Editing Acrozatarim/Appendix 1 (section)

==Trade in the Drakkath==

The regions that make up the Drakkath produce a vast and dizzying array of goods, services and raw materials; trade is brisk both between the Drakkath prefectures and with farther-flung foreign lands.  Common goods make up the bulk of trade, commerce to feed the hunger of nations across the world; Naseria, Huron and the Eastern Drakkath Plains are major agricultural producers; Carthagia, Qyashun and High Kyros are rich in mineral wealth and export a great amount of metalwork and ore.  Fine timber and leather are common goods through Huron, the North Drakkath Hills, the Central Drakkath Basin and the Western Drakkath Reaches; fine parchments and papers are produced in significant quantities in the Central Drakkath Basin.  Herbs and drugs are another major export from across the Drakkath, along with strains of tea and certain fruit.  Amber from the Fractured Coast fetches a high price, especially amongst the markets of the Tavashta and Great Amun.  Most prized of all, the silks of the Drakkath region are perhaps its most well-known export.

In return, the Drakkath draws in trade from foreign lands.  Salt is perhaps the most valuable, brought in great weights from the northern lands and from the city-ports of the Masked Kateni.  Peppers and other spices from far Vekath bless the markets of the Drakkath trade-towns, alongside wool, skins and metal ornaments from the lands west of the Wasteland.  Alchemical goods from a myriad of places of origin are expensive but in demand, along with perfumes, gemstones, oils and foreign animals.  The Kamuri Conglomerate sell strange metal alloys of particularly unusual property and produce craftwork of incredible intricacy, while the Bright Empire's dyes possess a brilliance of hue rarely matched in other sources. 

More unusual goods also see trade.  ''God-ink'', also known as theurgic plasm or immanence humour, is a highly prized substance distilled through eldritch and alchemical means from rare locations; the exact workings of ink distillation is generally a guarded secret.  Tattooing and scarification to access or alter the flow of the body's elemental channels is an art practiced in the Drakkath and many other lands, and god-ink is of great use in this process.  It is commonly understood that god-ink comes from areas where a divinity's presence still lingers strongly, or where the fabric of reality is weak and otherworldly energies seep into the natural world; through the correct use of god-ink, the sickly can be made hale and hearty, magi can draw more deeply upon their elemental magic, and martial practitioners can reach greater heights of mastery.

Various types of unusual metals, alloys and related substances can be found in the markets across the region.  The family of ''harmonic metals'' are bright, strong metals that pick up and resonate with sound and music to produce some intriguing and beautiful notes of their own; harmonic metals are commonly used for instruments, chimes and so forth, and are considered to be particularly potent as warding chimes against spirits and evil beings.  Weaponry made from harmonic metal renders the battlefield an orchestra; arrowheads that sing as they fly, blades that roar or cry with melody as they thrust and slash, armour that clamours like a temple's bells when struck.  Deposits of harmonic metals are generally small, but are widely scattered across the central Drakkath lands.  One myth states that they are the tears of the moon, shed as it saw the carnage of the Dawn War below it.

In comparison to the high reputation of harmonic metals, ''viper steel'' is considerably more sinister in nature.  Generally found in large, twisting deposits that taint the rock and ore around it, viper steel is a corrosive material that seeps an acidic ooze over time.  It is prized in alchemy, as well as by drug- and poison-brewers, assassins and the like; viper-steel weapons bear a terrible bite but have to be kept in alchemical sheathes when not in use.  There are large deposits of viper steel under Qyashun, as well as significant proportions found in Carthagia.  Viper steel is believed to be a creation of the Elder God Hashrukk the Daemonflesh, though for what purpose is unknown.

A metal that is entirely the work of human hands, not Elder monstrosities, is the ''summersteel'' produced in Adhuri alchemical forges.  It's an alloy that is notably stronger and lighter than regular steel, but the metal that is used to strengthen it is one of the Adhuri alchemical fraternity's well-kept secrets - although a few rumours mention strange, red crystals of ore that the Adhuri mines occasionally produce.  Only small amounts of summersteel are produced due to a limited supply of the alloy metal.  Summersteel weapons are highly prized and are a precious trade good for those who can secure the material.

''GM's Note: If you're curious, summersteel is basically vanadium-strengthened steel.''

Two forms of pure element are mined in the Drakkath region - earth and fire.  ''Jade'' is generally considered pure elemental stone, and highly regarded for its spiritual and aesthetic qualities; it is generally considered one of the highest forms of material to make ornamentation from, as well as being vital in the crafting of elementally-aligned items of metal and stone.  ''Fire-metal'', on the other hand, is a far more dangerous material to handle; it is compressed, solidified fire.  Like jade, it is left over from the creation of the world by the Great Elementals, but unlike jade fire-metal is extremely unstable and seeks to return to its true, fiery nature,  Usually a bright, silvery colour, sometimes dappled with fiery hues, fire-metal will erupt in bright flame if it contacts water and will sometimes do the same with air; if a seam of fire-metal is found, it needs to be rapidly coated in alchemical oils to prevent it from igniting.  Once preserved and recovered in this way, fire-metal is one of the most prized alchemical goods in the world.  Due to its brilliant flame, fire-metal is also acquired by nobles and rulers to serve in special lamps or as part of displays of their power; various faiths also use it in specific ceremonies and rites.

