Dragon's Blood Gemstone

I met a Vosti trader down at the pub, he was very interested in my business upstream. Especially wanted to know if I sold any of that Dragon's Blood shit. And I said sure, I get cartloads of the stuff, usually have to chuck it. The look on his face! He signed an exorbitant contract there on the spot, buying a load for a hundred gold. The poor fool.

— Waal Zaimyalkee Mining Magnate

Dragon's Blood is a gemstone mined in the Krenar Mountains of eastern Abravost. It is most identifiable by its vibrant red colour, as well as the rarer golden variants. Despite its abundance in the mountains, it is highly valuable, but only within The Vosti Empire, where the stone holds high cultural value, and the Republic of Skarhu, which does not have any native deposits. Elsewhere, the gemstone is admire for its aesthetic value, and is rather common.

Properties

Dragon's Blood has many colours, most commonly found in various shades of red, but also in lighter pinks, darker purples, and the rare gold-yellow variants. The gemstone is rather hard but very brittle, splitting and crumbling under even moderate force.

Uses

The gemstone is typically used in decoration and jewellery, with many crowns and necklaces adorned with it. The Vosti are also known to do crystal carvings to create non-wearable items, such as vases and pitchers. It has even been rarely used as a pigment in paint, creating a very bright red colour. Rarer still in the modern day, Dragon's Blood has been used in medicinal remedies, drawing inspiration from the Vosti origin myth and the role of the dragon's blood in healing their people.

Type

Ore/Mineral

Related Locations

• Krenar Mountains

Draconic Heritage

The Vosti fascination with Dragon's Blood comes from a story of their origins, which say they descend from humans who were reborn in the blood of an ancient dragon. It's from this myth that the stone gets its name, due to its blood-like appearance and its occurrence solely within the Krenar Mountains, the supposed body of their dragon.

While most non-Vosti think their myth is nonsense, they do have to admit that Dragon's Blood only appearing in Krenar is curious, if nothing else.

The Dragon Krenar by Isaac Thompson