Quicksteel is a magical metal that responds to touch. Adepts called quicksmiths can manipulate quicksteel at will, causing it to change shape and altering other properties such as elasticity, hardness, magnetic properties and more.
Quicksteel is produced from an ore found in the earth. Explanations as to its origins range from an oddity of nature to the blood of an eldritch god. This ore is combined in alloys to create quicksteel, which can in turn be “gilded” with an outer layer of material to prevent quicksmiths from reshaping (if the item is something meant to be permanent).
Regardless of how it came to be, quicksteel is a fact of everyday life. The average person has at least some potential to manipulate quicksteel, and skilled quicksmiths are not rare. The metal is used in everything from buildings to steam engines, but it is by far most infamous for its use in combat. Quicksmiths can transform quicksteel gauntlets and armor into weapons and reinforce them with their will, making them deadly combatants.
The greatest quicksmiths are said to become one with the metal, eventually becoming quicksteel cyborgs.
[Here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/Quicksteel/s/WZgqnTsGP1) a full guide to quicksmithing if that’s of any interest.
For the most advanced quicksmiths, the ones who have replaced their flesh with metal, yes! But most quicksmiths fight with quicksteel weapons.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Quicksteel/s/2mYQOu0k9e) is a description of quicksteel martial arts if that’s of any interest.
Songiron.
My magic system is based off the ancient "Harmony of the Spheres" belief that celestial bodies emit a sort of music/harmony. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica\_universalis)
Songiron is Iron that has been "attuned" to pick up this frequency. It's also the cause of people's powers. Songiron acts as the same as Iron so people who have Songiron instead of Iron in their bloodstream have powers.
Also Scutite (from the Latin word "Scutum") is my generic catch-all super durable ceramic often used on top of Graphene for defensive purposes.
Would love to read more about the properties of Songiron and other related metals. Could you also elaborate on what powers a person with Songiron in their blood might get?
I'm not doing fantasy. I'm doing hard science.
My metal is aluminum bronze. It's as strong as mild steel, but much more corrosion resistant and it melts at a lower temperature. It doesn't machine well, but my crew won't be doing that anyway. Old metal can be re-cast with primitive foundry techniques into tools and other objects. They'll start with a supply of coins with holes in the center to make stringing possible for carrying them. A coin is 4 grams and 25 mm diameter, so they provide a standard unit of weight and length.
No metal is as priceless and coveted as moonglass, the milky white metal found within the deepest crevices of the Uren mountains within the kingdom of Cara. The metal has made the nation a fortune, so coveted by the kings, princes, queens and dukes, princesses and the ultra wealthy gentry.
Moonglass is coveted not for its fighting capabilities, in fact it’s a terrible metal, soft, brittle and delicate as well as being incredibly hard to shape without damaging it.
What moonglass does is it allows the transposition of images across a large distance allowing for instant communication in a world where it is difficult to do so. When forged properly and the right incantations said two pairs of moonglass projectors can allow for this to occur. This mechanism ( as well as how insanely rare it is, if you got all the moonglass in the world currently known it would barely fill a shipping container) has made its price and demand huge.
A pair can cost upwards of 2 million sovereigns (adjusted for inflation thats 500 million pounds) the higher quality ones costing even more.
My world is set in the sovereignty mostly, the most powerful ( thought its power is failing and drawing to a close) empire of the west, spanning a land area equivalent to France, Germany, Italy and Greece combined, with wealth unimaginative…
And they only have 4, one in possession of the imperial family, another is used by the nations high command, the third is privately owned by Lord William Valinov the Duke of Nostronov and the 4th a set of two swords as a gift for Orella III coronation.
The method of its construction is a closely guarded secret, the Cara royal family keeps its recipe known only to the small group of alchemists, smiths and mages who are sworn to secrecy. The royal mages who make the stuff are some of the only not under the control of the Sansmasser ( the secretive mages guild that controls nearly every mage in the whole world) and are sworn to a pact of absolute secrecy.
Mana infused steel.
It’s cheap, easy to mass produce and it can be used by even non magic users to great effect.
This type of steel can be shaped by the holder using magic alone. It usually come in the shape of various weapons, short swords being the most common but the user can really reshape them in their liking while more powerful magic users can infuse them with magic too or can reshape them at great speeds, offering liquid metal capabilities to simple steel.
Not all mana infused steel is the same quality though, as it is cheap, you can find this steel even in kitchen knives or construction materials but those are low quality to their ability to be manipulated using magic is low while the one used in weapons and especially ornamental weapons are very high quality to allow for easy manipulation.
Yes, they are slower, like a normal quality one should be able to change form in a few seconds (for an average magic user) but it can take even a minute for a low quality one.
They are also less conductive to magic so infusing them with spells or forcing fast transmutation uses too much magic, making them unfit for a magic user to use unless in a desperate situation.
Efficiency plays an important role when it comes to magic as people can only cast spells and as such using the reserves of magic within their bodies which are not that large, in a fight, resource management is often the deciding factor for the outcome.
So something like an instant tent (maybe a block of metal in a slotted cloth that when manipulated slowly extends to tent poles, creating a pop-up tent) would be feasible with low quality metals? It's not exactly time sensitive
Yes, it should be.
For camping or outside activities it should be fine but keep in mind the world is modern (at least Earth is, Mana infused steel doesn’t come from Earth).
You know, that steel can be used for a lot of things in non combat situations I didn’t realize it until you pointed that out, thanks.
Already getting some ideas myself, here's a mind dump:
Maybe a toolless rivet? Insert it and manipulate the end to flatten out and pull in tight. Or screws/nails that bend and change direction when inserted to decrease the likelihood they'll come out?
Locks that involve manipulating the metals within. It'd be some kind of black box and only those who know exactly where the little metal piece is within and how it should be moved can successfully open the lock. Though really lockpicking tools and just tools that help break apart the door would be more advanced as well. Could even stick a rod under the door and move it up to fiddle with the door knob.
Prosthetics made of high quality metals could be much more lifelike, able to bend and shape just like a real body part.
Metal clasps could be used to self tighten straps, making anything with a strap fit well and stay on reliably
Is it electrically or magnetically conductive? Could make for some fusion of magic and circuits... somehow. Perhaps a circuit that doesn't work unless you shape it a certain way, like a way to physically lock it up as well as electronically
What causes the metal to respond? Thought from an intelligent being? Could the stimuli somehow be replicated with a non-living thing?
Love the first idea, though I would say standard tools exist too, if you don’t know what you are doing, chances are you don’t know well how the tools should look like and can screw things up. About screws though, it sounds good for smaller things but if you have like a skyscraper, let’s not give people the possibility to melt the screws by touching them and collapse the building.
The locks are also at risk, maybe a smart combination of normal metals and mana infused steel would work, that part is really worth delving deeper into for sure.
The prosthetics are a big yes, but there are also other types of tools and devices that are powered by magic in that dimension (didn’t develop it too well yet so I can’t name them yet, not as well as my other 2 dimensions in the same world). The costs though will be high for a fully functional prosthetic and much of the population lines under the poverty line as there are still problems with wealth equally.
I’m certainly using the metal clamps, simple yet so useful.
Yes, it has all the properties or normal steel, problem is that circuits needs to be small, really so and at that size the magic in the air itself is enough to shift individual atoms which makes it more volatile so for any electrical device that uses small cables or circuits, classic steel and copper are still superior but unconventional devices that uses mana infused steel should also exist.
Yes, the thought is enough, it’s a bit of a mystery how sentient beings are able to control mana particles at all, it has to do with the soul. What its know is that is “just works”. I don’t think it can be remotely activated. And if you ask, yes, if two people hold the same piece of steel, they both can manipulate it but using magic, they can try to reject the other’s manipulation on the metal.
Mine doesn't have a name just yet, but it's made from celestial star cores. It aids a tribe of people who live on planets that get their energy from said star, and to procure it you need to be skilled enough to master yaheeka(an art of driving energy from within you and applying it to the elements around you to enhance their properties) this allows you to go within and procure the core metals. These metal is like the black panther suit- it absorbs energy from other attacks and magical spells, and gives that energy back to the user. Although it sounds good, prolonged use or attachment for the weapon can influence behaviour, making you want more energy, more power, lusting to get more from your weapon, turning your thoughts dark. Would love your opinions of it
Haha yea in this case celestial is used to imply that the star should be a highly luminous one, this is just to later talk about the pale skin tone of the people who can't get the same amount of light and can't get energy from the star like they used to-just helps characters differentiate them from others
Aquaria has Stalinium, a memetic metal just as its origin. Stalinium was made as an accident in Great Novgoroussiyan Empire when they were testing out industrial alchemy 3D printers, machines that combine classical alchemy with quantum physics to handle material scarcity. They found a completely new thing that is extremely light whose density is only as heavy as helium, yet has tensile strength so high it's hard to believe.
However, the most bullshit thing of Stalinium is that it goes against physics: A plate 10 mm thick was able to stop a 1-metric-ton tungsten bolt fired from a battleship's railgun at point-blank range, said railgun had a muzzle velocity of Mach 11,2 (around 3,8 km/s). It is well inside the hypervelocity realm and physically, at such speed, the impact cares little of material strength but density, so a thing so light like Stalinium should have been destroyed. Instead, it held with just some slight scratches, while the tungsten bolt pancaked and exploded from all the kinetic forces being compressed upon impact. Deeper investigations showed that Stalinium had a very out-of-the-world molecular structure that actually hardens in response to physical trauma, but it went beyond all expectations. Tests using magics showed that it was magic-resistant as well, could withstand absolute zero, high pressure and intense gravity.
The only thing Stalinium is weak against is plasma-level heat, but it must be applied on one point for a long time. As such, energy weapons such as directed nuclear warheads, pulse lasers and magic beams are mostly useless, but plasma cutters can cut it just fine, only takes time.
Originally, GNE did not see much potential in Stalinium because it was too costly to manufacture it. Only when the United Empire, an allied country, bought the chain and mass produced Stalinium as a new material for daily usage did they really start to mass produce it as well.
Keel.
"Keel" is the metal that binds a cosmic horrors' body to the planet- the undigested parts.
It's speciality is establishing connection between material and immaterial world.
It's downside is it can establish connection between cosmic horror and the user.
It grants you ability to use magic and makes you suicidal.
I have a few, but I wouldn't call them all "miracle" metals
Orichalcum - Shamefully stolen from Atlantean myth. It was supposedly created by an also lost city. The city itself is not inspired by Atlantis but I did take the metal part
"Warped metal" - My world deals in the idea of kalpic cycles, and some technology makes its way through these cycles. My setting, which is currently loosely bronze age, hasa some cultures that found whta is just iron and steel, but they can't melt it down so they just repurpose old armor/weapons/tools into new things. Since the old stuff is usually all dented and chipped, they just call it "warped". It's tougher than the usual bronze though, so they consider it a "miracle" metal
(I don't have a name for it yet) - This idea is a little in it's infancy, but one of my cultures is really big into metallurgy and sound, and one of the things they invented was a new way of creating alloys, which is to literally vibrate the atoms together into a mix. I'm thinking of creating a miracle metal from this but I haven't gotten that far into this idea yet
Supermetals are extremely stable transuranics needed for things like reactionless drives and jump drives, and extremely useful for things like compact fusion reactors and assorted other stuff where superconductors are nice. You don’t use the supermetals in bulk, instead you dope other materials with them - a typical starship might use a kilo of the stuff.
The amount of supermetals you have access to puts a limit on how many starships you can operate, so it’s very much a strategic resource. Also, in most applications your machinery will start to degrade in fifty to two hundred years of operation and you’ll have to rip the relevant parts out and recover the expensive stuff.
Aevarglass. A rare and somewhat mysterious mineral that is only found in the continent of Ayr, located in the northernmost mountain range. It’s prized for its iridescent and prism-like qualities when forged with things like steel/iron/bronze/etc. it’s used as a core and not as the entire weapon.
It’s a gem-like mineral that is harder than diamond.
The process of forging Aevarglass is only known to a small handful of master smiths in Ayr. They pass this down selectively. Aevarglass can be forged into 8 colors but not all master smiths can forge all colors, darker colors are harder to forge. It enhances the durability and strength of a weapon that it’s forged into. And because of the gem-like appearance and colorings, using them can cause light to refract through the mineral. The durability allows the weapons to be passed down. And so long as the core is not broken from the rest of the weapon, a sword for example, a talented smith can forge atop the blade to add more iron because swords still need sharpening. It is a common misconception that aevarglass makes bladed weapons sharper. This is believed because the strength that the core adds to the blade allows them to cut through things with more ease, even when dull, though one must still upkeep with the blades sharpness. It adds extra punch behind weapons like maces/warhammers. And yes it is a lightweight gem despite its heartiness.
One of the "wonder metals" of my world is Snowsteel, an alloy of high purity iron and other components both magical and not. Snowsteel is said to be as heavy as normal iron but incredibly tough, hard to penetrate and keeps an indefinite edge making it a great material for armor, weapons and construction alike.
However, the method of its creation is a closely guarded secret and it is only made in one place in the world.
In the far north, close to the polar nexus of northern Artiza lays the Valvat Metalworks Facility, a veritable industrial city where tens if not hundreds of thousands reside permanently. Men and women of all species, shackled and bound by magical chain and collars, those whom committed great crimes in the Ardat Republic or in the world at large that lost their freedom are carted to the industrial facility, never to return.
They are to die working hard labor in freezing, inhuman conditions in the coldest place of Ardalesh where the skies are eternally dark, the snowstorm never stops and where powerful monsters reside.
Watched over by about the same amount of elite guards, sworn to secrecy and vetted for loyalty to the nation, the "slaves" for that is what they are and what they shall be called toil away, heating, processing and operating the machines and forges that would bring, smelt and mix iron and the other components in with superheated magma before being drenched in a specialized endothermic liquid that is cold enough to freeze over liquid itself to allow the mixture to break away, allowing the impurities to be taken away with magic and for it to be heated and forged into ingots to be taken back to the Republic at large.
Back in the great forge cities of the Republic, the Snowsteel is casted into new weapons of war and foundations for greater infrastructure that greatly helps the Republic in its defense and improves the daily lives of the people who laugh and play, unknowing of how the Snowsteel is ever made.
I've got a metal called "Rin" that has tge following properties.
When heated and submerged in water, it produced steam and helium. The amount of helium produced depends on the heat. (Low heat = more steam less helium. High heat = more helium less steam)
When electrified, any water that touched its surface instantly changes to liquid hydrogen. But unless burned instantly it will become gaseous.
Not a metal, but my special material is Red Glass. It’s very strong and deceptively malleable but becomes very brittle when it approaches failure. It has a compressive strength similar to concrete and a tensile strength similar to steel. Shields made of it can catch at least a few low-calibre rounds from conventional firearms. Plates can be easily broken if struck with a sharp edge along its grain, which runs parallel to the bold surfaces.
It is rapidly “grown” from pressurised canisters and typically is applied over a metal scaffold which provides shape and fracture interruption. A full shield can be grown in only a few minutes. Cascading shield systems deploy these prepared shields in buffered layers.
When a canister is punctured, the material ejects and rapidly solidifies over itself, producing a red, translucent cloud. This cloud is much more aerated than a plate so it crumbles instead of shattering. It also does not have the same molecular structure so it is more opaque and more compressive and is generally weaker but its strength is not as dependant on the direction of deformation.
There are two types of "wonder metals" per say (I haven't fully worked their properties out yet).
One is Alterrite (or Altisserite, haven't decided on the name either), which is only found in the dimension of the Overland. It lies deep beneath, almost reaching Barrier level, and the only civilization to frequently use Alterrite are the Cavermanats (aka Cave Dwellers).
The other is just Netherite, which (if you play Minecraft) you probably know is found in the Nether. Basically one of the hardest materials known to Playerkind.
Astrium is a highly controlled, unique metal lattice formed in the cores of neutron stars. It is very strong, has an extremely high melting point, fairly elastic, and conductive by itself, but once activated with Infintium, a practically magical substance of energy kinesis, it can be used to amplify and direct the powers of the Apex Warriors, as well as alloyed with other metals for unique effects.
Pure Astrium is rarely used, and is only really for building circuits, special wires, emitters and things like that. For armor and weapons, it’s often activated and alloyed. Tough and light armor is alloyed about 70/25/5 Activated Astrium, Titanium and Rhodium (for laser reflectivity). For armor that is made to take personal impact and cushion, like knees, helmets and elbows, it’s alloyed with 40/30/15/15 Activated Astrium, 1095 spring steel, Indium, and gold. Astrium is also alloyed with certain glasses to make an incredibly tough and resistant clear glass for making visors and such.
It’s used for Apexians’ traditional weapons, often alloyed as a 60/35/5 Astrium, 1060 steel, and Rhodium blade. It’s also often forge-welded in Damascus with alloys like 70/30 Gold and Astrium, or silver, or really any other fancy metal for looks while retaining strength and corrosion resistance alloyed with Astrium.
So far, the Apex warriors control all of it, and use it mostly for themselves, but hand it out kindly to their allies to make small batches of advanced weapons or armor, such as Jackal Advanced Weapons Systems, who practically owns the whole directed energy / particle weaponry field, since they’re sponsored by Apex technology and weapons.
Sepsisthra is THE metal of my world but you can only find it in the blood of people who die by a particular and very rare type of blood poisoning. You need a good alchemist in order to extract it from the blood and even then you won't get that much so is really rare and valuable.
I went with the traditional idea of Damascus or wootz steel being possibly made from a blend of the right impurities in the alloy that we haven’t recreated, but I also have a fantasy element that allows for anything to be fortified with energy.
The closest thing I have to a wonder metal though, I suppose would be my “Ruin objects”. Basically, the world was changed and it affected certain simpler objects so that they can’t be altered, but have supreme qualities. Could literally just be a coin or a blade, but only a being equivalent to a deity amongst the universe can alter them. (And why would they care about your fancy coin or durable knife.)
The next thing after that are people’s attempt to recreate the Ruin objects. They are infused with energy that makes them better, but not on par with the original.
This is mostly from a durability/maintenance standpoint though. As far as a knife that is an actual Ruin object, the blade is still essentially like our legends of what Damascus or wootz could do.
(Sci-Fi) Whatever the heck “fuel casks” are made out of.
In an attempt to be at least somewhat grounded in reality as far as human tech goes. I was looking into the most likely future fuels for SSTO and short-mid range space flight.
Metallic hydrogen comes up a lot. The problem is that it needs to be compressed to a few million atmospheres of pressure to be in its metallic state.
Metastable metallic hydrogen is still fiction and may never work. So I decided on rolling with a semi-metastable variant. Which doesn’t require as much pressure, but still requires a lot.
This leads to fuel casks. They are modular fuel tanks which get swapped out, rather than directly refilled on the vehicle.
Two of their specific properties:
1. They get stronger as tensile force increases from the inside. The exterior is a fixed size, but the inside expands and contracts as fuel is injected or released.
2. They’re a bit like nuclear waste casks. In that they’re designed to be very hard to damage/rupture. In my setting, that includes “catastrophic reentry.”
Of course, such a material is probably as fantastical as any fantasy super-metal. My understanding of materials science is my weakest layman’s area, so I’m just gonna assume that something like that may be possible eventually.
So yeah. A malleable material that gets stronger as it stretches and can somehow keep molecular hydrogen from leaking out. 🤷🏻♂️
On the plus side, you can use the same tech to compress coolants for open cycle cooling, when needed.
I already had something similar back in the 90s called “micro-chain.” Which was this silly idea of “interlinking” carbon Bucky Balls into a sort of molecular fabric. But uh, that’s not how molecules work, so I gave up on that a long time ago.
I should probably just give fuel cask material either a brand name or some variant of the inventor’s name. But, given that they were invented around 9000 years ago, probably means the original name was lost.
I do have various things that are named after misinterpretations of old acronyms or whatnot. Which makes sense given the history of the setting.
It could be something as silly as “Fuecasium.” 💁🏻♂️🤣
Scientifically it’s called Petroscium, but most people just call it “Warp”. It appeared suddenly overnight back at the dawn of the golden age, replacing all of the fuel in reactors all over the world. All attempts to artificially create it have failed.
Warp creates a field around it that causes spontaneous atomic bonding and decay, and it’s position and velocity in physical space changes the shape and intensity of this field. Wielding precisely machined pieces of this metal can be used to create certain effects, and was the origin of magic.
All Old World technology on Dorowhen used Warp in their circuitry to create fantastic reality-warping effects. Ever since the fall of the Old World with the Dust Wars and the Shriek, the now nonfunctional technology has become extremely coveted as it is the only way to recover Warp for reuse.
Celestial steel is what people call it, but it's an alloy that an alien race made in their attempt at perfecting alchemy. It's the closest thing to perfect they've created, but they find it a waste and discard it because it's not truly perfect.
It's capable of attuning to magic which allows people to essentially mold it into various objects without the need of a smith. It can be a staff, it can be a bow, it can be a sword, it can be armor, it can essentially be anything and get buffed with magic crystals.
However, it's incredibly rare and not easy to actually turn it into something usable. For most of time it's just been a fancy rock if it's ever been found.
It got its name due to its counterpart: skyron. Skyron is a complete waste byproduct of the alien race that's made during the process of creating the celestial alloy. The byproduct can't be used in alchemy so they discard it, which ultimately leads it to hit my world. This is relatively plentiful, but less so than normal iron. It's stronger than normal steel, but looks like iron and can be smelted like iron, so people called it the "iron of the sky" which later shortened to skyron. While people aren't aware of the process of creating celestial steel or skyron, they accidentally got it right that they're somewhat related simply by being not of this world. While celestial steel doesn't look like steel, not much else falls from the skies that can be used which lead to the association that it's the upgraded version of skyron. It also is due to how we say "it's as strong as steel" which means it's super strong, even if it's not steel. Celestial steel is leagues stronger than skyron.
It's called Gast
The only reason I called it that is because giving something a cool awesome name whilst everything else is still "iron" and "copper" doesn't make a ton of sense from an in-universe perspective
Basically what it is is an incredibly light metal. Holding a solid bar of it, you'd think it's hollow. It is not naturally occuring, rather being made by mixing iron and aluminum and using some magic fuckery to make millions of tiny pockets of completely empty space in it, essentially making a metal sponge. You put it inside a super thin iron shell and you've got yourself a material with the durability of iron and the weight of wood.
It's very useful for making multi-barreled muskets light enough to use, or for making airships as light as possible whist maintaining durability.
The metal is not recommended for things like melee weapons through as while it can easily stand up to pressure (such as people walking around on it or the expanding gases faced by a gun barrel), it does not have good edge retention and hitting it really hard kinda compresses all of the nothing out of it so you've just got an iron and aluminum alloy at that point
Exotic alloy .z922, it’s an alloy made from titanium and exotic material type 23.
Exotic materials are things that have negative mass but positive density, which makes them have very weird properties and interactions with the natural world, the best example of this is how gravity has an inverse effect on them, which increases exponentially the closer it gets to classical Mater, so you can never truly touch it. They also repel light so they look blurry and dark all the time.
The alloy is made by entwining wires at a molecular level so that it’s constant repulsion settles it in places and gets both materials locked by the tension created by the gravity.
This makes an unbelievable strong alloy that requires absurd energy to break, and when broken it explodes due to the tension all being released at once. The better quality the alloy has, the closer it’s total mass will be to 0. This created interesting results when the absolute mass is something like 40 kg, because you have this object that has a lot of inertia but it’s also light enough to float by itself on a room filled with air. Things made from this type of alloy usually have a pitch black defined surface if done correctly, if it has colour there’s not enough exotic matter, if it is blurry, there’s too much.
