Cordium

**Cordium** is a valuable natural resource that emerged on Earth following the Calamity, used as an energy and fuel source that can also be weaponized.

## Characteristics

Cordium is a crystalline compound produced in Earth's deep mantle, a mixture of dielectric materials, native metals, and anomalous compositions still poorly understood over 400 years later. They exist in the form of dangerously reactive rocks and formations, somehow, as if supernaturally, powering abandoned surviving facilities all on their own according to various tales in the immediate post-apocalypse.

Cordium can be extracted from geothermal and magma fields, most efficiently using derivations of deep oil drilling such as lava-based **extractors**, but is difficult and dangerous to mine due to its volatile nature. For instance, a mishandled cordium shipment led to the destruction of the major Cascadian city of Solstitium, killing thousands and displacing countless more, leading to strict mining regulations imposed by both the Pacific Federation and Cascadia. The lost city became inhospitable for 40 years, the Cascadian National Guard closing off the city. The above regulations lead to methods such as reducing **refinery** conduit pressure, inert cordium being secured inside **containers**, and cordium neutralizer agents being developed and dumped into pipelines. These have the effect of stalling cordium production for an implicitly long time, however.

Cordium power generation drains out slowly while also being able to power machines much bigger than itself. Partly as a consequence, it is difficult and perhaps impractical to reduce its size to household or personal use. Furthermore, attempts to create a synthetic supply along with (until at least AC 432) further weaponization have been failures, being limited to railgun slugs. Below is the three-part generation method:

* The cordium is placed/absorbed in a secure engine.
* A catalyst is introduced into the cordium, provoking a reaction which is contained by the engine.
* Following a short time, the cascade settles into safer and manageable levels.

Crucial warning should be taken to the reaction itself, which if left uncontrolled (i.e. outside an engine), will ignite the cordium without restraint. However, up until the Prospero Disaster, this kind of active reaction was merely a theory explaining away the destruction caused by the Calamity. Cordium reacting on itself and other geothermal deposits can cause devastating tectonic disasters that can alter weather in areas to an uninhabitable degree; anomalous storms scorching the earth underneath to massive earthquakes of ancient history (that can cover over half a continent) are part of them. In the event of latent reaction to the atmosphere, the population of the affected areas is advised to take indoor shelter as soon as possible, and it is believed inactive geothermal hotspots can be triggered by traffic contamination and randomly igniting inert cordium deposits.

## History

Cordium was presumably, according to sparse historical records, uncovered. This apparently led to a global tectonic disaster which erased human civilization from existence, the mineral itself only being repurposed for humanity's use by the start of the After Calamity Era. The first new AC Era relationships were based around geothermal energy producers who also possess cordium reserves.

Hundreds of years pass for cordium to receive defining discoveries, either through new transportation methods, disasters/accidents, or deliberate weaponization. During the Cascadian Conflict, the Federation was successful in weaponizing cordium to the next stage, but its deployment resulted in the Cascadian Calamity Event and the Presidian Disaster.

## Trivia

"Cordium" is likely a play on corium, a highly radioactive substance produced as a result of a nuclear reactor meltdown. Both also contain fuel and can be obtained from cataclysmic events.

## References

1. ↑ Sector D2 Limited. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Cordium
2. ↑ Sector D2 Limited. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Cordium Mining
3. ↑ Sector D2 Limited. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Solstitium
4. ↑ Sector D2. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Mission 06: "Machine of the Mantle."
5. ↑ Sector D2 Limited. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Utilization of Cordium
6. ↑ Sector D2 Limited. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Prospero Disaster
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sector D2. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Mission 15: "Consequence of Power."
8. ↑ Sector D2. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Mission 01: "Black Flag."
9. ↑ Sector D2 Limited. (2020). *Project Wingman* [Video game]. San Francisco, CA: Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: After Calamity Era II