Gresch Resin

Gresch Resin is a highly prized product of the thusly named Gresch tree, cultivated for use in shrines and wardhall rituals as a cleansing aromatic of fire. Tapped by a hollow tube spike, or by careful hatchet blows into the tree's sapwood, bleeding the prescious sap and coagulating into an unprocessed form of the resin with only the application of time. Such a harvest can be made twice a year for young trees of ten winters, while three harvests a year can be achieved for healthy trees of fifteen to twenty winters. As the sap bleeds from a tapped tree, it runs down the tap and coagulated resin is scraped for processing into incense coils or sticks by kneading with ground wood, bark or leaf powders into a solid dough, which is then formed into spiralled coils for a constant burn and sanctified presence, or into sticks, sometimes around a thin core of aromatic heartwood, for a shorter, more temporal sacrifice of sweet smoke and purifying ember.   The scent of Gresch incense depends greatly on the age of the tree, the finest, oldest groves of Mevhattar burning sweet, spiced and chilling to the body, while younger or intemperate groves burn heavy with spice and sometimes even harsh at first scent, only sweet on exhalation, most suitable only for the prayers of passion and restless action. Preparations of resins from older trees are most prized for the quiet, soothing and contemplative atmospheres of shrines and wardhalls in ritual service, holy days and fasts for spiritual betterment. The Mevhan of modern days understand that certain chemicals make up the scents of Gresch resin and such trees produce more of others as they age, natural sciences explaining phenomenon long understood only in symptom. As yet only the menthol of older groves has been properly isolated for experimentation and confirmation, creating a chilling, freshening flavour to the airs of consecrated temples and ritual movements, but pioneering alchemists hope to some day soon truly understand the chemical nature of such scents and the mechanism of their purifying powers.