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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6520783" data-attributes="member: 4937">Wow, that's a bundle of information there.In general, Europe is not exactly awash in sources for gemstones.  I don't think there is a single gemstone that Europe is a commercially important source for.  So you have that sort of scarcity itself.Most European gems probably only had single or few sources within Europe itself.  For example, Habachtal, Austria was and remains the only viable Emerald mine in Europe.  Garnets came from what is the modern Czech republic.  Topaz came from Egypt and later Schneckenstein, Germany.  Most gems - gem quality sapphires or diamonds, for example - would have had sources outside of Europe - probably Russia or India via the Silk Road.  I do know that for most of European history the pearl was considered the most valuable of gems.  In general, the value of a gemstone was largely ornamental, as a display of power and wealth.  How valuable a gemstone was depended on how brilliant its color was and how sophisticated the cultures techniques were for working it.   For example, in ancient Egypt the Lapis Lazuli was considered the most valuable of gems, less for its scarcity than because it was brilliant blue and could be worked and polished with existing techniques in a way that harder stones couldn't have been (most hard stones like rubies or diamonds would have at the time had to be left in a rough cut that left them without luster).  Many stones were considered to have magical properties - Gygax does a good job of listing these in the 1e DMG - but in the middle ages the main source of 'legitimate' magic was relics and more pagan traditions would likely have been secondary in most cases.  I doubt it.  Sounds interesting though.</blockquote>

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