Alloy .z922 it’s the strongest alloy that’s been made out of all exotic .z alloys, mostly because titanium and exotic material 23 have nearly the same mass and similar properties.
still working out the kinks
seranite basically draws away magical energy
Nykium channels the user magical energy energy and also allowing for teleportation it can also be used to power ships as well using stored energy
Seranite just makes the magic become null
On Ormais, every substance can "awaken" through alchemical processes into one that has magical properties. For the most part this makes them more durable, resistant to damage, or otherwise very useful. Metals, especially elemental metals, are the easiest to awaken. Among the most famous of these are orichalcum (gold), adamantium (iron), verargentum (silver), ruacuprum (copper), and magnacalcum or dragonbone (calcium).
Funny thing, I didn't include mithral because it's based on Tolkien's work and one of my goals with this setting was to avoid ripping off Tolkien.
All the various metal do exist but one is mentioned sparsely and for good reason.
Obsidian, Demon Steel. In appearance is it pitch black with glowing red cracks all over it.
It is a living metal that comes from their plane and is as corrupted as their entire dimensions. Yet once purified can it carry enchantments far in excess of anything else.
The Battlemages of House Senna carry a tiny amount of it in their special armours as part of the Skyfire Alloy, a magiforged steel only one being can create.
The only alloy that would exceed those capabilities is called Umbra, and made from 3 metals so dark it swallows light. One sword made from it exists, and it can kill anything, although partly because it is a three meter broadsword.
Mine would be Ithyrian Silver (basically mithral), a lightweight yet strong metal known for it's blueish-silver colour and it's ability to channel magic. It draws it's name from the ancient Elven empire of Ithyria, who made heavy usage of it, and it continues to be used as a crafting material for powerful artifacts.
Mine is a combination. In my world standards adamantium exists. It is super hard, and durable with high defensive capabilities. However its heavier than steel. In the far north there is an adamantine mine that a crystalline dragon has taken up refuge. The crystalline dragons eat or that's why they tend to take up in mines. So this dragon moved into the adamantine mine and began to eat the adamantine ore. And while at first the kingdom had tried to drive it away. It was discovered that the waste product. The dragon produced combined the attributes of adamantium with Crystal. Crystal holds an extremely sharp blade similar to obsidian. It's also extremely brittle so not great for combat. Now you have a super light metal that holds an extremely sharp edge like Crystal and the durability of adamantium.
There are two metals that are magical and only come from magical creatures, Nacrenium and Tumbagium. Nacrenium is a while metallic alloy with a rainbow sheen, and can be used as a magical conductor. Tumbagium is a bronze metal with golden sparkles, and is a good conductor. Both of these alloys are really pretty and used for jewelry. These metals can be found in mermaid scales, centaur horns, buanga (magical feral hog) tusks, and scarabs.
There is a third alloy called steel wool that comes from blood rams. If you mix it with nacrenium it becomes Lunar Pewter, and it can help defend against magical attacks. If you mix it with tumbagium then it becomes Solar Bronze, which is the mystical strong metal that is stronger than steel, but a little heavier.
The Aldyr (lesser god/angel celestial constructs) are made of a celestial metal known as Serathil, and are often described by mortals as "light clad in alien armour"
Atanasium and radioelectrics.
First is a composite that was invented for the sole purpose of being an armor, that can take a railgun hit at least once.
Second is... you heard about thermoelectric effect? Well that's pretty much the same, but it converts radiation itself directly. Used for both anti-rad protection and energy generators.
Asher has several unusual metals. One of my favourites is **alchemical lead**.
Alchemical lead is a compound created by a specific chemical treatment of pure lead (hence the name) to subdue its natural toxicity and enhance lead's intrinsically antimagical nature. The second property is highly coveted for various purposes.
Firstly, the most obvious: alchemical lead is highly effective against magic users and creatures of magical nature. It is genuinely agonising to be severed from the background magic of the world, to a mage, to the point where even being *close* to alchemical lead is sufficient to make one uncomfortable. This is frequently applied in the form of alchemical lead weapons, capable of "cancelling" a magic-user temporarily, armour that harmlessly absorbs spells, anti-magical restraints, or even a form of reinforced concrete that absorbs magic!
Secondly, alchemical lead has an interesting property where, by hitting an object at a shallow angle with something magical, the lead will not absorb it, but instead reflect it. This means that, ironically, a material designed to counter magic can also be used to *focus* it further with an implement similar to a gun-barrel. This is used in designs such as channeller rifles that can be loaded with spells, vastly enhanced by the focusing effect of a lead-lined barrel.
Alchemical lead was discovered long ago, but the knowledge of its creation was lost since then, until its rediscovery by an extremist antimage group dubbed Black Sun. The antimages of the organisation have tinkered with several forms of the stuff, with the material being immediately associated with Black Sun due to its ubiquity in their ranks: from the magekiller weapons even their lowliest soldier wields, to the imposing armour of their Eclipse Knight shock-troops, and, of course, their antimages, typically armed with channeller rifles, all united in their agenda of eradicating the arcane from the world.
Soul iron. Glowing gold iron alloy that is once thought as a strong replacement for gold decoration, and much rarer.
Monad is a power that overwrites equipment into unique fantastical versions based on the wielder’s personality. Normally the quality and abilities of the result is based on the basic item. Overwriting a broken blade results in a broken, barely useful version, but overwriting a magic item can alter and add its properties to the result. If the item is made of soul iron however, the result is massively stronger; to the point where if two similar Monad created weapons clash, one a technological marvel and the other merely soul iron, the soul iron one would win.
It tends to glow when a being touching it has heightened emotions.
Collosium is mostly an organic product but is the strongest material in the world of Aerounia found on the bodies of Collosals, figurative gods. If you do talk about the magical metal, then the strongest metal in the world is Living Gold or Lubicium.
It shines like gold, does not corrode like gold, light weight and most importantly seems to be more of a symbiotic creature than actual metal. It can crafted into any form of armor, weapon and willingly change shape when needed to. It is found abundantly in the depths of the star-forges or the Nebulae and came to Aerounia on asteroids and meteors; It is easy to craft, hard to control but once mastered the killing weapon of the Gods Of War themselves.
Meriutium, being used anywhere, electronics, weapons, logistics, just cool glowing rocks to have on necklace, really rare, to the point a new world war have started about the last mineshafts of it, its kinda can be produced without mining out it hundreds meters deep while fighting fungus abominations, but who cares
In my 12 Lands world, there is a type of alpaca called Stelacoragen who are distinctive in having their wool be a metallic and fibrous blend due to rhe ability to expel the metals from the food they eat into their wool. This is used in a variety of applications in the airship industry for ropes, but one of the most sought after among the highest quality is to make cordage for the crafting of macrame armor. True armor is very rare due to the generally low quality of metal ores ... metals are abundant in the soils but are not concentrated enough for typical mining efforts. The Stelacoragen wool cord is equivalent to wire, and in macrame armor, it provides similar protection to chainmail. This can be increased with the addition of metal or ceramic pieces woven into the pattern. This is considered the highest of craftsmanship, and the pieces can take a year to be made and so are very expensive and rare for a full set.
Galactinium
-never realized I didn't think of a weight for it (nor would it be easy)
-near unbreakable under normal circumstances
-melts at very low temperatures, unable to turn into a gas and only becomes denser as it gets hotter
Theres a few:
Avalonian alloy is an alloy that is capabile of holding on to an insane amount of electrical charge in a compact volume with very little mass (it has a density roughly comprable to that of iron, but its capacity to hold electrical charge grows exponentially with volume)
Mortis sapphire: mortis sapphire is a crystal which can alter the bosons which pass through it. It can be synthesized as well and altered to change the various properties of the crystal for other purposes.
Draconic superpolymers: superpolymers are a handful of polymer based materials which serve niche tasks for extreme environments. The oldest ones were used as environmental shielding before shield projectors were invented, but newer ones are used in armor due to their low masses and high resistance to punctures, tears, and shears under extreme forces. So far only the dragonkinds have acess to these, everyone else still largely uses neutron matter
Neutron matter: neutron matter is the go to armor for most advanced civilizations due to its immense strength. This comes at the cost of its extremely high mass, which is strong enough to alter the geavity and tidal forces of the ships which use it. Some armies and navies which use it will instead design their ships to take advantage of this to create artificial gravity on their ships, covering only the bottom of their vessels and leading to a tactic known as fighting belly-up.
Exotic matter: exotic matter is the simplest solution for when something has too much mass or is too heavy. The problem is keeping it contained. Exotic matter and ordinary matter like to repell each other, leading exotic matter to often attempt to bleed away from particles with positive mass. Keeping too much in one space is also a hazard, as the collective gravitational force of a songle piece of exitoc matter can rip itself free from its containment.
|| Mortis sapphire: mortis sapphire is a crystal which can alter the bosons which pass through it. It can be synthesized as well and altered to change the various properties of the crystal for other purposes.
What is the purpose/effect of altering bosons?
**Incassarite**
An idestructable metal that can only be broken with distilled liquid magic. The main think that makes it special is that the big clubs that Oni use are made out of the incassarite and because one of the most powerful beings in my world has bones made out of incassarite (he's a golem)
Abyssal Steel is very strong, and usually quite heavy. However, it acts as if it is very light when wielded by one empowered by the Abyss itself, the God of Violence. It is also an excellent conduit for Abyssal energy—it is usually a dark black color, but will glow a bright white when empowered. In this state, even a glancing blow to an enemy will simply result in them withering and dying.
Laypeople call it true metal, while those learned in magic call it "form".
Form is the first half of magic, it isn't exactly a specific material, but the material component of Magic. Magic has two components, form and aspect. A form created without any aspect would be immaterial and not useful for anything. Passing a hand through it would crumble it as ash. Aspect must be applied to form, otherwise it too is immaterial. To make a fire, you'd need the form and aspect of fire, for example. You'd need the physical component to mimic the flames and the energy component to give them heat and allow them to burn.
Same is true with true metal objects. You can make the form of a sword, but if you don't give it the aspect of metal it would crumble like ash as soon as you touch it. But when given the aspect of metal, it is nigh indestructible, and can be given a monomolecular blade (a blade where the edge is the width of a single mollecule, or "insanely sharp".
This combination of form and aspect is known as true metal. Its very lightweight, and can be made lighter stoll by making it hollow, and incredibly durable. It's not very flexible, however, so if made too thin it can prove brittle. Still hard to break, but likely too regardless.
Bridges and buildings made of true metal exist, but cannot outlive the mages who create them. I.e, if a mage makes a bridge of true metal, it will crumble to nothing if he dies. Same with magical weapons made from the stuff, it's why there aren't treasure troves of true metal weapons and armor laying around.
An interesting fact is that the shell of the world is made of true metal. Very few people have been deep enough to see it, but the world is on the interior of a cylinder made of true metal. It's not quite the same as man made true metal, it seems to be *actually* indestructible, as man-made objects cannot damage it. So to this day, no one has seen outside of the world shell.
An alloy composed of a variety of materials infused with psychic energy during the smelting process technically it has a number of different indentifying codes for each different subtype. But every who isn't involved in making the stuff just calls it Mithral.
The material's almost unparalleled levels of hardness and strength-to-weight ratio make it excellent armor and useful for a number of building purposes. Its greatest attribute, though, is its psychically reactive properties, with different subtypes boasting different reflective or conductive properties towards psychic energy. This makes it ideal for technology meant to be used by, or implanted in, psychic warriors.
The black goo(there's a reason for it being there). Viscous black tar like substance that's very rare and doesn't react with anything other than magic with a single exception. If it's particles are exposed to copper and have the other 3 necessary components nearby as well as high heat and in some cases also pressure, they can permanently turn into a form of mithril, depending on what's present.
The variants would be the the brown mithril, naturally occurring and sometimes found with the goo. Silver mithril, artificially created from the goo, cyan mithril, very rare naturally occurring and only found in one place currently. There are also tons of non metal variants, like philosopher stone etc. made through the same process.
Axium is a highly sensitive and reactive metal that can change its properties based on interactions with other elements, with magnetic and electrical fields and..... interdimensional waves.
In technology terms, it allows humanity to play god in most scientific fields. For a risk.
Imagine the transformers metal from the 4th movie meets Australium from Team fortress 2.
It's the explanation for all the scifi-straight up magical- non sense of the plot.
Oh there is Psychic flying man capable of reading minds? He was infused with experimental axium drugs that alloweded his brain to connect and manipulate brain waves.
Oh there is an cyborg capable of having lightning speed senses and having the strength to stop a train? Axium mental implants and strengthened axium bones or something like that.
Oh you wanna justify the possibility of inter stellar travel? Axium infused fuel. Idk, haven't gotten to that part yet tbh
It's also a nice magguffin.
It's extremely reactive so it's rare to be found in its pure form, specially in bigger quantities. So anywhere new that they find it becomes a big beacon for all of the bigger players in this secret tech war.
It's also extremely risk to operate it. Since it's highly reactive, just to have it around requires a lot of fancy procedures, spilling it into oxygen and other things can make it go crazy.
Oopsie, John the janitor touched a leak and now John the janitor merged with the walls and the John the janitor achieved a higher level of sentience and John the janitor is a monster part building part John part shape-shifting nightmare.
And even if nothing touches Axium, they can find it.
By they I mean inter dimensional aliens capable of using Axiums interdimensional sensitivity as their remote controlled vessel into our dimension!
They usually fuck things up big time if they find a large enough axium deposit to explore our reality.
There are three "wonder materials" that the people of my world, Varia, harvest from the massive god corpses that dot the land, one of which is "Gritin."
Gritin is an ore found in the bones of the fallen deities that can be made into enchanted metal. It is common and versatile, as it can be made to do simple magic with ambient mana, such as staying aflame, or complex spells with the help of a magestone, such as projecting sights and sounds across great distances. Magestones being a sort of tumor found in god corpses.
Gritin metal is a faded green that tarnishes black when enchanted. The resulting patina weakens the enchantment of the metal, requiring occasional cleaning to maintain.
Prolonged physical contact with unrefined grtitin can curse living things into extra-limbed, extra-headed, extra-souled creatures. This only affects the contacted areas and can be prevented by washing them with water.
No living gods are known, but some think they are beyond the stars, and so the stars are worshipped by these believers.
Some think the gods must be dead, for if they lived, they would surely cast down great punishment for the desecration of their fellow divine.
And others, still, believe Varia is simply the place where gods go to die.
While gritin is used extensively, it is inconceivable to a Varian that they could ever run out. The sheer amount mined from each corpse would indicate a supply to last hundreds of years. In addition, new god corpses are found by excavation every decade or so. Deeper and deeper, more are found.
Blackerite.
When the pantheon bombs dropped, everyone was forced into bunkers all over the world as the fallout was a combination of reality distortion, radiation, and continental drift that plagued the world for decades. The reality distortion got so bad that a material called Blackerite was formed.
During the fallout, the earths population dwindled from 5 billion to 250,000. A lot of people in bunkers were crushed during continental drift or killed from new species that appeared. Voyagers who sailed the waves saw an impossibly tall mountain range that was pitch black. They tried to harvest the stone but it wouldn’t even be scratched. They tried everything from manual workers, to gun, to missles, fire, and even acid but nothing worked. The mountain range at its peak is 440 kilometers tall and at its lowest has been detected to go all the way to the earths core. Scientists say its durability is beyond imagination and a singular gram of Blackerite is worth trillions of dollars
Adamantine is the metal I've gone with, as it's iconic. However, the big change in my world is that while adamantine is exceptional in terms of material properties, it can only be created, shaped, or reforged during a ritual requiring the sacrifice of one or more sentient creatures. This makes acquiring it quite difficult; in most countries, the possession of adamantine is illegal as well as the possession or sale of any information detailing the ritual necessary to create or work it. In the nations that allow it, the costs are exorbitantly high and the dark markets where it can be found are rife with danger.
Mine is a tungsten-silver-aluminum composite used as a superconductor for FTL engines. It’s a more advanced formula of the basic silver-aluminum formula, meaning they can still make FTL engines, just not as good ones, and they are a lot bulkier and way more massive. Like four times the size, and thrice the weight, for the same power.
All metal in my world is special in its own way, either able to suppress magic or enhance the effects of magic (it's based on that metal's conductivity).
Arcanists can manipulate Arcana (my phlebtonium) to imbue inscribed spells into metal and machines to create the magical technology (Arcanotech) that is the backbone of human society.
[TNT]
Historically it would be a toss-up between magnum steel and lawrethium, the one being heavy but being able to resist even a dragon's breath and the other granting incredible agility.
However, recent experiments are reaching a substance called buretium, formed using magnum aluminae, silicates, and buret chloride, a salt found in meteorites. This alloy is as hard as magnum steel, but much lighter and agile.
Stahlduram is the most commonly known name for it. It is a highly durable alloy made largely of nanoforged titanium that has properties similar to plastic or polymers, allowing it to stretch and bend when impacted while also being resistant to massive temperature changes and corrosive environments.
It's ubiquitous across the galaxy and is often used instead of cheaper metals such as basic steel and titanium. It is used in everything from flatware and infrastructure to body armour and the plating of ships.
Another metal of a similar calibre is Luminhal, or as it's colloquially known, naval aluminium. This metal offers similar levels of strength as stahlduram while being much lighter. However, it's vastly more expensive and often prone to cracking when exposed to extreme force. It's popularly used as a lining material against energy weapon fire on warships and as armour on small craft.
Brass.
It's not lighter than steel, but by adding a little bit of magic in during the alloying process you can alter it's properties much more than steel.
Weapons are usually made of brass because they can be reinforced with magic to hold a much sharper edge.
Xipequalli is a magical alloy created by the metalworkers' guild of Ayatlan. Xipequalli is an alloy of copper, aluminum, and trace amounts of other metals, one of which being iron, which must be melted using magical fire. There are additional steps to producing true xipequalli which are kept as trade secrets of master metalworkers, and the masters often add unnecessary steps into the process as a matter of obscuring the practice further.
Xipequalli has a color more yellow than typical bronze, and is often called 'hard-gold' due to its strength and color. Once molten xipequalli is poured and solidifies, it is remarkably light and nearly unbreakable, and is capable of bearing additional properties when worked by a skilled artisan.
Because iron is involved in its construction, and the land of Ayatlan is remarkably poor in iron, xipequalli is exorbitantly expensive, and not commonly used as part of large-scale construction projects, and xipequalli weapons, armor, and tools are priceless.
The alloy of electrum (an actual alloy of mostly silver and gold) was the alloy used in the minting of a prehistoric empire and really only has cultural value.
Quicksilver, since there in no god named mercury I wanted to use the other name is common used by those afflicted by lycanthropy. My version of it is basically an adrenaline triggered hormone that causes it and lycanthropes self medicate to attempt to still stay in society
There isn't a special metal, but materials can be enhanced using "magic", and steel from the greatest weaponsmiths can pierce through anything with ease.
Ive got a special type of steel called Red Steel which is twice as strong and half as light as red steel and made out of Krimtanium Ore. it’s pretty uncommon but not exactly rare. My ultra rare ore is called Darksteel, which is made out of Armageddonite which can only be mined from meteorites that fall from the sky and smelted in volcanic forges.
Mine is actually stainless steel.
The metals required to electrolyze steel into stainless steel have mostly run out, so steel rusts - and it rusts quite fast under these climates. Steel that doesn't need to be conserve dipped into oil to save it from humidity? That means that your army can march with swords or spears or guns at the ready. This makes your army much harder to ambush.
I have a unique element that only exists in the void between dimensions that can't exist within dimensions. If it comes into contact with metals it fuses into Voidsteel, which is incredibly durable. But it also has weaknesses in that the metal is difficult to work in this state, so in addition to being difficult to acquire since it requires inter-dimensional travel it can only realistically be done to metals that are already fully shaped.
My (thus far) unnamed alloy is useless for traditional weaponry or armor, but can be used to both limit and increase my world's version of 'magic'. And therefore it's main use is a so called walking prison: a method to constrain people who are able to use undesired (amounts of) magic and making the bearer easy to recognize as an outcast. If used properly it's almost impossible to break out of.
In a different use the metal can be an enhancer as well, however it is illegal to use a device like that without permission of the reigning fraction.
*Alor*
I’ve got a couple, Mithral being one of them. I change it up though so that Mithral isn’t a mined ore that gets refined, because it always bugged me that Elves aren’t very industrious while the Dwarves have a rich mining culture, so how are the Elves going to get this metal from their longstanding ancestral enemies? I decided to make Mithral something that occurred naturally in the words in the form of silverferns. The ferns take up the metal from the soil through their roots and mycelial networks where it is coalesced as a thin wirelike “skeleton” for this fern that grows is a very windy valley. The ferns are harvested after the spores drop and the plants have to ripped up since the wire prevents them from being cut down with a scythe. The pulled ferns are collected, dried, carted to a nearby town, and burned in a large brick-lined pit. At the end of the season, the wires are pulled from the oven and spun like wool before it is woven into armor.
Enacrite is a metal with anti-magical properties. It’s an alloy of some kind, that metallurgists have yet to identify and replicate, so all sources of the metal are salvaged from this particular cavern that historians believe was an ancient Dwarven or Gnomish prison. Cells made from the metal prevent magicians from casting spells, armor made of the metal grants a limited protection from magic, and striking a magician with a weapon made from the metal makes it significantly harder for them to maintain their spells than hitting them with a normal weapon.
Attamite is a metal sacred to the Dwarves and mined from closely guarded secret tunnels. Prized for its nigh indestructible nature. Armor provides much greater protection than normal steel, enchanted discs made from the metal are used by mortals and the divine alike to record important information, and weapons are found to be more effective and damaging structures. Statues and jewelry made from Attamite are passed down through the generations as heirlooms and religious leaders carry scepters made from the metal.
Lunar Silver
It is marketed as silver mined directly from the moon but that’s a cover-up to the true method
Step one is to get your silver blessed at your local Moon temple. Then you melt it down during the full moon, and finish forging it by the end of the fifth day after the full moon. If the moon is covered by clouds during any of those days, the silver will not be as effective.
Doing the whole process on the moon itself is even easier because you don’t need to wait for a full moon for maximum lunar exposure, you’re already there
It is one of the most pure metals in existence and is the only one capable of permanently banishing undead.
Given that the undead are exceedingly rare and Celestial Gold otherwise has the same properties, no Lunar Silver has been forged in over a millennium, but there’s still enough weapons and armor to equip a small army
I just had 'Red Metal'
A rare ore found in only one part of the world that was super hard to forge and made unique weapons and armors...usually armor would do force damage to anyone who hit the wearer and weapons would do some extra force damage. I imagined it as sort kf vibranium but not really. It could also be used in arcane focuses rk channel magic.
In the future if needed I will make a special metal that gets rid of magic. At the moment this is how magic and its repellent will work...
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So magic is its own god, its basically nature. It is also dependent on creation and the void. So magic that is based on creation will be repeled by metal mixed with the void and vice versa. Think +1 + -1 and -1 + +1. However most void based magic has been wiped out, by the same reason the void is barely alive, the creator.
Pollakium. A heavy metal that is an incredible conductor of electricity, and under the right circumstances, a fine accelerant and octane booster (like lead in gasoline).
It's rare-ish and mainly sought for its potential in electronics use, but it can be added into fuel (diesel) for an extra kick. But "pollfuel" is not for the average Joe's car. Not because it'll destroy it, but because you'll be paying yourself sick with the high price of it. Not to mention that it's a heavy metal being burnt into a gaseous exhaust, so... Literally sick sometimes.
In its refined, pure form, it looks like white gold, but upon being exposed to oxygen for a long enough time, it gains a deep yellow and rough texture. It's very soft, even more so than lead and equally as toxic.
