Some MM questions - mainly soulsteel, but other stuff too.

[lauge_perto]

For some time now I have had a lot of questions regarding Soulsteel, The 5 magic materials and some other stuff boiling, so here it goes.


1)


Is there an explanation for abyssals attuned to soulsteel? I mean, soulsteel was around for some time before both the abyssals and the deathlords joined the ranks of the neverborn, so why is it "their" material? Is it just because WW made an evil metal in the 1st ed core before they had the world all plottet out, and now they can't find an explanation? Or is it one of those mysterious "What is the square root of a million?" type of questions?


2)


And I have seen hints that akuma exalted might also have something that corresponds to a magical material that they are attuned to, is this correct or is it reading to much into Malfean Iron and black Lead? Or is it again a bit vague - my GoD seems to be...


3)


As a third question, what is the deal with yellow and purple jade? Typo's and stuff, or variants of Jade?


4)


And finally, if one is to make a Daiklave primarily out of another material and then infuse it with a little bit of one of the 5MM's (as Savant & Sorcerer says one almost always does when creating magic gear), what would be the attunment effect/magic material bonus? Is the benefit from, say, Jade only if the weapon is primarily Jade or would it always be the jade bonus if that is the Magic Material part you used? This leads on into the question: What, then, is the deal with adamant in Autochtans (never learned quite how to spell that so forgive me if it's wrong)? I mean, it acts as a Magic Material, with a new attunement effect and all, but it isn't a REAL MM so to speak...


I know it's a lot, but I have been away from the boards for some time now (been playing sweet Earthdawn) and I need to get back in there again!


- Lauge Perto

 

[Persell]

1) - The reason why Abyssals can attune to soulsteel so easily is because they're aspected to death.  Soulsteel has always been around, but it's not a natural metal.  To make soulsteel, one has to take the stuff of the Labrinyth and alloy it with the ghosts of the dead.  White Wolf didn't muck up with anything here.  In regards to this, it's more like soulsteel has always been around, there just wasn't an Exalted who could attune naturally to it until the Solar essences were corrupted into Abyssal essences.  Also, ghosts and nemissaries could always attune to soulsteel.  Before the Abyssals came along, the Deathlords used for their deathknights nemissaries and girded them in armor and weapons made of soulsteel.  Soulsteel is advantageous for ghosts because it is the one magical material that they can easily access.


2) - "Blood and Salt" describes an Infernal Dragon-Blooded, Dukantha, as having a black lead grand daiklaive and a black lead long powerbow.  This is, I believe, the only place where black lead is mentioned.  There's no description for it and so it is extremely vague but what many have assumed is that it is a magical material that Infernals can attune to.


3) - They are typos.  I've never heard of purple jade, but I know that yellow jade is often mixed up for white jade, which is jade aspected to earth.


4) - As far as I know, adamant isn't really magical.  It's just a powerful mundane material, and thus doesn't have an attunement cost.  Anybody, Exalted or mortal, can use adamant to make mundane weapons but not, I think, artifact weapons.


As for mixing magical materials into a weapon, that is not generally done to get the material bonus for both.  Instead, they are mixed to come up with some other magical effect.  Take slayer khatars as an example.  They are made of both orichalcum and white jade, but they don't get the bonuses of either - instead, this alloy allows the weapon to deal double damage to inanimate objects.  The orichalcum allows the weapon to deal extra damage and white jade allows that damage to be focused towards objects.


If you were to make a weapon out of mostly one magical material and a little bit of another, it would probably give the material bonus of the material it's mostly made of and allow it to do an extremely minor effect based on the material it has less of, but doing this would raise the artifact rating by 1 to 2 dots.  If you were to make a weapon that has half of one material and half of another, I would say that the synergy would cause it to have a major effect but it would not have the material bonus of either material because it doesn't have enough of the material to give it to the weapon.

 

[lauge_perto]

In regards to this, it's more like soulsteel has always been around, there just wasn't an Exalted who could attune naturally to it until the Solar essences were corrupted into Abyssal essences.

Ah, fair enough. I also figured that it was something like this. Just find it somewhat vaguely described (not the proces of mining - so to speak - soulsteel, that is well covered in both S&S and the abyssals book, it was more the why it is the natural choice of abyssals. Apperantly, it's because they're worth it  


I always find it a bit weird that the neverborns made this matterial that was inherrently magical and was the 5 in a series of previously 4 materials (that all had exalts corresponding to them) but no exalts to match to the metal - and then by a lucky stroke, they end up having some exalts anyway. Kindda seems like a "Oh no, we don't have an explanation for why they made it in the first place, so lets not include one". But fair enough, I can accept that they know all and therefore foresaw that they would need such a material...

4) - As far as I know, adamant isn't really magical.  It's just a powerful mundane material, and thus doesn't have an attunement cost.  Anybody, Exalted or mortal, can use adamant to make mundane weapons but not, I think, artifact weapons.

Well, I thought so to, but in Exalted: The Autochtans, it has its own magical properties (it does piercing damage). I thought maybe this was because it was a combination of one of the 5 MM and much more adamant - a bit like S&S described it. I knew very well that if you mix a lot of Jade with wee little bit of Moonsilver, you get a fluid Jade thing. But what if you take the dead bones of your former love, and give it a wee little bit of oricalchium (is that spelled correctly?) then what do you get? An oricalchium sword? Or a bone sword with some mystic material property? Or no material property at all?


I've always thought it was the last one, but the bit about adamant in autochtans through me off a bit...


- Lauge Perto

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Check this thread on regards to the yellow jade conspiracy.


http://patternspider.net/exalted/f ... php?t=2031

 

[Jukashi]

... the yellow jade conspiracy.

There is no Dragon King mafia!!

 

[Persell]

Well' date=' I thought so to, but in Exalted: The Autochtans, it has its own magical properties (it does piercing damage). [/quote']
Does it say that this is a magical property of adamant?  Or is its piercing ability just a property of adamant for being a powerful, but mundane, material?

But what if you take the dead bones of your former love, and give it a wee little bit of oricalchium (is that spelled correctly?) then what do you get? An oricalchium sword? Or a bone sword with some mystic material property? Or no material property at all?
I've always thought it was the last one, but the bit about adamant in autochtans through me off a bit...

I would say that you get a bone sword that has an ability that orichalcum gives it in relation to bones.  For example, it could be a bone sword that does double damage to undead.  A separte ability it could have is instead it deals aggravated damage only to zombies but not ghosts.  These kinds of things you're talking about are more for homebrew artifacts, so just try to come up with a synergy between the materials to come up with what it does.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

*The Celetial Investigation into the Assassination of Chejop Kejak*


Back...and to the left...back and to the left...

 

[lauge_perto]

Does it say that this is a magical property of adamant?  Or is its piercing ability just a property of adamant for being a powerful, but mundane, material?

Well, it is regarding a lightsaber (can't remember what they're called) and some armor. They state what all the "normal" MM does, and then in the same sentence they state that if it is adamant and you attune to it, then it will do piercing dmg.

I would say that you get a bone sword that has an ability that orichalcum gives it in relation to bones.  For example, it could be a bone sword that does double damage to undead.  A separte ability it could have is instead it deals aggravated damage only to zombies but not ghosts.  These kinds of things you're talking about are more for homebrew artifacts, so just try to come up with a synergy between the materials to come up with what it does.

Well, that was also what I was planning. I just wanted to know if there was a canon wiev of mixing metals and what you would end up with. Something on the lines of "So, you want to make a weapon from a magical material - not a Magical Material? (notice the difference in capital letters?)". Something like that...