Latest revision as of 21:56, 8 June 2015

The Nine Magical Materials

by CallMeCal
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In the High First Age, smiths and savants catalogued the wonders of Five Magical Materials. These five and their traits are well known throughout Creation, and their properties are logged in Oadenal's Codex. However, in the time since the Usurpation, other Magical Materials have been discovered. How rare and how widely known they are varies by material and by Storyteller.

The Five

The Five Magical Materials known in the First Age are Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, Jade, and Soulsteel. For more information on them, see the Exalted Core Book and Oadenal's Codex.

The Four

Here are the other four Magical Materials, their properties, their origin, and their respective rarities.

Adamant

Adamant is universally considered the Sixth Magical Material within Autochthonia. If the Seal of Eight Divinities has not been breached, Adamant is entirely unknown within Creation (with the exception of First Age documents from before Autochthon left for Elsewhere). How well known it is depends on how long the Seal has been open, how far the Locust Crusade has spread, how far their lines of trade may have spread, etc. Even if it is somehow universally known all over Creation, it may or may not be considered equal to the Five; most likely opinions among smiths and savants will vary as to whether the Five should become the Six, in mirror of Autochthonia, or if Adamant should be classified separately.

Gossamer

Most people who have had even peripheral contact with or study about the Fair Folk know of the existence of Gossamer. Very few, however, would count it among the Five, because it is nearly unusable for those within Creation itself. It is too supple, too chaotic, too Wyld for most mortals or even Dragon-Blooded smiths to reliably work with. As the Fair Folk push further into Creation, and particularly if Arcadian smiths or savants begin breaking ground in the forging of Gossamer Artifacts, or if the returned Solars look on Gossamer with less suspicion and prejudice and more inspiration and creativity, that state of affairs may begin to change.

Verdigris

Sometimes called Brimstone, this coarse, blue-green metal seems at first glance to be made of compressed copper oxide. When (nearly) any Magical Material is immersed in Vitriol, it corrodes and oxidizes, producing a thin outer layer of Verdigris. This Verdigrised metal can then be used as-is, or that layer of Verdigris can be scraped off and smelted into a metal of its own. Verdigris can be attuned to by any Hell-template Exalt, regardless of Type.
Verdigris is filled with the anger of the Yozis. If a Verdigris Armor's hardness reduces an attack to zero, or soak reduces it to Essence ping, Essence ping is also rolled against the attacker as the armor lashes out at them. If a Verdigris Weapon's attack rolls more Critical Successes than the target's Permanent Essence, and deals damage, one point of that damage becomes Aggravated.

Emerald

(See this page for details on the properties and origin of Emerald.)

Attunement

Each Magical Material is able to bind to a Chakra. In this way, Exalts can "attune" Artifacts to themselves, activating certain properties of the materials and making it metaphysically their own. The required Chakras for binding must be those that define the Exaltation; merely having Chi in an off-template Chakra does not allow an Exalt to attune to a new material.

Creation's Four

These four Magical Materials can only be attuned to in the presence of an Honor Chakra. Orichalcum binds to Glory, Moonsilver binds to Shift, Starmetal binds to Wisdom, and Jade binds to Synergy. Jade is further restricted in that each color of Jade can only bind to a Terrestrial with matching Aspect.

The Other Five

• Emerald binds to Apotheos, but requires a Synergy Chakra. (See this page for more information about the behavior of Emerald.)
  
• Soulsteel binds to Jhor and Verdrigris binds to Penitence. These two do not have any other requirements, only the presence of its respective Template Chakra.
  
• Gossamer can bind to Plot, but can also be bound to a Grace.
  
• Adamant must be bound to a Logic Chakra with an Adamant body. (see the next section)

The Logic Chakra

For the purposes of binding Artifacts, the Logic Chakra can act as any one of Creation's Four, or Jhor, if the body of the Alchemical is built out of that Chakra's respective Magical Material. So Orichalcum Castes may bind Orichalcum Artifacts, etc. Adamant Castes may only bind to Adamant Artifacts. In the case of Machinicals and Unfoundeds, this works the same way (although the material must be Verdigrised or Wispwoven, respectively, to account for the lack of an Honor Chakra). Obsolescents, however, are varied by the focus of their Necrotech, rather than by variations of Magical Material. As such, they are only able to attune to Soulsteel Artifacts.

Altered Materials

In official canon, vitriol can be used to "taint" any Magical Material so it can be used by an Infernal or Akuma who could attune to the original material (Manual of Exalted Power: The Infernals, p.173). In the CallMeCanon, there are three different processes based on that idea. (Verdigris, Gossamer, and Emerald cannot be successfully altered in these ways.)

Verdigrised

When (nearly) any Magical Material is immersed in Vitriol, it corrodes and oxidizes, producing a thin outer layer of Verdigris. A Verdigrised Magical Material has all the same properties of its pure form, but requires a Penitence Chakra instead of Honor (her Exaltation must still be the appropriate Type for the original material; thus Verdigrised Soulsteel can only be attuned to by Scale Caste Machinicals). Verdigrised Magical Materials look like they have tarnished with rust and age, or rather how they would look if such things could tarnish a Magical Material; dull, coarse, with a subtle green tint and patches of verdigris patina spread randomly over its surface.

Soulveined

A Soulveined Magical Material has all the same properties of its pure form, but requires a Jhor Chakra instead of Honor (her Exaltation must still be the appropriate Type for the original material).

Wispwoven

A Wispwoven Magical Material has all the same properties of its pure form, but requires a Plot Chakra instead of Honor (her Exaltation must still be the appropriate Type for the original material; thus Wispwoven Soulsteel can only be attuned to by Onyx Caste Unfoundeds).