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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 224566" data-attributes="member: 545">The &quot;radioactivity&quot; thing is not an arbitrary idea.There are a lot of references to magical or fey creatures being defeated by iron weapons.&nbsp; Remember your 1e MM?&nbsp; Presumably these stories started at the dawn of the iron age, when a rare smithy proved capable of making reliable iron/steel weapons and tools.&nbsp; One can speculate such a weapon would have a &quot;magical&quot; ability to break his opponents bronze weapons, making an otherwise merely competent warrior an instant hero fit for song.&nbsp; So the idea that the right kind of metal tool can interfere with magical, fey, or diabolic influences is very old.&nbsp; Iron, silver, gold.&nbsp; They show up conspicuously all over the mythological material.In short, the idea that iron and steel are somewhat &quot;anti-magical&quot; is a legitimate mythological tradition that predates D&amp;D by millenia.Another non-merlin, non-gandalf source of this sacred cow is medieval Christianity.&nbsp; It is part of the dogma of Christianity that magic is tainted by diabolic influences.&nbsp; Faith, relics, holy auras, powerful blessing were considered proof against diabolic influences.&nbsp; Christian knights were often very religious, especially the crusaders, and therefore had their swords and armor blessed.&nbsp; That implicitly recreates the ideal that steel swords and steel armor is anti-magical in nature.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 224566, member: 545"] The "radioactivity" thing is not an arbitrary idea. There are a lot of references to magical or fey creatures being defeated by iron weapons. Remember your 1e MM? Presumably these stories started at the dawn of the iron age, when a rare smithy proved capable of making reliable iron/steel weapons and tools. One can speculate such a weapon would have a "magical" ability to break his opponents bronze weapons, making an otherwise merely competent warrior an instant hero fit for song. So the idea that the right kind of metal tool can interfere with magical, fey, or diabolic influences is very old. Iron, silver, gold. They show up conspicuously all over the mythological material. In short, the idea that iron and steel are somewhat "anti-magical" is a legitimate mythological tradition that predates D&D by millenia. Another non-merlin, non-gandalf source of this sacred cow is medieval Christianity. It is part of the dogma of Christianity that magic is tainted by diabolic influences. Faith, relics, holy auras, powerful blessing were considered proof against diabolic influences. Christian knights were often very religious, especially the crusaders, and therefore had their swords and armor blessed. That implicitly recreates the ideal that steel swords and steel armor is anti-magical in nature. [/QUOTE]

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