Found in both the Storm and Sarokean mountains, deposits of ''parchment crystal'' are sometimes found beneath the earth but, more often, appear as great jagged spikes of the crystal that spear out from the ground.  Parchment crystal is greatly valued because it can be carved relatively easily, and because the natural formation of the crystal has it in easily-seperated layers that can be used to make beautiful pages.  Crystal books are, on the one hand, highly valued as imperishable texts of immense aesthetic value, as parchment crystal tends towards pale beige, green, turquoise and pink hues; on the other hand, the material has arcane properties that render it vital for magi seeking to produce eldritch sigils or engrave arcana into the form of words.  Parchment crystal is also used by higher castes for amulets, emblems and other insignia of rank.  Another crystalline material, ''twystcrystal'', comes in a great number of colours and varieties, usually found in areas of elemental concentration such as Naseria and Carthagia; this magically infused material is very useful for arcane power sources, but is of particular value to flesh-twisters.  There are reputedly great 'gardens' of twystcrystal in underground Carthagian grottoes, attended to by Manipulators who encourage crystalline growth at nexi of magical energy.

As noted before, drugs and alchemical materials are harvested and processed from various sources across the Drakkath; notably, the fungal ''monolith spires'' found in a few outlying areas of Huron and the Great Sarok Expanse are the basic material for a number of toxins and perception-altering substances that are particularly prized in the western lands.  Monolith spires are immense fungal pillars, growing up to eight or more metres tall; their ashen flesh and spores demand tools more suited to timber than herb-gathering.  The religions of Lliras and Churaphrat both make use of drugs manufactured from monolith spires for ritual purposes, brewing strange tisanes from the spires' flesh.  ''Stormweep'' from Blue Aestus grows no-where else in the world, and often finds its way to Drakkath markets.  Various strains of ''hearthpaint'' are grown in fields in Huron and the Central and Eastern Drakkath; most hearthpaint plants are grown for the yellow, orange and red dyes and spices made from their petals and pollen, but ''skypaint'' is a rare breed that can be turned into an ochre or pale blue powder (depending on processes used) and which, when rubbed into the eyelids or the lips, serves as a powerful stimulant; it is widely used by Drakkath bureaucrats and scribes.

In the western reaches of the Drakkath, ''amethyst bile'' is sometimes collected from the winds and sky by kite-catchers and wind bastions.  The purple fluid seems to shift and flow as if it has a life of its own, and its nature is debated; many scholars assume it is a physical component to the winds and weather.  Amethyst bile can be used for alchemical and arcane purposes, but is also often bought to create vibrant dyes and inks.  Bile-silk is perhaps the rarest and most expensive silk in the world, created by treating silks with amethyst bile in such a way that they become utterly irridescent with strange, swirling patterns of indigo and violet; a single garment of bile-silk can fetch a small fortune.

''Blue minister papyru''s is largely produced in the central regions of the Drakkath Basin, paper made from marsh-plants and then treated with particular waters and minerals from local springs.  Blue minister papyrus holds ink particularly well and is quite resilient, weathering the passing years with very little fading or damage; it is valued by scribes and bureaucrats across the world for its high quality.  A bounty of papyrus is created during years in which the sun enters a phase of elemental water, even if only for a day - such an event causes rampant growth amongst the papyrus plants.  A rarer form, ''red minister papyrus'', comes from rarely-blooming plants that only open their flowers when the sun is in a phase of elemental fire; red minister papyrus is generally reserved only for the most significant pronouncements or recordings, or for sacred inscriptions.

A less talked-about trade good in the Drakkath is that of faces.  A very rare species of servitor known as the ''face-weaver'' exists in numbers close to extinction; face-weavers keep their presence as hidden as possible, and their trade as quiet as possible.  Face-weavers appear monstrous, but these highly intelligent biomechanical beings do not hide for that reason; rather, they are generally anti-social artists who care only for interaction that furthers their art, and they have come to fear being hunted by flesh-twisters and arcanists who seek to unravel the mysteries of how face-weavers do what they do.  A face-weaver can transplant the face of one person onto another; a donor may even be a recently dead body.  Generally, face-weaving is only sought by infiltrators, criminals seeking to evade justice or the rich and powerful seeking to swap faces with a stand-in when danger is feared.  As such, face-weavers often have dangerous patrons who are highly protective of their servitor ally.  Rarely, preserved faces attached to masks as a base are traded in black markets, their skin and muscle kept intact enough that a face-weaver can use them for a transplant.


''GM's Note:  There will undoubtedly be other odd materials, craftworks, drugs etc, these are just what I've got in mind atm and which are relevant enough to include here.''