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Frostwood Bitter Origins: Within the dark, frozen, tundra's of the north, two close friends go searching for a legendary material said to make them rich beyond compare. While exploring these frozen wastelands, the two are forced to cross an icy lake too thin to walk on, causing one of the two to fall deep beneath the ice. Their friend dived after them but quickly found themself trapped in the freezing water, unable to surface or locate their friend. But in an ironic and seemingly cruel turn of fate, they would come across an air pocket they could surface into, find the very material that would make them a fortune, at the cost of a close friend. Description and Properties: Frostwood is a frozen slab of fossilized trees and foliage that has decayed in cold climates surrounded by water, causing them to retain their wood properties while not being able to splinter or break under its own tension. Frostwood slabs has a color mix of grey, charcoal, dark blue and lapis lazuli, and when exposed to light, it would reflect parts of the light as specs of blue, grey, and black particles as if emanating from the wood itself. Its texture and weight would be similar to that of maple wood, with its only additional attributes being that it does burn unless exposed to temperatures of 2372 degrees Fahrenheit (1300 degrees Celsius) or greater, and it is very resistant to blunt objects and tools such as hammers. Despite these unique properties, it cannot negate high temperatures from a direct source and is highly susceptible to damage from objects and tools that have pointed or sharpened edges of any kind. Frostwood Location and Harvesting: Frostwood slabs are often located by experienced divers and water mages on the walls of frozen underwater caves located near arctic salt lakes and oceans, most of which are exposed in tight air pockets within these caves. These divers and mages are often equipped with special gear meant to withstand freezing temperatures, as hypothermia would be a great risk to the divers undergoing this task. Because these divers cannot take torches and lanterns down into these caves, or any objects suitable for producing a flame, sea lanterns are often taken as a substitute for a standard light source. Due to the location of the Frostwood slabs, two hundred foot long ropes are tied to the edge of the boat, where one or more person(s) are on standby. Meanwhile, one or more divers equipped in arctic clothing would dive down into the cave, dragging the rope alongside them as they dive. Once they have located the cave, the divers surface in the air pocket and get to work removing the Frostwood slabs from the rock. When gathering Frostwood slabs, ferrum rods are inserted into the grooves and crevices between the rock and the slabs, slowly prying it loose without the aid of chisels, hammers, pickaxes or crowbars. Directly mining the Frostwood slabs or the surrounding rock with conventional mining equipment that has any sharpened edges and points will break the Frostwood slabs into smaller fragments, and make it harder for someone to harvest a slabs worth. To remove a Frostwood slab from the surrounding rock, one simply needs to insert the ferrum rod into the grooves and crevices between the rock and lever it out. Because blunt objects do not damage the Frostwood slabs, a great amount of force can be applied to the slab using the ferrum rod for quick and safe removal, oftentimes cleanly separating from the rock with not much force required. Once the Frostwood slabs have been obtained, all the diver needs to do is tie the slab to the rope the diver brought down initially, and for the person(s) on the boat standing by to pull on the rope as the diver navigates it out. This step is the most important part, as the Frostwood slabs can get such within the walls of the cave, requiring the divers to maneuver the Frostwood slabs out of the cave safely while it is being pulled to the surface. A standard practice used by experienced divers is to have a different colored dummy rope which they tug on inside the cave to indicate when they plan to surface, though these are all improvised prior to the dive and mostly depend upon the skill and experience of the divers and individuals on standby. It is important to clarify that divers attempting to swim to the surface with a Frostwood slab unaided by anyone else is almost guaranteed to drown. As an example of why no one can survive this endeavor, imagine trying to deep dive thirty feet (nearly ten meters) into a frozen lake with a tree branch. Once they have reached the surface with the Frostwood slabs, the harvest is complete and all equipment can be safely retrieved without compilation. Frostwood Slab Application: Frostwood slabs is a frozen wooden slab of blue and grey coloration and when exposed to light, it would reflect parts of the light as specs of blue, grey, and black particles as if emanating from the wood. It is vulnerable to slashing and piercing items such as swords, spears, and arrows but resistant to bludgeoning strikes such as hammers and quarterstaffs. It does not burn unless it reaches temperatures above 2372 degrees Fahrenheit (1300 degrees Celsius) and when bent it does not splinter or break under its own tension. This form is not very practical, but improvements can be made to it for a more effective material. Frostwood Block Creation and Frostwood Molding: To convert a Frostwood slab into a Frostwood block, one must submerge a Frostwood slab into a boiling pot of saltwater. From there, it will slowly decrease in volume to half its original size, as the ice particles, heavy metals, fossilized tree sap, and other elements and composites are removed from the material over the course of an hour. Once the Frostwood slab