Hexsteel
"Hexsteel don’t break swords. It breaks the spells that made them." -Vortan Ironwound, duel-forger of Newforge
Hexsteel is a metal born of defiance, a dark alloy forged from Mire-Iron and Blackglass Dust, its very essence woven with magick’s rejection. Unlike ordinary steel, it does not shine, it absorbs. It does not sing when struck, it deadens sound. Every blade, shackle, or artifact forged from it carries a single purpose: to silence. Whether that silence is used to sever a spell, trap a soul, or erase an enemy is up to the wielder. Feared and outlawed across Everwealth, Hexsteel is a statement against the arcane itself, a metal that does not simply exist, but resists. Its regulation is absolute. No civilian, guild, or kingdom-sanctioned forge is legally allowed to produce or possess it. And yet, those within the Arcane Coalition wear it openly. Shackles made from Hexsteel restrain mages beneath Fort Sunless. Blade-helms and sealing bracers are rumored to contain slivers of it, warded from even divine detection. Coalition doctrine declares it too dangerous to be allowed in circulation, citing its immediate and devastating effects on body, mind, and soul, but no agent clad in Hexsteel armor has ever collapsed from its influence. The public is told it is a poison, and that the Coalition alone can stomach it for the good of all. In truth, the monopoly is intentional though if they have their way the common folk will never know. They have found a way to endure it, or circumvent its effects entirely, and now use this material as a hidden edge, one their enemies can never hope to match. The story told to the public is fear, regulation, and civic health. The truth is control. Hexsteel doesn’t just resist magick. In the hands of those who wield it without suffering, it becomes the blade that cuts the leash, and ensures it never swings back.
Properties
Material Characteristics
Hexsteel appears as a mirrorless black alloy with faint traces of deep violet and oil-slick shimmer; Giving the illusion of depthless shadow, seeming to “drink” the light around it. Its surface is unnervingly smooth, reflecting no light, absorbing heat without warming. The alloy is unnaturally silent, when struck, it does not ring but lets out a muffled, hollow thud.
Physical & Chemical Properties
Hexsteel resists magick, dissipating enchantments and severing divine connections. It cannot be imbued with spells, repels spiritual energy, and fractures when exposed to celestial blessings. Magick-laced weapons that strike Hexsteel often fizzle out, as if their power has been swallowed whole.
Compounds
A rare alloy combining Mire-Iron, Blackglass Dust, and stabilizing agents such as Bog-Silver or Nullroot Ash. It is found in:
- Hexsteel Shackles - prevent spellcasting and drain enchantments
- Mage-Snare Arrows - unravel shielding spells on contact
- Black-Bound Blades - designed to sever soul-ties and kill magickal beings
- Containment Runes - used in vaults, prisons, and tombs to bind spirits
Geology & Geography
Hexsteel is not found in nature; it is forged through ritual and sacrifice. Its core ingredients originate from The Bog of Lies (Mire-Iron), Mount Ashmaw (Blackglass Dust), and hidden forges deep in outlawed territories; It's every composing material from a place of grief and strife, a palette of malice and death indicative in its eerie void-like appearance. The few places capable of forging it exist beneath the markets ofOpulence, or in rumored Dwarfish strongholds where the practice is denied but never forgotten.
Origin & Source
Hexsteel was first created in the Schism’s aftermath, when warriors sought a way to fight magick with steel. It is not simply metal, it is intention made tangible, a rejection of the arcane, a weapon against those who wield power beyond the mundane. But as Magick encompasses and enables everything we know and do, the often violently negative effects of prolonged exposure to this metal saw it quickly regulated for everyone's sake despite it's usages; Cancers, bad luck, plagues, chronic pains, seizures and spasms, fugue states, an array of assuredly tempting prospects.
Life & Expiration
It does not rust or decay under normal conditions, but exposure to divine artifacts or holy sites causes it to weaken and crack. It can be reforged, but only by those who understand its ritual birth.
