Coldfire

**Coldfire** is a volatile and dangerous kind of spellfire which, if processed by trained masters, can be turned into a flammable liquid capable of burning of a long time once set on fire. It can be created by few exceptionally powerful practitioners of the dark arts, though fewer still are able to fully control it's singularly destructive nature.

Coldfire has a blue flame when it burns, and is said to be a close cousin to dragonflame.

## Appearance and Characteristics

If coldfire is summoned directly by an expert sorcerer mastered in the dark arts, it will burn with dark azure and sapphire flames. Rather than emiting heat, coldfire emits such an intense cold that it burns whatever it toutches. This cold is what serves as the basis for its name.

Through much effort and knowledge, coldfire can be processed into a liquid form capable of being stored in barrels. Liquid coldfire is a murky blue liquid. Once set aflame, the coldfire will burn with the same colour, though much greater intensity as regular coldfire summoned by a sorcerer. Cold will thicken liquid coldfire, but heat will quicken it.

Coldfire is considered a treacherous substance regardless of which form it takes. Once it takes fire, it will burn for a long time, beyond the control of men. Even a thin layer of coldfire will burn for an hour. Coldfire can burn on water, and seeps into most materials, like cloth, wood, leather, and steel, which will then go up in flames. The keepers of the substance claim that only dragonflame, the fires beneath the earth, and the summer sun burn with greater intensity than coldfire.

Age impacts coldfire as well. While it is implied that new coldfire can still somewhat be controlled, as claimed by the substance's keepers, old coldfire is 'fickle'; and flame or sparks can set it off. Too much heat—such as being exposed to sunlight for even a short time—could lead to a fire. Once the fire begins, the heat will make the liquid coldfire expand violently. Older jars of coldfire are transported from place to place only by night, in carts filled with sand to lessen jostling at all, and then sealed in wax and placed in rooms pumped full of water.

## Production of Liquid Coldfire

Making liquid coldfire is a lengthy and dangerous process known only to the keepers of the substance on Alinor, who claim it involves various forms of magic. According to Keeper X, the spells used for making liquid coldfire are presently not as effective as they once were, due to the waning of daedric power(?) and the effect this has on the strength of their magic.

Liquid coldfire is prepared by trained apprentices in bare stone cells. They place the coldfire in small jars of pottery, the clay roughened and pebbled to improve grip. Once a jar is filled, another apprentice removes it from the stone cell and brings it down to the long, dank vaults. Above the work cells are rooms filled with sand. If a mishap causes the coldfire to burn in one of the work cells, a "protective spell" will cause the ceiling to collapse, allowing the sand to immediately extinguish the blaze.

## Quotes

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> I remember reading an old sailor's proverb: "piss on coldfire and your cock burns off".
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> —X recalling an old sailor's proverb
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> **X1**: If you could get real soldiers to man the catapults then maybe you'd hit your target one time in ten, but all the real soldiers are off fighting in Auridon.
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> **X2**: My lord, this man is insulting.
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> **X1**: I don't know if you've ever seen a battle old man, but things can get a bit messy, because when we're flinging things at X4, he's flinging them right back at us. Men die, men shit themselves, men run, which means pots falling, which means fire inside the walls, which means the poor cunts trying to defend the city end up burning it down.
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> **X3**: My friend remains unconvinced.
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> **X2**: You would not dare insult my order whilst Alyssare Arana lived.
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> **X1**: Well she's not living anymore, and all her pots of coldfire didn't help her did they. Soldiers win wars, not magic tricks.
> —X1 commenting on the futility of using coldfire to defend Shimmerene from a siege
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