Felarya Mineralogy Thread

Name: Lutianium
Apperance: Silvery white metal that does not tarnish.
This metal is formed when ruthenium ore is exposed to high temperatues (800°C or above) and a high magical field. It is usually found near fire elementals, who do not take kindly to anyone wanting to mine it.*
Lutianium is as strong as titanium, slightly heavier than steel and has a moderate magical resistance. This makes it very useful for armor and weapons.
Rarity Ranking: Semi-Precious/Precious*
(I'll probably update this as I develop the idea further)

Psycheuranium ( Sy-key-ur-anium) ((Derived from "Psyche/Neural/-anium"))
Rarity ranking: Semi-precious

A curious, malleable metal of a shiny, grey-blue hue and flaky texture, found naturally only in small, nearly pure deposits. It has a low melting point, and when attempted to be alloyed, loses both its beneficial properties and side-effects. Though useless as weaponry or armor, it has the curious property of, when applied closely, amplifying the brain’s energy field. Just how is unclear, but a symptom of it seems to be the collection and 'charge' of faint electromagnetic pulses from neural activity. More neural stimulation hastens the effects- the harder you think, the quicker the symptoms and effects appear. After sufficient time, the wearer will begin to feel odd sensations, most commonly a feeling of perpetual uneasiness (like butterflies in the stomach) as well as insomnia, after prolonged use, accompanied by involuntary muscle twitching. However, outweighing this is that the wearer will actually slowly develop a heightened sense of awareness around them, which can be described as a full extra sense at its strongest. They will experience spikes in awareness from outside stimulus- the feeling of one being watched amplified to the point that they will reflexively act on it, as of sense of touch. The effects of psycheuranium even bring self- alert to being detected by the natural ‘predator sense’ and thus predators cannot rely solely on sneaking up on someone donning psycheuranium. A drawback to the normal sensory effect of others approaching is that one will be very jumpy in company, from false sensing of potential danger. It is ill-advised to equip the metal for any considerable length of time, as the side effects begin to outweigh the benefits.

Psycheuranium is easily made into functional equipment by rolling it out into a sheet that resembles tin-foil, and molding it onto your head in a makeshift cap. Though it may look ridiculous, no one would call you a ‘chronic paranoid’ once they’ve tried it themselves. Because once you realize how often you’re being watched, you become one too.

It is of note that psycheuranium does not prevent anything from reading your mind, or otherwise telepathically communicating with you. Some wear an additional layer of actual tin foil to make up for this weakness.

basic concept: cursed stone

ranking: semi-common

Appearance: Totally Black, coal-like and perfectly spherical, Lepianthos orbs are even referred as "misfortune stones", they are created when outbreaks of evil-based magic energy comes in contact with simple little boulders. Reacting to the round form, the perfect one to compress and/or channel the magic, the cursed magic remains in little amounts "resting" into the stones. Once a living being grabs hold of one of these stones, the little part of evil magic still attached deep into the rock ball flows through the body of the bearer, it's one of the only demonstrations of natural curse casting through osmosis.
Lepianthos orbs curse effects naturally discharge in like 2-3 days. The stones basically turn back to normal shape after 7 days. Usually more than enough to trip and fall, hiccup while hiding from a predator, be suddenly so distracted that you practically fall into a huge predator's mouth directly (heavy effects), suddenly lure every violent and/or angry predator in kilometers range without a reason (catastrophic effects [what did you bring with you? A mountain of them? n.d.a.] )
As you can see... these stones are not just said to bring real misfortune, and, in enough amount, like... from 100kg up, even tragedies.

There's a manner of speech that actually mentions them: like "That bastard! I should fill his/her bed with Lepianthos orbs!"

interesting ideas here

Another ore contribution, this time expanding on the rocks of the Pyrale mountains that don't really have a name but are mentioned and seem to define the area and since the physics thread got me thinking back to heat energy and magnetism...

Pyrium Cobalt (Once again name changes are welcome as I am horrible in this department)
Rarity: Common (Location specific though, as of the moment only Pyrale Mountains)

Appearance: Solid cobalt blue with a varying glow based on its current magnetic properties- no glow has no magnetism present, dark shadowy glow is an attractive magnetic force on most common metals and a bright luminescent glow is a repulsive magnetic force to commmon metals. Note not all metals will behave the same in reaction to this as they all have their own properties!

