The Fire Stone
The section of the Aiwerond map which you see in this article, shows the clockwise Sinal country of Tejsen. In yellow a desert called Gesenrskhe is shown. There is no sand in that desert, it is entirely formed of mountains of a glowing, hot stone, known as the "Fire Stone". In Tejsenian, this translates nuhemongo. The Quertílians calqued the name to u(h)mong and added the quertílian word qrit (stone) to it, not knowing that it was already included in the name. There's where the name "umongqrit" comes from.
What makes the stone so special, is that it seems to produce heat without consuming its substance. It has been calculated in the modern times, that umongqrit has half-life of about 100 years.
This stone was well known and used in the Aiwerond since early times to heat houses and cook meals. More deposits of umongqrit can be found all around Aiwerond, but none as large as the Gesenrskhe desert.
It was known, then, that umongqrit can be shielded by gold, which is is a very common metal in Aiwerond (and not nearly as valuable, even though perceived as beautiful), and that it was difficult to split. Other mysteries of the Fire Stone, however, didn't get reveal until more modern times and continued to be the main subject of studies of many scholars for many years.
In year 141w., Bleiq Urihin found a new method of splitting and grinding umongqrit, so that it could be given a pre-designed shape and with it, he founded an industry branch which is now called emterics.
During the reign of Lisi'a I. (*259 - +353), after advancements in chemical and metal industries, the first umongqrit engines and locomotives were built - steam engines, where instead of flamable materials such as wood (coal is not to be found in Aiwerond!), umongqrit was used.
Wrixic properties
It was the Oenzian-moved-to-Quertíli'a physicist Aryen Wrix (*200w - +269w) and his team, who published an extensive paper on the Fire Stone (220w). The main properties of the stone were described in a rigorous scientific manner, for the first time.
It had been known, that splitting umongqrit into smaller parts actually increased the heat it radiates, i.e. i.e., a heap of individual stones of umongqrit radiates more heat than a solid mountain of umongqrit of the same volume. Aryen Wrix proved that the amount of energy is directly proportional to the surface of the stone. Together with Urihin's splitting method and the gold shielding, it made it possible to get exact amounts of energy in a limited space and allowed the creation of more advanced umongqrit engines.
It was understood, that the umongqrit energy has it's source in the mountain of Bieneialen, and it only is reflected and transformed by the stone.
The energy of umongqrit and Bieneialen was named wrix (adjective wrixic) after the physician. The wrixic field (wrixári'as) term was coined for the Bieneialen radiation which is present everywhere in the world.
Witeri
The Querítelian neurologist, internist and psychiatrist Wit Martheli'ot (*310w +386w) took a different approach to the wrixic energy. He brought together a large group of people who had claimed to have a psychic contact with umongqrit (many of them were fakes), and conducted various experiments. Some of these were probably not quite ethical, which put his research in bad reputation. However, he had indeed discovered that wrix can be directed and transformed by the minds of specially trained people (his paper appeared in 372w).
In year 395w, his alumni have founded a university with Martheli'ot's name and started to call their science witeri(cs). Even though they are still surrounded by some controversies, they are an important part of the modern world. Witerics evolved into a whole industrial branch producing articles of astonishing possibilities, which revolutionised the whole society. The products are used in medicine, machinery and transport (new engines without steam were developed) exploration, fine enginerring (navigation, time measuring), communication etc. No amount of umongqrit put to human service remains without any kind of a witeric contact, as witeri also gathered the expertise for working the stone itself. Latest developments brought (simple) computers to the world and biological drugs allowing healing and enhancements of human bodies, and even the casting of simple spells.
For more on witerics, see a dedicated article.