Friday, April 15, 2011

M is for Magical Materials

Numbered among the precious materials are several whose value far exceeds that of gold, silver, or platinum. These rare materials are coveted for their usefulness in the creation and maintenance of spells and magical effects. In the days when travel between worlds was more commonplace, many of these materials too were more common. Now, though, they are among the most prized and sought after in the cosmos.
  • Adamant: A dull metal with the hardness of diamond, adamant is strangely easy to work and makes superb armor.
  • Azoth: This silvery-black metal is a liquid in all but the coldest temperatures where, paradoxically, it becomes the gas known as ether (or quintessence), which suffuses the empty space between the worlds. Azoth cannot be worked like other metals; instead it is used as a tempering agent for other materials, including, it is said, Man himself.
  • Moonsilver: As its name suggests, moonsilver is found only on the Moon. A very soft metal, it is used primarily in the crafting of magical protection devices, such as rings and amulets.
  • Orichalcum: Looking like bronze, orichalcum can be found on many worlds, including, it is said, Kythirea. It is difficult to work but stores magical energy quite well, making it an ideal arcane battery. The Ancients supposedly powered their wondrous devices with orichalcum.
  • Sungold: Also called truegold, sungold is occasionally found inside meteorites that fall to earth. It is powerfully aligned with Law and, despite its similarity to gold, is in fact a very hard metal, useful in the crafting of weapons against Chaos.
The list above is far from exhaustive, but, in the years since the fall of Thule and the cult of Turms Termax, knowledge of other magical materials has largely been lost, but there is some hope that, with the opening of Dwimmermount, some of that lost knowledge might be reclaimed.

11 comments:

  1. Super cool. Do more of this please.

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  2. Interesting, and in general its been good in this whole alpahbet thing to get the Dwimmermount world in sort of encyclopedic format.

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  3. Very interesting.

    I see 5 metals. Is that just because that's what came to mind, or does it reflect some truth about magic in Dwimmermount?

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  4. Richard,

    More the former, though I have established there are five elements in the setting (the classical four + quintessence), so maybe there is a connection I just haven't realized yet :)

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  5. Does mithril or an anlagous 'light but tough silvery' metal exist in Dwimmermount?

    Also, have you seen this periodic table?:
    http://www.fictionalmaterials.com/

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  6. Does mithril or an anlagous 'light but tough silvery' metal exist in Dwimmermount?

    Not so far as the player characters have discovered yet, but I'd be amazed if I didn't eventually introduce something like it.

    Also, have you seen this periodic table?:

    I'd not seen that before. Thanks for the link.

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  7. "Sun Gold" = very nice. The idea of a Sun-Gold Sword against Demons carries some great imagery.

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  8. From a purely metallurgical sense, "hardness of diamond" and "easy to work" are usually directly opposed to each other. Go magic!
    (Also nicely done to work around the typical "I'll have this brigantine scale pounded out for ye in another 6 months... then only 298 more to go." effect adamantium has in certain systems...)

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  9. This reminds me that more of the OSR should mine material from Exalted. The rules are rococo, but the themes, creatures, and especially naming conventions are a gold mine.

    Maybe I should do a series of posts on cool bits of Creation.

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  10. So is there Azoth gas only between worlds (ie. planets?) or is there a layer of Azoth liquid covering the stars?

    Doesn't gravity affect it or does it reside in some other dimension?

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  11. So is there Azoth gas only between worlds (ie. planets?) or is there a layer of Azoth liquid covering the stars?

    No one's every been to the stars, so the answer to that question is unknown.

    Doesn't gravity affect it or does it reside in some other dimension?

    I've honestly never given it much thought, but my gut reaction is that gravity doesn't function according to Newtonian principles in the Dwimmermount setting, so its effects, if any, on azoth would not be the expected ones.

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