Drakevarg
Troubadour
A bit of context to come, but the basic premise is a chemical compound that, despite seeing regular use worldwide for centuries, is almost impossible to figure out how to make.
Now for context. In my setting there is a chemical called Dragonpowder. It's essentially the world's equivalent of gunpowder, with two major exceptions: one, it's the only known reliable explosive compound in the world; and two, its formula is a well-guarded secret that is complex enough that for the cost of a single pistol shot you could easily afford to buy a horse.
Anyway, the chemical formula has a number of safeguards in it: not only is it chemically complex, but Rotadler deliberately wrote the recipe in such a way that there are many redundant steps in it, spread between pieces of the formula in such a way that entire portions of the recipe may or may not exist purely to purge the compound of unnecessary additives from an earlier step. Even the final product is such that it's difficult for alchemists to discern what the active ingredients are and what parts are junk.
Now, I've mostly been going by a "take our word for it" standpoint on the issue, saying that this status quo has upheld itself because narratively I want it to, but I'm curious how well this might actually hold up under investigation. It's worth noting that my setting doesn't necessarily use the same periodic table as our world (I've already concluded that due to the origins of life in the setting, there's no such thing as microbial life, with minor spirits filling most of the necessary gaps, for example), but I'd like to know if this premise holds up any as an abstract theory or if "because I said so" is the only thing keeping it going.
Now for context. In my setting there is a chemical called Dragonpowder. It's essentially the world's equivalent of gunpowder, with two major exceptions: one, it's the only known reliable explosive compound in the world; and two, its formula is a well-guarded secret that is complex enough that for the cost of a single pistol shot you could easily afford to buy a horse.
The reason for its secrecy is in its origins. It was developed by a pirate and alchemist by the name of Hackett Rotadler, who used it to found what is essentially an independent pirate/merchant nation, Islas Carmesi. Since he was the only person who knew the formula he could sell it to all buyers and maintain neutrality because no faction could afford to be the only kid on the playground who didn't have access to the stuff. To ensure that his nation would outlive him, he divided up the formula and gave scraps of it to several different groups, so that the complete product could only be produced by them acting together. Since Islas Carmesi doesn't have an actual central government (being founded by and for pirates and all), peace is mostly kept through negotiations between the large corporations (and at every level below as befitting the natural instinct towards tribalism).
This chemical has been floating around the public market for around 600 years, and for that entire duration Islas Carmesi has been embroiled in incessant corporate espionage with different factions trying to guard their portion of the formula while stealing others to gain an advantage, either economically or politically. By the same account, there's a vested interest to keep anyone from figuring out the whole thing (since that would collapse the country's entire economic structure AND open it up to outside conquest as it could no longer hold its monopoly over the head of outsiders who might object to the nation's enthusiastic embrace of crime and villainy), so there are spies and assassins all over the world to make sure it isn't successfully reverse engineered.
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Myth Weaver