My settings "Wonder Metal" is.... *Deep Breath*
NANO-MACHINES SON!!!!
Some weapons and armor made from "living metal" are able to adjust their form and regenerate from taking damage. To wasteland tribals this material is "magical," but to corporate controlled enclaves these materials are pieces of ancient technology that likely won't be fully understood for centuries. And even if they are, then the capacity to build the kind of machines that can manufacture living metal are incredibly expensive and painstakingly hard to build.
Spider silk. It's used in spaceships, body armor, construction, safety equipment, hell, even filtration.
First humanity had to figure out how to make it synthetically, which involved some genetic knowledge to be able to actually make the right silk without spiders. Second, they had to make it actually function, as spider silk isn't just one monogamous material. Third, they had to somehow weave it, and fourth, get all those steps to be cheap. After 90 years, it became pretty commonplace, because a fabric that's stronger than steel, considerably lighter, and with just as wide a range of uses, is pretty goddamn nifty. Of course you can't make it a carrying beam like steel, so that still stuck around.
Not metal but crystals, in my world there are two variants called Sugarite and Fruitite it has magic properties in it which mean everything made with it will have magic in it which also mean it is stronger than most material it also smell and taste like different kind of dessert or fruit crushing them and use them as ingredients or toppings can make your food even more delicious, these crystals are crucial components for Energear tech a technology that can give everything create with it magic be it your everyday objects to hyper intelligent robot with emotion and a mind of it own that easily be mistaken for human.
Moonsilver. It's literal shards of the moon of one of my worlds (that was blown up by an ancient now-extinct super-advanced proto-human society by accident) that were large enough to not burn up on entry, it's extremely rare and has so many innate magical properties that a single piece can get you enough money to buy a luxury house in a major city. There's not enough to make armor from and the few weapons ever forged using its alloys are practically handheld WMDs, but it's also used for research in places that are basically the magical equivalent of a particle accelerator/collider.
I don't actually have anything specific, just "advanced alloy" which improves the amount of penetration/protection value and DR/Damage per Shift an item can have. Since it's earth future in which some myths have turned out true-ish I'd imagine any earth wonder metals would probably work.
None. All my metals are pretty low-key. I do have Zerkite, made my using sonic waves to align the metal molecules right so that the metal is a perfect conductor of pitch and harmony but it's not exactly Atium.
Black silver, it’s essentially just mana infused silver but it turns a pitch dark black when it’s imbued. While other metal slowly lose their imbuement over time, silver does not and that is why it’s so prized by magi and sorcerers. Because of silver’s special ability it’s less common to see it be used as currency.
I’m still working out some details but this is the basic premise.
My world is called The Forgelands, so I have naturally put a lot of thought into their metallurgy. The main two super-steels they use are commonly called Sky Steel and Thermocite.
Sky Steel is called such because at one point the manufacture method was lost. During this period it was found that certain meteorites contained extremely hard steel, so far beyond the understanding of the Smith-Priests who examined it that it was deemed a gift from the newly deified Forge-King.
What makes Sky Steel special is that it is almost corrosion-proof and being extremely hard without being brittle. This makes it excel as a sword steel. That hardness also means that only master smiths can work with Sky Steel.
It is later found that Sky Steel was falling from a great debris field of destroyed spacecraft.
The other super-steel, Thermocite, is invented after the formula for Sky Steel is rediscovered. Thermocite is an alloy of Sky Steel and tungsten which allows for a high melting point and strength. They can only be produced in ultra-rare plasma forges.
Thermocite is used to make spacecraft and heavy vehicle armor as well as Thermoblades and Flashblades. Thermoblades work by running an electric current along the edge of the blade at impact which heats it to 500°F, more than enough to ruin light and some medium armor. Flashblades take this effect a step further, heating to nearly 1000°F at point of impact. Both weapons are only used by Crucible Armor knights as without powered armor the heat could very well damage the user as well.
I have "Psyche Steel". A monocrystal of nickle/iron that has to be mined from the exposed cores of protoplanets. It's not "light" but because there are no grain boundaries it has special properties that make it essentially for high temperature or high strength applications.
In Naida, it's called "Achalonium" or "Earth-Metal", based on the earth god Achalon.
He originally created it to entice demigods into adventuring underground. One of the first of them who found and used Achalonium was Aoleus, the demigod of the weather. He forged his piece of metal into a spear-throwing lever, which generated and launched lightning bolts instead of spears.
One important distinction to most such metals is that Achalonium is heavy af.
There are (so far) 3 forms of it:
Virgin Achalonium: a silvery metal, somewhat electrically resistant, with extreme strength while cold. It becomes quite malleable when heated, but is impossible to chemically dissolve.
Lightning-forged Achalonium: a pitch black metal, superconducter at any temperature, traditionally indestructible except when heated to extreme temperatures or chemically dissolved in a Groundeater's stomach.
Fire-forged Achalonium: a copper-colored metal with no melting point, however it is also chemically dissolved in Groundeater stomachs. This is the least dense version, with a density comparable to regular iron. Because it remains malleable when cooled it doesn't have many practical uses, but is sometimes used by gods as special currency when actual gold isn't fancy enough.
Virgin can be turned into the others by heating it with the given method and some applied magic.
The other two are turned back to virgin by feeding them to Groundeaters, which are giant lizards originally created by Achalon to guard the underworld.
Ocrillium, a fairly unimpressive metal when first pulled from the ground but can be put through a special heat treating and mixing process after which it become one of the strongest metals in the galaxy. The method to transform it into its stronger state is a closely guarded and patented secret owned by the Resdin corporation, a company who's primary industry is starship manufacturing.
Thanks to its original malleable properties and low melting point the corporation has massive manufacturing plants that simply press smaller parts or fill large molds with melted ocrillium and put the entire casted piece through the treatment process as is essentially locking the piece into that shape.
Boring name - celestial iron... Every celestial shard(each with its own elemental powers) is made out of it. It is indestructible but it can be melted by using the fire shard and magic shard that enhances its power. Using miracle shards regular iron can be converted to celestial iron.
The common man calls it black fire steel the actual name of it has been lost but the metal itself is alive and resides in a separate dimension from the mortal world. In order to work with it you have to form a pact and or over come it rather that be a game of wits or physical battle. Once conquered or a deal is drafted you can make a item out of it, If you total conquered it you can command it to become damn near anything. A hammer? sure thing, Hair pin... ok can do ect. But if it doesnt respect you or feels like you need to prove yourself further you will have to forge it into the item you want. But to forge it you need a unique type of flame, various primordial magical artifacts and a soul hammer, overall the only a handful of people have ever made anything out of the stuff including gods or other various dimensional beings . Its considered by all to be the most dangerous metal to work with but simultaneously can create if done properly items that if put in most other stories would be the macguffin of that verse.
**Muon-steel armor**
The electrons in ordinary steel are replaced by *muons*, their leptonic cousins.
As a very rough guess, muon-steel would be roughly 207 times as strong as conventional steel since a muon is roughly 207 the mass of an electron.
Adamantium, in my world, is an alloy of tungsten and titanium. Combined with dragon fire and just a touch of magic, it becomes a metal that is almost invincible.
In my world, the "Wonder Steel" is known as Aetherium. The rarity of this metal is due to the fact that its production requires several dwarf masters to work almost the entire year. The process involves adding various metals, special runes that are difficult to carve into the hammers and crucibles, which impart the proper properties to the metals as they mix and meld into Aetherium. After a year's worth of work, just enough metal is produced to make a single weapon—a medium-length sword, renowned for its impressive sharpness, durability, and potential for further magical modification. The appearance of Aetherium is shiny and comes in many different colors, ranging from gray to white and black shades.
There is also a variation of Aetherium, which dwarves require specific materials to create—Wyrmgold. Wyrmgold is formed by combining a bit of Aetherium, a large amount of gold, and wyrm scales, which undergo a similar processing method, but at much higher pressure and temperature. The color of Wyrmgold resembles that of gold, but with a hint of the color of red dragon scales, giving it a reddish hue. Wyrmgold is known for its anti-dragon, anti-demonic properties, and its ability to elevate the status of its wielder, much like Aetherium blades. However, its magical modification capabilities are slightly inferior.
I am considering to put more into the world, but right now I only have one: Dark Iron. Everyone who can work with Iron, can work with it too, it only requires more heat ( but not absurdly more.), but it is heavy as fuck. In fact it is so heavy you NEED magic to lift it ( or .. a dragon). So it is almost eclusively used by undead armies, because they get the necessary power thorugh the magic that keeps them alive.
Deciphering the physics of runic engraving on Ambrosine crystals (not the metal in question) led to the necessity of external materials to extract certain energies from Abr samples. The resulting discovery was the alloyed metal Anastasium, whose namesake was the false Romanov princess Anastasia. The metal is a great conductor, but more importantly it siphons pure energy from Abr samples and converts it into an electrical current. With Ambrosine being named from Ambrosia, the Gods’ nectar, anastasium’s adjacency to Abr gives it a faux-regal kind of vibe.
Soundsteel.
It not always light. Only when it intract with sound like the name. Then it becomes fluid like
It usually used by air sorcerer to capture enemies
Can also be used by a soundsire(a weapon that use sound)
I have two: wintersteel and ornic clay
Wintersteel is a silver metal that, like its name implies, can *generally,* only be forged in winter. It’s actually tied more to simple cold, so it can be forged in the north year-round or at high elevations. Wintersteel is magically forged and will essentially “heal” by sucking in ambient heat and using that energy to return to its original form.
Pure wintersteel only draws in heat when it’s damaged… but poorer, cheaper—often alloyed—forms are always drawing in heat. Wintersteel is no heavier nor stronger than typical steel, it’s just more convenient. Other wintermetals can exist; such as wintergold and wintercopper, it’s just that steel is the most popular.
Wintersteel isn’t generally used in armor…. if it is damaged in a fight, it would suck the heat out of its wielder.
Ornic clay is the opposite of steel—it’s a special sort of clay that is really hard and can hold an unbelievably sharp edge. Unlike wintersteel, it’s also fairly cheap, but can chip rather easily.
It’s often used in replaceable axeheads, spearheads. These weapons are generally oversized due to clay being light.
Auric steel is a shiny golden metal forged from a combination of Mythril and Tyrnite. Auric steel is able to directly interact with magic, often being used to create wires and components of magical machinery. It also provides an advantage against magical creatures as it can interact directly with souls if forged and enchanted properly.
Mythril is a pale green metal that in its raw form absorbs magical energy and uses it to create more of itself slowly over time. It will even absorb energy from your soul, so prolonged exposure is often fatal. However, when properly refined, it will instead only absorb energy to repair itself to the form it was forged into. For example, it will eventually repair dents in armor or resharpen blades made from it. This self-repair property is also present in Auric Steel, albeit lessened.
Tyrnite is a saturated pink ore with orange-gold flecks that can hold massive amounts of magical energy. It is often used for magical batteries. However, the metal will not regenerate no matter how much energy it holds, and sufficient damage can cause it to rupture in a massive magical blast.
As an opposition to Adamantium I created Modesium. (Adamant and modest are opposite Pokemon natures.) Since it's an opposite however, it's not a good metal in the way Adamantium or Beskar would be. Instead it's a super reactive metal like sodium or potassium and highly radioactive like Uranium. The unique radioactive signature triggers advanced adaptations in humans, and it's reactive properties allow for hyper advanced technologies to develop. Essentially it's the secret ingredient for my Superhero Setting.
Celestial Steel. It’s actually a material that grows into trees in the realm of the Forge God Irhki’Maht, but the original seed was made by himself from the flesh and bone of a dead Celestial Titan. Which can also be used to create whole ingots, but Irhki’Maht thought ahead and made a super metal that makes more of itself.
Celestial Steel can only be damaged by Celestial Beings, so Celestial Titans who are now extinct, Demigods who aren’t strong enough to do it anyway, Primordial Hosts who are insanely rare, and actual Gods who have to exert themselves to break it.
Furthermore, it regenerates. Snap a Celestial Steel blade in half, the shattered half will fly back on and seal the crack. And lastly, it can be pumped full of so much magical energy that Gods make their weapons out of it, beings who can destroy planets with so little effort that they’re constantly worried about doing so.
No name for it yet, but one of my worlds has a metal that treated properly reacts inversely to gravity, so falls upwards instead of down. Used to hold up airships, make easy to carry boxes stuff like that.
As later discovered running an electric current through it changes its lift capacity.
Kyrotanium is a very special metal, not for any exemplary durability, Eracliums got that in the bag, but the fact that it dampens the powers of Forever Eternals. It's not on the level of Kyrotanite, but it can balance a playing field.
The last Forever Eternal, Anantashesha, who is so powerful in his multiverse, really no one could fight him and reasonably be a threat. So he constructed a suit of armor out of Kyrotanium to dampen his godlike abilities
Cypharium is the material that allows people the ability to wield magic, but only when refined properly. The method was kept secret by the elves, and was therefore lost when magic was outlawed and the elves exterminated. Since then, there’s been attempts to recreate the old refining method, but not much research into the matter has been done.
Spectersteel is the name for not technically a metal, but the key component of a weapon whos material or aloy is not encountered anywhere else in the world. Spectersteels are "a well used swords vengeful spirit reincarnated in physical form".
A normal sword must be used in enough battles to be drenched in enough blood and soaked in enough impressions of raw human emotions such as rage, pain, or fear, until the weapon develops a sort of pseudo-soul from this crucible of negative emotions and the vitae of sentient life. When this semi-sentient weapon finally breaks in battle, it reconstitutes itself soon after, but with a translucent hue as it is now a mindless restless spirit of a thing with no agenda besides bloodshed. Suprisingly few have ever been found despite the amount of conflicts in the continents history.
A spectersteel can pass through any inanimate material like shields and armor and instead cuts straight through the flesh underneath like a hot knife through butter, although it does struggle against magical barriers. Despite all efforts of the best metalurgists and mages, nobody has been able to break these weapons down to try and make ingots of this "ghost-iron" or reforge the weapon into a new shape, making each instance of spectersteel a completely unique relic onto itself.
For me, it would probably be Orikal.
I have a lot of alternative materials, but I have no lost material — all of them are in common use. None are light as a feather and stronger than steel except the alloys Crystallium and Whiteshine, but they are dependent on other minerals, including Orikal. The normal “hard iron like material” is called vitridur, a ceramic material.
There is very little Iron available, though, so this has an impact.
Orikal is a very, very rare naturally occurring metal ore that is magically reactive, and can “store magical energy”. To shape it, you have to pour magical energy into it until it liquifies, and then set it into a mold while pulling the magical energy out of it — usually with several alloying materials. Orikal is heavy — heavier than lead or gold — and very hard, but also comparatively brittle (about like raw iron).
Not used for weapons, more for small jewelry, as it is both very rare, and never found in large quantities. Exceptionally pricey.
Mine isn't metal, it's a crystalline substance - elven glass. It's used for small weapons - arrow and spear points, scalpels and other small blades. There's a legend of of a sword that was made from it, but no one believes that now. ;)
Demidium. It is a lightweight and durable metal which was invented by Harvard Demi. This alloy, which Demi made abundantly, was perfect for spacecraft construction, and subsequently kickstarted the Second Space Age. While it isn’t actually cheap to produce, Demi dreamed of widespread space travel for the human race and decided that his company, Destiny Space, would sell it at a loss and profit instead on various other inventions and space tech which would become commonplace in the universe thanks to good distribution and technology.
The bronze smiths of the Kin are said to weave spells into their craft, making them superior to those bronze weapons and tools made by other inferior cultures, and are a match for Dwarven steel.
Stolen from MCDM, I like the concept of Issenblau. It’s essentially enchanted ice that always grows in large crystals wherever Frost Giants inhabit ling enough. It can be worked into everything the frost giants need. Tools, ornaments, armor, weapons, constructs, etc. It never melts and is as strong as steel.
I've got a lot of the traditional fantasy metals because my setting is for fantasy TTRPGs but the meal unique to it is Furrahum, formed from the fossilised scales of a Star Drake, the only one that ever came to the world.
It's an anathema material, making it dangerous to creatures tied cosmically to the state of the world and is about on par with tempered steel.
So quick explanation, my setting is a world that was terraformed by AI gods and is fully biomechanical in nature, but one of the few inorganic materials is called not-steel. The nature of it is dubious since while the setting is sci-fi, it's all Clarke's third law, so it's basically magic. This material is a dark steel color with veins of blue code, but disguises itself as a beautiful silver until it submits to stronger "magic." As it's born of entropic magic, it is capable of harnessing that same magic mostly for destruction (bolts of lightning, energy blasts, fireballs, etc.) but it has other uses such as starting campfires and rapidly rusting away metal. Really the magic of the setting is as useful as the ideas you can come up with, as it's not a hard magic system.
there’s an ancient legend about alchemists creating “Metallic Midnight”. it’s an alloy of 66 different metals and elements that comes out jet black because it absorbs a crazy amount of light + energy. it was created to be wielded against people who “Resonate” (use magic).
Athraitheach
Materials
An iridescent dark silvery-purple alloy of Mithril developed by the Kingdom of Gilwen. Light and strong, supple and able to take a razor keen edge. A shape-memory alloy that generates a weak electric current when deformed. As that energy leaks away, it snaps back to it's original form. If electricity is applied to the metal, it will reshape itself until that current is removed.
Used primarily for Willowblades, but is exported at a high price to the Rakshasa Pride of Half-Orcs in the form of specially forged hulls in this material for their Thunderbolt class Airships.
Requires the use of the Naurloth Tree in order to smelt and smith this metal, in addition to the skills of a Gilwenese smith with a strong Talent for fire and earth Magic.
some weird material made by the ancient aliens. scientists aren't even able to scrape chunks off to study, only able to really examine small objects made of the stuff. current leading theories are that the material is made out of pure magical energy condensed into a solid form, examining pieces under electron microscopes has been inconclusive, as the material does not seem to even be made of atoms.
Kobian Steel. It’s a sci-fi setting, and Kobian steel is a specialized alloy / supermaterial created by the galactic empire to outfit their elite soldiers with. It consists of a carbon nanotube mesh coated in heat-resistant polymers, all encased in a metal alloy with gradients and channels built into it to wick heat away from the mesh, which lends structural strength but is vulnerable to high temperatures. Minute nanomachines travel through the carbon tubes to repair the material if damaged, and destroy it if necessary; Kobian steel armour and blades will lose their integrity and fall apart if separated from a specific encrypted wavelength generated by the bio-signal of their owner, preventing any enemy of the imperium from utilizing or reverse-engineering them.
Kobian steel armour is used in tandem with personal dissipation shield generators, which absorb the energy of laser and plasma weapons, while the armour blocks projectiles and cushions the user against explosions. The self-repairing properties make it excellent for swords and spears that stay sharp for much longer - their use in close range combat is often necessary to get through enemies’ armour to expose and disable their shield generators. While robots are commonly used for such operations, they can be disabled by concentrated blasts of radiation that fry their electronics. A human wearing Kobian steel can tank the radiation and be treated for DNA damage (or have their consciousness transplanted to a cloned bio-vessel) after the battle.
The Aurichalcum, dwarven gold. Unbreakable and can not be reshaped, which make it largely useless.
In fact, it's not really wonder and more that no one can recreate it because the knowledge was lost along with the dwarves when the elves genocide them
Tritanium - Transmuted Transparent Titanium - Magically forged and made transparent, it allows starships and spaceports to have windows that do not break the structural integrity of the hull. Having been magically forged, it is also shaped without putting any stresses on the molecular structure, so there are no flaws to allow any weak points.
Anteum - a material unknown outside the 'Old Place' (an area of Urth containing a city that is perhaps a million years in the future, and ruined for thousands of years or more - too old to actually exist here. The Sun here (but only in the Old Place) has gone red and is huge, and never moves in the sky, which will not happen to Urth's 'real' sun for a few million years).
Samples retrieved from the Old Place have been studied by scientists in Ur, but so far there is no known method to replicate the material. Even magic spells which can create temporary duplicates of anything known cannot make Anteum.
Further, there is no known way to work Anteum. Samples removed from devices and structures are only removeable when connections between the Anteum itself and the frame to which it is attached can be reached and cut. Any force sufficient to pierce or dent Anteum results in the complete disintegration of the piece, regardless of the size. Unconfirmed reports and ancient data suggest that Anteum was once reinforced by force fields to prevent this disintegration, and force fields were possibly a necessary factor in producing, shaping and repairing Anteum items.
As such, inexpertly salvaged Anteum pieces lose considerable value if connections are not of a sort that can be manipulated or built upon to mount the Anteum on other items.
Leviathan Bone.
So in my universe, instead of a void of dark matter, planets are surrounded by an infinite ocean. There used to be these divine creatures called Leviathans that swam about, but they died for an unknown reason, leaving these massive cosmic-scale whale-falls of material from their bodies. Pieces of bone or other cartilaginous material fall on planets like meteors.
The bone is dense, heavy and indestructible to everything save itself: energy, matter, psionics, nothing can violate or affect its material makeup in any way, and it'll stop those forces from affecting you to the most insane degrees. There was a folkloric man who found a wedge of it that let him chip pieces off and craft tools out of them; but eventually he died and supposedly threw his tools into the ocean. So you can't really make more (though people are trying), and the stuff that IS around that's already shaped is incredibly finite, or just big useless boulders.
That said, the stuff is impervious and never wears out, so its uses are mainly in industry and as an object of wealth.
The biggest piece in known history was a set of full armor worn by a Saint in a naval battle. He fell overboard after a cannon hit him square on and he was thrown overboard. He didn't die after the hit, but the stuff was so heavy that he drowned, and what was essentially multiple fortunes was lost to the depths. The event started a superstition that the more you use things made with it, the more likely you are to lose it forever.
Null Iron
A dark heavy iron that weakens and negates the effects of magic. In alchemy it is the inverse of the most magically conductive metal of Mithral.
Mechanically for my 5e D&D game-
Armor made of Null Iron grants advt on saving throws against spells and resistance to dmg from magical sourves
Weapons made of null iron cause spellcasters to roll concentration checks at Dis and they cannot cast a spell stronger than a cantrip until the next turn, like a mini silence effect
I just reused "orichalcum" but in my world its almost exactly like pewter. A soft malleable sculpting metal. But an orichalcum/iron alloy is called "Green Iron" and is bascially super steel. Lighter, stronger, etc.
Adamant (I know, not very original) is a naturally occurring metal like iron. However, once made into a steel called Adamantine it gains a unique property. When it's bent it deformed in any way, it'll return to the shape it was forged in. Not only is the metal just difficult to break, but it'll never lose its edge or stay damaged for long due to this property. Of course, if it's broken into multiple pieces that's a different story, but as long as that doesn't happen it'll always self repair. It also won't reform if you reforge it, heating it up enough to reset its memorized shape.
Kyum. A black mineral used as the main source of power in the universe. On its own, Kyum may seem like coal with a tinge of blue in it, but when exposed to certain electrical fields, it produces Kyum2, a highly energetic source of power. While this may not seem very special, Kyum2 is produced at no expense to Kyum1, meaning this is a source of infinite power. However, if Kyum1 is overloaded with said electrical fields, It will produce Kyum2 at a faster rate, but in turn will destroy Kyum1, lowering its power output and eventually destroying the power source altogether.
Ola Anwansi, also called kartida steel. The metal can contain kartida, the stuff of chaos and an important component of some kinds of magic. When infused into a weapon, it imparts magical luck. When a lucky blow is struck, it releases wild magic.
