Materials

Any magical material with its own mana flow enhances the enchantments it is imbued with. Despite sounding great on paper, the same effect also strengthens the repulsion between the material and a power core, making the Forgemastering process more difficult. Forcing a mass of mana inside an inanimate object usually encounters a great resistance that deforms the pseudo core. The Forgemaster has to constantly fix all the imperfections that arise as the pseudo core slowly seeps inside the vessel and the slightest flaw in the final product will make it a useless failure.

## Metals

Metals with high purity aren't necessarily good for making practical things, as impurities can help obtain the right balance between hardness and softness. Too much hardness and the final result will be brittle, while too much softness will cause it to bend too easily. **Normal metals** do not have a mana flow, which is why they are Bonded with mana crystals. They are not only needed to fuel the Forgemastered spells, but also to help the relatively inert metal to withstand the magical energies without crumbling.

Mana geysers can be used to identify the location of both crystal mines and enchanted metal veins. Over time, a powerful stream of world energy can turn any lesser metal into silver, silver into Orichalcum, Orichalcum into Adamant, and even Adamant into Davross. Silver forms close to the surface whereas the deeper a geyser is, the stronger it becomes, making it possible to find Adamant veins. Davross takes so much time to form that it's not worth the wait, not even for Awakened. Adamant is always mined as it is unless it has already started to gain both black and white shades that mark the turning point into Davross.

### Metal Purification

Origin Flames can be manipulated at will to **refine/purify** any kind of **material** in its purest form, granting astounding properties to enchanted items made out of such materials. Invigoration is used to detect the size and position of impurities based on the resistance that they offer to the breathing technique. The caster focuses their will on their life force so that the Origin Flames will pass through the metal and affect solely the impurities. However, lack of mastery will cause the flames to have many random hot spots that deform the metal, moving the impurities away from their position and greatly reducing the purification's effectiveness. Domination can be used to control the flames for better and more precise results, though it adds to the strain of focus as the procedure requires surgical precision with handling the temperature, the hot spots, and the piercing ability in addition to Domination.

Impurities alter materials' physical properties as well as their ability to conduct mana. All kinds of metals, if properly purified, can be greatly enhanced with the use of Origin Flames. While some metals like Adamant are at their strongest once all external elements are completely removed, others, like Orichalcum or steel, only maintain their properties as long as they hold a certain amount of impurities.

Purifying metals enhances the mana capacity and exponentially increases the quality of the final product. However after every purification cycle, the built-up mana tempers the metal and improves its properties, but at the same time, the process brings it closer to its destruction. Too much tempering breaks even the most powerful blade.

### Mana Amplification

An Awakened technique to amplify one's mana for Forgemastering, such as Menadion's Mana Well technique. While Orichalcum, Adamant, and Davross work according to the same principle of amplifying mana and holding one's energy signature, Orichalcum has the slowest amplification rate and is the quickest to lose the signature.

### Gold

**Gold** is one of the weakest mana conductors for Forgemastering and has a disruptive nature. It is typically used for cloaking magical signatures.

### Silver

**Silver** is great for Forgemastering as it conducts mana well without the support of a mana crystal and can store and amplify all the spells it is enchanted with.

### Orichalcum

**Orichalcum** is a natural alloy of silver containing traces of Adamant. It's the perfect material for most artifacts and can become harder than steel with the proper treatment. It appears to be able to draw world energy and channel it. It is better at conducting mana than silver and is also much more resilient. Adamant is very rare so Orichalcum is more commonly seen in high-grade Forgemastering pieces. Orichalcum can be considered akin to a cyan core.

Orichalcum has the property to amplify energy based enchantments and is the reason it's considered so precious since its hardness is just above Damascus steel levels. The interaction between ingredients is very strong and it significantly varies with the amount of Adamant in the Orichalcum. Orichalcum can withstand much fewer enchantments than Adamant or Davross.

