Dark Jezter
First Post
Gellion said:
Heh! That's a very likely possibility as well... Kind of like the people who don't eat meat because they feel that killing animals is wrong, but they wear leather shoes and belts.
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Where Do Elves Get Their Metal?
- Thread starter Norfleet
- Start date
Heh! That's a very likely possibility as well... Kind of like the people who don't eat meat because they feel that killing animals is wrong, but they wear leather shoes and belts.
LoneWolf23
First Post
There are a few options concerning wood: Like Night Elves, Elves could use magic to harvest wood from living trees without damaging them, or they could harvest wood from naturally fallen trees, or could practice limited cutting from very large trees, cutting top branches without harming the root system.
Gez
First Post
Well, the "Night Elf" magic harvesting is not something I'd like to see outside a video game. As a way to diversify resource management, it's cool, but otherwise, it's cheeeeesy.
IMC, there are three elven cultures (which may be categorized as barbaric, civilized, and decadent, or neutral, good, and evil), the wood elves, grey elves and high elves.
Wood elves simply have no metal, except what they may get with their limited trade, or by "looting intruders" (robbing bypassers).
Grey elves spends much of their time on the seas. They now import the wood they need to buy ships, because they don't want to cut down down the few trees they have left.
High elves, the evil bastards of the lot (one must be pretty pretentious to call oneself "high" something, I mean, unless they live atop mountains), trade with dwarves and steal from other surface dwellers.
IMC, there are three elven cultures (which may be categorized as barbaric, civilized, and decadent, or neutral, good, and evil), the wood elves, grey elves and high elves.
Wood elves simply have no metal, except what they may get with their limited trade, or by "looting intruders" (robbing bypassers).
Grey elves spends much of their time on the seas. They now import the wood they need to buy ships, because they don't want to cut down down the few trees they have left.
High elves, the evil bastards of the lot (one must be pretty pretentious to call oneself "high" something, I mean, unless they live atop mountains), trade with dwarves and steal from other surface dwellers.
Jakathi
First Post
Well as to the wood problem.
I think that the elves are generally against won-ton tree-stripping.
What they might do is a kind of tree-husbandry. Like set aside a bit of their territory for fast-growing unintelligent trees, cut them down, then replant them and so on. My guess is they're big on conservation. This would solve the problem quite handily. And fast growing could be anywhere from 10 to 100 years for an elf.
As to the metal problem. My guess is trade. They're great artisans right?
they just trade their finished goods for stuff they don't have.
And in some of the stories i've written, the adamintine is actually a kind of living hive-mind organism that leaves behind small deposits, sort of like supernatural limestone.
I think that the elves are generally against won-ton tree-stripping.
What they might do is a kind of tree-husbandry. Like set aside a bit of their territory for fast-growing unintelligent trees, cut them down, then replant them and so on. My guess is they're big on conservation. This would solve the problem quite handily. And fast growing could be anywhere from 10 to 100 years for an elf.
As to the metal problem. My guess is trade. They're great artisans right?
they just trade their finished goods for stuff they don't have.
And in some of the stories i've written, the adamintine is actually a kind of living hive-mind organism that leaves behind small deposits, sort of like supernatural limestone.
LazarusLong42
First Post
Well, most bauxite production is actually found in tropical and semi-tropical forests. They may not enjoy mining it, but the mines needn't be particularly deep, and there are almost always dwarven subcontractors available for the task. Smelting is probably performed magically.
(What do you mean, mithril and aluminum are two different things? Mithril is described in D&D as a silver-white, very light, very strong metal--as strong as steel, but not nearly as heavy. Here in the 21st centruy, we call that metal aluminum.)
And only dwarves work with adamantite because they're the only ones willing to delve deep into the quartz crystal mines to extract the rutile fibers to make titanium. (Again, an ultra-hard metal otherwise mostly like steel: titanium.)
(What do you mean, mithril and aluminum are two different things? Mithril is described in D&D as a silver-white, very light, very strong metal--as strong as steel, but not nearly as heavy. Here in the 21st centruy, we call that metal aluminum.)
And only dwarves work with adamantite because they're the only ones willing to delve deep into the quartz crystal mines to extract the rutile fibers to make titanium. (Again, an ultra-hard metal otherwise mostly like steel: titanium.)
I think you are confusing aluminum, titanium and tungsten.
Aluminum is not as strong as steel, but is much lighter. Titanium is as strong or stronger then steel, and STILL lighter.
Tungsten is considerably harder then steel and the metal with the highest melting point. Tungsten carbide is harder then any other substance known except for diamond. It's a major PITA to shape it, but it's so powerful it's whats in the filament of your lightbulbs (unless that's been changed since Edison...)
Mithral I'd call titanium. Adamantine is Tungsten...and for Adamantine, they have similar rarity, heh.
==Aelryinth
Aluminum is not as strong as steel, but is much lighter. Titanium is as strong or stronger then steel, and STILL lighter.
Tungsten is considerably harder then steel and the metal with the highest melting point. Tungsten carbide is harder then any other substance known except for diamond. It's a major PITA to shape it, but it's so powerful it's whats in the filament of your lightbulbs (unless that's been changed since Edison...)
Mithral I'd call titanium. Adamantine is Tungsten...and for Adamantine, they have similar rarity, heh.
==Aelryinth
Jakathi
First Post
mithril and adamitium
well. personally, i don't think mithril is aluminum.
nor do i think adamtium is titanium.
they're probably both something different.
for one, in a lot of the references to mithril, the stuff is usually cast as untarnishable, 'pure silver' or true silver. which means it's probably a heck of a lot rarer than aluminum which is by far a fairly common metal here in the modern world. Perhaps as rare as gold, but far more valuable.
same as adamintium. it's also very rare and normally cast as a kind of black metal. or perhaps that's just an alloy. anyway. what i'm saying is, they're both probably something completely different.
but, the way you described the aquirment process is probly accurate.
lol. as acurate as fantasy could be anyway.
well. personally, i don't think mithril is aluminum.
nor do i think adamtium is titanium.
they're probably both something different.
for one, in a lot of the references to mithril, the stuff is usually cast as untarnishable, 'pure silver' or true silver. which means it's probably a heck of a lot rarer than aluminum which is by far a fairly common metal here in the modern world. Perhaps as rare as gold, but far more valuable.
same as adamintium. it's also very rare and normally cast as a kind of black metal. or perhaps that's just an alloy. anyway. what i'm saying is, they're both probably something completely different.
but, the way you described the aquirment process is probly accurate.
lol. as acurate as fantasy could be anyway.
LazarusLong42
First Post
Aelrynth: Crud. You're right, though it took some time to find some references on tensile strengths. Ah well... I should have paid more attention to metallurgy
Aluminum, however, would still be rare in the middle ages (I think it was not, in fact, discovered in our world until the 1600s) because the refining process is so energy-intensive. Same, of course, for titanium and tungsten. That's where magical refining processes come in.
Aluminum, however, would still be rare in the middle ages (I think it was not, in fact, discovered in our world until the 1600s) because the refining process is so energy-intensive. Same, of course, for titanium and tungsten. That's where magical refining processes come in.
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