Goldsand is a desert life form similar in evolutionary status to Earth corals and is highly prized as a spice; it also has certain pharmaceutical uses, and is an important ingredient in some types of slow and medical slow drugs.
Goldsand
is a colony-based
life-form that spreads over large areas of Daken's
(Reavers' Deep 1830) erg deserts, utilizing a
chemosynthetic process for energy. Colonies spring up rapidly, grow
with great speed, and are then scattered by the fierce sandstorms which sweep
across the ergs. individual parts of the colony may survive to start up new
colonies in new locations.
Goldsand also forms the chief food source for the sandroller, a small (25kg) animal which poses a danger to humans because of the highly poisonous spines which cover its spherical body. Sandrollers are many times found within the colonies as they are being harvested.