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Foregone Fables Dust Guide - Earth
🕑 Added 2018-05-08 09:55:44 +0000 UTCThe amount of earth in Remnant is far more abundant than air or water, let alone fire. The planet itself, from the crust to the core, composes of this material. Despite of, and maybe because of that, earth is not an element that is often paid attention, and its place in Remnant's cultures is rarely more than background.
It is apparent this wasn't always the case. Earth is one of the earliest forms of matter for mankind to cease control over. Just like air and water, earth is everywhere; it can be mundane and unimportant, or it can be deadly. The first step towards being sovereign of the world would be controlling the earth from which it is composed.
Earth Dust usually comes in liquid form. It is usually found in rather small amounts, but is very common. Earth Dust is widely used in the building industry, but rather rare to see a huntsman or huntress wielding it regularly. Weapon constructors who use it tend to be the more creative type.
When triggered, raw Stone Dust creates a reaction similar to Water Dust, simply exploding into a large rock. The exact shape of the stone is usually random, but triggering Earth Dust inside a mold causes it to fill it perfectly, unless the amount of Dust is excessively too small to fill the mold or too large to fit into it. The latter case would cause the end result to appear roughly similar to the mold, which is destroyed from the exploding rock.
Jabbing Earth Dust into one's body own body is safe relatively to other types of Dust. Doing so makes the user's skin hard as stone, and significantly increases their strength (via weight) and durability. This also allows the user to create small earthquakes and form rocks from their body, but is also makes the user much slower. This at least does not put the user's life in immediate danger, however.
Utilizing Earth Dust in a controlled way via weapons and devices allows one to better control the shape of the rock outcome including the type of rock itself, as well as control its movements, also being able to create more complex structures such as sand. These allow users to cause their rocks to levitate, create stone or sand barriers, conjure and hurl earth columns, create sand or stone armor around one's body, summon mannequins of rock or sand that can take the shape of a specific person, create pillars of rock or blades of stone coming from the ground, release sharp shockwaves, slash projections or cascades of sand, cause tidal waves of rock or sand, fire concentrated energy-like sand bolts, cause earthquakes and fissures, generate sand explosions, shape sand or stone into objects and weapons or moving limbs, create a quicksand pit, create a mesh or net of sand and bridges of stone, generate a sandstorm or whirlwind of sand, bind an opponent in stone or sand and crush them, create a concealing cloud of dust, create tunnels, or shoot shrapnel rocks rapid fire and control their movements.
In spite of Earth Dust being both common, versatile and powerful, it rarely gets the reputation it deserves. Rock Dust is most commonly used in construction, and that has everything to do with its vague image. If anything, Stone Dust is a symbol of creation, something humanity sees all too much as a virtue, overlooking any and all costs of said creation.
Earth Dust and Dust in general is used to create, bypassing the law of nature that to create anything, something of equal worth must be lost. Nature cannot punish those who break its laws, and indeed humans have done so for millions of years. Although nature has failed, there are some who wish to stand up to it. Those were the first to be demonized by humans, who care for no one and nothing but their own right to do as they please.