History & Usage
History
Forged in the desperate aftermath of the Schism, Hexsteel was born from a union of war trauma and arcane distrust. Warriors, disillusioned by the destruction wrought by unchecked magick, sought a material that could undo spells and end gods. What they created did more than sever the arcane, it severed the world’s tolerance for it. First praised as a miracle, it quickly became a horror story. Entire battlefields went quiet, not from death, but from absence, of noise, of warmth, of magick, of self. Following the Schism, as the Coalition formalized their control over magickal practice, Hexsteel was one of the first materials outlawed in full. Their official position was public safety, claiming the metal’s horrific effects were too unpredictable to tolerate. But the timing coincided with their first use of Hexsteel-inscribed bindings and enforcement blades. The shift was not fear, it was consolidation. No alchemist has yet discovered how they survive long-term exposure, but some theorize it involves selective bloodline wards or soul-anchoring. The Coalition offers no explanation. They do not need to.
Discovery
Though dozens claimed its invention, most agree it emerged from a cursed forge in the ruins of Lowmarch, where Dwarfs, Men, and exiled spellbreakers pooled their efforts in secret before it was mysteriously rendered an empty, crumbling facility. The forge itself is now buried under salted stone and warded tunnels. Nothing grows there.
Everyday use
Despite its horrifying risks, Hexsteel is still used in the shadows, by cultists, desperate hunters, heretical alchemists, and those who care more for results than survival. Its applications remain strictly combat-based or punitive: blades meant for sorcerers, bindings for cursed objects, prisons for unquiet souls. Rarely seen in cities unless on the wrists of condemned spellbinders.
Cultural Significance and Usage
To most, Hexsteel represents heresy, a metal that rejects not only magick, but the very framework of reality. To the faithful, it is blasphemy. To the arcane, it is poison. And to the desperate? It is salvation with teeth. Among the Hollow-Eyed, it is used in self-harm rituals to suppress visions. In Newforge, it is feared even by those who secretly forge it. Legends whisper of blades that weep blood when drawn and chains that tighten on their own. Among radicals, the Coalition’s Hexsteel monopoly is viewed not just as hypocrisy, but tyranny. Protesters in Halt-Cliff once smeared bog-sludge over ceremonial weapons and chanted “Let them wear their silence.” They vanished within days. In hidden taverns and carved-out rebel dens, scraps of Hexsteel are regarded as relics, symbols of what must be torn from the throat of power. If one were to find out how they truly tame it, it could change the balance of Everwealth forever… or doom it again.
Industrial Use
Nearly nonexistent. Most forges will not touch it. The few that do are underground, both literally and politically. Industrial application is suicidal, prolonged exposure to Hexsteel dust or scraps leads to spontaneous illness, failed pregnancies, magickal decay, and facility-wide contamination. No standardized process exists, each forge must invent their own protections, many failing in the attempt.
Refinement
Hexsteel is not simply forged, it is bound. Smelting requires a triple forge, one flame to break the ore, one to mute its essence, and one fueled by cursed matter (commonly animal blood, sometimes human). Stabilizing agents are mixed with whispered rites, not measurements. Failure to observe proper silence during the process can cause the entire forge to implode inward, not with fire, but with absence.
Manufacturing & Products
- Hexsteel Shackles - used to silence magickal prisoners
- Soulbind Cages - artifacts designed to trap ghosts or revenants
- Fugue Daggers - blades that cause identity erosion with every wound
- Spell-Gutter Spikes - driven into leyline sources to suppress flow
- Weeping Helmets - rumored to reduce psychic intrusion but eventually blind the wearer
Byproducts & Sideproducts
The fumes from refining Hexsteel are thicker than air and do not rise, they crawl. Known effects include lesions, memory fragmentation, sudden blindness, and psychotic breaks. Some discarded slag pieces hum when touched; others scream softly when ignored. Improperly quenched Hexsteel often results in “silent rot,” a condition that causes machines to fail and people to speak less, think slower, and forget names, starting with their own.
