Forget silver, forget gold. If you want to get rich, come with me and find a fallen star.
— Sawteamiq, Star-Chaser
Starsteel is a rare metal found only in the meteorites that bombard Araea every now and then. While most of these impacts leave nothing behind but craters, meteoric iron or
stranger things, a rare few carry ores of Starsteel.
Description
In its natural form, Starsteel ore look like rainbow hued metallic crystals with repeating, square patterns. Pieces of ores often seem to have fused together by some unknown process during its voyage from the stars, while other meteorites have small shards scattered across a larger area of the rock.
Once smelted, the ingots resemble the steel from which it draw part of it name but with a rainbow sheen to its surface. Poorly smelted or impure Starsteel take on a slightly rusted look, even if no corrosion has actually occurred.
Traits
Starsteel is light but durable, melting in the best forges available in the deep. Were it not for its incredibly scarcity, it might make a weapon or armor on par with iron or steel. Starsteel is most useful to
Thaumaturgy, with the strange metal being exceptionally well-suited to use for artifice both for its great durability and other, less understood factors.
But the most notable trait of Starsteel its ability turn blight into a visible, shimmering light when polished to a gleam. Its rarity prevent any real and wide-spread practical application of this trait, but it is vital for the theurgs who call themselves Blightomancers to be able to work their craft.
Blightomancy
Just because something is incredibly dangerous to everyone around it doesn't mean that mankind has not attempted to turn it into a weapon. With Starsteel, these theurgs bind Blight to their spells in devastating fashion.
The 'Blightomancers' are very rare and there are no elders among their ranks. While the power they wield is some of the most destructive among all Theurgs, they are no more shielded from Blight than their victims.
Read more about Thaumaturgy
To Forge A Star
Working with Starsteel requires extreme temperatures and to purify the metal requires great skill. There are only a few forges that burn hot enough to properly purify Starsteel in the deep and they are typically powered by magma or similar geothermal sources. Liquid Starsteel looks strikingly like liquid rainbow with filtered through metal. It cannot be cast, but must be worked by hand.
Theurgs have a distinct advantage when it comes to working the rare metal, though those who have any experience doing so are even more rare than the metal itself. With all the difficulty working it, some who come to possess Starsteel ore chose to display in its natural state instead, with the intricate metallic crystals worn as jewelry or locked behind display cases.
Is the innate nature of starsteel usefulness to thaumaturgy its composition or the location and manner of its creation? Is starsteel made of elements not found on Araea? If it's entirely available on the planet, would it be theoretically possible to smelt an equivalent alloy, and if so, would it hold the same thaumaturgical uses as "natural" starsteel. I really like a magically reactive material that in itself doesn't do anything special, which was what I was planning my whole magic system on, so it's nice to see a well-respected community work do something similar! Keep up the excellent work.
Yeah, all Starsteel found on Araea comes from stuff on meteorites. None of it is found on the planet itself. It might be possible to make an alloy, but it's so ridiculously rare that no one's really been willing to potential ruin what little they have yet. Glad you liked the article. :D
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.