Gem Forging

Salika's Knowledge #41

"Known during the Silver Age, Gem Forging is a method for passing a stone's magical properties to various metals, especially Iron and Copper. When the Silver Age Cataclysm happened and a wave of aetheric energy transformed the silver humans forever, all forge masters who had knowledge of this gem forging were turned to crystal. Their apprentices were turned into some of the first elves, but they were so afraid of offending the gods, they died with this secret.

"It was several tens of thousands of years later during the Iron Age when gem forging was rediscovered by the elves. Within a few centuries, elves and humans both worked this technology into every aspect of their lives that involves metals, whether it's weapons, armor, vehicles, and more. They figured out that crushing up a ruby gemstone for example will impart that gem's properties into the blade, allowing the blade to turn into a red hot fire sword when charged with aether.

"The progress of technology on Vreathe is starting to get a little unsettling to me. While I still believe that the Iron Age will never be as advanced as the previous Ages, they start to appear that way more and more each passing year."

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Gem Forging Process

The process of gem forging on vreathe is actually incredibly simple, though messing up the process will foul the metal and make it useless, even if remelted and reforged several times over. The following process below is for turning iron into a gemsteel sword. Note that forging other metals like bronze will use a slightly different process, but the point where ground aethercite powder is added is usually the same.:

1) To start, a desired piece of aethercite for a desired effect must be chosen. The effect that transfers to the metal is often the same effect that the stone has when charged with aether or when it reaches aetheric saturation (see Aethercite Catalogue).

2) Next, the stone must be ground into a fine powder, finer than grains of sand. This powder is added to Iron when it it melted down. Limestone flux is still added to gem steel to remove impurities, the same as normal steel. The impurities in the aethercite are eventually removed until only the aether and the properties of the aethercite remains. These are the only things that matters.

3) Sometimes pieces of already made gemsteel is added into the molten mixture. This ensures that the magical effects of the metal are strong enough to be useful. It also has the effect of adding more carbon to the mixture, which helps with turning the iron into steel.

4) The steel is cast into a rectangular bar or billet. The metal is then forged and shaped. depending on the aethercite that was added to the metal, different temperatures of forging are required as the properties of the metal changed slightly. The metal piece is continously reheated and hammered into shape, no different from forging a normal steel item.

5) During the quenching process when the steel is heated then placed in a barrel of oil, additional pieces of aethercite is added to the oil. The steel rapidly cools and hardens. Additional tempering may be needed after this to reduce excess harness.

6) While a blade is being sharpened and polished, the colors of the original aethercite stone may appear. When charged with mana or aether, the properties of the aethercite stone also carry over. In most cases, the original strength of the steel is maintained, though some crystals such as Hematite and Moissanite can significantly strengthen the metal.

Examples of Gem Forged items

The Fallen Star

The dark blade of this weapon is the result of the mineral Almandite. Almandite has the ability to easily absorb mana, storing the excess inside the Azurite jewels on the crossguard. It also has an affinity for blood magic but as no vampire has ever used the blade, it isn't known if the fallen star can do that. This weapon is currently used by Arden Vernador.

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Moon Blades

Forged with pieces of blue Moonstone. This pair of short swords are carried by Raini Moontrace. These weapons slowly absorb aether through the night under the light of a full moon. They glow a bright bluish white when fully charged, which then allows the user (which has to be someone with the Moon Trace) to channel powerful magic spells.

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Blood Knife

Forged with pieces of Hematite an iron oxide crystal, creating a darkened blade that is excellent at amplifying blood magic. These were very popular weapons among the vampires of Yurrimkil, who used them to sacrifice humans by the thousands. they would use the knives to extract the blood from the victims then add it to a single massive crystal known as a True Bloodstone.

Evil vampires aside, hematite is also a popular choice for using in gem forging because it gives the blade a corrosion resistant effect while actually increasing the strength by an appreciable amount.

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Aethercite

Topics	Aethercite Catalogue Gem Forging God-Blood Crystals
Individual Aethercite	Gravity Stone Moissanite Moonstone Ruby