Foregone Fables Dust Alloys Guide - Combustion

While the art of merging different Dust components together to create new Dust is seen by many as a recent development, it has actually existed for quite some time and has been the basis for major technological advances in the modern world. While “natural” deposits of Ice and Lava Dust show that even ancient cultures had this knowledge, the earliest type of Dust Alloy to be rediscovered in the modern era is Combustion Dust.

Created from a fusion of Fire and Air Dust, Combustion Dust, also known as Incendiary Dust, has a remarkably simple effect upon being triggered: It creates a powerful explosion proportionate to the amount of Dust and the energy used to create it, which can consist of fire, kinetic energy, plasma or a combination of the three. While dangerous, Incendiary Dust is also the primary fuel for many types of modern machines, far more efficient than Electric Dust and less costly than Power Dust. Its reemergence gave rise to a new generation of vehicles, factories and other technology on a scope and scale never before seen, and has in fact seen far more industrial than military use. However, this is not to say no warrior employs Combustion Dust in direct combat, and its results are just as deadly as they are efficient.

A human, faunus or other organism who embeds Incendiary Dust in their body will have its incredible energy powering their muscles like literal combustion engines, granting them enhanced strength and enhanced leaping, in addition to being able to create an explosion at the tip of their fingers. Like with most Dust types, however, Combustion Dust does not innately grant an immunity to its own explosions, and unless one either has immense internal durability or immense mastery of their internal energy, the process will be likely to turn them or their limbs into bombs in a short order. For the same reason, it is more commonly used for explosives, landmines and the like than as ammunition, and is one of the most difficult forms of Dust to master.

Those who do master Incendiary Dust are granted a surprisingly versatile array of explosive abilities in their turn. Not only are they able to control the shape of the explosion to create linear blasts, beams, cross and symbol-shaped explosions, it is even possible for them to control and direct the explosion to lock into a specific target, making it harder to escape, with some individuals creating explosions from a distance, through a pinpoint or curving beam that explodes on impact, or even inside an opponent's very body. Combustion Dust can likewise be used to evaporate bodies of water, propel oneself and others forward, and counter physical and elemental attacks by using an explosion to repel them. By mastering control of Incendiary Dust even further, certain users can use it to create delayed explosions in the form of fiery plasma resembling miniature suns, which they can reshape and use as projectiles or landmines.

Combustion Dust, perhaps more so than any other Dust, represents the duality of human-made magic. On one hand, it is used to further progress and create new, powerful, and efficient modes of transportation and production; On the other, it can be used to create unparalleled destruction on untold scales. In the eyes of many, these two aspects are opposites, but each of them also feeds into the other, allowing both to grow exponentially, until they can no longer be controlled.