#### Purified Orichalcum

Process:

* Putting it in a crucible whose bottom is covered in a special sand to prevent the ore from sticking.
* The crucible is filled with a mixture of ore, wheat flour, lard, and ashes - the flour provides the carbon for the oxidation of impurities and heat the metal from the inside, the ashes serve for both the oxidation and makes the impurities clump together, and the lard helps the ore form an ore bar and build up the heat.
* The crucible is then covered with more ash, sand, and sytium; the sand prevents metals from volatilizing, while the sytium is necessary to keep the silver and the Adamant in the ore together.
* Placing the crucible inside the furnace, where the heat needs to be spread evenly until the ore looks like honey with no lumps of un-molten material.
* Pour the liquid into a dry mortar, where the ore solidifies into an upper part made of slag that looks like colored glass and a lower part made of metal. Separate the metal from the slag and repeat the process until it's pure.
* Add Darkestkhan to let the Adamant saturate the silver, giving the metal ingot the properties of both metals.

### Adamant

**Adamant** conducts mana as well as silver, but is hundreds of times more resilient. It can be shapeshifted into any form needed, making it easier to inscribe runes with perfect symmetry on the vessels for Forgemastering spells since there is ample surface to be rearranged in shape and size. True Forgemasters use Adamant for their Forges instead of silver. It is hypothesized that Adamant is simply dead Davross. Adamant can be considered akin to a blue core.

No matter how good a mana conductor the Adamant is, it can't contain an indefinite amount of energy. Once it is saturated, the constant stream of new world energy forces the old one stored inside the metal to come out, generating an artificial mana flow. This phenomenon is very similar to Invigoration when the world energy courses through a mage's body without them absorbing it, allowing it to replenish their mana and bring their body back to its peak condition.

The Gorgons living in Leegaain's lair produce an endless supply of the priceless metal simply by breathing on grass. The Guardian put batches of Adamant on the market from time to time, to allow powerful Forgemasters to put their abilities to the test and improve their skills.

#### Purified Adamant

Adamant cannot be purified without Origin Flames. The strongest flame can liquify it but not make it boil, leaving the impurities trapped inside. Only Origin Flames can remove them without harming the material or losing most of it in the process. The user of the flames must use their breathing technique to spot the impurities they want to cleanse and then manipulate the flames to attack them. When Adamant is purified to its utmost limit with Origin Flames, its quality increases tenfold, but its mass decreases by the same amount.

Even under normal circumstances, keeping a furnace's temperature high enough to liquefy Adamant takes a lot of focus. Forgemasters will use a source of the fire element such as molten lava to maintain the furnace temperature, leaving them free for other tasks. Even smelting Adamant is an expensive and difficult job. After being mined, the metal is simply molten with regular flames and turned into ingots without any purification of sorts just to make them easier to sell and move.

Unlike purified Orichalcum where the world energy seeps in and spreads evenly inside the metal, purified Adamant has several vortexes of accumulated world energy, though they aren't condensed enough to form a proper energy core.

### Davross

**Davross** is the strongest material on Mogar. After being smelted and forged, its color changes from silver to black according to how it is exposed to light. It is capable of cutting through iron like wood and is said to be indestructible, only able to be broken by being melted and refined into ingots. Davross can be considered akin to a violet core.

Davross is solid, yet one second its surface is white with black veins all over it, and the next the two colors reverse their positions. Davross absorbs the light instead of reflecting it, changing its appearance as if there are two colliding forces inside of it, battling for dominion.

Davross is so rare that even Eldritch Abominations older than the Guardians accumulate but a few ingots.

Impurified Davross is sturdier than Adamant and has an even better mana flow and greater amplification rate of enchantments, but such properties aren't worth the trouble of finding enough Davross when Adamant is much more common.

