Dust

> *"Do not breathe.*
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> *Do not look.*
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> *Do not fear or cry.*
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> *The dust will fly.*
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> *The siege will end,*
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> *When all the Goran die."*
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>  -Circle nursery rhyme
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The **Dust** also called **Bloodmist** is a substance supposedly developed by the Circle to save their people from complete annihilation by the Goran during the Great War, now allegedly used in the defense of the Wall. In popular folklore, it is typical described as a "red cloud of death", which "withers" the Goran. In more educated cultures, it is more commonly believed to be a chemical weapon which causes mass-inflammation developed specifically for use against the Goran. The Technocracy only speaks on the issue to deny, both publicly and privately, that they have any active programs to mass-manufacture chemical weapons, and further note that the Universal Chemical Weapons Accords allow for defensive purposes outside of civilian-populated areas.

## Development

The Technocracy has kept the development, materials, and process of the dust a secret from the world. The amount stored, locations of stockpiles, or where it came from are well guarded secrets often considered forbidden knowledge.

Members of the Ashed Ethics Council seem to have taken a particular interest in this issue, stating that the symptoms and physical description of the dust seems to be very similar to symptoms of Ashed storage workers involved in industrial waste storage accidents. The question posed is where the Technocracy could have gotten the amount needed to produce and deploy the dust in such a massive capacity.

* Goran godspeakers announced at the end of the war a large bounty for information regarding the dust.

## Symptoms and treatment

The dust has a variety of different symptoms once coming into contact with living creatures. Skin contact with dust has symptoms that vary from extreme irritation which if not restrained subjects will usually claw through their own flesh to stop, which usually leads to blood contact. Blood contact causes muscle spasms, seizure and necrotizing of flesh. Breathing in the dust causes immediate choking and death, often rupturing the lungs and throat causing the victim to cough up blood.

Survivors of dust exposure generally suffer from physical infirmity, respiratory problems and blindness.

### **Treatment**

No treatment currently exists for dust exposure, some experimental cures regarding blood transfusion and steam exposure show promise.

## Foreign response

> *"The world watched in horror and outrage as this destruction was unleashed upon the world. The Goran in their rage increased their attacks, bleeding their war machine on what is now being called the dead lands. The Broken Kingdom left their alliance in disgust. The Ashed moved all forces from Technocracy borders and the Kushani stuck their heads in the sand. I myself could not blame them for doing so. Their backs were against the wall facing utter annihilation. Would any of us have done anything differently? At the very least I hope that at the end of this we will lose all taste for war."* -Tallet supreme commander general Daevus-Southern border war with the Technocracy
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### **Goran**

Calling upon the Failed Ones punished with the Task of Suffering, the Fire God ordered that all Dust be returned from whence it came. The Failed Ones were equipped with basic filtration clothes and forced to shovel dust onto tarps, wet the dust, seal it, and catapult it over the wall. In no way did this purify the land, however it did serve to poison the other side of the wall along with sections of the wall. When the Failed Ones grew ill they were purified by flame.