These stones covering large portions of the Pyrale mountains react to the lava flows and heat of the region and instead of melting like most other rocks to magma it instead becomes magnetically charged to the change in energy and releases this on the environment around it; as a result this ore has an incredibly high tolerance to heat. Underground lava currents can also create this charge which is the more common cause of some sections of this ore suddenly becoming magnetic for no aparant reason at all to those above ground. The glowing and magnetic properties vary according to how large or sudden the heat changes nearby are to create the effect, the strength of the magnetism being based on the magnitude of the energy change and the repulsion or attraction based on the time the ore has to react to the change. In some cases for those able to utilize the ores property it can be used as a potent amplifier in weaponry: using the heat generated from spells or weaponfire to charge the ore and increase the speed at which projectiles from the weapons can be fired.

Arachnium
Rarity: Precious

A black-colored metal found in narrow, intertwining veins primarily throughout the Dridder Forest. Given that many of the local dridders both live and travel in the subterranean tunnels and cave systems of the zone, it's relatively easy for them to access this mineral when actively looking for it.

Arachnium is mainly alloyed with other metals that dridders acquire for armor and weapons, for its spectacular quality of dampening, specifically, and most curiously, elemental magic. In its ore form, arachnium's effects are rather weak- if an elemental magic-wielding mage were to walk through a cavern completely surrounded by arachnium ore, they would find their spells' effectiveness decreased a fair bit, and the difficulty of utilizing it increased. A medium-sized magical fireball may very well fizzle out before it hits its target. As one might guess, elementals tend to avoid vast deposits since it affects them similarly, though to an elemental, it feels as if their magic is actually bleeding out, likening the sensation to some kind of venom. Weaker earth and darkness elementals that may reside in the tunnels, for instance, are rarely found near heavy deposits, lest they become withered by it over time. There's a possibility that a weapon forged with arachnium might be able to do more damage against an elemental than a normal weapon, but more likely it would only serve to just make them angrier.

Obviously, this inherent quality of the metal, when harnessed correctly, can help give dridder warriors a tactical advantage in a fight with naga mages possessing powerful elemental magic proficiency, and this is what their intentions are. The finished equipment composed partially of refined arachnium will take on a chitin-like texture and, if used for enough armor, may completely nullify weaker elemental magical attacks, while more powerful ones would be less effective. A weapon such as a sword, if itself of giant scale, while piercing into a giant naga, may prevent them from utilizing their elemental abilities to any effective degree. It may be possibly utilized in a similar manner against fairy-elemental hybrids, though the results would be difficult to foresee, given that the metal doesn't affect other types of magic, such as fairy size-changing or dimensional magic.

Since its elemental magic-dampening effects are related to both its grade, pureness in the alloy, and amount in one location, you need enough armor to mostly cover a dridder's lower half to be useful against a naga of similar stature, and because in its purest form the metal is rather brittle, it must be alloyed for strength, decreasing its overall effect. There have been cocky dridders that used too much of the metal in their equipment, just to have it unexpectantly shatter on the battlefield by the physical blows of their naga foes, making it useless until recovered and forged again correctly.

Dridders are known to be extremely possessive of this metal, almost never sharing it, or even knowledge of its existence, with other races, taking it from those who do happen to have any. It's possible the Seekers of Sineria are equipped with it, however, and likely the only exception.

Rumors:
-Gerridi hate the stuff, as it impedes their elemental magic water-manipulating abilities.
-The creation of arachnium has something to do with the fossilization of the petrified trees in the Dridder Forest. This is why it isn't found anywhere else.
-Somehow, some gyspas obtained arachnium equipment, most likely through theft, and have become all the bolder for it.

---

The idea itself is meant to balance dridders a bit more with the elemental abilities of nagas, dridders being known for forging armor and weapons anyway, to use this expertise to gain a leg-up (or eight) on nagas' potentially powerful elemental abilities and 'level the playing field' with some of the more powerful magic-users.
Apart from this, it can have connotations with elementals or beings with a high elemental magic reliance.

So, in essence, an elemental 'kryptonite' hoarded by dridders. Thoughts?

