Salt

Salt was a substance that was widely produced and used in the Realms for a variety of culinary, industrial, alchemical, and magical purposes.

Description
Salt was a naturally occurring mineral that formed translucent white crystals.

Availability
Gnomish families often made a living by mining small salt deposits.

Locations
Salt could be obtained from salt marshes by pouring the water across a flat surface and letting the water evaporate. It was harvested from a wide variety of sources in the Realms:
 * The Flooded Forest between the Vast and Moonsea regions.
 * The Adder Swamp in Chessenta.
 * The Spider Swamp in Calimshan.
 * The Great Swamp of Rethild in the Shining South.

Salt could also be found as naturally forming chunks on the shores of extremely salty bodies of water:
 * Azulduth, the Lake of Salt, in the Beastlands.
 * The Lake of Steam in southern Faerûn.

Salt pans on the site of dried-up lakes and inland seas were also a source of salt, such as:
 * The Anauroch desert.
 * The Raurin desert.

Underground salt mines were major producers of rock salt:
 * The mountains around Amn.
 * The mountains of Calimshan.
 * The mountains of Chult.
 * The Korinn Archipelago in the Moonshae Isles.
 * The Orsraun Mountains.

Usage

 * Dwarves were fond of eating heavily salted food, and often carried chunks of rock salt to lick. They would even lick salt residue from the walls of natural caverns they traveled through.

Spell Components
Salt was used as a material component in many spells:
 * Comprehend languages used a pinch of salt and soot.
 * Gentle repose used a pinch of salt along with two copper coins placed on the corpse's eyes.
 * The clone ritual could be performed using a vessel filled with salt water to contain the grown body.