Lanternium

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Name:  Lanternium 
Notes:  Named by ancient miners for the ability to emit a glow of seemingly various lumens with no detectable harmful effects on nearby organic matter, it wasn't long before they began using chunks of the crystals to light their excavations instead of the artificial lanterns the substance had been named for.  This made things cheaper as they no longer had to run kilometers of lights or risk fires and poisonous gas leaks;  what's more, it wasn't hard for word of mouth to spread the discovery that simply polishing the stones increased their light output and apparently re-lit them if they started to dim.
Finding their way to the outside world was accidental.  However, when the public caught wind of these stones, they became a hot commodity in both industry and fashion.  While jewelers were trying to outperform each other and themselves with integrating the glow of Lanternium into their works, the value of the glow in other applications is what made them increasingly more valuable - street lights, interior lighting, vehicle lights, and more.  Professional polishers became a widely spread position in Lanternium lit regions.
It wasn't until technology advanced enough that it was also discovered the stones generated energy outside of just the light; and that Lanternium didn't just absorb entropic energy from the environment, but also energy intentionally directed into it.  Seeing the applications for this, work began in earnest to create hardware able to harness this output.  Those early Lanternium generators weren't the most efficient, but did allow for retrofitting of all Lanternium based lights with output tech so they could be used as local power stations as well.  Vehicle mounted stones quickly became a norm, with larger vessels carrying larger stones and teams of polishers to keep them energized.
Over the millennia since, the applications for and utilization for Lanternium have increased alongside the knowledge about it.  Modern Zodiac Empire researchers now know Lanternium harnesses entropic energy, the energy of change itself; but each crystal requires 'tuning' before it is more than just a interesting source of light, generally done by cutting.  Attempts at in depth analysis fail due to every modern scanning technology known to the Empire loses quantum focus, potentially due to a, at highest, sub-atomic extension, or more, into more than the traditionally seen three-dimensions of space.  In addition, though impurities can cause different colors of Lanternium to be found, to date no known effect is caused by the impurities other than an aesthetic difference.
Of interest, it was found that Lanternium retains its abilities even when ground into a powder.  The Zodiac Empire continues research into additional applications for this form, but few have been developed so far.
Category:Materials