Perfected Metals

Many early human civilizations revered blacksmiths, even after the favor Atlanteans had for Awakened artisans was diluted through Sleeper societies. Many pantheons included a god dedicated to smiths and/or craftsmen, and many Awakened scholars believe this reflects the appreciation of creation and craftsmanship handed down to Sleepers through Awakened society. Blacksmiths, in their work of converting imperfect metal ores into solid, usable, durable tools and weapons were held in awe as the favored of those gods of creation.

Ordinary metals are perfected by repeatedly sending them into Twilight as ephemera and pulling them back to material form. (Some mages think this is the true meaning of the ancient alchemical formula, “Dissolve and coagulate.”) Perfecting a metal requires at least two dozen such passages back and forth. The final product has a tenth the volume and mass of the original stock of metal. Only the seven metals known to antiquity can be perfected: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead and mercury.^[1]

The Seven

Awakened smiths rose well above those with only mundane forges to perfect common metals into forms resonant with their Supernal ideals. Gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and mercury are each known to correspond to one of the 'Perfected Metals.'

Siderite

Awakened smiths tend to hold siderite, or perfected iron, in the highest regard. While each perfected metal has it's uses, the once-mythical properties held by iron color beliefs held by people who still revere blacksmiths and those who work metals. Siderite gleams a bit more brightly than mundane iron or steel perhaps, but it is more ordinary in appearance when compared with other perfected metals. Immensely durable, it can bend and twist and resume its shape without signs of fatigue or distress. It can also be forged to an edge that will never dull and is strong enough to cut steel or even diamond.

Siderite was originally associated with meteoric iron (the word is based on the Greek for star-stone), if meteoric-iron can be found, it require less work to be "perfected."

Oricalcum

Redder in hue than mundane gold, it catches light and seems to reflect a fiery glow. Oricalcum can be drawn into wire or beaten into leaf, but will stand against even the most powerful acid.

Lunargent

As with the moon, to which it's often linked, perfected silver reflects light with a cool, slightly blue glow. It is also very malleable and chemically inert. Lunargent is also commonly linked to the Acanthus, and the Watchtower of the Lunargent Thorn.

Hermium

Perfected mercury, as it's mundane counterpart, is a dense, silvery fluid. It has some "superfluid" qualities, such as the ability to flow through the smallest opening without friction, or circling indefinitely once stirred.

The Common

Perfected copper, tin, and lead are all less common, though there are a few known uses of these more "common" metals.

Enchantment

Perfected metals are not themselves magical, though their Supernal sympathies make them easier to enchant or imbue. Each metal has its own affinities, though these are not so much properties of the metals themselves, as a correspondence depending on the mage, his background and beliefs, and the magic being used. A process of experimentation and trial and error can help a mage determine the sympathies of perfected metals with various Arcana or practices.

Alloys

The processes of mixing metals was a major advancement in the process of mundane smithing, allowing for the combination of the properties of various metals, or the development of metals with completely novel properties. Bronze, one of the earliest alloys, is a mixture of copper and tin, brass is a mixture of copper and zinc, and steel is a mixture of iron and small amounts of carbon. Through the Arcanum of Matter, Awakened smiths had the ability to more easily find and extract metals for alloying, separate or control the mixtures in alloys to experiment with their properties, and also the capacity to experiment with alloying of perfected metals. While it is believed that the smiths of Atlantis had many different recipes for mystical alloys for various purposes, many fewer are known to mages today, with Thaumium being the only widely known, or understood.

Perfected alloys, such as thaumium, must be produced via a conjunctional spell of Matter and Prime, utilizing the mixture of perfected metals. Given the cost of producing the perfected metals used in the casting of these spells, mages rarely take on such a task unless they intend on expending the power to make the creation permanent.

Thaumium

Produced by Masters of Matter who are also at least Disciples of Prime, this mystical metal can provide protection from unwanted Awakened magic. A perfectly mirrored substance, it has a faint luminescence when charged with the Mana, it can be crafted into nearly any form, from jewelry to weapons to armor, etc. The material must be charged with Mana to be effective as a shield against another's mystical will, which is consumed in the process of deflecting any spell.