This is a nice idea ^_^
( Though I personnally think dridders are definitely very deadly beings in combat even without any help XD ). But that makes sense and it's very detailled

Karbo wrote:

This is a nice idea ^_^
( Though I personnally think dridders are definitely very deadly beings in combat even without any help XD ). But that makes sense and it's very detailled

Thank you, glad you like the concept.
Now, I don't mean to make it seem as if I think dridders are handicapped (a dridder could kick a naga's proverbial butt any day of the week, amirite?) but I was thinking about how most nagas have the potential for powerful elemental magic when they're older, not to mention several species which are adepts by nature. Just seemed that this would be something dridders would want to prepare for, if possible.

I also mention that since the Predator Sense has been redefined so that nagas are now one of only a few selective races that are known to use it, hell, why not give dridders something, if just a natural resource and not an ability.

I'll shut up now since I'm getting off topic going on about nagas and dridders in the mineralogy thread. ^^;

My turm for bad naming: Unknown Ore

Rarity: Common

Unknown Ore is found scattered throughout Felarya in the form of stones. It is called 'Unknown ore' because until the stone is smelted, it is not known what metal it will yield. All known metals can be smelted from this ore. It is expected that some currently unknown metals can be obtained from it, but the stones that have them just haven't been smelted yet. Only one stone should be smelted at a time to keep from getting useless alloys. The weight of metal produced is equilevant to about 70% of the weight of the stone.

Also notable for having unusual shapes. The size, shape and weight have no correlation to the metal produced.

Floatonium

The Floating Metal.

Floatonium is a metal that is for some strange reason completely unaffected by gravity. If you let go of a cube of floatonium metal, it would stay transfixed in the air in the same position as when you let it go. The reasons for this are unknown, but the sight is something to see. Because of its unique properties, Foatonium is sought after by many people on many worlds, particular Mad Scientists who find it indispensible in the creation of their giant floating bases.

It just so happens that one of the largest deposits of floatonium happens to be in felarya. It is found alongside most other metal deposits, particularly in the peaks of mountains. Their are even rumors of great rocks floating across the felaryan sky chock full of the material. All expiditions to confirm these rumors have met with failure, and usually the inside of a harpies stomach.

Is constantly sought after by Moose and Squirrel!

Listerainium

This is a very common mineral easily found anywhere on Felarya. Crush this mineral down into a powder.
The powder form of this mineral can be used as a mouthwash when added to water (only light amount of water is needed, higher concentration of the powder, the better) It was named by an adventurer from Earth who thought it made his mouth feel: "Listerine Fresh!"

EliteCreature wrote:

Listerainium

This is a very common mineral easily found anywhere on Felarya. Crush this mineral down into a powder.
The powder form of this mineral can be used as a mouthwash when added to water (only light amount of water is needed, higher concentration of the powder, the better) It was named by an adventurer from Earth who thought it made his mouth feel: "Listerine Fresh!"

But LISTERINE is copyrighted. ._.

Manaferrum, also known as "dummy iron" by self-respecting mages, is a metal that conduces magic. Very rare throughout the multiverse, and not particularly desired, dummy iron is useful mostly when you don't have real wizards around to work with magic, and thus have to rely on the cold, soulless stuff.
Dummy iron feels like iron, but looks like lead. Working with it by trial and error can allow anyone to construct devices of various natures that cast spells while running on primordial magic. Adding magical gemstones may be necessary to get the right effects, though.

Tempezium
Rarity: Uncommon/Very Rare (Special)

Tempezium are special stones, suspected to be native to the Akaptor Desert, that exhibit very unusual properties on the fabric of time to those in close vicinity to them. The stones are rather dull looking and can usually be misinterpreted for just any old rock with the exception they emit a small hazy aura around themselves that can be mistaken for a mirage or just the heat within the desert. There is also no telling how many are abundant in any particular time period adding to the difficulty of actually finding one. This haze is actually their time altering nature at work and it can have a variety of results- one of the more common things would be for the stone to simply vanish from one time period and pop up in another. Needless to say such fickle stones are very hard to actually keep in one's possession and many mages are greatly frustrated trying to gather some to study. They can also be a source of great annoyance as the land changes much over time...sometimes a stone will reappear above someone's head in another timezone and bonk them without a clue where it came from; other such incidents include the stone popping up in front of someone and tripping them out of nowhere.