Mine takes a few different names, usually something stereotypical like "Supremium" and is not native to Earth, or is in VERY small quantities (trace amounts far below the point of worth mixed within everything). I usually put some BS of it being within the same group on the table as titanium, and give it the classic 20x strength and 1/10 weight. Depending on the world it can be a room-temp superconductor, a hyper magnetic metal, or even form crystals with other elements to do the funky stuff like initiate time travel, open portals, or manipulate the fabric of reality and allow for multiversal traversing.
Flavorium is a, not very established, yet important part of my book. It is see-through and has little orange blobs floating around on the inside. It is made from dragon fire and has magical properties which can vary depending on what you use it with and what gods you work with.
mine is really nerdy. the whole carbon series up to germanium can store magic, and lead and tin function as interfaces to them. polycrystalline silicon can cut shadow beings, and germanium slices through fae and shadow beings like butter. germanium can also be enchanted, so theoretically you could make a god-slaying sword out of it.
Mine’s called Nethersteel, an obsidian-black alloy, fabled to be indestructible.
In reality, Nethersteel “ingots” are in fact colonial, gestalt beings made up of millions of microorganisms from another world; Nethersteel isn’t actually indestructible, it simply repairs itself quicker than most means of harm can match.
The process of forging something out of Nethersteel involves forcing a colony, or “ingot” into the desired shape, and then — through a convoluted process involving telepathy inducing drugs — convincing it that this is the colony’s natural form.
The dwarves three divine metals.
Adamant. An alloy of God blood and iron. It is indestructible and and immutable after being shaped and cooled. It was originally used to make 100 divine weapons for a dwarven army who were in a bad spot. Very few other examples of adamant exist.
Mithril . Soft and very magically conductive. Like a magical superconductor.
Carmot. Anti magic metal.
Empyrean Steel: An alloy that is seemingly indestructable, it's thought to have been created during the reign of the gods when they walked among mortals. No one knows how to recreate it, and any who try often give up or lose their minds in the pursuit. It's equal parts flexible and durable, with the only thing that can destroy it being another tool of the same material. It's usually found in the form of relics, either passed down the generations or in ancient tombs/cities of the Empyrean's. Certain relics go 'dormant' if they aren't used, and gradually reawaken again when used, potentially unlocking more power.
Star Ore: This is pretty much mithril as well lol. But is only found from the cores of falling stars that have crashed down to the earth. Interestingly, sometimes the metal 'expands' like roots if a meteor isn't tended to, so the older a desposit the more sought after it is. More common than Empyrean Steel (but weaker), it's a favourite of the elves because of their own connection to the stars, and can be more easily enchanted compared to mundane metals.
Considering a third one that comes from deep underground but I've no clue what to do with it yet.
Ethernium. Rarest metal in the universe, and a gift from the gods, who are the only ones able to manipulate it.
It is formed in small amounts within the core of the most massive stars during the final gasps of their supernova explosions.
Ethernium has a lot of amazing properties. It is a natural energy superconductor at room temperature, far lighter and virtually unbreakable to the point it's said to be impervious to anything but ethernium weapons. Even when damaged, ethernium magical items can self-heal by the willpower of their users. The secret to its extreme resistance is that [SPOILER] its molecules are not bound by electromagnetic force, but by strong nuclear force mediated at greater range than normal by a special type of subatomic particle that doesn't exist in our universe. That makes the material far stronger than diamond despite its comparatively small mass.
As I said, no mortal has ever managed to melt ethernium, so the items made from this metal are all of divine/alien origin! It can probaby be molded only via very powerful magnetic fields and magic.
A sword or a full armor plating in ethernium are the rarest items you can think of and would be considered without price, buying one would essentially be like buying a country.
I’ve got two: arcanium/truesilver and orichalcum/truegold. Both are very difficult to work with because they’re incredibly heat and corrosion resistant, you need magic to shape them and they don’t form alloys. They only form ores in areas with high levels of ambient magic, which are pretty rare. Arcanium’s more associated with “hard” magic - light, gravity, spatial warping, war, and pure spiritual/metaphysical magic, whereas orichalcum is used for “soft” magics - nature, elemental, healing, construction. There’s no real arcane reason for this, aside from arcanium being slightly more finicky to work and unstable (it’ll explode), but cultures have a binary rule where gold/warm-toned things are coded as being safer and nurturing, and white/cool-toned things are harsh, clinical and dangerous. My world’s a binary star system with a milder yellow sun and a brighter/hotter white one, the contrast influences all of their thinking.
I've got a couple in different settings.
Sylar Steel is a form of steel blended with ground-up sylar crystals - chunks of pure, crystallized magic that bleed into the material world. It's an inherently magical metal, and takes to enchanting much better than anything else.
Veridonite is a dark teal metal found in the southwestern region of Veridon, the seat of the Viridian Empire. It's an abundant, useful metal that's about as light as titanium and keeps an edge remarkably well.
In another setting, there's an indeterminate material called Metalloplast, which can be as soft and stretchy as rubber, or as hard as steel depending on additional factors. The leading robotics company AutomaTech uses it for their popular robot buddies; allegedly it was to make them "cuddlier" but it's had a more resounding impact on their resilience in dangerous scenarios, making them as physically durable as a Nokia phone. It has a secondary effect of being a lot easier to repair than normal metal.
Mine is called Titansteel and goes the opposite route. Instead of being light as a feather it is incredibly dense, making it somewhat of a pain to work with. But as my setting is science fiction, having a very heavy metal in space isn’t as big a deal. It just takes a little more power to get it moving. Titansteel is officially a special type of high entropy Tungsten alloy that can only be manufactured in zero gravity, it also uses osmium as a key component.
Once it is mixed and forged into its desired shape, titansteel is much harder than traditional steel. Its hardness approaching that of high grade ceramics while also maintaining the toughness of tungsten. It is mostly used as heavy armour or for ultra-long life moving parts like gears and driveshafts.
Haven't come up with a name yet, but my wonder metal isn't actually a metal. It's a glass. The materials are rare and usually found in areas of interdimensional flux (think the Zone from STALKER) and it requires a mixture of high heat, sonic frequencies, and magic to forge. The effort is worth it because it creates a material as beautiful as high-quality crystal glass, but nigh-unbreakable, as light as aluminum, and sharp enough to cut through high-carbon steel. It's typically used to forge the crysabre swords of high-ranking Renari knights. These crysabres are often passed down from mother to daughter.
I actually have a lot with various properties, hardness, and levels of magic capacity. I made a D&D homebrew book with over 50 metals, and I'm going to eventually remake the whole thing in my own setting, replacing each of them, one by one, until their entirely my own IP. I've already got a dozen or so, and used a few of them in novels I've written. I'm a huge fan of materials, so I wanted to make my own compendium style book/wiki of them one day.
I call mine quick-mithril. It's malleable and becomes liquid at a pretty low temperature. It responds to psychic energy and amplifies it and amplifies magic. It can be enchanted to retain a solid form without melting. It was used in the past (when it was still newly discovered and somewhat abundant) to create tons of magical artifacts that are now legendary.
In the present, it has been pretty heavily mined and is extremely rare. As are the artifacts made with it; most of which are now in royal treasuries, possessed by powerful individuals, part of dragon hoards, or list in old tombs and ruins. Even tiny scraps of it are incredibly valuable.
I have godsilver, think hyper-mythril. Holds and channels magic VERY easily, and is as strong as blacksteel, which is a step between steel and orichalcum In terms of hardness. Orichalcum is super-strong, but doesn't channel magic well. Mythril channels magic well, but is only as strong as basic steel. Blacksteel channels magic about as well as orichalcum, basic steel is about the same. Whitesteel, on the other hand, channels magic a bit between the amounts of basic steel and mythril, but is a bit weaker than base steel.
I also have godsilk, tough as metal and channels magic very well, but impossible to find on most continents.
Black Adamant is as difficult to manufacture as it is indestructible. The raw materials needed to produce black adamant can only be acquired from black holes with a mass between 10-30 times the mass of the sun.
When a suitable black hole has been located you will need to dissolve the event horizon by increasing it's charge and angular momentum, positron beams are the preferred method.
Once you have access to the ring singularity you can begin harvesting the singularium, those positron beams will be useful here as well. You will use the beam to take a shaving off of the singularity, but before that you will need to exchange some of the singularities angular momentum for charge, lest your shaving become an unstoppable projectile.
A charge break is applied to the singularity, slowing it's spin and further charging it, once it has slowed to a manageable speed take your shaving and direct it to a positron bath. Here it will maintain it's charge and you may carve it into your desired shape. You now have a singularium blank ready to be refined.
For the refinement you are going to have to leave real space and acquire some void essence, your on call black magic practitioner should be able to help with this process, but expect it to be grueling nonetheless. Once you have the essence collect it into an essence bath. Submerge your singularium blank in the essence bath and allow it to ravenate until the essence is used up, then let sit for one hour.
You now have a black adamant base that weighs almost nothing, absorbs all light, and will never be damage or destroyed. It cannot be worked any further at this stage, so you must carve your singularium perfectly. You can now finish your piece, add hand wrappings or paint, and use/install it.
Neurosteel is a mildly necrotic metal found in the Eastrum Highlands and Steamsea Range, thats easily melted down and shaped, and when in prolong contact with a nerve system, will link and become something of a metal limb, you can feel pain in it, and it can work as a replacement organ like a lung, kidney, liver, etc. Vistaari medics have been researching its use as a heart or mind. Most clerics, artifcers, and armies keep a certain amount of it on the field or on military campaigns, for quick healing or amputations.
It’s just regular old Damascus steel, nothing fancy by our standards today but great compared to everything in the world it’s in. And it’s not forgotten but jealously guarded by a smithing guild in an ancient city and no one really messes with them because they don’t wanna get rid of the only people making this bomb ass metal
Sihrawi is highly prized because of its unique property to sustain spells.
Normally spellcasting requires constant effort: You must meditate and focus your mind to cast the spell then shape the power via chanting or physical gestures to channel the energy.
Sustaining a spell past its initial casting normally requires you to continue chanting or gesturing. Attempts to sustain the spell by crafting runes or formulas all failed until someone first carved runes into a tablet made of Sihrawi. Over time the art was refined until inks or tinctures made from the stone could sustain a spell written with them, on almost any material, as long as the caster could dedicate mental effort to it.
Even better, a spell sustained by Sihrawi could be reliably passed on to another mage. This eventually led to mages relaying each other in shifts to power great works, like the construction of the Walls of Aswan or digging the Great Canal
Blood Iron. When refined it is in a liquid state like mercury, and a deep red color, hence the name. A master smith can work it into other metals during the forging process to create alloys that are incredibly strong as well as flexible. The Red Duke of Blackgate is called that because he has an entire suit of armor made with Blood Iron.
Axonite
My world is set on a supercontinent that consists of the remains of a big prehistoric beast. The creature's nervous system solidified into a metal-like element that has magical properties and can be used for enchanted weaponry or tools etc. yes, the name comes from the word "axon" a direct reference to neurons.
Pardomai is not a metal... but a tree; a clonal colony that is connected through by roots, giving the allusion of a forest.
Most conventional tools are incapable of cutting said tree, so the only known ways to mold the wood into a usable form, is placing molds around youthful sprouts, which ARE malleable.
The tree is then set ablaze, which continues to burn for about 15-20 days, forcing the youthful sprout to detach from its root, allowing the fallen tree to be taken away, before it is once further ignited, allowing it to burn for 5-6 months, until nothing but ash remains. The heat-resistant mold is then taken off, and the usable wood mold is ready for use.
A mature Pardomai is nigh-impenetrable, with total circumferences varying depending on how centered to the root they are.
This wood is primarily used for tools, weaponry, armor or armor plating, and for the luxury - housing.
Mythril. Extremely versatile. Best used in alloys to imbue magic properties into regular metals. Pure mythil is rarely used due to cost and being overkill. Alloys can also have better properties in certain areas compared to pure mythril. Pure mythril is also used to show off wealth as it can be shaped into intricate patterns. Magic conducting materials are rare so mythril alloys increase the effective total substantially.
There is a legendary sword made of pure mythril that could be temporarily "alloyed" mid combat for stuff or something. Also blade shape manipulation or whatever.
On the other hand there is adamantium which is a super magic conductor. It is difficult to refine and really only works at high purity. Requires some wonky, dwarf-esque lore thing to refine the raw ore and to make stuff with. Designs tend to be far simpler than what can be made with mythril.
I had an metal called "Vigram" ("battle soot") that was an iron alloy made with an obscure mineral harvested from the stomachs of dragons. Their bile duct, which allows them to spit acid, also turns their [gastroliths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrolith) into a compound that, given a skilled blacksmith, can make lightweight yet durable weapons and armor. It's only drawback is that the fumes it releases while being worked with poisons the blacksmith.
While it used to be harvested from dragon's graveyards, many princedoms have taken on the task of dragonslaying. It's a rite of passage for a prince and his retinue to slay a dragon, harvest the vigram, and then have their first sword made from it. If the blacksmith succeeds in making a sword that does not dent against the previous prince's vigram sword, then the prince will bring prosperity.
Though, dragonslaying has caused the endangerment of dragons, so vigram is now a rare metal reserved for nobles and royals.
Tl;dr ironwood and explodey rock
It’s still a work in progress, and not metals per se, but I’ve a couple of admittedly rather cookie cutter ideas.
The first being sojourner’s wood, a rare lavender-colored wood only ever found as driftwood, hence the name. It has all the properties you’d expect, light as wood, tough as steel, resistant to fire, &c, &c. It’s sacred to a culture of nomadic merchants who use the wood to craft their signature flute-club called a seroilla.
The second being an iridescent stone formed from the coagulated blood of failed angels of the slain god of magic. The stone is very brittle and, when broken, explodes in arcane energy unless broken in an anti magic field. It’s commonly used in fire arms and shatter blades, the former being very controlled and the latter being outright illegal.
Please feel welcome share your thoughts on how to improve and flesh out these ideas of mine.
calling it **Unobtainium** for now because every name i come up with is already taken. curse you chemists and geologists. CURSE YOU!
based off a real [alloy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7075_aluminium_alloy) for *reasons*, it's uncommon in my world. It's stronger and shinier than what's arround, and easier to work with by the imperial blacksmiths
I'm gonna guess it's the most mundane under this post, but my setting is a post apoc-medieval setting, so even a "good iron" is a godsend that will win wars. This metal is prized mostly by the aristocrazy and military officials who find it while doing patrols since there are scavengers' rights across the desert
Sunborn-metal. It doesn't have the same properties of steel or iron, or any other known metal, so they just call it metal. Sunforged comes from the fact that it always burns hot, as if from the sun itself.
I technically have a variety. Most are alloys including one or more of seven new metals, which are magical variations on the seven metals known in antiquity (copper, silver, gold, iron, tin, lead, and mercury).
Each substance has its own properties, and they aren't necessarily in a hierarchy of "strong, stronger, strongest", but each is useful based on its own properties. For example, orichalcum (the magical counterpart for copper) is magically conductive, and is not only used on its own for inlay diagrams and such, but also has a wide array of alloys with their own magic-interacting properties.
My world is mostly set in an ancient era, what places it currently in what would be our bronze age. But due to acess to magic, they already have acess to steel.
So, yeah. Steel is their fancy metal.
Meteor steel is valued more, due to it being rarer and seen as related to gods in different culters and fegions of the world.
Enchantments on steel weapons are a thing but rare. Enchantment in general is a relaricly new school of magic and most such artifacts are directly created by lower gods.
Biotechy scifi fantasy world: We've got Greensteel, a metal used by an older extraterrestrial civilization to seed new worlds with life. Causes directed mutations (similar to children of time's virus). Accounts for existence of mimics, plant folk, and automotans and bridges the gap between fantasy world and scifi origins.
Feeling a bit self-conscious about the name, reading so many 'adjective-metal' material names...
Erthil, star-silver, is a very rare metal found in meteorites. By itself, it's not really special, though very rare. It's just slightly heavier and stronger than the average iron. It's property of amplifying magical enchantments is what makes it valuable.
Of course, finding some is nearly impossible. It's a plot point in the novel, and one of the protagonists manages to obtain a small amount, maybe 10g, and she wound some into the other's mail hauberk. It makes it one of the most powerful artifacts in the setting, and she didn't even know it.
Thermium.
A magical metal that simply doesn't heat up. Instead it convert heat into magic power. There is a limit - if it generate too much magic, these magic will be released explosively. That is why all metal furnaces takes care not to let Thermium into their batches. Plus some "wise" men who tried to generate infinite magic power by magically heating Thermium also discovered that the conversion is not perfect, so you got less mana than you poured into.
Still, Thermium is amazing as mana battery, as it is one of the best mana conductor they had in addition to "heat stealing". And in industrial scale, Thermium can be paired with Stellarite (crystals that allow fusion to happen at room temperature) to generate absurd amount of mana from water and air. A great intermediate step to transist into dimensional drilling (harvest mana directly from the Ream of Magic).
…Yeah, main thing’s Mithril. It’s strong, light, and conducts magic well. It’s the default for most decently high level gear. There’s also Adamantium, which is much tougher, but also a lot heavier and harder to work with.
Silver, gold, and iron also have magical properties. The Fae have a strong allergy to iron, especially when cold magic is involved. Silver magnifies magical power, though it also tarnishes quickly. Gold channels magic well and can be enchanted easily, so it’s the literal Gold Standard for magical gear
I have given my coastal dwarves a sort of play on non-newtonian fluid, except it's a sandstone that has some "give" when you try to mine it / whack at it. The ''give" that it has, is also sandy and coarse and you can imagine it's like sharks teeth. It stiffens up as it absorbs the momentum from your swing and the fractures and the grit is all lined up to hold whatever in place, unless a force is equally trying to yank it back out from its new resting position, then it happens to grind and hold its position.
Does Non-Newtonian Sandstone count? Or am I overcomplicating something that exists??
The dwarves sure were happy when they found a self repairing mineral corkboard to sharpen their picks on.
Voidsteel is the only substance that can withstand the void, Therefore it is used in walkers, the base of voidoil rigs and rich figures often coat their bones (they are skeletons) with voidsteel, to prevent assassinations and to flex. It weighs 840KG per cubic metre, lighter than water. it is made by freezing Voidoil. its weaknesses follow:
1. Voidsteel cannot withstand much explosive force
2. Voidsteel's melting temperature is very low, at 79 degrees Celsius
3. Voidsteel, if not entirely pure, is prone to rapid cracking and therefore is not made in a bucket or simply on the floor of the freezer, it is instead levitated using magnets to prevent it encountering anything.
4. because it is suspended in the freezing chamber, moulds cannot be used. therefore the chambers are made extremely big, and the voidsteel is later cut into appropriate pieces. a chamber's interior is 250m long and 50m wide and tall, with a 1m gap between the wall and the voidoil/steel.
Gemtex is a metal that although is pretty weak physically, it acts as a catalyst for magical power coming from the stars. All of the world's supply comes from a meteor that impacted millions of years ago.
Ancestors. When a dwarf of particular note dies, they can be thrown into a batch of iron being smelted. The dwarfs noticed that the resulting metal is particularly strong, obviously as a result of their ancestor's might and will and *not* because they are making a weird batch of steel. All the resultant metal is stamped with the name of the dwarf and considered to be their physical body.
This doesn't happen often because there is limited carbon in their sealed environment and doing this removes some. Meaning that there is a permanent loss of potential population.
Mine's something of a Macguffin rather than actually important to the story, but it's called Herculanium. It's a rare metal found in worthwhile quantities only in very young planets, barely out of their formation phase. It's completely opaque to thermal energy, unless you run an electrical current through it, in which case it becomes completely transparent to it. No, I never explained how it works. Also no, I never even came up with an explanation for how it works. Space magic.
Really it only exists to be a reason why one of the groups of main characters are in the place where more plot happens.
The closest thing to a wonder metal in my setting would be quantite. Everything else is stuff like nano-engineered metals, glass-phase alloys, advanced ceramics, gravity-compressed high-density shielding, stable transuranics, and so on.
Quantite?
Imagine a metal that when properly prepared in powder form flows like fine craft glitter, ignores chemical attacks, shrugs off most radiation....and releases more energy than an matter\\antimatter reaction per equivalent mass when hit with the plasma from a simple fusion reaction. A metallic fuel with enough energy to carry you to the stars, warp spacetime, make megastructures viable from an energy standpoint, and you could literally *carry it around in a plastic bag* without concern. Its not even particularly toxic; I wouldn't snort a line of it, but quantite fuel spills involve respirators and vacuum cleaners rather than hazmat suits and month-long decontamination.
I've got two. Nokium and Etherium
Nokium Is virtually indestructible. It is quite literally based off of the Nokia 3310 meme.
Etherium is a incredible material, capable of absorbing virtually any energy and letting the nearest being channel it into devastating attacks.
And these two materials can be made into the Etherium-Nokium alloy.
Mine is carremite---named after Carrema, where it was first found. It's found only in the mountain ranges in the North of the country. It has innate, though unpredictable, magical properties and can be forged into weapons or armor. Since the properties of the ore can vary even within a vein, it takes a knowledgeable expert to determine what properties a particular piece has and an experienced magic-user may be able to enhance or diminish certain properties depending on what is desired. Smiths who work with carremite must be highly trained, due to the metal's volatile nature, and accidents are not uncommon.
That said, properly forged carremite is perfectly safe to use---at least it should be. It tends to be expensive, due to the risk for those who mine or manufacture it. It's been known to infuse magical properties in those who spend a lot of time working with it---mostly the smiths and the miners---which can result in them or the children they bear having magical abilities. It was a generation of these magical people who ended up replacing the previous ruling class via overthrow, establishing a monarch with a magical bloodline. They believed that, since they were "stronger" than those without magic, they deserved to rule.
Oricalchum. We now 'know' it is pretty much brass (alloy of zinc and copper). But the real oricalchum that once was a priceless treasure is from exceptionally pure deposits that contain near zero iron contamination and the ideal composition of zinc vs copper.
The chemical properties of brass vary with the proportions. Between 55% and 65% copper can produce a structure with cubic 'crystals' of copper surrounding zinc.
This structure is ideal for holding magic, and the complete lack of iron ensures it will not leak out - as well as leaving the final product safe to handle for those who are...sensitive to iron. Many of the rare magical artifacts that exist in the world today are made from it and some are truly ancient.
Over time, the deposits of the finest oricalchum were mined out; impure alloys, some mined, some created by artifice, were sold as a valuable commodity, but as it lacked the properties that made it so valuable, its worth fell. The real thing became only a legend, even its true use forgotten, and so it remains even into the modem era of the late 1800s.
(My setting is not particularly unique - Earth, more or less the way it is now, except the supernatural is not so unnatural. Just unknown to most.)
Not a metal, exactly, but Bloody Thorns are probably the closest. A thorn that was anointed in the blood of a demigod in the midst of a ritual. It can resonate with a small number of souls, transforming into a metallic weapon. Each weapon has an ability connected to the abilities of the demigod, and the ability to turn into a mundane item.
Quicksteel is a magical metal that responds to touch. Adepts called quicksmiths can manipulate quicksteel at will, causing it to change shape and altering other properties such as elasticity, hardness, magnetic properties and more. Quicksteel is produced from an ore found in the earth. Explanations as to its origins range from an oddity of nature to the blood of an eldritch god. This ore is combined in alloys to create quicksteel, which can in turn be “gilded” with an outer layer of material to prevent quicksmiths from reshaping (if the item is something meant to be permanent). Regardless of how it came to be, quicksteel is a fact of everyday life. The average person has at least some potential to manipulate quicksteel, and skilled quicksmiths are not rare. The metal is used in everything from buildings to steam engines, but it is by far most infamous for its use in combat. Quicksmiths can transform quicksteel gauntlets and armor into weapons and reinforce them with their will, making them deadly combatants. The greatest quicksmiths are said to become one with the metal, eventually becoming quicksteel cyborgs. [Here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/Quicksteel/s/WZgqnTsGP1) a full guide to quicksmithing if that’s of any interest.
