Acrean Metallurgy
The people of the Cape are not the most welcoming of sorts and few things illustrte this better than their their tools and weapons of war. Drawing ancestry back to the slaves of the Vampyric lords of the coast to the north of the cape, they are wary of outsiders and have spent much time perfecting their own craftsmaship of every tool used to hurt someone with brutal efficiency. The most stunning of their work comes from their skill at blade craft which employs their own particular method which leaves the blades more durable than the average sword with a smoky, intricate wave pattern in the luster of the metal itself.
History
The people of the Cape trace their ancestry back to the slaves of the Nocturna Coast who served under the vampyric overlords in the third and fourth eras. There they toiled under the boot and lash of their bloodthirsty masters for generations until finally the Rage of Dust revolt led to their liberation when hosts of the enslaved peoples rose up, killed their masters and fled south to the cape. The most notable event of the revolt was then the burning of the Moonwood as far north as the Fjord of Silverfish, and the vigil of the first Ashen Knights upon the banks of the River Hoote.
The fear and animosity of those days have haunted the peoples of the cape ever since and in order to preserve and maintain their freedom, they maintain a strict watch over the river and sprawling wood to ensure an incursion from the coast is thwarted before they have a chance to take root and plunge their people back into slavery. These vigilant people would need weapons of a quality that would hold up against the varied durability of the vampires that plagued them, so the smiths of the land set about developing and honing their craft of the perfect craft for the job.
The final result and the metallurgy most known and recognized today came from the city Dus Acre and once put through the paces of testing, the craft was spread throughout the cape as smiths took up it's practice and then mentorship to teach to other and younger smiths. From there on, the practice became tradition and was incorporated into more tools other than swords, but axes, spears, short blades, and so on. The blades and tools would regularly be blessed and anointed by priests with oils and prayers, believing it strengthened the metal and kept the evils of the past at bay. Now, only ameteur and/or disgraced craftsmen of the cape forge outside of the practice. It is actually very difficult to find a simple knife not of the craft within the borders of the cape.
Execution
The execution of the forging process is quite simple, but is tedious and prolonged in order to acquire the desired effect and durability. The ore is heated until viscous, then allowed to cool into ingots. No less than three ingots are then placed together, more for larger weapons than simple blades or hatchet heads. Often these layered ingots will include not just the steel that will make up the bulk of the weapon, but also ingots of greater or lesser metals to add strength and other qualities to the final product.
Once the ingots are assembled and fastened together using molten slag of the same alloys, the ingots are heated, then drawn out with hammers on an anvil until they can be folded back upon each other. This process repeats a number of times as is desired by the smith, commonly more than twelve times, but the more folds in the metal, the more intricate the design and the more durable the blade becomes.
After the final folds are made, the now completely folded, singular, ingot is draw out to shape whatever blade or tool intended. Common forging practices are utilized from this point forward to complete the work, but the final quenching is done in an herb infused oil bath that would have been infusing over the course of the entire forging process, perhaps longer. The herbs required are not strictly defined, however, garlic and rose petals are commonly used.
