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Fantasy Metals: Difference between revisions
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* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR 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.
* [[Dungeons & Dragons]] collected lots of them with time, including [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|everything that could be borrowed from elsewhere]].
** [[Forgotten Realms]] has a handful of exotic metals of its own - and loads and loads of alloys and surface treatments, of magical and mundane origins alike, with properties from purely decorative to ''really weird''. Attempts to make custom alloys is the main branch of dwarven alchemy, of course, but elves and even halflings have some "fantasy metallurgy" traditions too.
**# [[sourcebook]]s clarify that "adamant" is a pure metal (fantasy uranium, so to speak) - very hard, easily enchanted, resistant to most damaging effects, but being almost as fragile as glass, it's used mostly for etching styluses (those are good, but this stuff costs 5x more than gold by weight and far from commonly available even at that price). "Adamantite" is its ore. "Adamantine" is an adamant-silver (mostly) weapon grade alloy - retaining other advantages of adamant including heat resistance, but also very tough. Which makes it very hard to work with - practically only the dwarves and dark elves have smiths trained in this area, but of course both these peoples gathered quite a reputation for ''not'' having an agreeable, eager to share nature.
**# Arandur - mostly holds edge well and mildly absorbs force magic, and some other nice properties, both metallurgy and magic related.
**# Dlarun - sort of fantasy aluminium that responds to heat treatment and is easier to produce, but rare.
**# Hizagkuur - exotic metal that reflects magic and naturally produces electric charge, mostly used for reinforcement of gates and suchlike.
**# Mithral (of course) - sort of fantasy titanium; looks good and absorbs magic a little.
**# Zardazik - soft ferromagnetic metal mostly useless in pure form, but selectively phasing through flesh and retaining this quality in alloys more suitable for blades, mostly used for concealed weapons.
* [[The Elder Scrolls]] series has quite a lot of fantasy metals.
** TES' Mithril is a lightweight, mid-level metal used to make armor. It's otherwise typical and fairly unremarkable.
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