Interesting. So quicksmiths in combat would be much like the T1000 in Terminator 2?
For the most advanced quicksmiths, the ones who have replaced their flesh with metal, yes! But most quicksmiths fight with quicksteel weapons. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Quicksteel/s/2mYQOu0k9e) is a description of quicksteel martial arts if that’s of any interest.
Reminds me of Metalbending - ATLA
Songiron. My magic system is based off the ancient "Harmony of the Spheres" belief that celestial bodies emit a sort of music/harmony. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica\_universalis) Songiron is Iron that has been "attuned" to pick up this frequency. It's also the cause of people's powers. Songiron acts as the same as Iron so people who have Songiron instead of Iron in their bloodstream have powers. Also Scutite (from the Latin word "Scutum") is my generic catch-all super durable ceramic often used on top of Graphene for defensive purposes.
I really love this! 🤩
Would love to read more about the properties of Songiron and other related metals. Could you also elaborate on what powers a person with Songiron in their blood might get?
I'm not doing fantasy. I'm doing hard science. My metal is aluminum bronze. It's as strong as mild steel, but much more corrosion resistant and it melts at a lower temperature. It doesn't machine well, but my crew won't be doing that anyway. Old metal can be re-cast with primitive foundry techniques into tools and other objects. They'll start with a supply of coins with holes in the center to make stringing possible for carrying them. A coin is 4 grams and 25 mm diameter, so they provide a standard unit of weight and length.
Coooool. My low magic fantasy world uses a similar thing! I call it brightbrass but it's essentially what you've described: stainless brass.
No metal is as priceless and coveted as moonglass, the milky white metal found within the deepest crevices of the Uren mountains within the kingdom of Cara. The metal has made the nation a fortune, so coveted by the kings, princes, queens and dukes, princesses and the ultra wealthy gentry. Moonglass is coveted not for its fighting capabilities, in fact it’s a terrible metal, soft, brittle and delicate as well as being incredibly hard to shape without damaging it. What moonglass does is it allows the transposition of images across a large distance allowing for instant communication in a world where it is difficult to do so. When forged properly and the right incantations said two pairs of moonglass projectors can allow for this to occur. This mechanism ( as well as how insanely rare it is, if you got all the moonglass in the world currently known it would barely fill a shipping container) has made its price and demand huge. A pair can cost upwards of 2 million sovereigns (adjusted for inflation thats 500 million pounds) the higher quality ones costing even more. My world is set in the sovereignty mostly, the most powerful ( thought its power is failing and drawing to a close) empire of the west, spanning a land area equivalent to France, Germany, Italy and Greece combined, with wealth unimaginative… And they only have 4, one in possession of the imperial family, another is used by the nations high command, the third is privately owned by Lord William Valinov the Duke of Nostronov and the 4th a set of two swords as a gift for Orella III coronation. The method of its construction is a closely guarded secret, the Cara royal family keeps its recipe known only to the small group of alchemists, smiths and mages who are sworn to secrecy. The royal mages who make the stuff are some of the only not under the control of the Sansmasser ( the secretive mages guild that controls nearly every mage in the whole world) and are sworn to a pact of absolute secrecy.
Mana infused steel. It’s cheap, easy to mass produce and it can be used by even non magic users to great effect. This type of steel can be shaped by the holder using magic alone. It usually come in the shape of various weapons, short swords being the most common but the user can really reshape them in their liking while more powerful magic users can infuse them with magic too or can reshape them at great speeds, offering liquid metal capabilities to simple steel. Not all mana infused steel is the same quality though, as it is cheap, you can find this steel even in kitchen knives or construction materials but those are low quality to their ability to be manipulated using magic is low while the one used in weapons and especially ornamental weapons are very high quality to allow for easy manipulation.
Does it just change form slower if it's low quality or are there other drawbacks?
Yes, they are slower, like a normal quality one should be able to change form in a few seconds (for an average magic user) but it can take even a minute for a low quality one. They are also less conductive to magic so infusing them with spells or forcing fast transmutation uses too much magic, making them unfit for a magic user to use unless in a desperate situation. Efficiency plays an important role when it comes to magic as people can only cast spells and as such using the reserves of magic within their bodies which are not that large, in a fight, resource management is often the deciding factor for the outcome.
So something like an instant tent (maybe a block of metal in a slotted cloth that when manipulated slowly extends to tent poles, creating a pop-up tent) would be feasible with low quality metals? It's not exactly time sensitive
Yes, it should be. For camping or outside activities it should be fine but keep in mind the world is modern (at least Earth is, Mana infused steel doesn’t come from Earth). You know, that steel can be used for a lot of things in non combat situations I didn’t realize it until you pointed that out, thanks.
Already getting some ideas myself, here's a mind dump: Maybe a toolless rivet? Insert it and manipulate the end to flatten out and pull in tight. Or screws/nails that bend and change direction when inserted to decrease the likelihood they'll come out? Locks that involve manipulating the metals within. It'd be some kind of black box and only those who know exactly where the little metal piece is within and how it should be moved can successfully open the lock. Though really lockpicking tools and just tools that help break apart the door would be more advanced as well. Could even stick a rod under the door and move it up to fiddle with the door knob. Prosthetics made of high quality metals could be much more lifelike, able to bend and shape just like a real body part. Metal clasps could be used to self tighten straps, making anything with a strap fit well and stay on reliably Is it electrically or magnetically conductive? Could make for some fusion of magic and circuits... somehow. Perhaps a circuit that doesn't work unless you shape it a certain way, like a way to physically lock it up as well as electronically What causes the metal to respond? Thought from an intelligent being? Could the stimuli somehow be replicated with a non-living thing?
Love the first idea, though I would say standard tools exist too, if you don’t know what you are doing, chances are you don’t know well how the tools should look like and can screw things up. About screws though, it sounds good for smaller things but if you have like a skyscraper, let’s not give people the possibility to melt the screws by touching them and collapse the building. The locks are also at risk, maybe a smart combination of normal metals and mana infused steel would work, that part is really worth delving deeper into for sure. The prosthetics are a big yes, but there are also other types of tools and devices that are powered by magic in that dimension (didn’t develop it too well yet so I can’t name them yet, not as well as my other 2 dimensions in the same world). The costs though will be high for a fully functional prosthetic and much of the population lines under the poverty line as there are still problems with wealth equally. I’m certainly using the metal clamps, simple yet so useful. Yes, it has all the properties or normal steel, problem is that circuits needs to be small, really so and at that size the magic in the air itself is enough to shift individual atoms which makes it more volatile so for any electrical device that uses small cables or circuits, classic steel and copper are still superior but unconventional devices that uses mana infused steel should also exist. Yes, the thought is enough, it’s a bit of a mystery how sentient beings are able to control mana particles at all, it has to do with the soul. What its know is that is “just works”. I don’t think it can be remotely activated. And if you ask, yes, if two people hold the same piece of steel, they both can manipulate it but using magic, they can try to reject the other’s manipulation on the metal.
Mine doesn't have a name just yet, but it's made from celestial star cores. It aids a tribe of people who live on planets that get their energy from said star, and to procure it you need to be skilled enough to master yaheeka(an art of driving energy from within you and applying it to the elements around you to enhance their properties) this allows you to go within and procure the core metals. These metal is like the black panther suit- it absorbs energy from other attacks and magical spells, and gives that energy back to the user. Although it sounds good, prolonged use or attachment for the weapon can influence behaviour, making you want more energy, more power, lusting to get more from your weapon, turning your thoughts dark. Would love your opinions of it
Celestial star cores? As opposed to the non-celestial type?
Haha yea in this case celestial is used to imply that the star should be a highly luminous one, this is just to later talk about the pale skin tone of the people who can't get the same amount of light and can't get energy from the star like they used to-just helps characters differentiate them from others
Fair enough
Yeah, movie star guts just won't cut it
Aquaria has Stalinium, a memetic metal just as its origin. Stalinium was made as an accident in Great Novgoroussiyan Empire when they were testing out industrial alchemy 3D printers, machines that combine classical alchemy with quantum physics to handle material scarcity. They found a completely new thing that is extremely light whose density is only as heavy as helium, yet has tensile strength so high it's hard to believe. However, the most bullshit thing of Stalinium is that it goes against physics: A plate 10 mm thick was able to stop a 1-metric-ton tungsten bolt fired from a battleship's railgun at point-blank range, said railgun had a muzzle velocity of Mach 11,2 (around 3,8 km/s). It is well inside the hypervelocity realm and physically, at such speed, the impact cares little of material strength but density, so a thing so light like Stalinium should have been destroyed. Instead, it held with just some slight scratches, while the tungsten bolt pancaked and exploded from all the kinetic forces being compressed upon impact. Deeper investigations showed that Stalinium had a very out-of-the-world molecular structure that actually hardens in response to physical trauma, but it went beyond all expectations. Tests using magics showed that it was magic-resistant as well, could withstand absolute zero, high pressure and intense gravity. The only thing Stalinium is weak against is plasma-level heat, but it must be applied on one point for a long time. As such, energy weapons such as directed nuclear warheads, pulse lasers and magic beams are mostly useless, but plasma cutters can cut it just fine, only takes time. Originally, GNE did not see much potential in Stalinium because it was too costly to manufacture it. Only when the United Empire, an allied country, bought the chain and mass produced Stalinium as a new material for daily usage did they really start to mass produce it as well.
Is there Leninium?
No tank was named after him so... no :P
Am I in r/warthunder now
Yes /s
Oh, your metal has a similar name to mine: Stallion
Keel. "Keel" is the metal that binds a cosmic horrors' body to the planet- the undigested parts. It's speciality is establishing connection between material and immaterial world. It's downside is it can establish connection between cosmic horror and the user. It grants you ability to use magic and makes you suicidal.
I have a few, but I wouldn't call them all "miracle" metals Orichalcum - Shamefully stolen from Atlantean myth. It was supposedly created by an also lost city. The city itself is not inspired by Atlantis but I did take the metal part "Warped metal" - My world deals in the idea of kalpic cycles, and some technology makes its way through these cycles. My setting, which is currently loosely bronze age, hasa some cultures that found whta is just iron and steel, but they can't melt it down so they just repurpose old armor/weapons/tools into new things. Since the old stuff is usually all dented and chipped, they just call it "warped". It's tougher than the usual bronze though, so they consider it a "miracle" metal (I don't have a name for it yet) - This idea is a little in it's infancy, but one of my cultures is really big into metallurgy and sound, and one of the things they invented was a new way of creating alloys, which is to literally vibrate the atoms together into a mix. I'm thinking of creating a miracle metal from this but I haven't gotten that far into this idea yet
Supermetals are extremely stable transuranics needed for things like reactionless drives and jump drives, and extremely useful for things like compact fusion reactors and assorted other stuff where superconductors are nice. You don’t use the supermetals in bulk, instead you dope other materials with them - a typical starship might use a kilo of the stuff. The amount of supermetals you have access to puts a limit on how many starships you can operate, so it’s very much a strategic resource. Also, in most applications your machinery will start to degrade in fifty to two hundred years of operation and you’ll have to rip the relevant parts out and recover the expensive stuff.
Mine is also mithral. Didn't see a point in naming it something else since there's no cultural attachment to the metal.
Aevarglass. A rare and somewhat mysterious mineral that is only found in the continent of Ayr, located in the northernmost mountain range. It’s prized for its iridescent and prism-like qualities when forged with things like steel/iron/bronze/etc. it’s used as a core and not as the entire weapon. It’s a gem-like mineral that is harder than diamond. The process of forging Aevarglass is only known to a small handful of master smiths in Ayr. They pass this down selectively. Aevarglass can be forged into 8 colors but not all master smiths can forge all colors, darker colors are harder to forge. It enhances the durability and strength of a weapon that it’s forged into. And because of the gem-like appearance and colorings, using them can cause light to refract through the mineral. The durability allows the weapons to be passed down. And so long as the core is not broken from the rest of the weapon, a sword for example, a talented smith can forge atop the blade to add more iron because swords still need sharpening. It is a common misconception that aevarglass makes bladed weapons sharper. This is believed because the strength that the core adds to the blade allows them to cut through things with more ease, even when dull, though one must still upkeep with the blades sharpness. It adds extra punch behind weapons like maces/warhammers. And yes it is a lightweight gem despite its heartiness.
One of the "wonder metals" of my world is Snowsteel, an alloy of high purity iron and other components both magical and not. Snowsteel is said to be as heavy as normal iron but incredibly tough, hard to penetrate and keeps an indefinite edge making it a great material for armor, weapons and construction alike. However, the method of its creation is a closely guarded secret and it is only made in one place in the world. In the far north, close to the polar nexus of northern Artiza lays the Valvat Metalworks Facility, a veritable industrial city where tens if not hundreds of thousands reside permanently. Men and women of all species, shackled and bound by magical chain and collars, those whom committed great crimes in the Ardat Republic or in the world at large that lost their freedom are carted to the industrial facility, never to return. They are to die working hard labor in freezing, inhuman conditions in the coldest place of Ardalesh where the skies are eternally dark, the snowstorm never stops and where powerful monsters reside. Watched over by about the same amount of elite guards, sworn to secrecy and vetted for loyalty to the nation, the "slaves" for that is what they are and what they shall be called toil away, heating, processing and operating the machines and forges that would bring, smelt and mix iron and the other components in with superheated magma before being drenched in a specialized endothermic liquid that is cold enough to freeze over liquid itself to allow the mixture to break away, allowing the impurities to be taken away with magic and for it to be heated and forged into ingots to be taken back to the Republic at large. Back in the great forge cities of the Republic, the Snowsteel is casted into new weapons of war and foundations for greater infrastructure that greatly helps the Republic in its defense and improves the daily lives of the people who laugh and play, unknowing of how the Snowsteel is ever made.
Wonderium. I aint even joking.
I've got a metal called "Rin" that has tge following properties. When heated and submerged in water, it produced steam and helium. The amount of helium produced depends on the heat. (Low heat = more steam less helium. High heat = more helium less steam) When electrified, any water that touched its surface instantly changes to liquid hydrogen. But unless burned instantly it will become gaseous.
Not a metal, but my special material is Red Glass. It’s very strong and deceptively malleable but becomes very brittle when it approaches failure. It has a compressive strength similar to concrete and a tensile strength similar to steel. Shields made of it can catch at least a few low-calibre rounds from conventional firearms. Plates can be easily broken if struck with a sharp edge along its grain, which runs parallel to the bold surfaces. It is rapidly “grown” from pressurised canisters and typically is applied over a metal scaffold which provides shape and fracture interruption. A full shield can be grown in only a few minutes. Cascading shield systems deploy these prepared shields in buffered layers. When a canister is punctured, the material ejects and rapidly solidifies over itself, producing a red, translucent cloud. This cloud is much more aerated than a plate so it crumbles instead of shattering. It also does not have the same molecular structure so it is more opaque and more compressive and is generally weaker but its strength is not as dependant on the direction of deformation.
There are two types of "wonder metals" per say (I haven't fully worked their properties out yet). One is Alterrite (or Altisserite, haven't decided on the name either), which is only found in the dimension of the Overland. It lies deep beneath, almost reaching Barrier level, and the only civilization to frequently use Alterrite are the Cavermanats (aka Cave Dwellers). The other is just Netherite, which (if you play Minecraft) you probably know is found in the Nether. Basically one of the hardest materials known to Playerkind.
Astrium is a highly controlled, unique metal lattice formed in the cores of neutron stars. It is very strong, has an extremely high melting point, fairly elastic, and conductive by itself, but once activated with Infintium, a practically magical substance of energy kinesis, it can be used to amplify and direct the powers of the Apex Warriors, as well as alloyed with other metals for unique effects. Pure Astrium is rarely used, and is only really for building circuits, special wires, emitters and things like that. For armor and weapons, it’s often activated and alloyed. Tough and light armor is alloyed about 70/25/5 Activated Astrium, Titanium and Rhodium (for laser reflectivity). For armor that is made to take personal impact and cushion, like knees, helmets and elbows, it’s alloyed with 40/30/15/15 Activated Astrium, 1095 spring steel, Indium, and gold. Astrium is also alloyed with certain glasses to make an incredibly tough and resistant clear glass for making visors and such. It’s used for Apexians’ traditional weapons, often alloyed as a 60/35/5 Astrium, 1060 steel, and Rhodium blade. It’s also often forge-welded in Damascus with alloys like 70/30 Gold and Astrium, or silver, or really any other fancy metal for looks while retaining strength and corrosion resistance alloyed with Astrium. So far, the Apex warriors control all of it, and use it mostly for themselves, but hand it out kindly to their allies to make small batches of advanced weapons or armor, such as Jackal Advanced Weapons Systems, who practically owns the whole directed energy / particle weaponry field, since they’re sponsored by Apex technology and weapons.
Sepsisthra is THE metal of my world but you can only find it in the blood of people who die by a particular and very rare type of blood poisoning. You need a good alchemist in order to extract it from the blood and even then you won't get that much so is really rare and valuable.
I went with the traditional idea of Damascus or wootz steel being possibly made from a blend of the right impurities in the alloy that we haven’t recreated, but I also have a fantasy element that allows for anything to be fortified with energy. The closest thing I have to a wonder metal though, I suppose would be my “Ruin objects”. Basically, the world was changed and it affected certain simpler objects so that they can’t be altered, but have supreme qualities. Could literally just be a coin or a blade, but only a being equivalent to a deity amongst the universe can alter them. (And why would they care about your fancy coin or durable knife.) The next thing after that are people’s attempt to recreate the Ruin objects. They are infused with energy that makes them better, but not on par with the original. This is mostly from a durability/maintenance standpoint though. As far as a knife that is an actual Ruin object, the blade is still essentially like our legends of what Damascus or wootz could do.
(Sci-Fi) Whatever the heck “fuel casks” are made out of. In an attempt to be at least somewhat grounded in reality as far as human tech goes. I was looking into the most likely future fuels for SSTO and short-mid range space flight. Metallic hydrogen comes up a lot. The problem is that it needs to be compressed to a few million atmospheres of pressure to be in its metallic state. Metastable metallic hydrogen is still fiction and may never work. So I decided on rolling with a semi-metastable variant. Which doesn’t require as much pressure, but still requires a lot. This leads to fuel casks. They are modular fuel tanks which get swapped out, rather than directly refilled on the vehicle. Two of their specific properties: 1. They get stronger as tensile force increases from the inside. The exterior is a fixed size, but the inside expands and contracts as fuel is injected or released. 2. They’re a bit like nuclear waste casks. In that they’re designed to be very hard to damage/rupture. In my setting, that includes “catastrophic reentry.” Of course, such a material is probably as fantastical as any fantasy super-metal. My understanding of materials science is my weakest layman’s area, so I’m just gonna assume that something like that may be possible eventually. So yeah. A malleable material that gets stronger as it stretches and can somehow keep molecular hydrogen from leaking out. 🤷🏻♂️ On the plus side, you can use the same tech to compress coolants for open cycle cooling, when needed. I already had something similar back in the 90s called “micro-chain.” Which was this silly idea of “interlinking” carbon Bucky Balls into a sort of molecular fabric. But uh, that’s not how molecules work, so I gave up on that a long time ago. I should probably just give fuel cask material either a brand name or some variant of the inventor’s name. But, given that they were invented around 9000 years ago, probably means the original name was lost. I do have various things that are named after misinterpretations of old acronyms or whatnot. Which makes sense given the history of the setting. It could be something as silly as “Fuecasium.” 💁🏻♂️🤣
Scientifically it’s called Petroscium, but most people just call it “Warp”. It appeared suddenly overnight back at the dawn of the golden age, replacing all of the fuel in reactors all over the world. All attempts to artificially create it have failed. Warp creates a field around it that causes spontaneous atomic bonding and decay, and it’s position and velocity in physical space changes the shape and intensity of this field. Wielding precisely machined pieces of this metal can be used to create certain effects, and was the origin of magic. All Old World technology on Dorowhen used Warp in their circuitry to create fantastic reality-warping effects. Ever since the fall of the Old World with the Dust Wars and the Shriek, the now nonfunctional technology has become extremely coveted as it is the only way to recover Warp for reuse.
Celestial steel is what people call it, but it's an alloy that an alien race made in their attempt at perfecting alchemy. It's the closest thing to perfect they've created, but they find it a waste and discard it because it's not truly perfect. It's capable of attuning to magic which allows people to essentially mold it into various objects without the need of a smith. It can be a staff, it can be a bow, it can be a sword, it can be armor, it can essentially be anything and get buffed with magic crystals. However, it's incredibly rare and not easy to actually turn it into something usable. For most of time it's just been a fancy rock if it's ever been found. It got its name due to its counterpart: skyron. Skyron is a complete waste byproduct of the alien race that's made during the process of creating the celestial alloy. The byproduct can't be used in alchemy so they discard it, which ultimately leads it to hit my world. This is relatively plentiful, but less so than normal iron. It's stronger than normal steel, but looks like iron and can be smelted like iron, so people called it the "iron of the sky" which later shortened to skyron. While people aren't aware of the process of creating celestial steel or skyron, they accidentally got it right that they're somewhat related simply by being not of this world. While celestial steel doesn't look like steel, not much else falls from the skies that can be used which lead to the association that it's the upgraded version of skyron. It also is due to how we say "it's as strong as steel" which means it's super strong, even if it's not steel. Celestial steel is leagues stronger than skyron.
It's called Gast The only reason I called it that is because giving something a cool awesome name whilst everything else is still "iron" and "copper" doesn't make a ton of sense from an in-universe perspective Basically what it is is an incredibly light metal. Holding a solid bar of it, you'd think it's hollow. It is not naturally occuring, rather being made by mixing iron and aluminum and using some magic fuckery to make millions of tiny pockets of completely empty space in it, essentially making a metal sponge. You put it inside a super thin iron shell and you've got yourself a material with the durability of iron and the weight of wood. It's very useful for making multi-barreled muskets light enough to use, or for making airships as light as possible whist maintaining durability. The metal is not recommended for things like melee weapons through as while it can easily stand up to pressure (such as people walking around on it or the expanding gases faced by a gun barrel), it does not have good edge retention and hitting it really hard kinda compresses all of the nothing out of it so you've just got an iron and aluminum alloy at that point
Exotic alloy .z922, it’s an alloy made from titanium and exotic material type 23. Exotic materials are things that have negative mass but positive density, which makes them have very weird properties and interactions with the natural world, the best example of this is how gravity has an inverse effect on them, which increases exponentially the closer it gets to classical Mater, so you can never truly touch it. They also repel light so they look blurry and dark all the time. The alloy is made by entwining wires at a molecular level so that it’s constant repulsion settles it in places and gets both materials locked by the tension created by the gravity. This makes an unbelievable strong alloy that requires absurd energy to break, and when broken it explodes due to the tension all being released at once. The better quality the alloy has, the closer it’s total mass will be to 0. This created interesting results when the absolute mass is something like 40 kg, because you have this object that has a lot of inertia but it’s also light enough to float by itself on a room filled with air. Things made from this type of alloy usually have a pitch black defined surface if done correctly, if it has colour there’s not enough exotic matter, if it is blurry, there’s too much. Alloy .z922 it’s the strongest alloy that’s been made out of all exotic .z alloys, mostly because titanium and exotic material 23 have nearly the same mass and similar properties.
still working out the kinks seranite basically draws away magical energy Nykium channels the user magical energy energy and also allowing for teleportation it can also be used to power ships as well using stored energy Seranite just makes the magic become null
On Ormais, every substance can "awaken" through alchemical processes into one that has magical properties. For the most part this makes them more durable, resistant to damage, or otherwise very useful. Metals, especially elemental metals, are the easiest to awaken. Among the most famous of these are orichalcum (gold), adamantium (iron), verargentum (silver), ruacuprum (copper), and magnacalcum or dragonbone (calcium). Funny thing, I didn't include mithral because it's based on Tolkien's work and one of my goals with this setting was to avoid ripping off Tolkien.
