Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.

There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions.

Amber in Videssos
Amber was a valuable export from Khatrish. The amber monopoly belonged to the Khagans of that country, who sent agents to smuggle it across the Videssian border, to evade the high import duty which the Avtokrators imposed. The young Videssian government employee Krispos accompanied the soldiers who caught a Khatrisher amber smuggler on one occasion. A few days later, Krispos' fuckbuddy Tanilis was angry to hear about this, because she had arranged the smuggling network with Khagan Gumush and suffered a loss because of the bust.