Sorcerous Substances
-From the Notes of Zaia of Alexandria
It might seem a trivial matter to speak of metals even the most noble in such a book at this. While the tongue of the alchemist is quick to extol gold for its purity and steel for its bright face and coal for the fire hidden in the darkness I do not speak of these substance from obscure and esoteric concerns, but what can be only the most practical understanding of the metal.
Gold is the metal of eternity, of all things and in all places eternal as it drinks the sun and casts it back into the eye of the beholder as flame of greed. Ne'er shall you see gold made less than what it is. Now bronze is a thing of two natures, copper red as blood and tin that is black as night and that makes it meet for the substance that would send so many warriors into their own great night while iron of which steel is made is the blood of the earth and the gift of he skies all at once. Harder it is to mold into pleasing shape but when it is as fine a blade as any of bronze of it is wrought. I have seen in Damascus swords so fine in their forging that one could see almost the ghosts of flames in their forging. It was then as a young man that I came closest to believing claims of sorcery for such beauty must surely have been the work of wizards
Now there is
True Iron or Cold Iron that which was never touched by earthly flame and it has virtues against those spirits which are of the earth and dwell in the deep places. It's color is grey that comes nearer to black when it is touched by sorcery as the spear quenched in dragon's blood is for the thing seems to become more itself when it is given power, nearer perhaps to that Ideal Form of which Plato spoke, but even that is not the subject of this aside
Silver is the most conductive to the ether of the human soul, the metal of the moon and thus of great use to all manner of magicians, in silver mirrors see the Priest Kings of the South and with silver blades the Hunters of Orinilu hunt that which they count unclean but few if any among their number know why. While it does not tarnish easily it does tarnish if left for long in sea water which is the domain of Ikomi, it is a metal at once noble and mortal, the metal of aspiration rather than of divinity. So I have read in the tongue of spirits writ in living flame and so I have heard from the mouth of one who has been practicing these arts for a long while. Of it are forged the works of magic both easiest to make and most fickle and it is oft the bane of the near-man, the half man, the shapeshifter and the damned which under its power are carved one nature from the other. The healer in me might hope that this would cure the accursed, but a blade does not so easily excise this sickness, most would perish under blades of silver. I have further heard though not seen with mine own eyes that there there is a purer silver which is light as the morning due and hard as iron, forged by the tinker fey of the deep earth which is called
Mithral in their tongue.
The next substance upon which I would draw the mind of the reader is again one which I have not seen with my eyes or touched with my hand, but which I am told is sometimes traded among he river-folk of the north. Whence it comes none of those intrepid folk come to speak with us know for sure, only that it travels on long paths down the rivers of the east before it pours into the sea alongside amber and furs, tin and dies.
Clear as glass it is yet it shimmers in the eye and sings a soothing song in the mind. I suspect that this may have lain a long time in a place of calm and meditation and drawn some aspect of it... though it could not have been ever peaceful for glass is forged in fire.
Finally is a thing that is not metal, but
wood, the dagger which the girl Inge had taken for herself is remarkable in being able to channel the power of the earth that flows though the ley-lines and thus strengthen her invocations beyond what she could do along. Metal does not metal grow, but though the right spell might not dead wood be made to thrive what marvels might of that he made?
OOC: A bit more musing on special materials from the local alchemist, hopefully interesting and perhaps informative on where you might find some stuff.