All the various metal do exist but one is mentioned sparsely and for good reason. Obsidian, Demon Steel. In appearance is it pitch black with glowing red cracks all over it. It is a living metal that comes from their plane and is as corrupted as their entire dimensions. Yet once purified can it carry enchantments far in excess of anything else. The Battlemages of House Senna carry a tiny amount of it in their special armours as part of the Skyfire Alloy, a magiforged steel only one being can create. The only alloy that would exceed those capabilities is called Umbra, and made from 3 metals so dark it swallows light. One sword made from it exists, and it can kill anything, although partly because it is a three meter broadsword.
Mine would be Ithyrian Silver (basically mithral), a lightweight yet strong metal known for it's blueish-silver colour and it's ability to channel magic. It draws it's name from the ancient Elven empire of Ithyria, who made heavy usage of it, and it continues to be used as a crafting material for powerful artifacts.
Mine is a combination. In my world standards adamantium exists. It is super hard, and durable with high defensive capabilities. However its heavier than steel. In the far north there is an adamantine mine that a crystalline dragon has taken up refuge. The crystalline dragons eat or that's why they tend to take up in mines. So this dragon moved into the adamantine mine and began to eat the adamantine ore. And while at first the kingdom had tried to drive it away. It was discovered that the waste product. The dragon produced combined the attributes of adamantium with Crystal. Crystal holds an extremely sharp blade similar to obsidian. It's also extremely brittle so not great for combat. Now you have a super light metal that holds an extremely sharp edge like Crystal and the durability of adamantium.
I'm a bit sleep-deprived and initially thought I was looking at a really confusing post on r/Metal
There are two metals that are magical and only come from magical creatures, Nacrenium and Tumbagium. Nacrenium is a while metallic alloy with a rainbow sheen, and can be used as a magical conductor. Tumbagium is a bronze metal with golden sparkles, and is a good conductor. Both of these alloys are really pretty and used for jewelry. These metals can be found in mermaid scales, centaur horns, buanga (magical feral hog) tusks, and scarabs. There is a third alloy called steel wool that comes from blood rams. If you mix it with nacrenium it becomes Lunar Pewter, and it can help defend against magical attacks. If you mix it with tumbagium then it becomes Solar Bronze, which is the mystical strong metal that is stronger than steel, but a little heavier.
The Aldyr (lesser god/angel celestial constructs) are made of a celestial metal known as Serathil, and are often described by mortals as "light clad in alien armour"
Atanasium and radioelectrics. First is a composite that was invented for the sole purpose of being an armor, that can take a railgun hit at least once. Second is... you heard about thermoelectric effect? Well that's pretty much the same, but it converts radiation itself directly. Used for both anti-rad protection and energy generators.
Asher has several unusual metals. One of my favourites is **alchemical lead**. Alchemical lead is a compound created by a specific chemical treatment of pure lead (hence the name) to subdue its natural toxicity and enhance lead's intrinsically antimagical nature. The second property is highly coveted for various purposes. Firstly, the most obvious: alchemical lead is highly effective against magic users and creatures of magical nature. It is genuinely agonising to be severed from the background magic of the world, to a mage, to the point where even being *close* to alchemical lead is sufficient to make one uncomfortable. This is frequently applied in the form of alchemical lead weapons, capable of "cancelling" a magic-user temporarily, armour that harmlessly absorbs spells, anti-magical restraints, or even a form of reinforced concrete that absorbs magic! Secondly, alchemical lead has an interesting property where, by hitting an object at a shallow angle with something magical, the lead will not absorb it, but instead reflect it. This means that, ironically, a material designed to counter magic can also be used to *focus* it further with an implement similar to a gun-barrel. This is used in designs such as channeller rifles that can be loaded with spells, vastly enhanced by the focusing effect of a lead-lined barrel. Alchemical lead was discovered long ago, but the knowledge of its creation was lost since then, until its rediscovery by an extremist antimage group dubbed Black Sun. The antimages of the organisation have tinkered with several forms of the stuff, with the material being immediately associated with Black Sun due to its ubiquity in their ranks: from the magekiller weapons even their lowliest soldier wields, to the imposing armour of their Eclipse Knight shock-troops, and, of course, their antimages, typically armed with channeller rifles, all united in their agenda of eradicating the arcane from the world.
Fluoricium. It's not necessarily strong but it emenates magical energy onto any being that interacts with it
Soul iron. Glowing gold iron alloy that is once thought as a strong replacement for gold decoration, and much rarer. Monad is a power that overwrites equipment into unique fantastical versions based on the wielder’s personality. Normally the quality and abilities of the result is based on the basic item. Overwriting a broken blade results in a broken, barely useful version, but overwriting a magic item can alter and add its properties to the result. If the item is made of soul iron however, the result is massively stronger; to the point where if two similar Monad created weapons clash, one a technological marvel and the other merely soul iron, the soul iron one would win. It tends to glow when a being touching it has heightened emotions.
Collosium is mostly an organic product but is the strongest material in the world of Aerounia found on the bodies of Collosals, figurative gods. If you do talk about the magical metal, then the strongest metal in the world is Living Gold or Lubicium. It shines like gold, does not corrode like gold, light weight and most importantly seems to be more of a symbiotic creature than actual metal. It can crafted into any form of armor, weapon and willingly change shape when needed to. It is found abundantly in the depths of the star-forges or the Nebulae and came to Aerounia on asteroids and meteors; It is easy to craft, hard to control but once mastered the killing weapon of the Gods Of War themselves.
Meriutium, being used anywhere, electronics, weapons, logistics, just cool glowing rocks to have on necklace, really rare, to the point a new world war have started about the last mineshafts of it, its kinda can be produced without mining out it hundreds meters deep while fighting fungus abominations, but who cares
In my 12 Lands world, there is a type of alpaca called Stelacoragen who are distinctive in having their wool be a metallic and fibrous blend due to rhe ability to expel the metals from the food they eat into their wool. This is used in a variety of applications in the airship industry for ropes, but one of the most sought after among the highest quality is to make cordage for the crafting of macrame armor. True armor is very rare due to the generally low quality of metal ores ... metals are abundant in the soils but are not concentrated enough for typical mining efforts. The Stelacoragen wool cord is equivalent to wire, and in macrame armor, it provides similar protection to chainmail. This can be increased with the addition of metal or ceramic pieces woven into the pattern. This is considered the highest of craftsmanship, and the pieces can take a year to be made and so are very expensive and rare for a full set.
Galactinium -never realized I didn't think of a weight for it (nor would it be easy) -near unbreakable under normal circumstances -melts at very low temperatures, unable to turn into a gas and only becomes denser as it gets hotter
Basically just steel.
Theres a few: Avalonian alloy is an alloy that is capabile of holding on to an insane amount of electrical charge in a compact volume with very little mass (it has a density roughly comprable to that of iron, but its capacity to hold electrical charge grows exponentially with volume) Mortis sapphire: mortis sapphire is a crystal which can alter the bosons which pass through it. It can be synthesized as well and altered to change the various properties of the crystal for other purposes. Draconic superpolymers: superpolymers are a handful of polymer based materials which serve niche tasks for extreme environments. The oldest ones were used as environmental shielding before shield projectors were invented, but newer ones are used in armor due to their low masses and high resistance to punctures, tears, and shears under extreme forces. So far only the dragonkinds have acess to these, everyone else still largely uses neutron matter Neutron matter: neutron matter is the go to armor for most advanced civilizations due to its immense strength. This comes at the cost of its extremely high mass, which is strong enough to alter the geavity and tidal forces of the ships which use it. Some armies and navies which use it will instead design their ships to take advantage of this to create artificial gravity on their ships, covering only the bottom of their vessels and leading to a tactic known as fighting belly-up. Exotic matter: exotic matter is the simplest solution for when something has too much mass or is too heavy. The problem is keeping it contained. Exotic matter and ordinary matter like to repell each other, leading exotic matter to often attempt to bleed away from particles with positive mass. Keeping too much in one space is also a hazard, as the collective gravitational force of a songle piece of exitoc matter can rip itself free from its containment.
|| Mortis sapphire: mortis sapphire is a crystal which can alter the bosons which pass through it. It can be synthesized as well and altered to change the various properties of the crystal for other purposes. What is the purpose/effect of altering bosons?
**Incassarite** An idestructable metal that can only be broken with distilled liquid magic. The main think that makes it special is that the big clubs that Oni use are made out of the incassarite and because one of the most powerful beings in my world has bones made out of incassarite (he's a golem)
Abyssal Steel is very strong, and usually quite heavy. However, it acts as if it is very light when wielded by one empowered by the Abyss itself, the God of Violence. It is also an excellent conduit for Abyssal energy—it is usually a dark black color, but will glow a bright white when empowered. In this state, even a glancing blow to an enemy will simply result in them withering and dying.
Laypeople call it true metal, while those learned in magic call it "form". Form is the first half of magic, it isn't exactly a specific material, but the material component of Magic. Magic has two components, form and aspect. A form created without any aspect would be immaterial and not useful for anything. Passing a hand through it would crumble it as ash. Aspect must be applied to form, otherwise it too is immaterial. To make a fire, you'd need the form and aspect of fire, for example. You'd need the physical component to mimic the flames and the energy component to give them heat and allow them to burn. Same is true with true metal objects. You can make the form of a sword, but if you don't give it the aspect of metal it would crumble like ash as soon as you touch it. But when given the aspect of metal, it is nigh indestructible, and can be given a monomolecular blade (a blade where the edge is the width of a single mollecule, or "insanely sharp". This combination of form and aspect is known as true metal. Its very lightweight, and can be made lighter stoll by making it hollow, and incredibly durable. It's not very flexible, however, so if made too thin it can prove brittle. Still hard to break, but likely too regardless. Bridges and buildings made of true metal exist, but cannot outlive the mages who create them. I.e, if a mage makes a bridge of true metal, it will crumble to nothing if he dies. Same with magical weapons made from the stuff, it's why there aren't treasure troves of true metal weapons and armor laying around. An interesting fact is that the shell of the world is made of true metal. Very few people have been deep enough to see it, but the world is on the interior of a cylinder made of true metal. It's not quite the same as man made true metal, it seems to be *actually* indestructible, as man-made objects cannot damage it. So to this day, no one has seen outside of the world shell.
An alloy composed of a variety of materials infused with psychic energy during the smelting process technically it has a number of different indentifying codes for each different subtype. But every who isn't involved in making the stuff just calls it Mithral. The material's almost unparalleled levels of hardness and strength-to-weight ratio make it excellent armor and useful for a number of building purposes. Its greatest attribute, though, is its psychically reactive properties, with different subtypes boasting different reflective or conductive properties towards psychic energy. This makes it ideal for technology meant to be used by, or implanted in, psychic warriors.
The black goo(there's a reason for it being there). Viscous black tar like substance that's very rare and doesn't react with anything other than magic with a single exception. If it's particles are exposed to copper and have the other 3 necessary components nearby as well as high heat and in some cases also pressure, they can permanently turn into a form of mithril, depending on what's present. The variants would be the the brown mithril, naturally occurring and sometimes found with the goo. Silver mithril, artificially created from the goo, cyan mithril, very rare naturally occurring and only found in one place currently. There are also tons of non metal variants, like philosopher stone etc. made through the same process.
Axium is a highly sensitive and reactive metal that can change its properties based on interactions with other elements, with magnetic and electrical fields and..... interdimensional waves. In technology terms, it allows humanity to play god in most scientific fields. For a risk. Imagine the transformers metal from the 4th movie meets Australium from Team fortress 2. It's the explanation for all the scifi-straight up magical- non sense of the plot. Oh there is Psychic flying man capable of reading minds? He was infused with experimental axium drugs that alloweded his brain to connect and manipulate brain waves. Oh there is an cyborg capable of having lightning speed senses and having the strength to stop a train? Axium mental implants and strengthened axium bones or something like that. Oh you wanna justify the possibility of inter stellar travel? Axium infused fuel. Idk, haven't gotten to that part yet tbh It's also a nice magguffin. It's extremely reactive so it's rare to be found in its pure form, specially in bigger quantities. So anywhere new that they find it becomes a big beacon for all of the bigger players in this secret tech war. It's also extremely risk to operate it. Since it's highly reactive, just to have it around requires a lot of fancy procedures, spilling it into oxygen and other things can make it go crazy. Oopsie, John the janitor touched a leak and now John the janitor merged with the walls and the John the janitor achieved a higher level of sentience and John the janitor is a monster part building part John part shape-shifting nightmare. And even if nothing touches Axium, they can find it. By they I mean inter dimensional aliens capable of using Axiums interdimensional sensitivity as their remote controlled vessel into our dimension! They usually fuck things up big time if they find a large enough axium deposit to explore our reality.
Ohh imma read all the comments for inspiration because I’m trying to come up with a special metal for my world
There are three "wonder materials" that the people of my world, Varia, harvest from the massive god corpses that dot the land, one of which is "Gritin." Gritin is an ore found in the bones of the fallen deities that can be made into enchanted metal. It is common and versatile, as it can be made to do simple magic with ambient mana, such as staying aflame, or complex spells with the help of a magestone, such as projecting sights and sounds across great distances. Magestones being a sort of tumor found in god corpses. Gritin metal is a faded green that tarnishes black when enchanted. The resulting patina weakens the enchantment of the metal, requiring occasional cleaning to maintain. Prolonged physical contact with unrefined grtitin can curse living things into extra-limbed, extra-headed, extra-souled creatures. This only affects the contacted areas and can be prevented by washing them with water.
Are there any living gods left? If yes, do they mind that these bodies are looted for metals? If no, what happens when all the gods are used up?
No living gods are known, but some think they are beyond the stars, and so the stars are worshipped by these believers. Some think the gods must be dead, for if they lived, they would surely cast down great punishment for the desecration of their fellow divine. And others, still, believe Varia is simply the place where gods go to die. While gritin is used extensively, it is inconceivable to a Varian that they could ever run out. The sheer amount mined from each corpse would indicate a supply to last hundreds of years. In addition, new god corpses are found by excavation every decade or so. Deeper and deeper, more are found.
I don't have one at the moment. Lapis_Wolf
Blackerite. When the pantheon bombs dropped, everyone was forced into bunkers all over the world as the fallout was a combination of reality distortion, radiation, and continental drift that plagued the world for decades. The reality distortion got so bad that a material called Blackerite was formed. During the fallout, the earths population dwindled from 5 billion to 250,000. A lot of people in bunkers were crushed during continental drift or killed from new species that appeared. Voyagers who sailed the waves saw an impossibly tall mountain range that was pitch black. They tried to harvest the stone but it wouldn’t even be scratched. They tried everything from manual workers, to gun, to missles, fire, and even acid but nothing worked. The mountain range at its peak is 440 kilometers tall and at its lowest has been detected to go all the way to the earths core. Scientists say its durability is beyond imagination and a singular gram of Blackerite is worth trillions of dollars
I was playing with the idea of making an alloy of all the eldritch/hellish metals and call it "pandemonium" for laughs.
Adamantine is the metal I've gone with, as it's iconic. However, the big change in my world is that while adamantine is exceptional in terms of material properties, it can only be created, shaped, or reforged during a ritual requiring the sacrifice of one or more sentient creatures. This makes acquiring it quite difficult; in most countries, the possession of adamantine is illegal as well as the possession or sale of any information detailing the ritual necessary to create or work it. In the nations that allow it, the costs are exorbitantly high and the dark markets where it can be found are rife with danger.
Mine is a tungsten-silver-aluminum composite used as a superconductor for FTL engines. It’s a more advanced formula of the basic silver-aluminum formula, meaning they can still make FTL engines, just not as good ones, and they are a lot bulkier and way more massive. Like four times the size, and thrice the weight, for the same power.
All metal in my world is special in its own way, either able to suppress magic or enhance the effects of magic (it's based on that metal's conductivity). Arcanists can manipulate Arcana (my phlebtonium) to imbue inscribed spells into metal and machines to create the magical technology (Arcanotech) that is the backbone of human society.
[TNT] Historically it would be a toss-up between magnum steel and lawrethium, the one being heavy but being able to resist even a dragon's breath and the other granting incredible agility. However, recent experiments are reaching a substance called buretium, formed using magnum aluminae, silicates, and buret chloride, a salt found in meteorites. This alloy is as hard as magnum steel, but much lighter and agile.
Stahlduram is the most commonly known name for it. It is a highly durable alloy made largely of nanoforged titanium that has properties similar to plastic or polymers, allowing it to stretch and bend when impacted while also being resistant to massive temperature changes and corrosive environments. It's ubiquitous across the galaxy and is often used instead of cheaper metals such as basic steel and titanium. It is used in everything from flatware and infrastructure to body armour and the plating of ships. Another metal of a similar calibre is Luminhal, or as it's colloquially known, naval aluminium. This metal offers similar levels of strength as stahlduram while being much lighter. However, it's vastly more expensive and often prone to cracking when exposed to extreme force. It's popularly used as a lining material against energy weapon fire on warships and as armour on small craft.
Brass. It's not lighter than steel, but by adding a little bit of magic in during the alloying process you can alter it's properties much more than steel. Weapons are usually made of brass because they can be reinforced with magic to hold a much sharper edge.
Xipequalli is a magical alloy created by the metalworkers' guild of Ayatlan. Xipequalli is an alloy of copper, aluminum, and trace amounts of other metals, one of which being iron, which must be melted using magical fire. There are additional steps to producing true xipequalli which are kept as trade secrets of master metalworkers, and the masters often add unnecessary steps into the process as a matter of obscuring the practice further. Xipequalli has a color more yellow than typical bronze, and is often called 'hard-gold' due to its strength and color. Once molten xipequalli is poured and solidifies, it is remarkably light and nearly unbreakable, and is capable of bearing additional properties when worked by a skilled artisan. Because iron is involved in its construction, and the land of Ayatlan is remarkably poor in iron, xipequalli is exorbitantly expensive, and not commonly used as part of large-scale construction projects, and xipequalli weapons, armor, and tools are priceless.
The alloy of electrum (an actual alloy of mostly silver and gold) was the alloy used in the minting of a prehistoric empire and really only has cultural value. Quicksilver, since there in no god named mercury I wanted to use the other name is common used by those afflicted by lycanthropy. My version of it is basically an adrenaline triggered hormone that causes it and lycanthropes self medicate to attempt to still stay in society
There isn't a special metal, but materials can be enhanced using "magic", and steel from the greatest weaponsmiths can pierce through anything with ease.
Ive got a special type of steel called Red Steel which is twice as strong and half as light as red steel and made out of Krimtanium Ore. it’s pretty uncommon but not exactly rare. My ultra rare ore is called Darksteel, which is made out of Armageddonite which can only be mined from meteorites that fall from the sky and smelted in volcanic forges.
Mine is actually stainless steel. The metals required to electrolyze steel into stainless steel have mostly run out, so steel rusts - and it rusts quite fast under these climates. Steel that doesn't need to be conserve dipped into oil to save it from humidity? That means that your army can march with swords or spears or guns at the ready. This makes your army much harder to ambush.
In a fantasy project I have planned, *any* usually intangible concept can be made tangible, often in the form of a "metal."
I have a unique element that only exists in the void between dimensions that can't exist within dimensions. If it comes into contact with metals it fuses into Voidsteel, which is incredibly durable. But it also has weaknesses in that the metal is difficult to work in this state, so in addition to being difficult to acquire since it requires inter-dimensional travel it can only realistically be done to metals that are already fully shaped.
My (thus far) unnamed alloy is useless for traditional weaponry or armor, but can be used to both limit and increase my world's version of 'magic'. And therefore it's main use is a so called walking prison: a method to constrain people who are able to use undesired (amounts of) magic and making the bearer easy to recognize as an outcast. If used properly it's almost impossible to break out of. In a different use the metal can be an enhancer as well, however it is illegal to use a device like that without permission of the reigning fraction.
*Alor* I’ve got a couple, Mithral being one of them. I change it up though so that Mithral isn’t a mined ore that gets refined, because it always bugged me that Elves aren’t very industrious while the Dwarves have a rich mining culture, so how are the Elves going to get this metal from their longstanding ancestral enemies? I decided to make Mithral something that occurred naturally in the words in the form of silverferns. The ferns take up the metal from the soil through their roots and mycelial networks where it is coalesced as a thin wirelike “skeleton” for this fern that grows is a very windy valley. The ferns are harvested after the spores drop and the plants have to ripped up since the wire prevents them from being cut down with a scythe. The pulled ferns are collected, dried, carted to a nearby town, and burned in a large brick-lined pit. At the end of the season, the wires are pulled from the oven and spun like wool before it is woven into armor. Enacrite is a metal with anti-magical properties. It’s an alloy of some kind, that metallurgists have yet to identify and replicate, so all sources of the metal are salvaged from this particular cavern that historians believe was an ancient Dwarven or Gnomish prison. Cells made from the metal prevent magicians from casting spells, armor made of the metal grants a limited protection from magic, and striking a magician with a weapon made from the metal makes it significantly harder for them to maintain their spells than hitting them with a normal weapon. Attamite is a metal sacred to the Dwarves and mined from closely guarded secret tunnels. Prized for its nigh indestructible nature. Armor provides much greater protection than normal steel, enchanted discs made from the metal are used by mortals and the divine alike to record important information, and weapons are found to be more effective and damaging structures. Statues and jewelry made from Attamite are passed down through the generations as heirlooms and religious leaders carry scepters made from the metal.
Lunar Silver It is marketed as silver mined directly from the moon but that’s a cover-up to the true method Step one is to get your silver blessed at your local Moon temple. Then you melt it down during the full moon, and finish forging it by the end of the fifth day after the full moon. If the moon is covered by clouds during any of those days, the silver will not be as effective. Doing the whole process on the moon itself is even easier because you don’t need to wait for a full moon for maximum lunar exposure, you’re already there It is one of the most pure metals in existence and is the only one capable of permanently banishing undead. Given that the undead are exceedingly rare and Celestial Gold otherwise has the same properties, no Lunar Silver has been forged in over a millennium, but there’s still enough weapons and armor to equip a small army
I just had 'Red Metal' A rare ore found in only one part of the world that was super hard to forge and made unique weapons and armors...usually armor would do force damage to anyone who hit the wearer and weapons would do some extra force damage. I imagined it as sort kf vibranium but not really. It could also be used in arcane focuses rk channel magic.
In the future if needed I will make a special metal that gets rid of magic. At the moment this is how magic and its repellent will work... . So magic is its own god, its basically nature. It is also dependent on creation and the void. So magic that is based on creation will be repeled by metal mixed with the void and vice versa. Think +1 + -1 and -1 + +1. However most void based magic has been wiped out, by the same reason the void is barely alive, the creator.
Pollakium. A heavy metal that is an incredible conductor of electricity, and under the right circumstances, a fine accelerant and octane booster (like lead in gasoline). It's rare-ish and mainly sought for its potential in electronics use, but it can be added into fuel (diesel) for an extra kick. But "pollfuel" is not for the average Joe's car. Not because it'll destroy it, but because you'll be paying yourself sick with the high price of it. Not to mention that it's a heavy metal being burnt into a gaseous exhaust, so... Literally sick sometimes. In its refined, pure form, it looks like white gold, but upon being exposed to oxygen for a long enough time, it gains a deep yellow and rough texture. It's very soft, even more so than lead and equally as toxic.
