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Blazestar occurs in a number of hues, including blue,
green, gold, and the distinctive crimson color that is most often
recognized. Instead of displaying its fire only when turned to the
light, blazestar responds to natural flows of mana, causing its fire
to wax and wane as the pulses of mana run through Elanith. It waxes
and wanes no more strongly upon an earthnode than in any other
location, but it continues to sense the ambient mana even when the
source is so faint that mages cannot cast their spells. With each
waxing, tiny, brilliant specks of light will trace their way through
blazestar, and then they will die again as they reach the edge. Due
to its distinctive appearance, it is impossible to fake blazestar.
The magnificent blazestar mines near Ta'Vaalor are
without parallel, although lesser mines may be found near the ruins
of Old Ta'Faendryl and in Nalfein lands. All are on the eastern side
of the DragonSpine Mountains.
The crimson blazestar is the official heraldic
jewel of House Vaalor. As well as bestowing the heraldic honor upon
their own people, monarchs of Ta'Vaalor will often bestow blazestar
jewelry upon those who particularly please them. While the monarchs
of the other elven houses have all found occasion in one situation
or another to bestow such royal favor outside the race of elves, no
monarch of Ta'Vaalor has ever granted such an honor to one of the
lesser races. Many Vaalorian elves dislike seeing blazestar jewelry
worn by non-elves, and, since Ta'Vaalor opened its gates to the
lesser races, several petitions have been made to King Tyrnian to
make it illegal to sell blazestar jewelry to non-elves. Thus far,
King Tyrnian's thoughts have lain more with the economic merit of
selling blazestar jewelry than with the worries of the nobility, and
he has denied all such requests.
Blazestar is distinctly elemental in its
alignment. The hue of the blazestar reveals its element – blue for
air, green for water, gold for earth, and crimson for fire. To
indicate their preferred element, traditional elven mages wear
circlets or ferronieres set with appropriate blazestars when
attending meetings of the Wizard Guild.
Blazestar is not useful in enhancing divination
magics, but it is used as a divination tool to determine which of
many paths to choose in order to make the best of a situation. Seers
who use blazestar will set the stone in the center of a specially
prepared circle, designate one of the compass points for each
alternative, and then, after reciting an incantation to Jastev,
watch to see which side of the blazestar burns most brightly in the
next pulse of mana. The direction of North is traditionally left
undesignated, and it represents any option that the seer has not yet
considered for solving the dilemma. |
