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Stormglass
Stormglass is found primarily in the Black Sands Desert of Ardashir, although much rarer specimens in unusual shades of violet and deep blue have been recovered from the eastern coast of Ardashir facing Ihoshi, as well as Xianxi and Ihoshi itself. Stormglass from the Black Sands is a glossy black stone with rippled white bands, similar to snowflake obsidian except that the white inclusions are concentric rings rather than scattered "snowflakes."
The stone occurs naturally when lightning storms sweep across the dunes, causing lightning strikes to hit the sand for lack of trees or rocky spines to draw their fury. The lightning melts the sand in a sudden blast of heat and energy, leaving a cone of molten stormglass in its wake. Most stormglass is knapped into blades and arrowheads by the desert tribes, including those of the Qaidam Nor, who prize it for its sharp edges. As little metal is available in the desert (and even less fuel to forge it), stormglass fills a basic need in the tribes' society and is rarely bartered to outside traders.
Most stormglass that does find its way out of the Black Sands is used as ornamental stone to adorn buildings, carve ornamental statues and vessels, and occasionally in jewelry. Not all specimens have magical properties; stormglass that does retain magical resonance is rare and far more costly. Such pieces are most commonly used to add power to enchanted items dealing with lightning or weather magic, or else shaped into "healers' knives" noted for their fine surgical edges and the limited scarring they leave behind.
The blue and violet stormglass of the Hazeth Sea region is somewhat different. It is not born of storms; it is, rather, a legacy of the world-shattering magic unleashed during the Godslayer's War. The fireblasts, forked lightnings and hellfires hurled during those battles -- to say nothing of the infernal and celestial power invoked at the slaying itself -- left much of the field fused into glass, and all of it was shattered when the land was split and the sea rushed in. Pebbles of it, polished to a rough luster by the sea and washed ashore in Ardashir or Ihoshi, are all of it that has been found.
Owing to its origins, Hazeth Sea stormglass is far more likely to be imbued with innate magic, and that magic is both stronger and less predictable than that from the Black Sands. Occasionally it is powerful enough to be tapped on its own, without first setting the gem in a larger enchanted object. Drawing upon it, however, has nearly random effects: while Hazeth Sea stormglass also tends to have weather- or lightning-related properties, it is as often disastrous as useful to its wielder. One infamous gem did nothing but call lightning bolts directly into itself (and thus its wearer) whenever carried into a storm; another caused storms to avoid a wide radius around it, resulting in drought and famine before the source of the disturbance was found and removed. The latter jewel, known as Asulle's Death for the town it destroyed, is believed to have been thrown into the sea.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, magical stormglass is disfavored by many enchanters despite its obvious strength. Both the Black Sands Desert and the lands bordering the Hazeth Sea are said to have been deeply affected by malign influences in their past, and some fraction of these old evils is believed to taint the stones formed from their sands. Consequently, an enchanted object crafted with even weakly magical stormglass can be unreliable: a touch of evil may lurk in its core, rendering it unreliable at best or outright treacherous at worst.
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