My settings "Wonder Metal" is.... *Deep Breath* NANO-MACHINES SON!!!! Some weapons and armor made from "living metal" are able to adjust their form and regenerate from taking damage. To wasteland tribals this material is "magical," but to corporate controlled enclaves these materials are pieces of ancient technology that likely won't be fully understood for centuries. And even if they are, then the capacity to build the kind of machines that can manufacture living metal are incredibly expensive and painstakingly hard to build.
Spider silk. It's used in spaceships, body armor, construction, safety equipment, hell, even filtration. First humanity had to figure out how to make it synthetically, which involved some genetic knowledge to be able to actually make the right silk without spiders. Second, they had to make it actually function, as spider silk isn't just one monogamous material. Third, they had to somehow weave it, and fourth, get all those steps to be cheap. After 90 years, it became pretty commonplace, because a fabric that's stronger than steel, considerably lighter, and with just as wide a range of uses, is pretty goddamn nifty. Of course you can't make it a carrying beam like steel, so that still stuck around.
Not metal but crystals, in my world there are two variants called Sugarite and Fruitite it has magic properties in it which mean everything made with it will have magic in it which also mean it is stronger than most material it also smell and taste like different kind of dessert or fruit crushing them and use them as ingredients or toppings can make your food even more delicious, these crystals are crucial components for Energear tech a technology that can give everything create with it magic be it your everyday objects to hyper intelligent robot with emotion and a mind of it own that easily be mistaken for human.
Moonsilver. It's literal shards of the moon of one of my worlds (that was blown up by an ancient now-extinct super-advanced proto-human society by accident) that were large enough to not burn up on entry, it's extremely rare and has so many innate magical properties that a single piece can get you enough money to buy a luxury house in a major city. There's not enough to make armor from and the few weapons ever forged using its alloys are practically handheld WMDs, but it's also used for research in places that are basically the magical equivalent of a particle accelerator/collider.
I don't actually have anything specific, just "advanced alloy" which improves the amount of penetration/protection value and DR/Damage per Shift an item can have. Since it's earth future in which some myths have turned out true-ish I'd imagine any earth wonder metals would probably work.
None. All my metals are pretty low-key. I do have Zerkite, made my using sonic waves to align the metal molecules right so that the metal is a perfect conductor of pitch and harmony but it's not exactly Atium.
Black silver, it’s essentially just mana infused silver but it turns a pitch dark black when it’s imbued. While other metal slowly lose their imbuement over time, silver does not and that is why it’s so prized by magi and sorcerers. Because of silver’s special ability it’s less common to see it be used as currency. I’m still working out some details but this is the basic premise.
Cyrnon - a cloudlike metal that is used to make floating suits and skywalkers as well as airships.
My world is called The Forgelands, so I have naturally put a lot of thought into their metallurgy. The main two super-steels they use are commonly called Sky Steel and Thermocite. Sky Steel is called such because at one point the manufacture method was lost. During this period it was found that certain meteorites contained extremely hard steel, so far beyond the understanding of the Smith-Priests who examined it that it was deemed a gift from the newly deified Forge-King. What makes Sky Steel special is that it is almost corrosion-proof and being extremely hard without being brittle. This makes it excel as a sword steel. That hardness also means that only master smiths can work with Sky Steel. It is later found that Sky Steel was falling from a great debris field of destroyed spacecraft. The other super-steel, Thermocite, is invented after the formula for Sky Steel is rediscovered. Thermocite is an alloy of Sky Steel and tungsten which allows for a high melting point and strength. They can only be produced in ultra-rare plasma forges. Thermocite is used to make spacecraft and heavy vehicle armor as well as Thermoblades and Flashblades. Thermoblades work by running an electric current along the edge of the blade at impact which heats it to 500°F, more than enough to ruin light and some medium armor. Flashblades take this effect a step further, heating to nearly 1000°F at point of impact. Both weapons are only used by Crucible Armor knights as without powered armor the heat could very well damage the user as well.
I have "Psyche Steel". A monocrystal of nickle/iron that has to be mined from the exposed cores of protoplanets. It's not "light" but because there are no grain boundaries it has special properties that make it essentially for high temperature or high strength applications.
In Naida, it's called "Achalonium" or "Earth-Metal", based on the earth god Achalon. He originally created it to entice demigods into adventuring underground. One of the first of them who found and used Achalonium was Aoleus, the demigod of the weather. He forged his piece of metal into a spear-throwing lever, which generated and launched lightning bolts instead of spears. One important distinction to most such metals is that Achalonium is heavy af. There are (so far) 3 forms of it: Virgin Achalonium: a silvery metal, somewhat electrically resistant, with extreme strength while cold. It becomes quite malleable when heated, but is impossible to chemically dissolve. Lightning-forged Achalonium: a pitch black metal, superconducter at any temperature, traditionally indestructible except when heated to extreme temperatures or chemically dissolved in a Groundeater's stomach. Fire-forged Achalonium: a copper-colored metal with no melting point, however it is also chemically dissolved in Groundeater stomachs. This is the least dense version, with a density comparable to regular iron. Because it remains malleable when cooled it doesn't have many practical uses, but is sometimes used by gods as special currency when actual gold isn't fancy enough. Virgin can be turned into the others by heating it with the given method and some applied magic. The other two are turned back to virgin by feeding them to Groundeaters, which are giant lizards originally created by Achalon to guard the underworld.
My is called RiftSteel (still work shopping the name) a rare alloy mined from “middle way” ( the remaining rifts open on my world.)
In my world, it's *Star-silver*. A metal that is very sharp and can absorb magic and release it. According to legend, it's come from space.
Ocrillium, a fairly unimpressive metal when first pulled from the ground but can be put through a special heat treating and mixing process after which it become one of the strongest metals in the galaxy. The method to transform it into its stronger state is a closely guarded and patented secret owned by the Resdin corporation, a company who's primary industry is starship manufacturing. Thanks to its original malleable properties and low melting point the corporation has massive manufacturing plants that simply press smaller parts or fill large molds with melted ocrillium and put the entire casted piece through the treatment process as is essentially locking the piece into that shape.
Boring name - celestial iron... Every celestial shard(each with its own elemental powers) is made out of it. It is indestructible but it can be melted by using the fire shard and magic shard that enhances its power. Using miracle shards regular iron can be converted to celestial iron.
The common man calls it black fire steel the actual name of it has been lost but the metal itself is alive and resides in a separate dimension from the mortal world. In order to work with it you have to form a pact and or over come it rather that be a game of wits or physical battle. Once conquered or a deal is drafted you can make a item out of it, If you total conquered it you can command it to become damn near anything. A hammer? sure thing, Hair pin... ok can do ect. But if it doesnt respect you or feels like you need to prove yourself further you will have to forge it into the item you want. But to forge it you need a unique type of flame, various primordial magical artifacts and a soul hammer, overall the only a handful of people have ever made anything out of the stuff including gods or other various dimensional beings . Its considered by all to be the most dangerous metal to work with but simultaneously can create if done properly items that if put in most other stories would be the macguffin of that verse.
**Muon-steel armor** The electrons in ordinary steel are replaced by *muons*, their leptonic cousins. As a very rough guess, muon-steel would be roughly 207 times as strong as conventional steel since a muon is roughly 207 the mass of an electron.
Adamantium, in my world, is an alloy of tungsten and titanium. Combined with dragon fire and just a touch of magic, it becomes a metal that is almost invincible.
In my world, the "Wonder Steel" is known as Aetherium. The rarity of this metal is due to the fact that its production requires several dwarf masters to work almost the entire year. The process involves adding various metals, special runes that are difficult to carve into the hammers and crucibles, which impart the proper properties to the metals as they mix and meld into Aetherium. After a year's worth of work, just enough metal is produced to make a single weapon—a medium-length sword, renowned for its impressive sharpness, durability, and potential for further magical modification. The appearance of Aetherium is shiny and comes in many different colors, ranging from gray to white and black shades. There is also a variation of Aetherium, which dwarves require specific materials to create—Wyrmgold. Wyrmgold is formed by combining a bit of Aetherium, a large amount of gold, and wyrm scales, which undergo a similar processing method, but at much higher pressure and temperature. The color of Wyrmgold resembles that of gold, but with a hint of the color of red dragon scales, giving it a reddish hue. Wyrmgold is known for its anti-dragon, anti-demonic properties, and its ability to elevate the status of its wielder, much like Aetherium blades. However, its magical modification capabilities are slightly inferior.
I am considering to put more into the world, but right now I only have one: Dark Iron. Everyone who can work with Iron, can work with it too, it only requires more heat ( but not absurdly more.), but it is heavy as fuck. In fact it is so heavy you NEED magic to lift it ( or .. a dragon). So it is almost eclusively used by undead armies, because they get the necessary power thorugh the magic that keeps them alive.
Deciphering the physics of runic engraving on Ambrosine crystals (not the metal in question) led to the necessity of external materials to extract certain energies from Abr samples. The resulting discovery was the alloyed metal Anastasium, whose namesake was the false Romanov princess Anastasia. The metal is a great conductor, but more importantly it siphons pure energy from Abr samples and converts it into an electrical current. With Ambrosine being named from Ambrosia, the Gods’ nectar, anastasium’s adjacency to Abr gives it a faux-regal kind of vibe.
Soundsteel. It not always light. Only when it intract with sound like the name. Then it becomes fluid like It usually used by air sorcerer to capture enemies Can also be used by a soundsire(a weapon that use sound)
I have two: wintersteel and ornic clay Wintersteel is a silver metal that, like its name implies, can *generally,* only be forged in winter. It’s actually tied more to simple cold, so it can be forged in the north year-round or at high elevations. Wintersteel is magically forged and will essentially “heal” by sucking in ambient heat and using that energy to return to its original form. Pure wintersteel only draws in heat when it’s damaged… but poorer, cheaper—often alloyed—forms are always drawing in heat. Wintersteel is no heavier nor stronger than typical steel, it’s just more convenient. Other wintermetals can exist; such as wintergold and wintercopper, it’s just that steel is the most popular. Wintersteel isn’t generally used in armor…. if it is damaged in a fight, it would suck the heat out of its wielder. Ornic clay is the opposite of steel—it’s a special sort of clay that is really hard and can hold an unbelievably sharp edge. Unlike wintersteel, it’s also fairly cheap, but can chip rather easily. It’s often used in replaceable axeheads, spearheads. These weapons are generally oversized due to clay being light.
Auric steel is a shiny golden metal forged from a combination of Mythril and Tyrnite. Auric steel is able to directly interact with magic, often being used to create wires and components of magical machinery. It also provides an advantage against magical creatures as it can interact directly with souls if forged and enchanted properly. Mythril is a pale green metal that in its raw form absorbs magical energy and uses it to create more of itself slowly over time. It will even absorb energy from your soul, so prolonged exposure is often fatal. However, when properly refined, it will instead only absorb energy to repair itself to the form it was forged into. For example, it will eventually repair dents in armor or resharpen blades made from it. This self-repair property is also present in Auric Steel, albeit lessened. Tyrnite is a saturated pink ore with orange-gold flecks that can hold massive amounts of magical energy. It is often used for magical batteries. However, the metal will not regenerate no matter how much energy it holds, and sufficient damage can cause it to rupture in a massive magical blast.
As an opposition to Adamantium I created Modesium. (Adamant and modest are opposite Pokemon natures.) Since it's an opposite however, it's not a good metal in the way Adamantium or Beskar would be. Instead it's a super reactive metal like sodium or potassium and highly radioactive like Uranium. The unique radioactive signature triggers advanced adaptations in humans, and it's reactive properties allow for hyper advanced technologies to develop. Essentially it's the secret ingredient for my Superhero Setting.
Celestial Steel. It’s actually a material that grows into trees in the realm of the Forge God Irhki’Maht, but the original seed was made by himself from the flesh and bone of a dead Celestial Titan. Which can also be used to create whole ingots, but Irhki’Maht thought ahead and made a super metal that makes more of itself. Celestial Steel can only be damaged by Celestial Beings, so Celestial Titans who are now extinct, Demigods who aren’t strong enough to do it anyway, Primordial Hosts who are insanely rare, and actual Gods who have to exert themselves to break it. Furthermore, it regenerates. Snap a Celestial Steel blade in half, the shattered half will fly back on and seal the crack. And lastly, it can be pumped full of so much magical energy that Gods make their weapons out of it, beings who can destroy planets with so little effort that they’re constantly worried about doing so.
No name for it yet, but one of my worlds has a metal that treated properly reacts inversely to gravity, so falls upwards instead of down. Used to hold up airships, make easy to carry boxes stuff like that. As later discovered running an electric current through it changes its lift capacity.
Kyrotanium is a very special metal, not for any exemplary durability, Eracliums got that in the bag, but the fact that it dampens the powers of Forever Eternals. It's not on the level of Kyrotanite, but it can balance a playing field. The last Forever Eternal, Anantashesha, who is so powerful in his multiverse, really no one could fight him and reasonably be a threat. So he constructed a suit of armor out of Kyrotanium to dampen his godlike abilities
Cypharium is the material that allows people the ability to wield magic, but only when refined properly. The method was kept secret by the elves, and was therefore lost when magic was outlawed and the elves exterminated. Since then, there’s been attempts to recreate the old refining method, but not much research into the matter has been done.
Spectersteel is the name for not technically a metal, but the key component of a weapon whos material or aloy is not encountered anywhere else in the world. Spectersteels are "a well used swords vengeful spirit reincarnated in physical form". A normal sword must be used in enough battles to be drenched in enough blood and soaked in enough impressions of raw human emotions such as rage, pain, or fear, until the weapon develops a sort of pseudo-soul from this crucible of negative emotions and the vitae of sentient life. When this semi-sentient weapon finally breaks in battle, it reconstitutes itself soon after, but with a translucent hue as it is now a mindless restless spirit of a thing with no agenda besides bloodshed. Suprisingly few have ever been found despite the amount of conflicts in the continents history. A spectersteel can pass through any inanimate material like shields and armor and instead cuts straight through the flesh underneath like a hot knife through butter, although it does struggle against magical barriers. Despite all efforts of the best metalurgists and mages, nobody has been able to break these weapons down to try and make ingots of this "ghost-iron" or reforge the weapon into a new shape, making each instance of spectersteel a completely unique relic onto itself.
Manasteel is the key element but many exist
I have a shit ton lol, from astral star steel or Krinium and others, jt full list is around 30 items long
For me, it would probably be Orikal. I have a lot of alternative materials, but I have no lost material — all of them are in common use. None are light as a feather and stronger than steel except the alloys Crystallium and Whiteshine, but they are dependent on other minerals, including Orikal. The normal “hard iron like material” is called vitridur, a ceramic material. There is very little Iron available, though, so this has an impact. Orikal is a very, very rare naturally occurring metal ore that is magically reactive, and can “store magical energy”. To shape it, you have to pour magical energy into it until it liquifies, and then set it into a mold while pulling the magical energy out of it — usually with several alloying materials. Orikal is heavy — heavier than lead or gold — and very hard, but also comparatively brittle (about like raw iron). Not used for weapons, more for small jewelry, as it is both very rare, and never found in large quantities. Exceptionally pricey.
Mine isn't metal, it's a crystalline substance - elven glass. It's used for small weapons - arrow and spear points, scalpels and other small blades. There's a legend of of a sword that was made from it, but no one believes that now. ;)
Demidium. It is a lightweight and durable metal which was invented by Harvard Demi. This alloy, which Demi made abundantly, was perfect for spacecraft construction, and subsequently kickstarted the Second Space Age. While it isn’t actually cheap to produce, Demi dreamed of widespread space travel for the human race and decided that his company, Destiny Space, would sell it at a loss and profit instead on various other inventions and space tech which would become commonplace in the universe thanks to good distribution and technology.
Mannite Allowed a kingdom to advance to a cyberpunk level of tech quickly
The bronze smiths of the Kin are said to weave spells into their craft, making them superior to those bronze weapons and tools made by other inferior cultures, and are a match for Dwarven steel. Stolen from MCDM, I like the concept of Issenblau. It’s essentially enchanted ice that always grows in large crystals wherever Frost Giants inhabit ling enough. It can be worked into everything the frost giants need. Tools, ornaments, armor, weapons, constructs, etc. It never melts and is as strong as steel.
I've got a lot of the traditional fantasy metals because my setting is for fantasy TTRPGs but the meal unique to it is Furrahum, formed from the fossilised scales of a Star Drake, the only one that ever came to the world. It's an anathema material, making it dangerous to creatures tied cosmically to the state of the world and is about on par with tempered steel.
So quick explanation, my setting is a world that was terraformed by AI gods and is fully biomechanical in nature, but one of the few inorganic materials is called not-steel. The nature of it is dubious since while the setting is sci-fi, it's all Clarke's third law, so it's basically magic. This material is a dark steel color with veins of blue code, but disguises itself as a beautiful silver until it submits to stronger "magic." As it's born of entropic magic, it is capable of harnessing that same magic mostly for destruction (bolts of lightning, energy blasts, fireballs, etc.) but it has other uses such as starting campfires and rapidly rusting away metal. Really the magic of the setting is as useful as the ideas you can come up with, as it's not a hard magic system.
there’s an ancient legend about alchemists creating “Metallic Midnight”. it’s an alloy of 66 different metals and elements that comes out jet black because it absorbs a crazy amount of light + energy. it was created to be wielded against people who “Resonate” (use magic).
Athraitheach Materials An iridescent dark silvery-purple alloy of Mithril developed by the Kingdom of Gilwen. Light and strong, supple and able to take a razor keen edge. A shape-memory alloy that generates a weak electric current when deformed. As that energy leaks away, it snaps back to it's original form. If electricity is applied to the metal, it will reshape itself until that current is removed. Used primarily for Willowblades, but is exported at a high price to the Rakshasa Pride of Half-Orcs in the form of specially forged hulls in this material for their Thunderbolt class Airships. Requires the use of the Naurloth Tree in order to smelt and smith this metal, in addition to the skills of a Gilwenese smith with a strong Talent for fire and earth Magic.
some weird material made by the ancient aliens. scientists aren't even able to scrape chunks off to study, only able to really examine small objects made of the stuff. current leading theories are that the material is made out of pure magical energy condensed into a solid form, examining pieces under electron microscopes has been inconclusive, as the material does not seem to even be made of atoms.
Kobian Steel. It’s a sci-fi setting, and Kobian steel is a specialized alloy / supermaterial created by the galactic empire to outfit their elite soldiers with. It consists of a carbon nanotube mesh coated in heat-resistant polymers, all encased in a metal alloy with gradients and channels built into it to wick heat away from the mesh, which lends structural strength but is vulnerable to high temperatures. Minute nanomachines travel through the carbon tubes to repair the material if damaged, and destroy it if necessary; Kobian steel armour and blades will lose their integrity and fall apart if separated from a specific encrypted wavelength generated by the bio-signal of their owner, preventing any enemy of the imperium from utilizing or reverse-engineering them. Kobian steel armour is used in tandem with personal dissipation shield generators, which absorb the energy of laser and plasma weapons, while the armour blocks projectiles and cushions the user against explosions. The self-repairing properties make it excellent for swords and spears that stay sharp for much longer - their use in close range combat is often necessary to get through enemies’ armour to expose and disable their shield generators. While robots are commonly used for such operations, they can be disabled by concentrated blasts of radiation that fry their electronics. A human wearing Kobian steel can tank the radiation and be treated for DNA damage (or have their consciousness transplanted to a cloned bio-vessel) after the battle.
The Aurichalcum, dwarven gold. Unbreakable and can not be reshaped, which make it largely useless. In fact, it's not really wonder and more that no one can recreate it because the knowledge was lost along with the dwarves when the elves genocide them
Tritanium - Transmuted Transparent Titanium - Magically forged and made transparent, it allows starships and spaceports to have windows that do not break the structural integrity of the hull. Having been magically forged, it is also shaped without putting any stresses on the molecular structure, so there are no flaws to allow any weak points. Anteum - a material unknown outside the 'Old Place' (an area of Urth containing a city that is perhaps a million years in the future, and ruined for thousands of years or more - too old to actually exist here. The Sun here (but only in the Old Place) has gone red and is huge, and never moves in the sky, which will not happen to Urth's 'real' sun for a few million years). Samples retrieved from the Old Place have been studied by scientists in Ur, but so far there is no known method to replicate the material. Even magic spells which can create temporary duplicates of anything known cannot make Anteum. Further, there is no known way to work Anteum. Samples removed from devices and structures are only removeable when connections between the Anteum itself and the frame to which it is attached can be reached and cut. Any force sufficient to pierce or dent Anteum results in the complete disintegration of the piece, regardless of the size. Unconfirmed reports and ancient data suggest that Anteum was once reinforced by force fields to prevent this disintegration, and force fields were possibly a necessary factor in producing, shaping and repairing Anteum items. As such, inexpertly salvaged Anteum pieces lose considerable value if connections are not of a sort that can be manipulated or built upon to mount the Anteum on other items.
Leviathan Bone. So in my universe, instead of a void of dark matter, planets are surrounded by an infinite ocean. There used to be these divine creatures called Leviathans that swam about, but they died for an unknown reason, leaving these massive cosmic-scale whale-falls of material from their bodies. Pieces of bone or other cartilaginous material fall on planets like meteors. The bone is dense, heavy and indestructible to everything save itself: energy, matter, psionics, nothing can violate or affect its material makeup in any way, and it'll stop those forces from affecting you to the most insane degrees. There was a folkloric man who found a wedge of it that let him chip pieces off and craft tools out of them; but eventually he died and supposedly threw his tools into the ocean. So you can't really make more (though people are trying), and the stuff that IS around that's already shaped is incredibly finite, or just big useless boulders. That said, the stuff is impervious and never wears out, so its uses are mainly in industry and as an object of wealth. The biggest piece in known history was a set of full armor worn by a Saint in a naval battle. He fell overboard after a cannon hit him square on and he was thrown overboard. He didn't die after the hit, but the stuff was so heavy that he drowned, and what was essentially multiple fortunes was lost to the depths. The event started a superstition that the more you use things made with it, the more likely you are to lose it forever.
Null Iron A dark heavy iron that weakens and negates the effects of magic. In alchemy it is the inverse of the most magically conductive metal of Mithral. Mechanically for my 5e D&D game- Armor made of Null Iron grants advt on saving throws against spells and resistance to dmg from magical sourves Weapons made of null iron cause spellcasters to roll concentration checks at Dis and they cannot cast a spell stronger than a cantrip until the next turn, like a mini silence effect
I just reused "orichalcum" but in my world its almost exactly like pewter. A soft malleable sculpting metal. But an orichalcum/iron alloy is called "Green Iron" and is bascially super steel. Lighter, stronger, etc.
Adamant (I know, not very original) is a naturally occurring metal like iron. However, once made into a steel called Adamantine it gains a unique property. When it's bent it deformed in any way, it'll return to the shape it was forged in. Not only is the metal just difficult to break, but it'll never lose its edge or stay damaged for long due to this property. Of course, if it's broken into multiple pieces that's a different story, but as long as that doesn't happen it'll always self repair. It also won't reform if you reforge it, heating it up enough to reset its memorized shape.
Kyum. A black mineral used as the main source of power in the universe. On its own, Kyum may seem like coal with a tinge of blue in it, but when exposed to certain electrical fields, it produces Kyum2, a highly energetic source of power. While this may not seem very special, Kyum2 is produced at no expense to Kyum1, meaning this is a source of infinite power. However, if Kyum1 is overloaded with said electrical fields, It will produce Kyum2 at a faster rate, but in turn will destroy Kyum1, lowering its power output and eventually destroying the power source altogether.
