Driftmetal, Nehm’sharun|Sky’s Mercy or Tharg-Muul|Unchained Iron
Driftmetal appears in a solid, levitating metallic state, usually found suspended within glassed fissures, charred ley fractures, or above magnetized basalt beds of the Gleaming Wastes. The metal itself is silvery-black, braided with thin veins of shifting cobalt, violet, or star-blue, and appears to pulse gently in response to magical stimuli. Small shards naturally hover several inches above the ground, spinning lazily or gliding in slow, spiraling paths as though tethered to invisible sky-threads.
Some larger pieces float entirely still in midair, resisting wind and gravity alike, and emit a faint humming sound—a soft resonance that varies by arcane proximity and emotional intensity in nearby sentient beings.
Properties
Material Characteristics
The core property of Driftmetal is its innate antigravitational effect. Even minute quantities are able to lift or destabilize physical objects. When shaped properly, it can support entire structures or counteract the weight of armor, allowing for levitating weapons, vehicles, and architectural elements. It is also an exceptional arcane conductor, amplifying transmutation, abjuration, and divination magic when inscribed correctly.
Driftmetal is completely nonmagnetic and unyielding to corrosion, pressure, or time, yet it responds sympathetically to leyline flux—especially the volatile veins that intersect beneath the Gleaming Wastes. This makes it both powerful and unstable, requiring precise control during refinement and use.
Physical & Chemical Properties
When left in its raw form, Driftmetal is harmless but highly reactive to magical energy, lunar phases, or emotional resonance. It floats unpredictably near leyline surges, and when agitated by loud sound or sudden heat, it may produce a pulse of inverted gravity, briefly lifting nearby sand, weapons, or creatures before dropping them.
Powdered Driftmetal, or Skyblight, is dangerous to store and potentially lethal when inhaled—it causes temporary dislocation of balance, hallucinations, and in rare cases, weightless seizures where the victim begins to rise uncontrollably.
Compounds
Driftmetal is the primary component of Voidsteel, a levitational alloy forged with cold iron, starlight ash, or tempered sunroot, and used in the creation of hovering blades, artificer rigs, and arcane stabilizers. Driftmetal-infused sigils allow levitating monuments, floating duel platforms, and even archival shelves suspended mid-air.
Fragments of the metal are often ground into Skyblight Ink, which allows for the inscription of zero-gravity runes, favored by high-level Qirinan artificers and Zolan veil-weavers.
Geology & Geography
Driftmetal does not come from traditional ore veins. Instead, it emerges spontaneously in zones where heat-fused silica, ley-torn rock, and arcane radiation mix. Many deposits are discovered not in the ground, but floating silently above it, embedded in fractured air-pockets between natural arcane echoes.
The most consistent deposits are found near the Sun-Shed Scar and along the southern edge of the glass-blistered Throat of Zahret.
Origin & Source
Driftmetal is found only within the Gleaming Wastes, particularly along the eastern ridge scars and glass-bottomed fracture basins that mark ancient ley ruptures and Ashwurm burials. It coalesces after arcane compression events, such as leyline backflows, celestial alignments, or solar ritual detonations. These regions, already infamous for strange temporal and gravitational phenomena, offer the perfect crucible for Driftmetal to form.
Zolan scholars believe the mineral only manifests where sky and land have violently parted, while Durrozhonth shamans claim it is the sky’s excrement, a punishment left behind when the heavens lose control.
Life & Expiration
Solid Driftmetal is perfectly stable when undisturbed, capable of remaining airborne for centuries without shifting. However, once cut, alloyed, or exposed to excess magic, it may become erratic—causing brief levitation pulses, magical nullification, or ambient spell feedback.
Refined Voidsteel maintains its antigravitational quality for 15–30 years depending on usage, after which its effects begin to fade unless recharged via leybound ritual or eclipse-based magical rites.
History & Usage
History
Zola once revered Driftmetal as a gift of balance from the heavens, allowing priestesses to float reliquaries, sun-orbs, and divination altars. But following the Rising Shrine Rebellion, in which Driftmetal was used to levitate an entire temple into the sky in defiance of the sun courts, its religious use was banned and now exists only among the veil sects and forbidden dreamweavers.
In Durrozhonth, Driftmetal is not revered, but tolerated with grim awe. To walk upon air is considered a defiance of the earth’s truth—and thus a challenge. Chieftains mount Driftmetal shards to rise above their rivals only during war-rites or funerals, proclaiming they will not return to dirt until their name is remembered.
Cultural Significance and Usage
Zolan ritualists use Driftmetal sparingly to suspend sacred texts or hovering judgment scales, believing gravity to be a divine burden from which only the pure may rise. Illicit cults use shards to levitate themselves during dream communion, claiming the Sky’s Mercy allows one to see through time.
Durrozhonth blood-forges employ it in floating duel rings, where warriors must fight without footing—an ultimate test of control and willpower. Victory on the air earns the title Gravesever.
Refinement
Driftmetal is refined through Skyshaping, a process involving binding runes, aether tethers, and pulse-singing harmonics to “anchor” the metal’s natural drift. These refinements are performed in anti-magic vaults or under ley-muted domes where environmental magic can’t disrupt the shaping.
Voidsteel requires three ingredients: raw Driftmetal, lunar-filtered starmetal, and alchemically tamed sunroot, melted and forged in floating crucibles using sound-controlled resonance fields.
Byproducts & Sideproducts
Skyblight Dust is a byproduct of refinement—extremely dangerous, often causing vertigo, floating hallucinations, and sometimes levitation seizures in living beings. In high quantities, it can cause a gravity-free bubble where objects no longer fall, water drifts into orbs, and sound behaves strangely.
The presence of Driftmetal distorts ambient leyflow, occasionally causing minor ripples or collapses in localized enchantments, and is feared by druids who consider it a foreign intrusion into the breath-pattern of the land.
Reusability & Recycling
Driftmetal remains highly reusable, especially if not fractured. Older pieces develop “memory drift”, becoming more responsive to arcane shaping, and are favored in multi-generational reliquary crafting or high-tension leycore alignment. Even spent pieces can be recharged in lunar sanctuaries or realigned through celestial tuning.
Distribution
Trade & Market
Driftmetal is exceedingly rare, found only in the most dangerous, unstable zones of the Gleaming Wastes. Its value per shard often exceeds that of Dragonbone or Crystalglass, especially when intact and minimally disturbed. It is considered a strategic resource by both Zola and Durrozhonth, and its possession is carefully tracked or ritualized.
Trade of Driftmetal is strictly controlled. Zola bans its export entirely, while Durrozhonth permits it only among clan-honored blacksmiths or ritual architects. The black market thrives on shard smuggling, particularly among Qirinan engineers, who have begun crafting floating crucibles, personal grav-rigs, and hover-forged scroll racks with it.
Driftmetal is always sold wrapped in gravity-dampening cloth or kept in tethered sigil-boxes, marked with Zolan ash runes or Durrozhonth bone-wards.
Storage
Stored in ley-grounded, brass-lined coffers, Driftmetal must be kept suspended between anchor rings, isolated from magical artifacts or flowing water, both of which can provoke oscillation or inertial spin. In cases where levitation must be stopped, it is wrapped in null-silk and sealed with lunar stone clasps.
Improperly stored Driftmetal has caused levitation quakes, floating furniture infestations, and even gravitational failure in small villages. Handling requires training, and transport usually includes gravity-mage oversight or null-field shielding.
Comments