WTF is "cold iron", and why's it so special?

[Weiley31]

Dungeon Crawl Classics gives Elves the whole "allergy to Iron" thing which is something that is referencing the whole "Cold Iron" weakness that the Fey have.

However, in there, it is straight up just Iron. Like no Cold Iron. Just ANYTHING made of metal or what not seems to trigger it. Elf on a space ship? Oh crap.

 

[Umbran]

Well, did you also know the dad Seahorse gives birth to live young as well?

Seahorses are wonderfully complicated.

 

[Mannahnin]

Dungeon Crawl Classics gives Elves the whole "allergy to Iron" thing which is something that is referencing the whole "Cold Iron" weakness that the Fey have.

However, in there, it is straight up just Iron. Like no Cold Iron. Just ANYTHING made of metal or what not seems to trigger it. Elf on a space ship? Oh crap.

Yes. As the earlier parts of this thread detail, that's what "cold iron" actually meant in real world history, poetry and folklore. Any iron or steel at all.

The idea that "Cold Iron" is some special unique material other than just iron is a D&Dism. Purely an invention of modern fiction.

WTF is "cold iron", and why's it so special?

Just my two cents, but anyone who needs a sock puppet account is probably a sad little person. Anyway, back to cold iron and it's many uses! Can anyone tell me if it makes julienne fries? Hmmm... that depends. Is "julienne" a condition, or a weapon special property?

www.enworld.org

 

[Mannahnin]

Isn't outside of Nature also considered like, non naturery stuff too like cities and what not?

Only according to a pre-scientific, irrational view which held humans and human activity to be somehow categorically separate and apart from the natural world. Which we're not.

As the wiktionary entry shows, this usage of the word "natural" still has some usage, but it's only the fourth of fifteen definitions.

Here are the first six:

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

1. Existing in nature.
   1. Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
   2. Normally associated with a particular person or thing; inherently related to the nature of a thing or creature. [from 14th c.]
      The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.
   3. As expected; reasonable, normal; naturally arising from the given circumstances. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
      It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.
      His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.
   4. Formed by nature; not manufactured or created by artificial processes. [from 15th c.] quotations ▼
   5. Pertaining to death brought about by disease or old age, rather than by violence, accident etc. [from 16th c.] quotations ▼
      She died of natural causes.
   6. Having an innate ability to fill a given role or profession, or display a specified character. [from 16th c.]

natural - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

 

[CleverNickName]

It's iron that was found in a pure state (either meteoric iron or an especially rich ore) and hammered into shape without being smelted.

This is the best answer I've seen to the OP's question, and I'm using it in my campaign. Thanks Starglim!

 

[Mannahnin]

This is the best answer I've seen to the OP's question, and I'm using it in my campaign. Thanks Starglim!

Hey, it's a perfectly cromulent rule to invent for D&D.

 

[CleverNickName]

Hey, it's a perfectly cromulent rule to invent for D&D.

Exactly! It's a fantasy roleplaying game, not a scientific journal. It makes just as much sense as magic, anyway.

I've been looking for a pseudo-scientific explanation for Cold Iron, and now I finally have one.

 

[glass]

This thread is so weird. It's 15 years old and almost nobody mentions that "cold iron" is supposed to mean the same thing that we mean when we say "cold steel". It just means a weapon made from iron (or steel).

Other than my saying it in post #4?

However, formal logic has a different view of definitions that really should carry some weight here. Alas, most folks haven't seen formal logic since junior high school or thereabouts.

What does formal logic have to do with whether limiting the word "natural" to its broadest possible (and least useful) definition is required? EDIT: In a context of a discussion thread on an elfgame forum, which is decidedly informal and not always all that logical....

 

[Mannahnin]

Exactly! It's a fantasy roleplaying game, not a scientific journal. It makes just as much sense as magic, anyway.

I've been looking for a pseudo-scientific explanation for Cold Iron, and now I finally have one.

Right. Totally useful for that.

I follow (and subscribe to the Patreon of) the folklorist I quoted before, Morgan Daimler. They have a recurring frustration with people on social media sharing concepts from D&D and modern fantasy fiction as if they were ancient folklore, and it's a bit of an ongoing Sisyphean effort to try to debunk false etymologies and keep the lines between folk beliefs going back centuries or millennia at least mildly distinct from stuff Jim Butcher or Monte Cook wrote in the last couple of decades.

Forgive me if I get a bit nerdy about it.

 

[Mannahnin]

Dungeon Crawl Classics gives Elves the whole "allergy to Iron" thing which is something that is referencing the whole "Cold Iron" weakness that the Fey have.

However, in there, it is straight up just Iron. Like no Cold Iron. Just ANYTHING made of metal or what not seems to trigger it. Elf on a space ship? Oh crap.

This strikes me as another really cool example of DCC going back to the original pre-D&D wellspring sources and trying to be more true to them than D&D has chosen to be. Mostly they do this with the pulp fiction sources, but in this case it's with folk lore going back at least to medieval Scotland.