gold

simple beauty

Gold is a common metal found throughout Yatan'aa. Though too heavy and soft for any practical use, it's attractive colouring, low melting point, and resistance to any sort of tarnish or rust makes it ideal as a decorative addition to all manner of goods and materials. It is easily refined, worked, and available and has become a staple material across all walks of life in Yatan'aa.

Properties

Material Characteristics

In its pure form, it is a bright, slightly orange-yellow colour. Unusually it is a very dense, soft and malleable metal, even more so than lead. Unlike any other metal, gold does not tarnish, rust, or age in any way.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Gold is the most malleable of all metals. It can be drawn into wire so thin it can be used as thread, hammered into sheets thinner than paper, and poured into moulds of incredible detail.

Geology & Geography

Gold is found both in veins underground and as small pebbles in rivers and streams. Most commonly it is extracted as a by-product of copper and occasionally lead mining in Naya Xinsho and Edio.

History & Usage

History

Gold was prized for it's beauty and versatility even before the ancient Chi’yuan were expelled from Landen Village. Though very few artefacts exist from that period, there is a gold ring in the royal museum of Segaar Khin that belonged to Savarkar'Yata himself.

Everyday use

Gold is usually used as an design accent on buildings, furniture and other household objects. It is also used as a decorative element on some jewellery and even clothing. In some cases, due to the expense of steel, some iron, lead, or even bronze objects are coated in gold simply to help protect them from tarnish or rust.

Distribution

Trade & Market

Despite it's commonality, ease of refinement, and use as a primarily decorative material, gold is still hardly free to bring to the markets. The only real expenses associated with gold is due to it's weight. Being so dense and heavy, it can only be brought out of mines in low volumes compared to other metals, and it can only be transported in small amounts relative to things like copper or iron. Gold is so easy to find in the various rivers that come down out of the mountains, even nearer the coast, that transporting it down out of the lead and copper mines where it is so often found is almost unprofitable. Thankfully for the miners however, gold is such a common material, taken so much for common by all levels of Dal Karchuan society, that demand has stayed relatively consistent for centuries.

"It may be as common as rat dung, but it is very pretty."

- Shoki Nekadya, Fourteenth Shur'h'neet of Naya Xinsho (528AS)

Type

Metal

Value

low

Rarity

common

Odor

odorless

Taste

tastless

Color

orange-yellow