Materials & Metals¶
Contested
Named in the open question Witchcraft's place; Mithis metals.
"Steel is seen as a status symbol and a steel long sword is almost guaranteed to indicate nobility." — Sancturi Age Metals
The metals, stone and clay of Terrun as goods: what they are worth, where they are mined, who can work them, and what they are used for. The magical nature of the Mithis metals (their saturation, their attunement, their origin in the shards of the Worldstone) is on Mithis and the Magic pages for Argentium, Aurumite, Adamantium and the other Mithis metals and gemstones. This page follows them only as far as the forge and the market.
The Sancturi Age metal economy¶
In the Fifth Age "the corruption of Mithis has had a wide ranging effect on materials and their use" (S320):
| Metal | Use and value |
|---|---|
| Silver and Truesilver | "Silver is very rare and requires an expensive depletion process in order to become usable." Depleted silver, Truesilver, is used "in weapons against various creatures and monsters that are otherwise immune to physical attacks". An ounce is worth about 200 ounces of gold. |
| Copper and bronze | Copper and tin "remain very minable in open pit style mines"; bronze has "all but replaced copper and silver currency", and "most armor and weapons are made from bronze." |
| Iron and steel | "Iron has become quite rare and expensive. 1 oz of iron is worth its weight in gold", which makes steel rare: "only the rich can afford steel weaponry and armor." |
| Gold and gems | Still valuable, "especially in the Imperium", but less wanted in the kingdoms, where bronze is the more useful metal to trade. |
The coins struck from these metals are on Currency & Trade.
Truesilver¶
The name Truesilver is used for two things. In the Sancturi Age material it is silver made usable by depletion, sold in 5 oz bars worth about 1,000 gold for "very large transactions" (S320). In the Earlier Ages material it is a name for Argentium itself ("Argentium / Truesilver / Mithril"), and more narrowly for Argentium Silver, a jewellery alloy of silver, argentium and other precious metals that "has more shine than polished silver, often has a passive pale blue glow" and must be at least a quarter argentium to be "easily identified as Truesilver" (S419, S416). The sources do not say whether the Fifth Age's depleted silver is the same metal.
The Mithis metals as goods¶
The Mithis metals are worth many times their weight in ordinary metal, and "the rarity of these metals often vastly inflates demand and prices" (S418). An Earlier Ages table prices them by the ounce against iron:
| Metal | Market value per oz (iron = 1) |
|---|---|
| Iron | 1 |
| Steel | 2 |
| Carbon steel | 2.5 |
| Titanium | 80 |
| Cuprium | 420 |
| Argentium | 620 |
| Ferracite | 960 |
| Koboltar | 1,152 |
| Zucarium | 1,662 |
| Eruminium | 1,720 |
| Aurumite | 1,780 |
| Nicktaranite | 3,584 |
| Adamantium | 3,920 |
| Kalamite | 9,720 |
Ingots "are often sold in 20 (1.25lbs)oz, 80 oz (5lbs), or 320 oz (20lbs) denominations", and a typical sword weighs 2.5 pounds, forty ounces (S418). The newer Mithis article spells two of the names Eruminum and Ferrosite (S419). Names vary by who is selling: Adamantium "is the name used by the dwarves", Titansteel "has been popularized by some scholars", and Norsil "is what is known by its creators (the Einar)" (S415).
Alloys¶
| Alloy | Also called | Made of | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentium Steel | Mithril Steel | 76% iron, 21% argentium, 2% chromium, 1% carbon | "Easily the most common Mithis metal", prized for "its low density and makes excellent lightweight armors and weapons"; smiths can balance weapons with it "in ways that are impossible with other, heavier metals" (S419, S416). |
| Aurumite Steel | Aurumitic Steel, Aquitanian Steel | 81% iron, 18% aurumite, 1% carbon | "Some smiths have asserted that Aurumite Steel makes the finest melee weapons", for swords, warhammers and axes; very good armour, "though slightly heavier than a Steel counterpart" (S419, S417). |
| Blood Gold | Aurumite Gold | Gold, aurumite and other precious metals; a quarter aurumite or more | Jewellery, with "more shine than polished gold" and a "passive reddish glow" (S419, S417). |
| Argentium Silver | Truesilver | Silver, argentium and other precious metals | Jewellery (S419, S416). |
Aurumite itself is also called Blood Gold and Malderil; S419 names its steel Aurumitic Steel where S417 has Aurumite Steel. The name Aquitanian Steel ties it to the Aquitanians, near whose ancient city of Ptolemaris lies one of the two known aurumite mines (S417).
