D&D 5E Exandria Metals: Uses for Orichalcum and Strife Iron

[Herosmith14]

So, I love Critical Role, and I love the Tael'Dorei Campaign guide. I like that that it introduced three new materials to be used for stuff; whitestone, orichalcum, and what I call Strife Iron.

For those of you who don't have the campaign guide, or haven't come across these material yet, here's a synapses. Whitestone is a material that comes from the Allabaster Sierras and is REALLY GOOD AT ENCHANTING THINGS. We got a brief section on it and its uses in the book. Orichalcum is a rare metal from a mountain range in the west known as the Daggerbay Mountains. It's the (supposedly) long dead lifeblood of a primordial titan. Since it's only mentioned in a story hook, its understandable we didn't get a section describing what it does, as with the Strife Iron. Strife Iron doesn't say specifically if it has magical properties, but considering it's the material that made up the armor of the Strife Emperor (Maglubiyet) when he was in his ginormous avatar form, it would make sense.

As I mentioned, we got a section describing whitestone and what it does. Orichalcum is obviously magical in nature, and Strife Iron is a bit more debatable. My question is, what could these two metals be used for? I mean, the blood of a titan, and the melted down metal of a god's armor! They've gotta do something cool, right?

 

[Nevvur]

The word orichalcum has Earth historic roots. The exact composition has been a mystery til recently, when some archaeologists found some in a shipwreck. Apparently it's just an alloy of copper, zinc, and charcoal. The article doesn't specify how they knew it was the orichalcum of antiquity. Was it labeled or something?

In fantasy literature, the properties vary wildly, unlike other fantasy metals which tend to have more consistent properties (e.g. mithril is very light weight, adamantium is extremely hard). So if you want to follow tradition, orichalcum does whatever you need it to do as a storyteller. As you note, the Tal'dorei campaign guide only mentions it has mysterious properties and the titan blood thing. If the goal is to ascribe it properties based on the campaign guide, the only thing we have to go on is the name of the titan, "The Molten Titan." With this as my only cue, I would treat it as a generically magic metal that's naturally warm to the touch and particularly suitable for powerful enchantments. High quality steel and expert craftsmanship is fine for +1 longswords, but if you need a Holy Avenger, get yourself some orichalcum.

Strife Iron, as you noted, doesn't appear to have inherently magical properties. Based on the scant few words spent describing it, I don't get the impression it's even all that rare. I presume the monstrous humanoids who 'mine' it do so because it's easier than traditional mining and smelting of iron ore. If one were inclined to give it inherently magical properties, I would lean toward some kind of corrupting effect. The Strife Emperor was said to have raised his armies by corrupting noble creatures. It might have no effect on the goblinoids who wield it, but might cause problems for regular folk if carried over a long period of time (months/years).