Alabaster

Alabaster is a stone, white or cream in colour, and slightly translucent. It has long been popular for use in sculpture due to its ease of carving, and is considered quite beautiful amongst artists, a melding of the elements of Air and Earth: amongst Dragonblooded, pale near-transluscent ‘alabaster’ skin is considered a sign of good breeding.

However, Air is impermanent, and does not marry well to the stone of Earth. Alabaster reflects this impermanence, vulnerable to wearing away quickly in the face of weather, particularly water. It is thus used almost exclusively for interior sculpture and decoration. It is also prized for the production of funeral urns amongst the morticians of Sijan and for marbles (such as those used for Fireseed).