Smelting and forging¶
Working the Mithis metals is a rare craft. "Few smiths have mastered the complexities of smelting Mithius-based ores, not to mention have a smelter that can produce the required temperatures," and "many smiths discard trace amounts of Mithus found while smelting Iron as a waste impurity" (S372). The danger is the metal's stored energy: "as Mithis metals are heated, most begin rapidly releasing their stored up energy", which must be "quickly channeled away from the forge and dispersed or a Mithis explosion could result in the destruction of the forge and anyone nearby" (S419).
Bleeding¶
The answer is bleeding. "Generally, most Mithis forging requires a Bleeding phase where the item is heated to near melting and all built up Mithis energy is siphoned away. When drained, the smith has perhaps 30 minutes to work with the object before it needs to be returned to the Bleeding phase" (S419). Smelters coat the crucible in a conductive clay that absorbs the energy and strip it off at every fifty degrees of heat, keeping the spent clay apart "so that the Mithis Energy they have absorbed can slowly dissipate safely" (S417). Argentium sheds its excess energy into an oxide skin that is washed off in acid, which doubles the forging time (S416). Smelting aurumite takes a week, about five days of it continuous, and "any delay or pause will require a restart (or may lead to disaster)" (S417). The checks and procedures are Mechanics material (Mithis Metals Table).
Forges¶
Most Mithis ores need heat that ordinary fires cannot reach. The Compendium says aurumite, adamantium and kalmite need "either magical fire or volcanic forges", while argentium, "the easiest Mithius-infused metal to smelt", still needs a forge that can be hard to find (S372). The newer article ranks the forges by fuel: the wood-fired primitive forge, the wizard's forge, the magma forge, the coal or charcoal forge, the abyssal forge, the magnesium-fired light forge, the elemental forge and the dragon forge, the last fired with dragon oil (S419). A Mithis anvil is "recommended for continuous use", since forging Mithis steel on a steel anvil "will quickly ruin it" (S416, S417).
The smiths of Dru'Bazan were famous for it: "numerous smiths capable of smelting the most complex Mithius ores" (S372). In the Sancturi Imperium the opposite is done with Mithis: the clergy melt Mithis objects down "into a single Mithis Obelisk carved with many Clostroc Runes", the Vigils that stand in Sancturi public places (S146).
Mines and deposits¶
| Place | What is mined | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Mountains | "Very rich in Iron", several deposits of ferrium, two of argentium and one of adamantium, some silver, "very little gold or platinum" | S372 |
| Turramon, eastern Rhovun | Gold, silver, iron and mithus | S372 |
| Bloodfire Chasm | Iron, gold and blood gold for Pherox, until the mines were lost to the Arachne | S372 |
| Thessoli Mine, Mount Gartholn, near Ptolemaris | Aurumite ore; status unknown since the area was buried in the Dragon Wastes | S417 |
| Pits of Turin, at Thar'koresk | Aurumite ore, at the ancestral hold of the Bryn'Grong Clan, the Golden Anvils; "overrun with demons and sealed" | S417 |
| Alghert | "Several uncorrupted dwarven iron mines" | S319 |
| Wugrum | Iron and coal, "making it a very rare source of steel" | S319 |
| Gath'gorim | Bronze, copper and tin | S319 |
Regional metals¶
Gorim Bronze is the bronze of Gath'gorim, a valley of dwarves and humans ruled by the Djarn'surk (Blackbronze) Clan, "well known crafters and miners": "Their bronze is easily identified and known as Gorim Bronze" (S319).
Tenebrian Bronze is the bronze of the Tenebrians of the underdark. It is recorded once, as the "strange-looking bronze locks and hinges" on the new wooden doors of a lair they held near Proturas (S064).
Gap
Glassteel, named among the materials of the archive, is described in no source, and nothing more is said of Tenebrian Bronze or Gorim Bronze than their names and makers.
Stone and clay¶
Spillwater in Proturas sits "on top of several entrances to old dwarven quarries used to cut Basalt, Granite and Andesite" (S103). There is a great deal of rhyolite there too, but it is thrown away: "a fine-grained and glassy igneous rock that is not commonly used as a building material because of its low strength and poor durability." Large clay deposits are mined in the neighbouring Warrens, where cracks in the cavern walls filled with sediment "back when this whole cave was flooded (before the dwarves emptied it)", and the new guild of the White Hand is thought to be named for the white clay. Potters are the commonest craftsmen of Spillwater, and "Spillwater Pottery is universally recognized across the area as 'generic' pottery."
For important buildings the Danari prefer "materials that support detail and refinement. Marble, Stone, Granite, Polished Wood" (S372), while the Aesean use rough-cut stone and think fine work pointless.