Legendary Materials

“Mithral” as the elves call it, or “brightsteel” among the common folk, supernaturally light and strong while remaining easy to work with. The dwarves value this shining metal above almost all others, going so far as to revere it, using a name for the metal that they never use with “outsiders”, believing it to be too sacred. Even three nights of drinking the strongest spirits with the seediest of dwarves never came remotely close enough to loosening their tongues on the subject (though it was enough to lighten my purse a great deal). “True silver” is what the dwarves call it in the Common tongue. I suppose it’s an apt enough name. The most well known mithral mines in the Empire are found in the The Kinghold of Thel Garom, known today as the Slopes of Sorrow. Rumor and legend say that the mines produce according to the King’s mood. In the past, the mines produced in abundance, but since the death of Queen Merinden, the mithral mines output has been almost nonexistent. So called “true silver pennies” still circulate here and there around the Empire, the dwarven currency is worth 50 crowns apiece.
Adamant, adamantine, or “darksteel,” the second of the legendary materials, is one of the hardest metals known to exist and is highly sought after for its use in arms and armor. Despite how relatively common the metal is to mithral, with mines in all three dwarven Kingholds as well as several smaller mines controlled by the Empire, even a thin coating of adamantine can be exorbitantly expensive. The metal resists the heat of common forges, with only the great furnaces of the dwarves or dragon fire reaching the necessary heat to soften the unyielding substance. The work is well worth the effort and expense; once finished, the item crafted from or coated in adamant becomes nigh indestructible. My own breastplate coated with darksteel took nearly a month to complete and cost me nearly 1,000 crowns, but has halted swords, staves and arrows with naught a scratch (the bruises on my face, however, took a week to heal).
Glassteel is probably the rarest of these supernatural substances that is shaped into weapons and armor. Similar to mithral, glassteel is half the weight of common steel but just as durable. Interestingly, I am unaware of any armor shaped from glassteel that isn’t fashioned in some form of plate, chainmail, ringmail, or scalemail made from glassteel doesn’t seem to exist. In my estimation, despite its durability, glassteel is too delicate to work in such a way. Truly, if such armor does exist, it is probably buried deep in the bowels of some long forgotten tomb or dungeon or cached in a dragon’s hoard. The saddest thing regarding glassteel is that the method of its creation has been lost. What lore I have been able to gather and discover is that the process involved the breath of dragons, which gave the glassteel different hues or even properties. The process was inherently magical, that much is clear. I have only ever beheld glassteel myself one time: a masterwork dagger owned by a great lord. I foolishly offered to purchase the dagger and asked how much it would cost. As the old adage goes, “If you have to ask, you can’t pay it.” I know that one or two other great lords have glassteel pieces in their possession. Marquis-Lord Renue Clérisseau famously owns a suit of glassteel half plate and a glassteel longsword that he is rarely seen without.
Leystone is another such curious material, and while uncommon, is hardly rare. Veins of leystone can be found in most mountainous or hilly terrains where the leylines of the Weave cross over and through the earth. No singulary distinctive quarries or deposits of leystone have been found in modern times. What makes leystone so insteresting is its curious properties when exposed to Magick. Structures or magic circles constructed using leystone take hold to enchantments and spellcraft faster and more easily that common marble or granite. Through alchemical procedures unfamiliar to myself, leystone can be turned into a greenish glass substance called "residuum." Residuum is prized by those who study magecraft for its amplification properties and most especially as a catch-all for magical material components. I once won a small bag of powdered residuum in a game of cards once, although it was stolen from me as I slept off a hangover.

Type

Ore/Mineral