Tools and trade of Nahuac

Nahuac has the richest natural resources in Valerna, which make it a target for its neighbors’ ambitions. To prevent plunder of its environment, the Coalition has adopted an isolationist stance: All logging or mining operations, and any kind of industrial activities that benefit from these practices, are entirely forbidden in Náhuinn soil. Furthermore, no resource exploitation of any kind is allowed inside Nahuac except through Makaab magic, where traditionally trained wizards, hunters or foragers ask the land for its cooperation—and respect the answer if it’s “no”. As very few outsiders are willing or able to learn these methods, most foreign industries are forbidden in the Coalition.

The Coalition does trade with its neighbors, however, and it welcomes merchants from any realm as long as they pass border controls for any raw material they introduce to or take from Nahuac. The few Náhuinn merchants that leave the coalition are in very high demand, for they provide exclusive goods, all makaab-harvested, that are otherwise unavailable - at least legally.

Kaabstone
Kaabstone is a green-black ore that can be found and mined in several regions of Valerna, but only Makaab magic can manipulate it with the required skill and subtlety to make tools and weapons out of it. Hard as rock and sharp as glass, kaabstone is the main component of most Náhuinn weapons and nonmagical tools.

Laiblades, or just ‘kaab blades’, are characteristic weapons of Nahuac; knives and swords of various sizes and designs, all makaab-forged from kaabstone or a derived alloy, and very hard to find outside the Coalition. Besides the most common sword-length version, laiblades run the gamut from Itzalai, light knives that can be thrown like darts or carried under a bracelet; to laibolg, one-meter sharp blades attached to a long wooden pole, producing a weapon that’s half sword and half spear, sharper and deadlier than either.

Source Slabs
Thick, flat and smooth stones, ranging in size from a fingernail to a four-meter monolith, source slabs are naturally occurring rock formations with a high concentration of source magic. A source slab can be recognized for the glowing, symmetric patterns on its surface, which indicate the content of kaab energy within the stone.

Náhuinn spellcasters use source slabs as the focus of many rituals. The best wizards are allowed to own one or two source slabs as magic tools, but they mostly leave the slabs where they find them, asking for their power when needed.

Source slabs can be found everywhere in Valerna, but they are quite rare. Conversely, Makaab tradition has made them much more common in Nahuac territory. This is why Source casters from all Valerna, particularly Sikarian alchemists, are willing to pay any price for smuggled source slabs, the larger the better. Náhuinn law punishes source slab contraband with swift death; for most smugglers, however, the rewards are worth the risk.