Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV
It seems to me, based on the reading I've been doing, that perhaps the answer lies more in the nature of the iron itself.
From what I've been able to gather, it seems that Steel lacks the attributes of "cold iron" for whatever reason. It occurs to me, based on that, that smelting the ore in order to make steel (including coking and the much higher temperatures required for the entire steel making process), somehow renders the iron no longer suitable for the purpose of resisting magic. Whether that is because of the "impurities" added in the steel-making process, or because of the excessively high temperatures required in that process, I don't know, but in either case, the iron is no longer suitable.
Based on these admittedly speculative thoughts, it seems to me that PURITY might be more important than magnetism or anything else. "Cold iron" might therefore simply refer to pure iron, smithed to make a weapon or tool (such as a ceremonial dagger, for instance), but not smelted to create a stronger, more durable material.
Meteoric iron might therefore be more effective simply because it is a "purer" form of iron (in game terms, not necessarily "scientifically" speaking) already purified by the nature of space itself -- whatever that might be in your fantasy universe -- and therefore better for anti-magical purposes.
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Even old fashioned wrought iron, which has very little carbon in it is still smelted from ore.
The big problem with "cold iron" is that there is no universally accepted definition for the stuff. I have seen it cited as cast (as opposed to forged) iron, wrought iron (as opposed to steel), meteoric iron, bog iron, and even simply iron or steel which is physically cold.
If "cold iron" is going to have game mechanical effects distinct to "ordinary" iron and steel it would be well to provide a definition of what for game purposes constitutes "cold iron".
Of course one could just as well say that large quantities of iron (or steel) in close proximity are disruptive to magic, so shackling a wizard in iron chains would suffice.