Greystone is a type of stone formed from a unique, powder-like substance that converts water into stone, which has been used in the various constructs made by the Super-Ancient Beings.
History[]
Early History[]
At some point in Earth's past, the Super-Ancient Beings used the mysterious substance later known as greystone powder, which upon contact with water would convert it on a molecular level into stone, to craft most of the structures made for their series of trials, including its derivative, liquid stone. Such places that were made out of the greystone would include the Supreme Labyrinth.
As the Super-Ancients were creating their trials, they decided that the punishment for failing the Trial of the Cities would be the depletion of the Earth's water, and arranged it so that is the trial were not fulfilled, six deposit of greystone powder around the world would be opened and exposed to the oceans. The greystone powder sites that were chosen to be exposed in this event included deposits within the Three Cities of Thule, Ra and Atlas, the Underworld, the Erebus cavern and at a site located in the Mariana Trench.
After the Ancients were gone, the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms were gifted with their knowledge, eventually coming across most of the locations with hidden greystone powder deposits. Over the next several thousand years, having discovered some uses for the mysterious substance, the Four Kingdoms had the greystone powder mined from the deposits within the Underworld and Erebus cavern, a task that grew easier over the ages as technology advanced.
Some of the Four Kingdoms' serving agencies were provided with samples of greystone powder for their own use as well, such as the Order of the Omega, who kept them in small hourglass-like vials around their necks. A devious trap utilising greystone powder was also implemented into the Tomb of Poseidon.
After scans revealed a large, hemispherical formation of greystone under the seafloor in the Red Sea, the Four Kingdoms realised that it was likely the rumoured surface point half-way through the Supreme Labyrinth near to where the Throne of Life was situated, and so established an oil rig near it to serve as an observation post.
Towards the end of the 20th century, Yago DeSaxe was appointed the role of Governor of the Royal Prison of Erebus. During the course of the years he served in this role, Yago learned how the mysterious greystone powder and liquid stone within the cavern both worked, and devised a method of entombing prisoners by half-submerging them in a tub of water and then adding a few grains of greystone powder so that the prisoners were trapped painfully within the stone.
The sealed greystone powder deposit in the Mariana Trench was discovered during the collaboration between Julius and Lachlan Adamson and the oceanographer David Black. When they and Zoe Kissane ventured down to the sealed archway and used sonar to examine what lay past the door, but their readings led them to believe that the seven-square kilometer deposit was a type of pricite basalt.
The Three Secret Cities[]
When Jack West Jr and Lily West were confronted by the monks of the Order of the Omega at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Jack noticed that High Brother Ezekiel had a pendant containing a bulb of dark grey powder around his neck, but was unaware of what the substance actually was.
When Jack was captured by Yago and transported to Erebus, the Slave King subjected him to his favoured method of imprisonment, explaining the capabilities of greystone powder and its rarity.
When Jack and Aloysius Knight later entered Poseidon's tomb in search of the Trident of the Sealords, one of Sunil Malik's men set off the trap system, causing the chamber to begin filling with seawater. Jack recalled a statue of Medusa in the entry tunnel, and realised that its eyes were made of two small "pills" of greystone powder, just as it was with a second statue on the chamber's ceiling, causing him to realise that the entire tomb would be sealed within the substance.
Once the water level reached the tunnel statue's greystone powder pills, the substance converted the water to stone, sealing one of Malik's men inside while the other was trapped up to his legs. As Jack and Knight moved to escape through one of the water shafts, the dumbstruck Malik was carried on the rising water towards the second set of greystone pills on the chamber's ceiling. Upon contact with the seawater, it solidified the remaining water into stone, trapping Malik. Jack and Knight narrowly managed to escape from the tomb's water shaft as the water behind them solidified and sealed the entire tomb in stone.
As Jack contemplated the punishment for failing the Trial of the Cities, Knight helped him realise that the deposit of greystone powder at Erebus was one of six such deposits around the world, and that they would all be opened and exposed to the oceans, which after solidifying the oceans would begin a domino-effect of drying up all sources of water.
At the same time, Sphinx demonstrated the effects of greystone powder to Lily; by adding only a couple of grains of the substance to her glass of water, the whole lot was converted to stone.
Luckily, the danger the greystone powder presented was averted with the trial's successful completion at the Altar of the Cosmos, and the greystone deposits at the Underworld, Erebus, the Three Cities and in the Mariana Trench were left sealed.
