Bluesteel

Bluesteel, sometimes spelled "blue steel", is a cyan, teal, or dark blue colored metal and ore found in the earth of Thane's Isle and parts of the Sun Nation. It is unknown if this material is found on other Universes. Bluesteel is lighter than any other building material, and is at least twice as durable as steel, being known to be able to damage (or even shatter) diamonds. Bluesteel is not a renewable resource. It is unknown how bluesteel is formed molecularly, and where it sits on the period table of elements is also unknown. Theories suggest it is a compound material, and others suggest it is not naturally occurring. Bluesteel is found in vast ore pockets, often extended for hundreds of miles laterally and vertically into the Thane's Isle crust, and is often noted by its "oxidized bronze" color. The "ore" (which already resembles refined metal) can be reforged by specialists into countless items.

## Usage:

Bluesteel can be used for armors, vehicles, machine parts, weaponry, civil engineering projects, household items, and as currency. Due to its rarity, it is often used as the spectral "fourth" coin, the other three being copper, silver, and gold. However, bluesteel's use by the military sector is where it is mostly implemented. Bullets, firearms, tanks, machine parts, aircraft, and railroad equipment are all noted for using bluesteel as a primary material. Due to its light nature, massive airships called "airforts" have been built to serve the Thane's Isle military, serving the function of seaborn battleships and aircraft carriers, but from the sky as opposed to the water.

## Culture:

Bluesteel has a massive impact on the economy and military industrial complex of Thane's Isle. Due to bluesteel not rusting or decaying, it can be seen in plentiful amounts throughout the continent. The Sun Nation has less bluesteel, though this may be because its pockets have not been discovered yet.

### The Bluesteel Paragon Knights:

Jack Sharpe's corporate army, which existed unofficially during the Tumult, is outfitted head to toe with bluesteel plate armor and weapons. This makes them immune to small arms fire, and lesser so to the strikes of wisp blades. The bluesteel industry, protected by the Paragon, is the largest and richest industry on the Isle, perhaps next to arms manufacturing and banking.

### The Black Wings Motorcycle Club:

The "Blackwings MC", also known as the "Republik Biker Cavalry," are a former motorcycle club enlisted as a motorized cavalry unit in the Second Afterlifian People's Republik army. They, like the Paragon, wear varying degrees of bluesteel armor, though their armor is often stolen, or forged illicitly and traded on the black market. The Black Wings share similar benefits to the Paragon, though their vehicles (also armored in bluesteel) make them a menace to Thane's Isle military outfits, and a massive boon to the Republik. They are the only known unit of the Republik army outfitted in the metal, as they do not share armor, weapons, or vehicles with anyone outside of the motorcycle club.

### Railroads & Steam Power:

The West-North Railroad constructed at least one experimental Bluesteel locomotive. It has a 2-12-2 wheel arrangement, which would be unwieldy with a conventional steel steam locomotive. Due to the low weight, the twelve drivers may have been nessecary to increase tractive effort, or decrease axle load due to the longer boiler. Steam locomotives (or any steam boilered appliance) made of bluesteel can hold a vastly higher boiler PSI, (even up to 700psi), which provides the relative piston stroke for a locomotive made of steel.

### Airships:

Due to the light weight of bluesteel, at least six airships have been constructed for the Thane's Isle military, that are as long in the gondola as a seaborne battleship, with armaments and appliances to match a seaborn vessel. They are supported by a balloon, with twisted buttresses running up the height of the vessel from the hull. The balloon is often encased in a bluesteel shell, which does not negate its ability to lift or descend safely. These airships often run into similar issues of a traditional airship, being heavily influenced by the wind. If a disaster strikes over a populated area, the durability of these airships becomes a danger to anything in their path, were they to crash land, or fall from the sky.

## History:

Little is known of bluesteel's origin. It is said to have mystical properties, or that the metal seems "alive." Apocolites are noted to be "allergic" to the metal, and bluesteel is the only metal that can cause traditional wounds to an apocolite without excessive force. Bluesteel is noted as being used throughout history, in what histories remain of the old world before The Rift.

## Recent Events:

### *Universe Eight*

In Universe Eight, the first encounter with bluesteel is the seaplane that harasses the Sunnese fleet en-route to Fort Lightchild. The plane is made entirely of the metal, save for the skids. It takes a direct hit from a 12-inch shell to damage the engine casing enough to penetrate it, and the plane falls from the sky due to engine failure, not due to structural damage.

Later, bluesteel swords are drawn in Zenzele's sand office, which unsettles Leon Broks. Leon knows the strength of the metal, and fears combatting it.

In the cannonade on the High Isle, Andrey Ivanov notices an ancient Technician's shield hanging on the wall, made of bluesteel, with their sigil carved into its center.

The bluesteel 2-12-2 locomotive is marveled at by Peter Reynolds and Armando Latorre.

The airship *KN Laydon* arrives to assist the soldiers at Fort Lightchild from the air, launching aircraft from its flight deck. It is the first appearance in the books of an "airfort."

During the swordfight between Leon Broks and Samuel Bradshaw, Bradshaw elects to use a bluesteel sword.