#### Purified Davross

Removing impurities from Davross not only greatly increases its density, further enhancing its physical properties, but it also amplifies its mana flow to the extreme. It becomes capable of drawing, storing, and amplifying the surrounding world energy. Purified Davross is filled to the brim with world energy, making it hard to understand where the line between energy and matter lies (akin to a white core). It draws world energy so quickly that it's as if it has a breathing technique of its own; as soon as it's given a moment of rest, it recharges and stabilizes an artifact's pseudo core, making it ready for use again.

Purified Davross' color shifts from silvery to black as if it is being stirred from the inside.

The real power of purified Davross is its ability to allow its master to draw upon the elemental aspects of the spells it is enchanted with by manipulating the flow of world energy it provides, though only one aspect at a time. Davross is not Spirit Magic nor does it use the Forgemaster's own mana. The resistance that the world energy offers is so great that, just like white crystals, the Davross can enhance only one element at a time. Unlike white crystals, however, the element can be switched at will.

Enchanted, purified Davross is not sentient, but comes incredibly close to it. Like mana crystals, it has a memory, and once enchanted, it remembers its shape. When a piece of an enchanted Davross artifact is broken, the Davross will turn into a liquid metal that reattaches itself to the main body, restoring its form without losing the enchantment. However, the effect is not permanent and everything comes at a price. Excessive use of Davross' elemental aspects, activation of enchantments, and repeated use of the metal's self-repairing ability will reduce part of the Davross' energy flow and turn it more brittle, almost degrading it to purified Adamant. It works exactly like the body - each time Invigoration is used, it loses part of its effectiveness. In the Davross' case, it also weakens it until it becomes no better than glass. Given time it will recover its strength.

An enchanted piece of purified Davross has an almost inexhaustible flow of world energy, and thus can enhance an artifact's enchantment. A fire enchantment on a blade turns the blade red-hot, emitting a burst of flames from its surface whose destructive power burns even the world energy in the air, producing extreme heat able to cut through stone as if it is paper. A Tier 3 spell from a magic holding ring becomes so infused with world energy that the destructive power of a simple fireball is boosted to a Tier 4 spell. An arm protector imbued with the water element conjures a magnetic field that can separate the world energy from a spell, making it fade.

### Darwen

**Darwen** is a rare material capable of nullifying most detection arrays and resisting magic. However, to shield its users from detection techniques, it is required to cover them entirely. Darwen is very hard but brittle, making it easy to crack - Darwen armor is typically rough, as a more precise refining process is likely to cause it to shatter. Due to its magic resistance, a very powerful magic is required to refine it. Raw Darwen extracted from Davross resembles a bumpy piece of charcoal the size of a fist.

While a common metal gets refined by the world energy until it becomes Davross, the same happens to its **impurities**. During the natural tempering process, impurities lump together until only those more resistant to magic remain. Thus, Darwen can be obtained only by smelting Davross. It's an amazing metal that can be used for cloaking devices far superior to those that use gold and to craft protections that offer little physical protection but absolute magical defense.

Refining Darwen is something only Awakened can do. To craft something out of Darwen it first needs to be purified of the Davross impurities. Then, it must be treated with regular blacksmith techniques. Moreover, due to its magical resistance, it can only be treated with natural fire, but Darwen requires temperatures that no furnace can produce without magic, such as molten lava. Darwen can only be purified by brute force - it is resistant to both mana and world energy, requiring the power of a violet-cored individual just to examine it. Unlike what happens for normal magical metals, impurities can be found wherever the energy flow becomes easier. When working with Darwen, one must treat Davross, Adamant, and even silver as impurities. In order to craft something out of it, they have to first be removed completely. Origin Flames cannot be used as Darwen is resistant even to those; the solution is to use lava for melting the Darwen and Origin Flames to melt the impurities at the same time.

## Alloys

According to Orion Ernas, a gold alloy can't hold more than one incantation at a time. The only way to have more is to mix the gold with Adamant instead of silver.