After performing the sacrificial ritual, Sphinx threw a tablet of greystone powder into the sacrificial pool containing Lily's body, sealing it in stone once it solidified. When Jack and Knight arrived later, only a few strands of Lily's hair was visible jutting out from the greystone.
A few days after the conclusion of the Trial of the Cities, Pooh Bear, Stretch and Alby Calvin went back to the Altar of the Cosmos to extract Lily's body from the stone, but after chiseling away at the greystone, Pooh Bear discovered something surprising within.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
As Pooh Bear discovered, it was Alexander's body sealed in the greystone, as Lily's twin had been sacrificed in her place and then sealed in the pool by Sphinx's greystone powder tablet.
Later, Jack, Zoe and Hades went to the Order of the Omega's abandoned lodgings to look for anything useful the monks might have left behind. After searching the living quarters, Zoe was only able to find a small hourglass of greystone powder, which she handed over to Jack.
When Jack, Iolanthe Compton-Jones and Bertie de Montreuil found themselves trapped between two sets of bronzemen closing in on them in the tunnel between Mont Saint-Michel and Tombelaine Island, the former recalled the greystone powder hourglass he still had on him. Upon securing themselves above the waterline, Jack poured the powder into the rising water, which quickly began turning into stone and trapping the automatons, while affording the trio the opportunity to escape.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
As part of the trap system of the Supreme Labyrinth's First Cavern, pellets of greystone powder were set to drop into the water on the bridges leading to the main stalactite. When the Omega monks were passing through, one of their members was caught in the trap, and was unable to defend himself as a pair of Vandals harassed and slowly cannabalised him. When Jack's group traversed their bridge, they attempted to trap their pursuing silverman in the greystone powder trap, however the automaton was strong enough to break free.
During his earlier traversing of the Endless Tunnel, Sphinx intentionally set off a trap of greystone in one of the "under tunnels" to try to keep his rivals from following, however the Omega monks were prepared and able to dig a hole through the solidified substance.
As his group was navigating the Endless Tunnel, Jack noticed the type of greystone trap when they came across the first under tunnels. Soon after, he came across a horrifically melted Omega monk, and took the hourglass containing greystone powder from the body, believing it would prove useful later.
After General Rastor destroyed a few sections of the seawall around the City-Maze, causing it to flood, he threw a fist-sized cube of greystone into the water; within moments the flooded section of the City-Maze became a new "floor" upon which the General and his team could cross to get to the Castle of the Throne of Life. Russian sailors who had been caught in the flooding waters were quickly sealed within the newly-formed greystone as well.
As she fought against Ezekiel, Zoe snatched the greystone powder hourglass from around his neck and shoved it into his mouth, breaking it. As Ezekiel choked on the powder, Zoe emptied her water bottle into the monk's mouth, causing it to begin turning to stone within Ezekiel's throat and stomach. Before the internal damage caused by the greystone killed him, Zoe kicked him off the ledge and let him fall to his death.
Later, as one of Rastor's men attempted to kamikaze Jack with a number of crimson orbs, Jack dove into a pool of water beneath a cupola and released the greystone powder from the hourglass he had taken around himself, creating a protective shell from the explosion. Though trapped, Jack had positioned the maghook he carried so that he could still pull the trigger to launch the grapple-launcher against the stone to slowly break the solidified greystone to let him escape.
Attributes[]
An old and rare substance, greystone powder was either uncovered or made by the Super-Ancients, who saw its potential in a number of uses. Through its liquid stone counterpart, the greystone powder has been instrumental in the Super-Ancients' construction of a number of structures such as their cities' buildings and bridges.
In its typical "dry" form, greystone powder is almost indistinguishable from the volcanic stone known as pricite basalt. However, upon contact with water, the greystone powder begins converting it on a molecular level through a exponential lattice phenomenon; for every bond that the greystone molecule makes with a water molecule, it creates a hundred more just like it, allowing it to expand and solidify. The process does not take very long, as it took only a few seconds for the water in Poseidon's tomb to completely solidify.
After water has been converted into stone by the substance, the greystone can be altered into the more fluid offshoot known as liquid stone, simply by heating the solidified greystone to a certain degree. Maintaining enough heat will keep it in this form, but upon cooling the stone becomes solid once again.
Trivia[]
- The greystone powder is noted by Yago to have had different names to describe the substance over the years, such as:
- Gorgon stone
- Stone dust
- Grey matter
- Greystone