Stormphrax

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Stormphrax is a fictional substance from Paul Stewart's The Edge Chronicles.

Stormphrax is a substance that weighs as much as sand when it is under twilight, but becomes incredibly heavy in darkness ("as heavy as a thousand ironwood trees"). It can also be made into Phraxdust by grinding it with a mortar and pestle at the moment of true twilight. If it is ground at any other time, it will explode violently, usually killing the person grinding it. The first property makes it invaluable, because the floating city of Sanctaphrax needs it to stop it from floating away. An academic named Quode Quanx-Querix founded The Knights Academy in Sanctaphrax that trained scholars in the art of chasing Great Storms to retrieve stormphrax.