Hey! so no time to do a comic but I drew this over a month ago! and its time to bring it to the people so time to copy paste that ramble here

Alrighty time for the monthly lore doodle!.. or doodles! Wanted to do something better than the July chaotic doodle dump for the monthly lore doodles and decided to do more of a comic set up, hope this is just a bit cleaner looking!

So lets talk Spellithics!

Spellithics are a small family of stone like materials constructed using mana as a primary ingredient that is a very common and early manatechnology common amongst drekir and ormer societies. It's actually relatively similar to stãl! Most draconic societies tend to have at least an idea of it's existence and its efficacy thanks to the economical and potentially potent magical versatility of spellithics

Typically these are made out of resonant compression

To make a spellithic of any sort, mana is compressed under a great weight in a container that can force the rseonance of mana to "bounce" back in on itself over and over. Containers such as stone, ceramics, and some types of wood are optimal vessels for compressing mana. This is the exact same starting process for the manufacture of stãl even! Again these are actually relatively similar. After enough time (which varies on the spellithic desired) The solid "stone" is taken from the container and shaped into what you want!

There are 3 broad types of spellithic that are made by draconic societies

The first and most straightforward is Hexglass

Hexglass is an unstabilized manalithic that is made out of pure mana that is compressed. The end result is a more glass or obsidian like material that fractures favorably into truly razor sharp edges which makes it very useful! It also takes very strongly to elementization, producing incredibly potent elemental energy when made properly. However its unstabilized, there is nothing in the material that keeps the mana from sublimating out of reality. Which gives it a very short lifespan, with most pieces of hexglass often having a shorter lifespan than a 1-3 months.

or about 90 days

The most common though is Manachert!

Manachert is made in the same way as hexglass but is stabilized. Through the addition of silica from a variety of stones and sands the mixed material has a far longer life. This is thanks to the mana being trapped in the spellithic by the much more physical lithic. Recipes do vary of course, a higher ratio of silica to mana produces an overall better lithic! But tends to require that higher ratio, at least 1 part silica to 2 parts mana if not higher. A lower ratio of Silica to mana results in a tougher, but also courser and more difficult to knap spellithic. Cheaper but harder to work Manachert does also take to elemental and alchemical energy well, but is far less potent than hexglass comparitively. But still works ok

And the last is Hexslate

Hexslate is a largely unworkable stone that, through a long term intense compression and the addition of non silica minerals produces a very dense, heavy stone that while stabilized, is very difficult to shape. This one is more rarely used by non sivilão societies though is immensely popular within sivilão societies

Now onto Elementization and Alchemicalization

Mana of course, can be elementized or used in alchemicals and of course these still abide the rules of mana and therefore, can be used to make Spellithics! creating more magical elementized materials that broaden the uses of spellithics. This can be the basic elementizations of mana (Fire, Acid, Ice, Lightning and Wind) Or some of the more complex secondary elementizations (Plasma, Melter, Torrent etc.). This can also be done with Alchemicals of all sorts! though the use of alchemicals in spellithics tends to water down the potency of the alchemical. Moreover these elementized or alchemicalized spellithics do shorten the lifespan of these lithics. Giving Manachert a limited lifespan and giving hexglass a very very short lifespan of days instead of weeks but the potency and ease of use gives these spellithics a valuable spot in many tool related purposes!

A lot of uses!

A flake of acidchert or glass can essentially cut through about anything for example which makes it an effective cutting tool for even extremely difficult to cut materials like copper or stãl. A lightning chert or glass point hafted on an atlatl dart can serve as an extremely effective hunting point, effectively tazing a target when the dart hits them as well as cause the typical wounds, making for a highly effective hunting or fishing projectile. Firechert flakes used as adze or chisel blades, while difficult to haft, effectively cut through wood by cutting and burning through wood! Making them great woodworking tools. Wind and Ice lithics tend to be more niche but we will touch on those more creative uses soon! With wind lithics often being explosive and ice lithics uh... being cold!
and these are just obvious uses, of course

These lithics also can be used for more niche uses that are less obvious

The most obvious of the less obvious is the use of firechert as a heat source for traveling cold bloods moving through the cold, as seen in The Long Hike! The heat helps keep a cold blood from freezing to death in colder places and times. Things like Windglass and chert can be used effectively as explosive detonators for the purposes of mining, warfare, or demolition and landscaping... though someone has to break it... It's common to see them get triggered from a distance but useful explosives basically! And iceglass and chert are often used to be put in containers to create manatech iceboxes for chilling food and water as a means of food preservation and storage! Its like making a pseudofridge (though there are a lot of ways to do so! And even lightning glass and chert see common use as a bright light source making them useful for lanterns, lamps, etc. that may not shine as bright as pure lightning mana, but will be a lot more long lasting and consistent
and these lithics, especially with some alchemical creativity or good thinkin can be put towards more uses! Making them very effective

And as for some final notes

Drekir and orm flintknapping, as I have said a lot, tends to lean on flake core technologies and techniques and spellithics are very much part of that.
Hexglass has a short lifespan so putting a ton of effort on it for a beautiful biface has little utlility or artistic purpose seeing as it tends to corrode rapidly.
Manachert lasts longer but, like hexglass, can be molded into optimal shapes to drive very optimal flakes. It's like making a prepared core via moulding which makes it very preferable for driving levallois styled technologies
And of course drekir technologies tend to already be driven commonly by flake technologies

As for mana economics

Spellithics, while potent have a hard time dominating the totality of drekir and ormer lithic industries mostly due to the unpredictability of large mana sources that can be exploited. asdfddaSpellithics need a fair bit of mana so unless you find a pool and act quickly to exploit and take that mana for use (within a few weeks) then you lose that oppurtunity. It can be unpredictable when you find mana so they tend to not bully out normal lithic technologies but tend to compliment them for making more magical, niche tools

And on staying power

Spellithics would continue to exist well past the point where stãllurgy was adopted by many drekir societies fitting in with the magical metals that came after them in many cases. Other societies may just outright prefer continuing their lithic and spellithic technologies in spite of stãlbronze and copper becoming widespread on some planar Even as late as 15,000PA there were still societies that would continue using spellithics and at the beginning of the Endless Thalmvar so too would spellithics appear again for a myriad of purposes


So yeah!
Spellithics! Pretty neato