Forleidine
Seek the sheen of metal's flow to walk a path that is not your own.Forleidine, known colloquially as leafspill, is a bright green liquid first developed by fey hands - as befits its function. Highly sought-after but rarely-found, forleidine is a strong alchemical poison and reagent that possesses extremely strong hallucinogenic properties and an innate magic that lends its illusions the power to reflect aspects of nearby minds.
Leafspill Fumes by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
When exposed to any moisture, forleidine produces billowing fumes far exceeding its own quantity. These cannot be condensed back into forleidine, despite originating from it, and the attempt instead grants forleiscent crystals that are equally toxic to forleidine but possess limited hallucinogenic properties of their own.
Other than its distinct colour, forleidine in its liquid form is most easily identified by its pungent smell. Even when well-contained in reinforced non-magical glass silicate containers, the smell persists. Thankfully, containment does at least prevent its magics and poisons.
Freezing or evaporating forleidine (with the latter method being very much not recommended) is the only way to store the liquid and not experience its olfactory-assaulting mixture of burning wax, velvet, faintly rotting lavender, and something that is described only ever as 'magic'.
Properties
Material Characteristics
I'm not actually sure where the path is, but I'm pretty sure that's a lamp over that way. Maybe there'll be a house, or someone we can ask for help?Forleidine is, most commonly, a viscous bright-green liquid that occasionally glows. When correctly stored away from exposure to moisture (including that within air), it retains a dull internal light derived from the magic woven into it upon its creation.
This same magic is part of what lends it such danger. When forleidine interacts with water, it begins to fume with its strange created fumes that - over time - condense into forleiscent crystal. When it interacts with magic, though, the reaction is always more dramatic, though the exact effects depend on the school of magic in question.
Evocation magic, unsurprisingly, causes the material to violently explode. Enchantment and illusion spells, though, are amplified by the material's odd effects: the false realities these spells weave are reinforced and rebounded by forleidine.
Abjuration, conjuration, and necromancy spells are each more unique and depend on the spell itself, with some spells taking on forleidine's magical or poisonous properties, and others being absorbed into the forleidine itself.
Divination itself has a curious effect: divinations are amplified, but their results are no longer accurate. This can lead to detection spells granting a wide range of strange answers.
Oops, Not That Glass by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Poison by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Theoretically, this could be utilised as a very unwise firework that would then continue to explode as moisture then hit the remnant forleidine. Well - not quite theoretically; this was tested in Soniuch Zan to devastating effect.
Needless to say: that use is not recommended.
It must also be noted that forleidine's innate magic does cause significant hallucinogenic effects of its own, beyond whatever spells are cast in its vicinity. If exposed to forleidine or its fumes (presumably in a manner that won't cause it to explode), it is only a matter of time before the strange material begins a resonance with the victim's mind.
It crafts misleading illusions with no apparent goal, functioning similarly to a will-o-wisp. Exposure to forleidine can quickly result in violent outbursts in groups, or mass disappearances as the oddities lead them elsewhere. These hallucinations can be prevented by not physically touching or smelling forleidine.
Origin & Source
Sometimes, the fey prove they know far too much.Forleidine is a fey-created compound made from a mixture of quicksilver, bismuth, flecks of adamantine, and two unknown materials rumoured to be sourced in the First World. It must be formed away from the Material Plane, and must have magic woven into its form as the materials begin to react. If any step is missed in its creation, then the resultant liquid is generally a metallic brown goop with a smell described only as organic rot.
The actual creation process is largely a secret, with the few aspects known gleaned through an ongoing series of challenges with the feyfolk. It is, apparently, a multi-day ritual that takes place exclusively within the borders of the spellbound forest of Medellwyn.
Each ingredient must go through its own separate stage of the rite, and must be taken through it by someone that has not done any other aspect. This means that at minimum, the process of coalescing forleidine from metals to brilliant green liquid involves at least five individuals.
Despite the secrecy, it is not just fey who have created the mixture. Though not common in the slightest, mortal visitors to Medellwyn are occasionally offered the ability to take part in the rite. Their memories of the procedure are inevitably taken from them, but each person that participates is rewarded with a single dose of forleidine and a small brand on the underside of their right foot.
the Leaking Forest by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
History & Usage
History
You know, I didn't expect that to explode.While forleidine has existed for some time in the fey realms, it has weaved in and out of awareness on the Material Plane. Most recently, it was 'discovered' in Fjolkandr after a small group of dwarves and gnomes returned from an expedition with a glass phial of the vibrant liquid. It was originally thought to be a fey potion until a pragmatic mage tried to cast Detect Poison on it.
