“The rock is found in the tunnels below and feeds on flesh. It has some nice magical properties though.”
— Daeloth Al’ar
Origins and Ancient History
Originium is a black crystal unique to Terra, found nowhere else in the known world. It occurs in three forms: shards, ore, and solid crystals — the ore form being the first encountered, when miners beneath Malachite broke into veins of it in the deep shafts. In the wild it metastasizes and spreads naturally, colonizing the rock and tunnels of Terra’s underground. It has been observed growing on organic matter — bones, wood, living tissue — which researchers believe is a consequence of organisms inhaling crystal dust or coming into prolonged contact with active deposits. Its veins run thick through the tunnel networks beneath Malachite and Chrysalis, some of which connect downward into the Underdark.
Originium is an extraordinarily dense energy source, but it is also volatile. Under certain conditions the crystals activate, releasing stored energy rapidly — either as a gradual disintegration that bleeds heat and force over time, or as a sudden violent explosion. The most common and controlled use is simply burning it as fuel. In its active state, however, originium does something more insidious than burn: it can assimilate into a living organism’s blood and cells, crystallizing from the inside out. This process is called oripathy 1 .
The first civilization on Terra discovered originium approximately 1,500 years ago when dwarven miners broke into deep shafts and found ore veins growing through the rock, with crystal observed across ancient bones nearby. The old civilization quickly recognized its extraordinary energy density — several orders of magnitude beyond conventional fuels — and built their entire society around it. Forges, heating systems, radio communications, and their greatest engineering achievements, the Sarcophagi, all ran on originium power.
They also discovered its curse. Prolonged exposure to active originium causes a progressive crystalline disease. The old civilization called it the crystalline disease. It spread through the population as industrial use grew, consuming its hosts from the inside out until petrification and disintegration. It is widely believed to have contributed to the conditions that made the Great Eruption (~400 DR) a civilization-ending catastrophe — active originium scattered by Titania’s eruption bonded with everything biological it touched, and no surface life survived.
For over a thousand years the island lay empty. Originium continued metastasizing through the tunnels in silence, spreading through cracked rock and crystallizing across old bones, integrating itself deeper into the geology of Terra.
Rediscovery and Industrial Use
Twenty years ago (~1480 DR), miners working deep shafts beneath Malachite broke into chambers where originium veins grew thick and undisturbed. No one connected it to the old civilization’s fate — that history was buried under meters of ash and lava, along with everything else.
Malachite embraced originium as an industrial fuel. Malachite Forges adopted it immediately: forges burned hotter, smelting processes that had taken hours completed in minutes, and production capacity multiplied. The forges’ newest originium-enhanced smelting techniques have since tripled output, though the methods are kept largely secret.
Chrysalis City took a different approach, seeing originium as a research opportunity rather than merely a fuel source. Chrysalis Labs — at the time a modest medical research institution — pivoted its entire focus toward understanding the mineral’s properties. Funding poured in from the Oligarchy’s factions, and the city transformed: originium-powered streetlamps replaced gas lighting, the University expanded, and Chrysalis positioned itself as Terra’s intellectual and medical capital. Rhine Lab, a splinter institution founded fifteen years ago by Chrysalis University graduates Saria the Vouivre and Kristen Wright, spun off to pursue more aggressive originium research.
Originium now powers heating systems, forges, radio communications, and early artifice technology across Terra. Its use has become so deeply embedded in the island’s economy that slowing down is no longer a straightforward political option — it is an existential one.
Refinery for refining Originium.