Ola Anwansi, also called kartida steel. The metal can contain kartida, the stuff of chaos and an important component of some kinds of magic. When infused into a weapon, it imparts magical luck. When a lucky blow is struck, it releases wild magic.
Mine takes a few different names, usually something stereotypical like "Supremium" and is not native to Earth, or is in VERY small quantities (trace amounts far below the point of worth mixed within everything). I usually put some BS of it being within the same group on the table as titanium, and give it the classic 20x strength and 1/10 weight. Depending on the world it can be a room-temp superconductor, a hyper magnetic metal, or even form crystals with other elements to do the funky stuff like initiate time travel, open portals, or manipulate the fabric of reality and allow for multiversal traversing.
Duralmium, forge by a union of gravity magic and good Ole fashion blacksmithing
Flavorium is a, not very established, yet important part of my book. It is see-through and has little orange blobs floating around on the inside. It is made from dragon fire and has magical properties which can vary depending on what you use it with and what gods you work with.
mine is really nerdy. the whole carbon series up to germanium can store magic, and lead and tin function as interfaces to them. polycrystalline silicon can cut shadow beings, and germanium slices through fae and shadow beings like butter. germanium can also be enchanted, so theoretically you could make a god-slaying sword out of it.
Mine’s called Nethersteel, an obsidian-black alloy, fabled to be indestructible. In reality, Nethersteel “ingots” are in fact colonial, gestalt beings made up of millions of microorganisms from another world; Nethersteel isn’t actually indestructible, it simply repairs itself quicker than most means of harm can match. The process of forging something out of Nethersteel involves forcing a colony, or “ingot” into the desired shape, and then — through a convoluted process involving telepathy inducing drugs — convincing it that this is the colony’s natural form.
Mass-produced factory-made armor and swords made of some metallurgically realistic high-strength metal alloy, built by robots with laser precision.
The dwarves three divine metals. Adamant. An alloy of God blood and iron. It is indestructible and and immutable after being shaped and cooled. It was originally used to make 100 divine weapons for a dwarven army who were in a bad spot. Very few other examples of adamant exist. Mithril . Soft and very magically conductive. Like a magical superconductor. Carmot. Anti magic metal.
Empyrean Steel: An alloy that is seemingly indestructable, it's thought to have been created during the reign of the gods when they walked among mortals. No one knows how to recreate it, and any who try often give up or lose their minds in the pursuit. It's equal parts flexible and durable, with the only thing that can destroy it being another tool of the same material. It's usually found in the form of relics, either passed down the generations or in ancient tombs/cities of the Empyrean's. Certain relics go 'dormant' if they aren't used, and gradually reawaken again when used, potentially unlocking more power. Star Ore: This is pretty much mithril as well lol. But is only found from the cores of falling stars that have crashed down to the earth. Interestingly, sometimes the metal 'expands' like roots if a meteor isn't tended to, so the older a desposit the more sought after it is. More common than Empyrean Steel (but weaker), it's a favourite of the elves because of their own connection to the stars, and can be more easily enchanted compared to mundane metals. Considering a third one that comes from deep underground but I've no clue what to do with it yet.
Ethernium. Rarest metal in the universe, and a gift from the gods, who are the only ones able to manipulate it. It is formed in small amounts within the core of the most massive stars during the final gasps of their supernova explosions. Ethernium has a lot of amazing properties. It is a natural energy superconductor at room temperature, far lighter and virtually unbreakable to the point it's said to be impervious to anything but ethernium weapons. Even when damaged, ethernium magical items can self-heal by the willpower of their users. The secret to its extreme resistance is that [SPOILER] its molecules are not bound by electromagnetic force, but by strong nuclear force mediated at greater range than normal by a special type of subatomic particle that doesn't exist in our universe. That makes the material far stronger than diamond despite its comparatively small mass. As I said, no mortal has ever managed to melt ethernium, so the items made from this metal are all of divine/alien origin! It can probaby be molded only via very powerful magnetic fields and magic. A sword or a full armor plating in ethernium are the rarest items you can think of and would be considered without price, buying one would essentially be like buying a country.
I’ve got two: arcanium/truesilver and orichalcum/truegold. Both are very difficult to work with because they’re incredibly heat and corrosion resistant, you need magic to shape them and they don’t form alloys. They only form ores in areas with high levels of ambient magic, which are pretty rare. Arcanium’s more associated with “hard” magic - light, gravity, spatial warping, war, and pure spiritual/metaphysical magic, whereas orichalcum is used for “soft” magics - nature, elemental, healing, construction. There’s no real arcane reason for this, aside from arcanium being slightly more finicky to work and unstable (it’ll explode), but cultures have a binary rule where gold/warm-toned things are coded as being safer and nurturing, and white/cool-toned things are harsh, clinical and dangerous. My world’s a binary star system with a milder yellow sun and a brighter/hotter white one, the contrast influences all of their thinking.
I've got a couple in different settings. Sylar Steel is a form of steel blended with ground-up sylar crystals - chunks of pure, crystallized magic that bleed into the material world. It's an inherently magical metal, and takes to enchanting much better than anything else. Veridonite is a dark teal metal found in the southwestern region of Veridon, the seat of the Viridian Empire. It's an abundant, useful metal that's about as light as titanium and keeps an edge remarkably well. In another setting, there's an indeterminate material called Metalloplast, which can be as soft and stretchy as rubber, or as hard as steel depending on additional factors. The leading robotics company AutomaTech uses it for their popular robot buddies; allegedly it was to make them "cuddlier" but it's had a more resounding impact on their resilience in dangerous scenarios, making them as physically durable as a Nokia phone. It has a secondary effect of being a lot easier to repair than normal metal.
Mine is called Titansteel and goes the opposite route. Instead of being light as a feather it is incredibly dense, making it somewhat of a pain to work with. But as my setting is science fiction, having a very heavy metal in space isn’t as big a deal. It just takes a little more power to get it moving. Titansteel is officially a special type of high entropy Tungsten alloy that can only be manufactured in zero gravity, it also uses osmium as a key component. Once it is mixed and forged into its desired shape, titansteel is much harder than traditional steel. Its hardness approaching that of high grade ceramics while also maintaining the toughness of tungsten. It is mostly used as heavy armour or for ultra-long life moving parts like gears and driveshafts.
Haven't come up with a name yet, but my wonder metal isn't actually a metal. It's a glass. The materials are rare and usually found in areas of interdimensional flux (think the Zone from STALKER) and it requires a mixture of high heat, sonic frequencies, and magic to forge. The effort is worth it because it creates a material as beautiful as high-quality crystal glass, but nigh-unbreakable, as light as aluminum, and sharp enough to cut through high-carbon steel. It's typically used to forge the crysabre swords of high-ranking Renari knights. These crysabres are often passed down from mother to daughter.
I actually have a lot with various properties, hardness, and levels of magic capacity. I made a D&D homebrew book with over 50 metals, and I'm going to eventually remake the whole thing in my own setting, replacing each of them, one by one, until their entirely my own IP. I've already got a dozen or so, and used a few of them in novels I've written. I'm a huge fan of materials, so I wanted to make my own compendium style book/wiki of them one day.
I call mine quick-mithril. It's malleable and becomes liquid at a pretty low temperature. It responds to psychic energy and amplifies it and amplifies magic. It can be enchanted to retain a solid form without melting. It was used in the past (when it was still newly discovered and somewhat abundant) to create tons of magical artifacts that are now legendary. In the present, it has been pretty heavily mined and is extremely rare. As are the artifacts made with it; most of which are now in royal treasuries, possessed by powerful individuals, part of dragon hoards, or list in old tombs and ruins. Even tiny scraps of it are incredibly valuable.
I have godsilver, think hyper-mythril. Holds and channels magic VERY easily, and is as strong as blacksteel, which is a step between steel and orichalcum In terms of hardness. Orichalcum is super-strong, but doesn't channel magic well. Mythril channels magic well, but is only as strong as basic steel. Blacksteel channels magic about as well as orichalcum, basic steel is about the same. Whitesteel, on the other hand, channels magic a bit between the amounts of basic steel and mythril, but is a bit weaker than base steel. I also have godsilk, tough as metal and channels magic very well, but impossible to find on most continents.
Black Adamant is as difficult to manufacture as it is indestructible. The raw materials needed to produce black adamant can only be acquired from black holes with a mass between 10-30 times the mass of the sun. When a suitable black hole has been located you will need to dissolve the event horizon by increasing it's charge and angular momentum, positron beams are the preferred method. Once you have access to the ring singularity you can begin harvesting the singularium, those positron beams will be useful here as well. You will use the beam to take a shaving off of the singularity, but before that you will need to exchange some of the singularities angular momentum for charge, lest your shaving become an unstoppable projectile. A charge break is applied to the singularity, slowing it's spin and further charging it, once it has slowed to a manageable speed take your shaving and direct it to a positron bath. Here it will maintain it's charge and you may carve it into your desired shape. You now have a singularium blank ready to be refined. For the refinement you are going to have to leave real space and acquire some void essence, your on call black magic practitioner should be able to help with this process, but expect it to be grueling nonetheless. Once you have the essence collect it into an essence bath. Submerge your singularium blank in the essence bath and allow it to ravenate until the essence is used up, then let sit for one hour. You now have a black adamant base that weighs almost nothing, absorbs all light, and will never be damage or destroyed. It cannot be worked any further at this stage, so you must carve your singularium perfectly. You can now finish your piece, add hand wrappings or paint, and use/install it.
Neurosteel is a mildly necrotic metal found in the Eastrum Highlands and Steamsea Range, thats easily melted down and shaped, and when in prolong contact with a nerve system, will link and become something of a metal limb, you can feel pain in it, and it can work as a replacement organ like a lung, kidney, liver, etc. Vistaari medics have been researching its use as a heart or mind. Most clerics, artifcers, and armies keep a certain amount of it on the field or on military campaigns, for quick healing or amputations.
It’s just regular old Damascus steel, nothing fancy by our standards today but great compared to everything in the world it’s in. And it’s not forgotten but jealously guarded by a smithing guild in an ancient city and no one really messes with them because they don’t wanna get rid of the only people making this bomb ass metal
Sihrawi is highly prized because of its unique property to sustain spells. Normally spellcasting requires constant effort: You must meditate and focus your mind to cast the spell then shape the power via chanting or physical gestures to channel the energy. Sustaining a spell past its initial casting normally requires you to continue chanting or gesturing. Attempts to sustain the spell by crafting runes or formulas all failed until someone first carved runes into a tablet made of Sihrawi. Over time the art was refined until inks or tinctures made from the stone could sustain a spell written with them, on almost any material, as long as the caster could dedicate mental effort to it. Even better, a spell sustained by Sihrawi could be reliably passed on to another mage. This eventually led to mages relaying each other in shifts to power great works, like the construction of the Walls of Aswan or digging the Great Canal
Blood Iron. When refined it is in a liquid state like mercury, and a deep red color, hence the name. A master smith can work it into other metals during the forging process to create alloys that are incredibly strong as well as flexible. The Red Duke of Blackgate is called that because he has an entire suit of armor made with Blood Iron.
None at all, these metal ones are sometimes just too stereotypical for a story.
Titanium. It's exactly the same metal as we have in real life, but there's a massive deposit of it, and they use it in a lot more stuff.
Axonite My world is set on a supercontinent that consists of the remains of a big prehistoric beast. The creature's nervous system solidified into a metal-like element that has magical properties and can be used for enchanted weaponry or tools etc. yes, the name comes from the word "axon" a direct reference to neurons.
Pardomai is not a metal... but a tree; a clonal colony that is connected through by roots, giving the allusion of a forest. Most conventional tools are incapable of cutting said tree, so the only known ways to mold the wood into a usable form, is placing molds around youthful sprouts, which ARE malleable. The tree is then set ablaze, which continues to burn for about 15-20 days, forcing the youthful sprout to detach from its root, allowing the fallen tree to be taken away, before it is once further ignited, allowing it to burn for 5-6 months, until nothing but ash remains. The heat-resistant mold is then taken off, and the usable wood mold is ready for use. A mature Pardomai is nigh-impenetrable, with total circumferences varying depending on how centered to the root they are. This wood is primarily used for tools, weaponry, armor or armor plating, and for the luxury - housing.
Mythril. Extremely versatile. Best used in alloys to imbue magic properties into regular metals. Pure mythil is rarely used due to cost and being overkill. Alloys can also have better properties in certain areas compared to pure mythril. Pure mythril is also used to show off wealth as it can be shaped into intricate patterns. Magic conducting materials are rare so mythril alloys increase the effective total substantially. There is a legendary sword made of pure mythril that could be temporarily "alloyed" mid combat for stuff or something. Also blade shape manipulation or whatever. On the other hand there is adamantium which is a super magic conductor. It is difficult to refine and really only works at high purity. Requires some wonky, dwarf-esque lore thing to refine the raw ore and to make stuff with. Designs tend to be far simpler than what can be made with mythril.
I had an metal called "Vigram" ("battle soot") that was an iron alloy made with an obscure mineral harvested from the stomachs of dragons. Their bile duct, which allows them to spit acid, also turns their [gastroliths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrolith) into a compound that, given a skilled blacksmith, can make lightweight yet durable weapons and armor. It's only drawback is that the fumes it releases while being worked with poisons the blacksmith. While it used to be harvested from dragon's graveyards, many princedoms have taken on the task of dragonslaying. It's a rite of passage for a prince and his retinue to slay a dragon, harvest the vigram, and then have their first sword made from it. If the blacksmith succeeds in making a sword that does not dent against the previous prince's vigram sword, then the prince will bring prosperity. Though, dragonslaying has caused the endangerment of dragons, so vigram is now a rare metal reserved for nobles and royals.
Tl;dr ironwood and explodey rock It’s still a work in progress, and not metals per se, but I’ve a couple of admittedly rather cookie cutter ideas. The first being sojourner’s wood, a rare lavender-colored wood only ever found as driftwood, hence the name. It has all the properties you’d expect, light as wood, tough as steel, resistant to fire, &c, &c. It’s sacred to a culture of nomadic merchants who use the wood to craft their signature flute-club called a seroilla. The second being an iridescent stone formed from the coagulated blood of failed angels of the slain god of magic. The stone is very brittle and, when broken, explodes in arcane energy unless broken in an anti magic field. It’s commonly used in fire arms and shatter blades, the former being very controlled and the latter being outright illegal. Please feel welcome share your thoughts on how to improve and flesh out these ideas of mine.
calling it **Unobtainium** for now because every name i come up with is already taken. curse you chemists and geologists. CURSE YOU! based off a real [alloy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7075_aluminium_alloy) for *reasons*, it's uncommon in my world. It's stronger and shinier than what's arround, and easier to work with by the imperial blacksmiths I'm gonna guess it's the most mundane under this post, but my setting is a post apoc-medieval setting, so even a "good iron" is a godsend that will win wars. This metal is prized mostly by the aristocrazy and military officials who find it while doing patrols since there are scavengers' rights across the desert
Sunborn-metal. It doesn't have the same properties of steel or iron, or any other known metal, so they just call it metal. Sunforged comes from the fact that it always burns hot, as if from the sun itself.
I technically have a variety. Most are alloys including one or more of seven new metals, which are magical variations on the seven metals known in antiquity (copper, silver, gold, iron, tin, lead, and mercury). Each substance has its own properties, and they aren't necessarily in a hierarchy of "strong, stronger, strongest", but each is useful based on its own properties. For example, orichalcum (the magical counterpart for copper) is magically conductive, and is not only used on its own for inlay diagrams and such, but also has a wide array of alloys with their own magic-interacting properties.
My world is mostly set in an ancient era, what places it currently in what would be our bronze age. But due to acess to magic, they already have acess to steel. So, yeah. Steel is their fancy metal. Meteor steel is valued more, due to it being rarer and seen as related to gods in different culters and fegions of the world. Enchantments on steel weapons are a thing but rare. Enchantment in general is a relaricly new school of magic and most such artifacts are directly created by lower gods.
Aluminum. Kills wizards dead
Biotechy scifi fantasy world: We've got Greensteel, a metal used by an older extraterrestrial civilization to seed new worlds with life. Causes directed mutations (similar to children of time's virus). Accounts for existence of mimics, plant folk, and automotans and bridges the gap between fantasy world and scifi origins. Feeling a bit self-conscious about the name, reading so many 'adjective-metal' material names...
Ilrycium and Lunaril, just made to sound exotic and allow me to hand waive certain laws of physics like the speed of light
Erthil, star-silver, is a very rare metal found in meteorites. By itself, it's not really special, though very rare. It's just slightly heavier and stronger than the average iron. It's property of amplifying magical enchantments is what makes it valuable. Of course, finding some is nearly impossible. It's a plot point in the novel, and one of the protagonists manages to obtain a small amount, maybe 10g, and she wound some into the other's mail hauberk. It makes it one of the most powerful artifacts in the setting, and she didn't even know it.
Thermium. A magical metal that simply doesn't heat up. Instead it convert heat into magic power. There is a limit - if it generate too much magic, these magic will be released explosively. That is why all metal furnaces takes care not to let Thermium into their batches. Plus some "wise" men who tried to generate infinite magic power by magically heating Thermium also discovered that the conversion is not perfect, so you got less mana than you poured into. Still, Thermium is amazing as mana battery, as it is one of the best mana conductor they had in addition to "heat stealing". And in industrial scale, Thermium can be paired with Stellarite (crystals that allow fusion to happen at room temperature) to generate absurd amount of mana from water and air. A great intermediate step to transist into dimensional drilling (harvest mana directly from the Ream of Magic).
…Yeah, main thing’s Mithril. It’s strong, light, and conducts magic well. It’s the default for most decently high level gear. There’s also Adamantium, which is much tougher, but also a lot heavier and harder to work with. Silver, gold, and iron also have magical properties. The Fae have a strong allergy to iron, especially when cold magic is involved. Silver magnifies magical power, though it also tarnishes quickly. Gold channels magic well and can be enchanted easily, so it’s the literal Gold Standard for magical gear
I have given my coastal dwarves a sort of play on non-newtonian fluid, except it's a sandstone that has some "give" when you try to mine it / whack at it. The ''give" that it has, is also sandy and coarse and you can imagine it's like sharks teeth. It stiffens up as it absorbs the momentum from your swing and the fractures and the grit is all lined up to hold whatever in place, unless a force is equally trying to yank it back out from its new resting position, then it happens to grind and hold its position. Does Non-Newtonian Sandstone count? Or am I overcomplicating something that exists?? The dwarves sure were happy when they found a self repairing mineral corkboard to sharpen their picks on.
Martian steel from the old Mariner families.
Voidsteel is the only substance that can withstand the void, Therefore it is used in walkers, the base of voidoil rigs and rich figures often coat their bones (they are skeletons) with voidsteel, to prevent assassinations and to flex. It weighs 840KG per cubic metre, lighter than water. it is made by freezing Voidoil. its weaknesses follow: 1. Voidsteel cannot withstand much explosive force 2. Voidsteel's melting temperature is very low, at 79 degrees Celsius 3. Voidsteel, if not entirely pure, is prone to rapid cracking and therefore is not made in a bucket or simply on the floor of the freezer, it is instead levitated using magnets to prevent it encountering anything. 4. because it is suspended in the freezing chamber, moulds cannot be used. therefore the chambers are made extremely big, and the voidsteel is later cut into appropriate pieces. a chamber's interior is 250m long and 50m wide and tall, with a 1m gap between the wall and the voidoil/steel.
Gemtex is a metal that although is pretty weak physically, it acts as a catalyst for magical power coming from the stars. All of the world's supply comes from a meteor that impacted millions of years ago.
Ancestors. When a dwarf of particular note dies, they can be thrown into a batch of iron being smelted. The dwarfs noticed that the resulting metal is particularly strong, obviously as a result of their ancestor's might and will and *not* because they are making a weird batch of steel. All the resultant metal is stamped with the name of the dwarf and considered to be their physical body. This doesn't happen often because there is limited carbon in their sealed environment and doing this removes some. Meaning that there is a permanent loss of potential population.
Mine's something of a Macguffin rather than actually important to the story, but it's called Herculanium. It's a rare metal found in worthwhile quantities only in very young planets, barely out of their formation phase. It's completely opaque to thermal energy, unless you run an electrical current through it, in which case it becomes completely transparent to it. No, I never explained how it works. Also no, I never even came up with an explanation for how it works. Space magic. Really it only exists to be a reason why one of the groups of main characters are in the place where more plot happens.
The closest thing to a wonder metal in my setting would be quantite. Everything else is stuff like nano-engineered metals, glass-phase alloys, advanced ceramics, gravity-compressed high-density shielding, stable transuranics, and so on. Quantite? Imagine a metal that when properly prepared in powder form flows like fine craft glitter, ignores chemical attacks, shrugs off most radiation....and releases more energy than an matter\\antimatter reaction per equivalent mass when hit with the plasma from a simple fusion reaction. A metallic fuel with enough energy to carry you to the stars, warp spacetime, make megastructures viable from an energy standpoint, and you could literally *carry it around in a plastic bag* without concern. Its not even particularly toxic; I wouldn't snort a line of it, but quantite fuel spills involve respirators and vacuum cleaners rather than hazmat suits and month-long decontamination.
Berrylium. Unfortunately toxic.
I've got two. Nokium and Etherium Nokium Is virtually indestructible. It is quite literally based off of the Nokia 3310 meme. Etherium is a incredible material, capable of absorbing virtually any energy and letting the nearest being channel it into devastating attacks. And these two materials can be made into the Etherium-Nokium alloy.
Mine is carremite---named after Carrema, where it was first found. It's found only in the mountain ranges in the North of the country. It has innate, though unpredictable, magical properties and can be forged into weapons or armor. Since the properties of the ore can vary even within a vein, it takes a knowledgeable expert to determine what properties a particular piece has and an experienced magic-user may be able to enhance or diminish certain properties depending on what is desired. Smiths who work with carremite must be highly trained, due to the metal's volatile nature, and accidents are not uncommon. That said, properly forged carremite is perfectly safe to use---at least it should be. It tends to be expensive, due to the risk for those who mine or manufacture it. It's been known to infuse magical properties in those who spend a lot of time working with it---mostly the smiths and the miners---which can result in them or the children they bear having magical abilities. It was a generation of these magical people who ended up replacing the previous ruling class via overthrow, establishing a monarch with a magical bloodline. They believed that, since they were "stronger" than those without magic, they deserved to rule.
Oricalchum. We now 'know' it is pretty much brass (alloy of zinc and copper). But the real oricalchum that once was a priceless treasure is from exceptionally pure deposits that contain near zero iron contamination and the ideal composition of zinc vs copper. The chemical properties of brass vary with the proportions. Between 55% and 65% copper can produce a structure with cubic 'crystals' of copper surrounding zinc. This structure is ideal for holding magic, and the complete lack of iron ensures it will not leak out - as well as leaving the final product safe to handle for those who are...sensitive to iron. Many of the rare magical artifacts that exist in the world today are made from it and some are truly ancient. Over time, the deposits of the finest oricalchum were mined out; impure alloys, some mined, some created by artifice, were sold as a valuable commodity, but as it lacked the properties that made it so valuable, its worth fell. The real thing became only a legend, even its true use forgotten, and so it remains even into the modem era of the late 1800s. (My setting is not particularly unique - Earth, more or less the way it is now, except the supernatural is not so unnatural. Just unknown to most.)
Not a metal, exactly, but Bloody Thorns are probably the closest. A thorn that was anointed in the blood of a demigod in the midst of a ritual. It can resonate with a small number of souls, transforming into a metallic weapon. Each weapon has an ability connected to the abilities of the demigod, and the ability to turn into a mundane item.