A random idea that popped up that sounded fun, partly inspired from the 'Age Stone' mentioned in Jirokatsu's latest bio for Ako the neera. Once again feel free to mess with it if you like it, the name came at random and I am always not so great at making those up.

I like this idea ^^
It's really original and it make sense in Akaptor. there is many things to do with it

Since I see my original idea of developing minerals has proven successful (eventually), I should throw my two cents.

Rare

The Psierin Crystal is considered a sort of opposite to the Ascarlin Crystal. While not quite as rare as Ascarlin, you'd have to be very lucky to stumble on one. It appears similar to an ascarlin, being deep cherry red with multiple blue veins. However, holding one of these stones greatly increases the holder's brain power. A big enough Psierin can even grant the commonest of commoners psionic powers. It recieves the nickname Psi Stone for this reason. Another neat effect of this stone is that putting this stone of someone's forehead will help said person regain rational thoughts and concentration, which is highly valuable for psionics. Some people craft headbands with one encrusted on to it to provide constant concentration.

Merged your mineral idea thread into, well, the dedicated thread for that which you made.

/Fish/ wrote:

Merged your mineral idea thread into, well, the dedicated thread for that which you made.

Thanks, didn't know it ended there.

Electrum Ore
Rarity: Common - Uncommon (depending on region)

Electrum Ore has, over the centuries, gone from a mere oddity, to one of the most widely used minerals in "civilized" Felarya. Electrum belongs to a unique family of ores that react in very specific ways when magical energy is applied to them. In the case of Electrum Ore, when magical energy is applied to it, the ore stores it and converts that energy into a slow, constant discharge of electricity. The ore itself is fairly easy to work with, and can be shaped and sized for all kinds of uses. There are also a few magical and physical processes that can be done to purify the ore and increase its potency.

Electrum Ore has become one of the most widely requested minerals by off-world visitors to Felarya. Once shaped properly, a chunk of Electrum can be inserted into a battery-powered device, to provide it with power. They are most commonly used on smaller things, like tools, flashlights, short-range radios, and even electric lightbulbs for homes and businesses.

The lifespan of a piece of Electrum Ore is not too different from a similarly sized battery (although, the more pure examples of it can last a bit longer), and it will eventually expend all of the magical energy infused into it. Several enterprising mages have used this to create a very successful chain of shops around Negav where a mage will recharge someone's Electrum shard, for a small fee of course.

((It just came to me today. I currently work at The Home Depot...and since its such a big store, all the employees use little short-range walkie-talkies. They're pretty handy. I was looking at mine during a 15 minute break...and I was like...this would be handy in Felarya....but what happens when the battery dies? ...and the BOOM Electrum Ore. A magical solution to a technological problem))

It should be noted, that only a handful of Ores in this specific group are actually practical for human use.
- Electrum Ore: Produces an electrical charge when magical energy is applied.
- Floatstone Ore: Creates a type of anti-gravity field when magical energy is applied.
- Aquifer Ore: Generates moisture when magical energy is applied.
((There's more...but its late and im tired. lol))

this was needed very much.

I've been trying to think of some way to combine magic and technology in a reasonable fashion, but you did it much better ^^

Floatstone Ore appears to be similar to Lydronite, except that from your description it appears to be a metal.
An ore is basically a very impure substance.
It would be more correct to title your entry "Electrum," rather than "Electrum Ore." Unless the other minerals in the ore are required to produce the effect associated with Electrum, in which case that would probably be called Electrum anyway.

What I'd like to see is some of these used in a story or something (eg, an area like Lydronite in Shatterrock Caldera).
Otherwise we see a huge build-up of ideas that nobody really goes back and looks through when they need a mineral that does X. They are more likley to come up with their own that does exactly what they need it to do for the story. And that's my point, it is better to come up with a mineral that you need for a story, an area idea or something along those lines than to just see this thread and try to think of some magical mineral for it's own sake. It leads to idea repetition and a pointless thread.

i might be able to write a story on it. but i have a queue of stories XD

A very interesting idea here ! It makes sense and could lead to some interesting development in explaining how people enginer things in Felarya. Great job

I added it I just renamed it "Actinite". As always, do you agree with the disclaimer ? ^_^

Karbo wrote:

I added it I just renamed it "Actinite". As always, do you agree with the disclaimer ? ^_^

Woot. Magical batteries ftw. Yep, I agree.