### Electrum

An amber colored alloy of gold and silver. By combining the two metals, the alloy is capable of conducting magic like silver but prevents it from leaking out due to the disruptive nature of gold.

## Minerals

### Gold-Veined Marble

Naturally resistant to magic in general and to earth magic in particular, making it one of the most robust and precious materials available in the Griffon Kingdom.

## Natural Treasures

**Natural Treasures** are usually used as ingredients in Forgemastering and Alchemy. When picking a natural treasure (i.e. flowers), no part of it can be removed, otherwise it will lose some if not all of its potency as an ingredient. Natural treasures can't be further refined no matter how much world energy they are given.

Natural treasures only grow in places abundant with world energy, similar to what happens with mana crystals. If a flower is still blooming past its season, it's likely to be evolving into a natural treasure. World energy seeps out from the ground, so the most magically talented plants can absorb it along with their nourishment. If they are talented and lucky enough, they can even gain consciousness. In a manner of speaking, every time someone picks a natural treasure they are potentially killing a plant folk. The best place to search for natural treasures is where the green is more luscious (i.e. a spot where flowers have vibrant colors or where there's a spring).

Leegaain has discovered for a long time how to cultivate natural treasures and grows them inside his biomes.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1622: Life and Death (Part 4)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 588: Fanning the Flames (Part 2)
3. ↑ Chapter 671: Impending Threat (Part 1)
4. ↑ Chapter 1205: Loose Ends (Part 1)
5. ↑ Chapter 735: Prodigal Daughter (Part 1)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 1435: Davross and Darwen (Part 1)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 778: Secrets and Ignorance (Part 2)
8. ↑ Chapter 859: Hidden Truths (Part 1)
9. ↑ Chapter 1538: Menadion's Apprentice (Part 2)
10. ↑ Chapter 182: Silver Lining
11. ↑ Chapter 1124: Scalewalker Armor (Part 4)
12. ↑ Chapter 289: Bonding (Part 1)
13. ↑ Chapter 530: Unexpected Turn (Part 2)
14. ↑ Chapter 584: Punishment and Rewards (Part 2)
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Chapter 1123: Scalewalker Armor (Part 3)
16. ↑ Chapter 634: A Fair Trade (Part 2)
17. ↑ Chapter 1605: Odd Friends (Part 1)
18. ↑ Chapter 541: The Best Laid Plans... (Part 1)
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 636: Davross (Part 2)
20. ↑ Chapter 589: Necro Forge (Part 1)
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Chapter 1113: A Mage Among Gods (Part 1)
22. ↑ Chapter 1208: Loose Ends (Part 4)
23. ↑ Chapter 125: Chaos (2)
24. ↑ Chapter 1419: Gains and Losses (Part 1)
25. ↑ Chapter 1591: Purified Davross (Part 1)
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Chapter 1592: Purified Davross (Part 2)
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Chapter 1593: Training Time (Part 1)
28. ↑ Chapter 360: The Master (Part 2)
29. ↑ Chapter 361: Career Change (Part 1)
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Chapter 1436: Davross and Darwen (Part 2)
31. ↑ Chapter 569: Balance of Power (Part 1)
32. ↑ Chapter 521: Unexpected Gift (Part 1)
33. ↑ Chapter 1085: Internal Strife (Part 1)
34. ↑ Chapter 194: Frost Dew
35. ↑ Chapter 1602: Shared Power (Part 2)
36. ↑ Chapter 791: Ill Omen (Part 1)
37. ↑ Chapter 792: Ill Omen (Part 2)
38. ↑ Chapter 1515: Seeds of Knowledge (Part 1)
39. ↑ Chapter 1620: Life and Death (Part 2)
40. ↑ Chapter 1507: Odd Companions (Part 1)
41. ↑ Chapter 1508: Odd Companions (Part 2)
42. ↑ Chapter 1527: Chaos Unleashed (Part 1)
43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Chapter 1619: Life and Death (Part 1)