Gold And Magegold

[Wretched 2038]

(Credit to Lagomorphia)

 

Gold / Aurum:

Aurum, more commonly known as gold, is a moderately rare mineral found in ore veins all across the world. It holds no immediately obvious special use for it is incredibly brittle and makes for very poor armour and weaponry based on durability alone. Gold is mostly used as a decorative ore more than anything else due to its rarity and naturally gleaming beauty, but that said it remains significantly stronger than Arcarum and use may be made of it in combat, but Iron (Ferrum) will always be the most useful resource in this field.

Gold however does hold some interesting properties. For reasons unknown gold acts as a preventative against beings of a spectral nature, and the use from this can be employed in a variety of ways. The most obvious would be to forge swords out of gold as they would cause significant damage to spectrals entities while an Iron sword would do very little - it is as if gold acts as an anchor to physicality, and using it against spectral entities like ghosts, gravens, wraiths, harbingers and wights, forces a rapid demanifestation. Often across the world do the descendants lay down gold plates along the ground, as it prevents spectral entities from passing over them. Even if the spectral creature is able to hover over the barrier still they would find themselves unable to pass - the gold shatters their manifestation to the plane, and a forced attempt to breach the gold barrier would cause instant demanifestation, also known as death.

Magegold / Arcaurum:

Arcaurum, also known as Mage's Gold, Magegold, or Fool's Gold, is a naturally occurring metal nigh indistinguishable from gold to the untrained eye. While those experienced with gold and magegold can tell them apart from Magegold's duller shine, it is the weakness and brittleness of magegold that makes it so useless, being more like glass than metal. Even the slightest impurity gives it this brittle characteristic, but pure magegold, which is so soft it could be bent by a child, is prone to breaking easily, so most do not go to the effort of refining it to purity as it makes it even more useless.

Magegold coins can be broken in half by an even slightly strong human. It was originally known as Fool's gold, as it is slightly more common than gold and can easily be used to make counterfeit coins and gold items that break upon use, but which are indistinguishable from true gold to the eye. Such was the extent of counterfeit minas (which broke when people were felled in battle) that the Asulon-wide currency was changed to promissory notes and precious stones.

It was only in late Aegis that Arcaurum's true power was discovered. Most materials resist enchantment, requiring powerful magic or runes. Magegold, however, seems receptive to magic to such an extent that a novice could enchant it and a powerful mage could do great things indeed with it. The potential of magegold is limited only by how fragile it is, even after enchantment.

Magegold has a lesser known and less benign use: pure magegold can be used along with ancient rituals, to trap lesser spirits and souls within. This creates an arguably inhumane magical power source, which, when inscribed with the correct runes can be used to animate stone and grant it sentience (golems), and there was one tale of a more powerful spirit resisting and creating an elemental creature. Regardless, magegold is much more valuable today than it was in the past, yet many detest it for its use in counterfeiting and confidence trickery.

[ScreamingDingo 16792]

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