Hazards
Prolonged contact causes skin blistering, emotional detachment, and eventually neurological decay. Documented symptoms among Hexsteel handlers include:
- Chronic migraines
- Blood loss from eyes or nose
- Nightmares of “void things”
- Cancerous growths resembling rune scars
- Hallucinatory “echoes” of magick that was never cast
Environmental Impact
Hexsteel defiles the subtle threads of magick in its surroundings. Enchanted plants wither, leyline nodes dim, spirits grow restless. Animals refuse to approach, those forced near it often die or go feral. In high concentrations, it causes arcane collapse, severing spell connections and disrupting ritual circles for miles. Attempts to plant crops nearby fail for decades, and magick cast in its vicinity falters, flickers, or implodes.
Reusability & Recycling
Technically reusable, but reluctant. Hexsteel resists remelting or reshaping unless reforged by the original creator, or by someone bearing their blood. Recasting often results in spontaneous cracking, reversed enchantments, or the creation of cursed fragments that defy control.
Distribution
Trade & Market
Sold only in outlawed markets, secret auctions, or underworld brokerages. Even blacksmiths who work with it use aliases and require blood pacts before purchase. Newforge denies involvement, but fragments found in “fallen caravans” often tell otherwise. Prices are astronomical, one shard can buy a mansion, or bury a kingdom. In Opulence, the weapon known as The Whisper Fang, a Hexsteel blade with no edge but infinite severance, is said to be worth more than the king’s weight in gold.
Storage
Must be sealed in bone-lined coffers, wrapped in blessed silk, or suspended in nullroot resin. Storing it near sacred relics causes both to degrade. If unsealed, it seeps despair, literally. The air grows heavier, conversations go silent, and light dims by perceptible degrees. Some keep it in deep iron boxes, surrounded by circles of salt, silence, and forgetting.
Law & Regulation
Possession is grounds for arrest, exile, or death in all major provinces of Everwealth. Only sanctioned inquisitorial orders and select Arcane Coalition agents hold legal clearance to wield or transport Hexsteel. Even among these ranks, knowledge of how they circumvent its harmful effects is kept deeply classified. The public is assured it is “barely survivable,” yet no documented Coalition officer has ever perished from contact, feeding rumors of secret conditioning, alchemical immunization, or a buried ritual of resilience developed after their occupation of Fort Sunless. The ban remains strictly enforced, not to protect the people, but to preserve monopoly. Outside the Coalition, Hexsteel is whispered of with awe, fear, and bitterness, a weapon designed to end magick in a world where magick is everything.
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Value
Hexsteel is priceless to those who understand it, and worthless to those who don’t. Even a sliver can buy a war chest. Its value lies not in rarity, but in the fact that no other material can do what it does.
Rarity
Hexsteel is rare not due to its parts, but its process. Few dare forge it, fewer survive it. Most pieces are relics, their forges long buried or banned. New ones appear only when desperation outweighs wisdom.
Odor
Subtle but disturbing: like burnt iron, candle soot, and wet stone left in a locked cellar. When freshly struck, it smells briefly of ash and cold blood.
Taste
Dry, metallic, and strangely bitter. Leaves a static-like sensation across the tongue. Prolonged contact causes the gums to bleed slightly.
Color
Dark metallic black with shifting violet undertones. When held under moonlight or shadow, faint runes seem to shimmer across its surface, whether real or hallucinated is debated.
Boiling / Condensation Point
Approximately 3,900°C. Emits vaporless heat. Under extreme conditions, it produces a whining resonance instead of visible fumes.
Melting / Freezing Point
Begins to soften at 1,500°C, but resists complete melting unless refined under ritual conditions. Freezing is impossible in natural environments, retains cohesion and form even in glacial or void-altered states.
Density
Significantly heavier than steel; carries a sensation of “drag” when moved, even in small amounts.
Common State
Solid – Typically shaped into ingots, sheets, or pre-forged weapons. Never found in liquid state outside of the forge.
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