Motes and Specks are both things you find on the corpses of high level monsters. They merge together to form fantastic armor and weapons! If you get:

2 motes = 1 sliver
2 slivers = 1 nugget
2 nuggets = 1 bar
2 bar = 1 ingot

Once you get the final stage, you can then make a weapon out of the mote or armor out of the speck.

Asheron's Call walkthrough