Salt

Salt is a crystalline mineral found across Creation, either buried in the ground or (most commonly) within wells or the waters of the seas.

Extraction

Salt does not occur in a useable form in Creation. Extracting the crystals can occur through a number of sifting and evaporating processes. These processes are governed by the local Salt Gods, who empower such efforts in order to allow salt to be produced... without the cooperation of salt gods, there is no salt, granting these minor deities significant power in Creation. Salt gods typically demand payment in prayer and salt for their work, and the rate of payment, known as the ‘Salt Rate’, dictates the rate of interest for most of Creation’s financial transactions.

History & Theology

See History of Salt.

The god of salt is Glimmering Nacal, who oversees the Salt Gods from his offices within the Bureau of Nature in Yu-shan.

Uses

There is no mineral more important to civilization than salt.

Salt is vital for curing foods, making cheeses, for the dye, paper, & glass industries, for leathermaking, in the production of Copper, Steel, and a number of specialty metals and potions used in artifice & Thaumaturgy. It is even employed as a disinfectant and for repelling slugs and leeches.

Chefs value various forms of salt, including soy sauce and other variations, to bring out the flavours of foods.

Salt is also a vital part of preserving corpses, marking graveyards, and repelling Ghosts, and is included in many sorcerous and thaumaturgical rituals for purification and repelling spirits.

Variations

Across Creation, there are a number of different types of salt, each with slightly different flavours and metaphysical properties. The three most common are Sea Salt from the oceans, Rock Salt from the earth, and Well Salt from salt wells. Other, rarer types of salt include the Black Salt of Wavecrest and the pink Seeping Salt of the Southern deserts.