Glaenith

Glaenith
English gloss	light-stone (translation, not identification)
Type	Minerals
Where grown / found	Mined in the mountains; Clearhold is one of the largest exporters
Used for	Ground fine and sealed into a Kwlei, where it glows for months
Associated cities	Clearhold · Stormharbor
Lexicon	Glaenith

Glaenith is the light-stone: the only known mineral in Teraell that does something, with no equivalent in our world. It is mined in the mountains, ground fine, and sealed into a Kwlei — a glass sphere — where it glows for a number of months and then fades. When it fades the globe is opened and refilled, which is the whole economy of the thing: cheap to buy, and then never done paying.

It cannot freeze, cannot starve, and cannot be neglected until it dies, which is why Stormharbor uses nothing else. A flame is a poor thing on that coast, and a Kwaenith cannot be blown out. The coldest city in the world lights itself with the one thing winter can never kill. Clearhold mines it, exports it, and keeps its own Kyvlaem at an altitude that should not permit it, by careful attention.

See also