Unexpected Explosion by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Unfortunately, casting a divination spell, as Detect Poison is, upon the sample caused the liquid to react with some... vibrancy. The spell altered. Baffled, the mage explained that it itself was not a poison (a lie, if you've been paying attention), but that a number of their companions were afflicted with various diseases, and that one was even pregnant.
As those diagnoses were accurate, this kicked off a bit of a research frenzy - one filled with many explosions, rapid realisations of its properties, confirmation that it was actually toxic by way of small tragedy, and a few arguments over the safety of the whole shebang.
Since then, it has been possible to identify many of forleidine's properties in historical myths and stories. A glimmering green potion offered to a dying hero on a fey adventure, falsely claiming to be healing and instead killing the hero? Likely a potion using forleidine's magic-altering properties in combination with its famed brutal toxicity.
Forleidine, enclosed by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Odor
Burning wax, velvet, faintly rotting lavender, and.. magic?
Taste
Acrid lavender and bitter death, strong metallic aftertaste (it might just be blood)
Color
Eye-searing bright green
Boiling / Condensation Point
74C
Melting / Freezing Point
-12C
Density
~3.1–4.5 g/cm³
Common State
Liquid
Related Species
Related Technologies
Related Professions
Toxicity
Forleidine's poison is assumed to result largely from the quicksilver in its makeup, with the unknown substances in its alloying worsening what is already known. Like mercury, forleidine does not affect someone merely by being touched (though the moisture in skin is likely to create an explosive reaction unless frozen or alloyed further into something stable). Unlike mercury, drinking forleidine is disastrous. Its classic fumes carry a much lesser version of its poison. Being able to smell forleidine's stench is dangerous, but not immediately deadly. Worry more about the hallucinations. Forleidine poisoning carries many of the same symptoms of mercury poisoning at incredibly low doses, and can be treated through similar methods. However, due to its increased lethality, most do not experience its mercy. Significant doses of forleidine instead immediately begin to aggressively spread through the body's systems as an infection might, corroding and twisting the pathways it travels. Victims of forleidine poisoning glow a faint green as it spreads through their bodies, burning its way through their blood vessels, nerves, and skin. It is not a subtle poison. Interestingly, eating forleidine does deactivate its water-explosive properties - it's assumed that something in the magic recognises saliva. This is the only property that deactivates, however. The magic-altering effects and its mental impacts are not limited. Healing magic must be applied with haste to prevent death from forleidine poisoning. If allowed to progress too far, the substance itself will repel or change healing attempts to prevent its removal. Forleidine that is successful in killing someone subsequently seems to denature; it cannot be retrieved from a body by any means, turning to brown sludge when someone makes the attempt.
Toxic Blade by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
There's a lot of talk about how dangerous and deadly and rare this stuff is, sure, but there's not a lot on what it can be used for. I'm pretty sure that's intentional. I've seen blades of it that don't explode. I've seen potions that use it to heal curses that couldn't be undone any other way. I've seen it save lives just as it kills them. It's a fey material. You can't assume it's always the same. And when you mix it with other things, its properties shift dramatically. Any other magical substance combines with it. Magic calls to magic, like how it messes with spells. Guess you'll just have to find out what it can do yourselves.
Of course it was the fey, its always the damned fey! I'd ask who in their right mind wants to bottle what is essentially pure magickal chaos given form, however that makes the unreasonable presumption that the fey are or indeed ever have been in their right mind a premise that fails on merit immediately. And yet I find myself once again curious for dangerous knowledge as you SO OFTEN do to me Han. I simply cannot shake off the desire to experience and understand....'Smells like.....magic??" What does that mean!?!? I simply MUST learn, must understand despite the dangers. And of course someone had to try blowing it up as a firework, I mean its right there, its right there and explosions are fun! Another top notch article dearest Han, you bless us humble multiversal tourists with many gifts every year and bring great joy and gifts of curiosity by allowing us such visits into your wonderful, chaotic maelstorm of an imagination and it is always a treat, every time. Most definitely another I simply must add to my collection. :)
Oh just you wait. X) The next two articles are BOTH fey themed...
welcome to my signature! check out istralar!