Reliquum
Reliquum is a hard rough granular substance that is a dull grey blue in colour. It is unattractive, rare and very expensive due to its effectiveness as a magical catalyst. Once prepared it is burnt like incense and allows a spellcaster to heighten their magical ability and takes them to a higher state of awareness. This in turn allows them to limit the amount of themselves (experience points) they have to sacrifice to create a magic item or allows them to maximise the effect of their spells that they have learnt for that day.
In the creation of magical items each ounce will reduce the creation cost by 1,000 XPs up to a maximum of half the XP value of a spell. Due to tis rarity it is very rarely squandered on lowly magical trinkets but is only used on powerful items. Reliquum costs in a minimum of 2,500 gold pieces per ounce when available.
The source of reliquum is unknown though some believe it to be for the decayed bones of dragons, the ash of a dead titan’s heart or even a dying god’s tears. There are many theories but few facts as to its origins.
The common refining process is to collect and dry soil with reliquum within it and then break it down in to small particles from which the large reliquum grains can be sieved. Another process is to painstakingly pick out the reliquum by hand which can be detected as magical in nature.
Reliquum is found, if at all, mixed in with the soils and rocks in generally negligible amounts however in rare areas it is concentrated enough to make mining feasible. There are few locations in Warlderia but the plains of Harmonias where the most accessible before the collapse of the province. In the past Margrave Crispin kept tight control of the reliquum fields in his province allowing only limited extraction and secure a maximum value.