has undergone this process, you can remove it from the boiling water momentarily split the transformed slab into two Frostwood blocks. It is important to note that despite the decrease in size, the density and properties of the Frostwood blocks are identical to that of Frostwood slabs, the only difference being that it can be worked on and retains its shape following the work recently done on a boiled block of Frostwood. Using standard wood molding practices, these Frostwood blocks can be molded into whatever shape you desire, so long as they are regularly brought to a boil every fifteen minutes. In addition, other Frostwood blocks can be molded together using the same wood molding methods, able to chop and press blocks together which will bind to one another when boiled together. It can also be chopped into thin strips and have small holes be created for future application post-molding process. The minimum workable volume of Frostwood blocks is found to be one cubic inch no thinner than half an inch at any point. When working with Frostwood blocks, creating items such as spears, swords, pikes, or any other objects that have sharp edges or points are strictly prohibited during the molding process as these items can cause great damage to the Frostwood in future forging application. Wood carving is accepted, but it is warned against doing unless you are exceptionally skilled at it for similar reasons. Other applications of Frostwood include furniture, wooden sculptures, house frameworks, and standard uses to that of Maplewood are also accepted, though are uncommon due to its rarity. Solidified Frostwood: Once the Frostwood blocks have been molded into the desired shape, one can solidify it by submerging the molded Frostwood in pure water and bringing it to a boil. Once it has come to temperature, take the molded object and submerge it in pure salt until it has cooled over the course of several hours. Once it has been brought to a cool, the molded Frostwood would become solidified and can no longer be worked on using other Frostwood blocks. Unlike Frostwood slabs or blocks, fully formed Frostwood would lack the vulnerability of piercing and slashing items that its slab and block forms had, any points or edges intentionally or unintentionally made during the solidifying process would deform and break upon first use. The breaking of these points and edges would make it a blunt object, and any attempts to create sharpened edges or points post-solidifying will cause similar results. This is why the creation of points of edges during the molding process is strictly prohibited, as it wastes both materials and runs the risk of destroying the newly created Frostwood item. Handles for tools and weapons such as hammers, axes, swords, spears, glaives, halberds, and maces would be a common and practical application for this material, as when striking with blades, it would absorb the blunt trauma from the strike and not be damaged by it. It will also find common use in quarterstaffs, shields, bows, and crossbows, as its ability to not break under its own tension with the bonus of not being able to splinter allows for maximum drawback on even smaller sized bows comparable to longbows and not deform from bludgeoning strikes from quarterstaffs and shield bashes when it would normally snap and splinter over prolonged use. This material, naturally, can be combined with other materials to produce some pleasant weapons. An example being the use of Starsteel as the blade in a sword-spear with a Frostwood acting as the polearm’s grip. Just remember, that when creating these items, using extreme heat to fix them to the Frostwood, if hot enough, can cause it to combust and result in it being lost. Frostwood Application: Frostwood is the item property given to a material created from Frostwood blocks done through the molding and solidifying process. It is blue and grey coloration and when exposed to light, it would reflect parts of the light as specs of blue, grey, and black particles as if emanating from the wood. It is innately resistant to bludgeoning strikes and does not deform or warp when stuck with items such as hammers, quarterstaffs, rocks and shield bashes. It does not burn unless it reaches temperatures above 2372 degrees Fahrenheit (1300 degrees Celsius) and when bent it does not splinter or break under its own tension. Its most common applications include the handles of swords, axes, polearms, blunt wooden tools, carvings, shields, bows, crossbows, and furniture. Purpose (OOC): Frostwood would act as a wood alternative for shields, bows, weapon handles, as well as being able to be used in the creation of wood-based items such as carving and furniture work. It would be a viable wood alternative to weapons that desperately need it. There are no wood-based ST nodes on the server and the two unique wood types that exist are not easily obtainable/well integrated with the world. This material would diversify the already existing and implemented ST nodes in a mostly underutilized part of the lore and possibly result in some outstanding lore items that aren’t just swords, axes and armor. (This is my second submission for this material submission, and I have adjusted the post to be more concise and consistent with its formatting, per the request of ST member SquakHawk. Link to the original denied lore post is listed here; https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/205966-%E2%9C%97-world-lore-wood-frostwood/?tab=comments#comment-1868321 I would once again like to credit ST Members EdenGlitched and Auric_Saint for assisting me in the creation of this material. Credit also goes to Oh_Ontario#4000 on discord for the creation of the Frostwood texture. They have been of great aid to me in this and I cannot of done this without them.