Airite

Written by Yerran

Deep within The Shattered Shelf are the floating isles. These chunks of earth drift over sea and land, buffeted by The Rage of Castellian, though the enigma of their unique properties was a mystery until recently. In 2483 A.C. some Stormriders managed to reach a particularly low hanging rock on an exploration expedition and discovered the source of its ability to float was a new material dubbed 'Airite'.

Appearance and Properties

The ore has the same consistency as stone, appearing white like the purest marble. The unusualness of this material lies in its mass, or seeming lack of. It falls against the flow of gravity, pulling up towards the heavens with a surprising strength, so much so that a chunk of ore about the size of a hand could lift a large person. It seems that the passing Rage of Castellian has altered the structure of the stone, causing its natural properties to become inverted, and if it wasn't tethered to tonnes of other rock and dirt, it would likely shoot up into the stratosphere.

Extraction

Since its discovery the Stormheld Bastion has tried to keep knowledge of it secret, beyond its trusted allies in the Unitum Pact. Though with a great deal of resources and skill that single low hanging island has been somewhat tethered amongst a series of dagger-like spires, using great chains from The Dwarven Enclave. Even tethered as it is, newcomers must scale the long chains to reach the floating island, buffeted by the harsh winds of the Shattered Shelf.

Atop the island a small base-camp has been erected (though it is abandoned during passings of The Rage of Castellian for to be atop it during such a storm would mean death). Since the establishment of the base camp tunnels and mines have grown, slowly webbing their way through the rock of the floating island in a bid to extract what Airite they can. However, this is extremely dangerous work and many have already died in these tunnels due to the dangers.

Dangers

• The tunnels not only need to be strengthened against the force of gravity but also that of the Airite pushing up. Severel tunnels have collapsed upwards already as the Airite still hidden below slammed the newly excavated rock together.
• Recently excavated Airite shooting upwards into the sky killing anyone standing above it, or colliding with the top of a tunnel to shatter against the other rock and fill the air with spinning floating shards.
• People and chunks of rock falling from the island into the ocean as Airite is extracted from the floor beneath them and gravity reasserts itself.
• Too much Airite being removed on one side of the island so that it starts to tilt or spin entirely.
• The danger of island sinking closer to the ocean below with each rock extracted and colliding with spires.

Refinement

Once the Airite has been extracted it is broken into smaller chunks with a hammer with a thick leather bag above it and a larger cloth one to catch any smaller shards. These are then packaged, usually in a bag with heavier stone to prevent it from flying away taken down to the boats that wait, nestled amongst the mountains. Within the forges it has been smelted into metals and bound to anything that can be refined to a liquid at great temperatures, though as of yet it cannot be remade after broken, or reassembled, and cannot be bound to other non-metallic materials like wood, stone, cloth or the like.

Uses

The dangers of extraction are worth it to the Stormheld Bastion and their allies, who seek to gain the upper-hand against the Yeshi in their quest for domination of the The Shattered Shelf. Currently ideas and concepts for use of Airite are being devised across the cities and collectives of the Unitum Pact. The Dracis and Dwarven crafters have managed to smelt and bind the stone to metals giving extremely heavy things a weightless property in correct quantities. Though they have struggled to bind it to any other materials.

The The Red Ushad and Stormheld Bastion have build airships of a sort to rival those of Cinehold in the far north called Airite Ships , for they are sleeker, faster and don't require the use of gas and fire, though they are still struggling with issues of balance and descending from the skies (currently they don't, docking on the tall stacks of The Crimson Canyons and the dagger like peaks of The Shattered Shelf)

A useful invention has been the addition of it to sea-fairing ships that float above the waves with a single rudder in the water and two stabilising platforms attached to the sides to keep it upright. These ships move incredibly fast across the ocean propelled by the wind, due to the lack of water friction, allowing incredibly quick transport and trade between Stormheld Bastion and its allies across the open ocean. Though they haven't been used so much in the Shattered Shelf due to the volatile winds and storms as the ships can be somewhat unstable at times.

Airite Ships 

Ships made from the material are being created and tested, though it is a new process it offers a huge advantage to the Unitum Pact Nations in both trade, safety and combat if perfected and is occupying the time of a lot of their greatest minds.

Type

Ore/Mineral

Getting to and from the Islands

Some have taken to weighing Airite against themselves to find the exact size that is just below and just above their weight, and then jumping to the ocean below, allowing the Airite to slow their descent to a safe speed. This has gone as well as you might expect with the Airite slipping from their fingers or being a little too weak, and it has become a banned practise amongst the excavators. (Some also used it to try and get back up to the island, but missed their marks and ended up ascending indefinitely).

This has raised the question of personal air-craft with sails to allow directional control, and has been picked up by several crafters within the Unitum Pact.

Article cover image use permitted under pixabay CCL.
Credited artists: Duke678