Magnetic Oprum

Magnetic Oprum is a material with a primal amount of power, one feared by all who know of it. The blue and red ore is known for its intense magnetic pull, and the disease it causes, the Magnetic Shakes. It is a holy resource for the Vastryan Orcs but contains very difficult properties that make it extremely difficult to use in any way. To harvest Magnetic Oprum, all the materials must be made out of wood to avoid messing with the magnetic pull. The miners use hardened Ironwood from Vela'Nar to chip away at the stone surfaces and have to carry around a heavy wooden cart without wheels, because the spokes would be pulled right out of the wheels. The miners can't wear anything with metal in it either, including hard hats or other safety equipment.
After the Great Unite, there were many bloodthirsty Orcs that rebelled against the idea. These Orcs had to be arrested and imprisoned by the new governments, but they found themselves soon run out of space throughout the tribal towns of Vastrya. At the same time, Magnetic Oprum had just been discovered and the Orcs were trying to collect the material for study, but found it too dangerous due to its properties. The Tribes of Vastrya came up with the idea then, to combine both of their problems into one solution, which was how The Forsaken Prison was created. The prison was built within the Gadrobi Highlands to make the prisoners mine the holy material, and suffer the diseases instead of the good citizens of Vastrya. Then, the small settlement that surrounded the prison that held the warden and guards housing started to develop and The Forsaken Prison grew into its own settlement overseen by the Bronzebone Tribe. The entire settlement surrounding the prison was constructed to oversee the inmates and the mining production but has grown into a self-contained town as well. Most of the townsfolk do work as guards in The Forsaken Prison however, and the settlement is entirely dependent on the income from Magnetic Oprum and the prison to survive.
Since its discovery, the Orcs have been slowly and steadily mining the ore, and researching it at the same time. So far, the scientists have not found a way to refine it or to turn it into anything useful, leaving many of the miners feeling cheated as to why they have to throw their lives away to mine a useless material. The Orcs, especially the Ironwolf Clan who live at the base of the Gadrobi Highlands, are determined to uncover the secrets of Magnetic Oprum, and will continue mining it until they do so. If it really is the shattered pieces of the Orc God's continent-sized Bloodspear, then the Orcs will get their hands on a godly weapon capable of planetary devastation, once they put it all together. But even if it is not the spear, scientists are making progress on smaller devices utilising the magnetic strength of it. One example is a device that separates tiny metals from other substances with astounding ease, for metal-based poison cures, another is an assassin weapon where a shard of Magnetic Oprum is targeted at a tiny, unnoticeable sliver of the same material that had been discretely placed on a target. Even a tiny bit of Magnetic Oprum would attract a shard from leagues away, and the assassin after depositing a tiny flake of it on their target, could walk across the city before throwing their shard, which would soar through the air like a deadly arrow locked on target, and break through walls to stab into the target.

Properties

Material Characteristics

This ore is a deep red, the colour of rusted blood. Forking through it are slivers of pulsing blue veins. The ore is found in large shards, always with at least one sharp edge and usually narrow slivers. They are found between 20cm long to roughly 1m long.

Physical & Chemical Properties

The property of Magnetic Oprum that frightens all of the Vastryan people is its magnetic capabilities. The raw ore itself contains a massive magnetic pull, at least a hundred times stronger than any other magnetic substance known, and without refinement. If an arm were sandwiched between two shards of Magnetic Oprum, the bone would be utterly crushed, even if they were from the Bronzebone Tribe. The magnetic pull has also been known to affect the miners that are forced to harvest this ore as prisoners, at The Forsaken Prison, causing a long-term disease named the Magnetic Shakes. This disease is caused by prolonged exposure to the magnetic substance, even just mining it and then carting it away is enough for the immense magnetic pull to mess with the body's microscopic metals, such as zinc and iron, and causes seizures or even death.

Geology & Geography

The material is only found hundreds of feet underground in the Gadrobi Highlands, a massive mountain range in the centre of the continent of Velaria. It is always surrounded by a hard-pact cluster of other ore, such as iron and cobalt, that had been pulled around it through the ground over time by its immense magnetic pull.

Origin & Source

The Vastryan Orcs believe that during the creation of Elderforge itself, the Orc God Gruumsh shattered the ground with a strike from his gargantuan Bloodspear, sundering the earth and forming the highlands themselves. However, the spear was also destroyed in the process and scattered underneath the new mountain range. It is believed that the shattered fragments of the Bloodspear are the ore named Magnetic Oprum. Gruumsh was fighting with the other Gods to claim the land for the Orc people. For that, he is revered, as well as his mighty Bloodspear. For this reason, the Orcs see the material known as Magnetic Oprum as, although extremely dangerous, holy. They wish to use it, maybe to one day repair the Bloodspear and honour Gruumsh.

Life & Expiration

The radioactive property of Magnetic Oprum is its intense magnetic pull. Since the ore was discovered in 3BU, none of it has lost its power even slightly. Also, none of it has gained or grown in power, meaning that the ore is forever stable.

I swear on Gruumsh I'm going to find a damn use for that ore! No matter how many prisoners lives I have to throw at it, such a powerful material can't be useless! One day, us Ironwolves will be feared for our magnetic mastery.

— Grokk Bloodthunder, Ironwolf Chieftain

Type

Ore/Mineral

Color

Rust

Common State

Solid (shards)

Related Locations

• Gadrobi Highlands

Related Species

• Orc