Fantasy Metals: Difference between revisions
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The most often-encountered types of fantasy metal are:
* '''[[Mithril]]''' (variously spelled mithral, mythral or mythril): a lightweight, very strong, silvery metal, similar to the real-world metal titanium. The name is [[Con Lang|Sindarin]] for "silvery glitter". Appeared in [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings]] as an Infinity Plus One Metal, but in later examples it's a mid-level miracle metal only, above steel but below adamantium.
* '''[[Orichalcum]]''' (variously spelled orichalcon, orihalcon or orichalc): a metal first appeared in Plato's version of the Atlantis myth. The name means "mountain copper" in Greek, and it, indeed, often appears the color of copper or bronze. Orihalcum's properties vary heavily from source to source: sometimes its schtick is strength, sometimes it's high value, sometimes it's magic resistance, sometimes it's [[GURPS|room-temperature superconductivity]].
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* [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s Arda has, beyond mithril, a jet-black metal called galvorn. Galvorn, even stronger than mithril, is invented by Eol the Dark Elf and the secret of its making was lost when he and his son Maeglin, who also had the know-how, died.
** ''The Book of Lost Tales'', Tolkien's very early draft for ''[[Silmarillion]]'', also gives us ''tilkal'', an Infinity Plus One Metal that can only be made by Aule, the god of blacksmiths. Its name is an acronym of [[Con Lang|Quenya]] names for iron, copper, silver, gold, tin and lead, the six naturally occurring metals known to the Elves, used as its ingredients.
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