Zirconium

"This is Bard's Metal. We should inform TempleLocation."
— Thydian Miner
Zirconium, not super common in the mines, but when it's found it is made into medical tools because it's been found to be better than steel tools alone and that makes it culturally significant. One of the deities of Soplas uses it as their sacred metal because of its medical uses. That deity is The Bard.
Zirconium is a dark, near-black colored metal when used to make jewelry and ornaments. A Zirconium ring on the middle or index finger of the right hand (or as middle as the person's hand may allow) is a common way for healer priests of the Bard to be identified when they are not performing their priestly duties.
In Theydim, healers who follow the Bard have their tools made for their hands, and the process is measured to them. When they age and can no longer maintain a steady hand, they have their tools sent back to the local TempleLocation for the tools to be modified and altered to fit another healer. Most of these priests are already teachers by this stage, though they become full-time mentors.
Many of the healers in the border regions pass on their tools to an apprentice, though devotion to The Bard generally weakens over generations. There have been cases where a mentor healer's tools were not in a state to pass on to their apprentice due to the condition of the tools' edge or the tools breaking, and the tools are passed on as a symbolic inheritance.
Outside of Theydim, Zirconium is often used to create alloys that do not corrode for the wealthy. In regions bordering Theydim, the practice of having medical tools made of Zirconium had been expanded once the former-Thydian people refused to let their healers hand over their high-quality tools for the crime of being in the hands of people who are generally not wealthy.
Wealthy non-Thydians prefer alloys using zirconium for the noncorrosive properties because the products generally retain their fine condition over time.


Cover image: by Lyraine Alei, Midjourney

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