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

[MGibster]

After discovering that "cold iron" was just a poetic way of saying "iron" I got kind of annoyed that D&D treated it like a special material. It feels like misinformation, to me.

Yeah, D&D really isn't a reliable source. Just look at the Druid who scarcely resembles the Celtic version aside from having a scared plot of land. Though at one point, AD&D was my #1 source for names of polearms.

 

[Weiley31]

After discovering that "cold iron" was just a poetic way of saying "iron" I got kind of annoyed that D&D treated it like a special material. It feels like misinformation, to me.

It wouldn't be the first time a mythical being was repelled by something commonplace. What is it vampires are repelled by again? Sunlight? Running water? Garlic?

Pretty much. Heck even regular water will do in some stories. In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, you could kill almost all vampires by tossing them in water. Except for the Rahab Clan vampires, they were immune to the acidic effect that water had on vampires and their clan gimmick was that of swimming vampires.

 

[Weiley31]

Didn't Demons/Devils in 3.0/3.5 edition also have like a thing where their damage reduction could be overcome by Cold Iron as well? The Fey I could understand why with Cold Iron but I could never figure out why Devils/Demons were allergic to it as well.

 

[billd91]

Didn't Demons/Devils in 3.0/3.5 edition also have like a thing where their damage reduction could be overcome by Cold Iron as well? The Fey I could understand why with Cold Iron but I could never figure out why Devils/Demons were allergic to it as well.

It was demons. I suspect it was a bit of the same with faeries, really. Plus, it served as a distinction from devils who could be harmed with silver.

 

[billd91]

After discovering that "cold iron" was just a poetic way of saying "iron" I got kind of annoyed that D&D treated it like a special material. It feels like misinformation, to me.

In Irish legends, iron was supposed to be a powerful protection against magic - which may seem kind of weird to us today - but it may also be because, in Irish society, the blacksmith wasn't just a guy who made utilitarian stuff. He was magical. It's probably a descendent of the broader smith god tradition in Celtic cultures. And, ultimately, it may have derived from the idea that working iron was a difficult or magical process compared to dominant predecessor metals like bronze since the forge needed to be a lot hotter.

So exactly why "cold iron" was proof against magic or faeries? It may have had less to do with its intrinsic properties and more to do with the fact that the blacksmith worked magic.

 

[Casimir Liber]

After discovering that "cold iron" was just a poetic way of saying "iron" I got kind of annoyed that D&D treated it like a special material. It feels like misinformation, to me.

It wouldn't be the first time a mythical being was repelled by something commonplace. What is it vampires are repelled by again? Sunlight? Running water? Garlic?

Yeah...it is poetic....."cold iron" just sounds so cool I had to revive it and it be a Thing in my campaign. Plus I love the odd Vulnerability or two...

 

[gatorized]

I walked into that guy claiming everything that exists is natural no matter what and took the other side, because, well, it's simply not true. His stance is a lot like those who think you can't ever know anything, or that only what you can see exists, and the other fun, but useless philosophical arguments. It's a nice theory to talk about and have fun with, but it's just not reality. He was arguing that it was reality and I'm arguing against that position. In our reality, natural exists, and unnatural exists.

For thread purposes, cold forged iron is iron worked at low/room temperature and since it's worked iron, it's not natural. Hot forged iron is also not natural, but that does't work on the fey, because mythology.

Why do you think that humans aren't natural, or that things they do aren't natural?

 

[Maxperson]

Why do you think that humans aren't natural, or that things they do aren't natural?

You can't find skyscrapers in nature. You can't find cars in nature. You can't find steel knives in nature. Most of what we make and do isn't a part of nature.

Is the human race itself natural? Little else we do is natural, though.

 

[gatorized]

You can't find skyscrapers in nature. You can't find cars in nature. You can't find steel knives in nature. Most of what we make and do isn't a part of nature.

Is the human race itself natural? Little else we do is natural, though.

You can find all of those things in nature. They are made by humans, a species of animal that lives on Earth, in nature.

 

[Maxperson]

You can find all of those things in nature. They are made by humans, a species of animal that lives on Earth, in nature.

Ahh, you're one of those everything is natural and there's no such thing unnatural, despite unnatural things being a fact. That's about as useful as philosophers who think we can't know anything or can't know that we exist.