Ambergris

[Burinn]

An absolutely disgusting looking substance found in the intestines of whales that smells nice when it ages. People have been killing whales to make perfumes and incense with it since Ancient Egypt. Even today it's both expensive and uncommon because of bans on the hunting of the few whales left in the oceans.

I don't care what you do with it.

EDIT: I guess people use it to season food to, so there's that.

[shubla]

cha boost

[Fostik]

Looks like a cool idea for rare and expensive curiosity/material that you can meet in deep sea.

[loftar]

People have been killing whales to make perfumes and incense with it since Ancient Egypt.

Unless I've understood the whole thing wrong, you don't generally kill whales for ambergris, but rather it is simply "foraged" from the sea.

[KitsuneG]

People have been killing whales to make perfumes and incense with it since Ancient Egypt.

Unless I've understood the whole thing wrong, you don't generally kill whales for ambergris, but rather it is simply "foraged" from the sea.

True fact, it can be gathered when whale vomit that, but it can be butchered from them, they kept it inside for months before need to vomit.

[Burinn]

People have been killing whales to make perfumes and incense with it since Ancient Egypt.

Unless I've understood the whole thing wrong, you don't generally kill whales for ambergris, but rather it is simply "foraged" from the sea.

Ambergris
The following description is quoted verbatim from Charles H. Stevenson “Aquatic Products in Arts and Industries,” Report of the Commissioner for the Year Ending June 30, 1902, U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Part 28 (Washington, 1904).

“Ambergris is a wax-like substance found at rare intervals, but sometimes in relatively large quantities, in the intestines of the sperm whale. With the exception of choice pearls and coral it is the highest-priced product of the fisheries, selling upward of $40 per ounce. It is now generally conceded that ambergris is generated in either sex of the sperm whale, but far more frequently in the male, and is the result of a diseased state of the animal, caused possibly by a biliary irritation, as the individuals from which it is secured are almost invariably of a sickly appearance and sometimes greatly emaciated. It occurs in rough lumps varying in weight from less than one pound to 150 pounds or more. It generally contains fragments of the beak or mandible of squid or cuttle-fish which constitutes the principle food of the sperm whale. When first removed from the animal it is comparatively soft and emits a repugnant odor, but upon exposure to the air, it grows harder, lighter in color, and assumes the appearance it presents when found floating on the ocean. Its color ranges from black to whitish gray, and is often variegated with light stripes and spots resembling marble somewhat.” Although ambergris was used as an aphrodisiac, incense and medicine in ancient times it came to be used principally in perfume manufacture because it served to impart homogeneity and permanency to different ingredients employed.

Source

[Ysh]

People have been killing whales to make perfumes and incense with it since Ancient Egypt.

Unless I've understood the whole thing wrong, you don't generally kill whales for ambergris, but rather it is simply "foraged" from the sea.

Ambergris
The following description is quoted verbatim from Charles H. Stevenson “Aquatic Products in Arts and Industries,” Report of the Commissioner for the Year Ending June 30, 1902, U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Part 28 (Washington, 1904).

“Ambergris is a wax-like substance found at rare intervals, but sometimes in relatively large quantities, in the intestines of the sperm whale. With the exception of choice pearls and coral it is the highest-priced product of the fisheries, selling upward of $40 per ounce. It is now generally conceded that ambergris is generated in either sex of the sperm whale, but far more frequently in the male, and is the result of a diseased state of the animal, caused possibly by a biliary irritation, as the individuals from which it is secured are almost invariably of a sickly appearance and sometimes greatly emaciated. It occurs in rough lumps varying in weight from less than one pound to 150 pounds or more. It generally contains fragments of the beak or mandible of squid or cuttle-fish which constitutes the principle food of the sperm whale. When first removed from the animal it is comparatively soft and emits a repugnant odor, but upon exposure to the air, it grows harder, lighter in color, and assumes the appearance it presents when found floating on the ocean. Its color ranges from black to whitish gray, and is often variegated with light stripes and spots resembling marble somewhat.” Although ambergris was used as an aphrodisiac, incense and medicine in ancient times it came to be used principally in perfume manufacture because it served to impart homogeneity and permanency to different ingredients employed.

Source

I see this is from website on whaling, but I see no thing in these quoted text that suggests they must kill whale for it.

[discospaceman]

I think it's safe to say that more often than not ambergris was a lucky by-product of whaling, and not the single goal of taking an animal. It can be done, but doesn't seem like it would be quite often.

If it were to be dropped from a whale kill, considering how it is formed, it would have to be a rare butcher product, rarer than finding it in the sea/beach.

[MrPunchers]

Just ask the whale. If you're nice they might give you some.

[Burinn]

it would have to be a rare butcher product, rarer than finding it in the sea/beach.

I think this would make the most sense given its real world rarity and value.