage, the Temple of Hielel will suddenly take great interest in that magician's work, viewing this as a sign from Hielel that their research is sacred.
Hielel's cobweb is also seen as sacred by High elves, who call it Amairalis, which is variously translated as Star-shadows or Star-dust. This is because a few elves hae learnt how to use the cobweb as a sort of divination tool, to gain glimpses of their own past lives. In elf mythology, the cobweb is created by souls, of elves and other mortal creatures, as they drift upwards to the Astral. The cobwebs are wisps of memory from their lives, which they leave behind as they drift into the afterlife. Like other races, elves weave the strands into cloth, but rather than weaving them into charms, they weave them into patterns which express their flickers of remembrance of their past lives. An elf who wants their past lives woven into an Amairlothoren (the elvish name for these cloths) must seek out an elf cleric or diviner to channel the magic of the cobweb so that the elf can glimpse their past lives (or attempt it themselves). They can then weave the cloths themselves, or seek the guidance of a professional weaver to weave the strands together (an elf must have a part in the construction of their own Amairlothoren).

Distribution

Trade & Market

Most Hielel's cobweb is extracted in the sky by teams of trained cobweb hunters. Owing to the rapid deterioration of the web, markets for Hielel's cobweb are most often held as airships carrying the material dock. This is also the reason why the raw material is almost never found in retail. Being so expensive, Hielel's cobweb is heavily taxed, so many teams decide to sell it illegally on the black market.

Type

Metaphysical

Value

Depending on how fresh the material is, the price of a strand of Hielel's cobweb (about 0.5 m) will fetch anywhere from 50gp to 1000gp

Rarity

Very Rare

Odor

Magical

Taste

Magical

Color

Magical

Magical Shielding

Although a creature with ordinary sight can observe Hielel's Cobweb with little to no side effects, if a creature tries to observe it through the effects of magical sight, such as a Detect Magic spell, the cobweb will overwhelm the creature's vision, and prevent divination, with it's raw magical potential.

Effects on Magical Sight

In less severe cases, this can simply lead to the spell being wasted, or a creature with innate magical sight being blinded to magical energy whilst the cobweb is within range. However, in severe circumstances, the observer can become maddened for a short time, as their mind struggles to comprehend the magical power and purity of what they have just seen.

Distortion Uses

People looking to conceal a magical item or aura will often integrate Hielel's cobweb into the room it is kept in to prevent divination magic from finding what they hide, if they can afford it. Artificers have also discovered ways to harness the distortion to protect a user from divination without impeding their own divination. They integrate these technologies into magical items such as a Ring of Mind Shielding, meaning that all such items require a fragment of Hielel's cobweb to manufacture.